Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / President of Omaha Police Officers Association

Transcript

President of Omaha Police Officers Association · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am your host, Gene Stothert. Peyton Highlock, my producer,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is also here. Good morning, Peyton.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Gene. How are you?
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  Speaker 3: How are you today? I'm doing pretty good.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: You seem a little down in the dumps today.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, not at all.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: We've got to get you fired up pretty soon. I
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  Speaker 3: just got my coffee over here. I'm ready to go. Okay,
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: you're ready to go.
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  Speaker 2: Good.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Peyton is here, ready to go, and thank you
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: all for being with us today. We want to hear
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: from you. We want to hear your feedback. We want
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to hear your comments, concerns, questions, complaints. Really, anything goes,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: whether it's city, state, national, world. The streetcar, potholes, just
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: whatever you want to talk about. And we will have
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: plenty of guests. We have a great guest today, and
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  Speaker 1: you're going to hear plenty of opinions from me too.
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  Speaker 1: But it is your chance to speak up and sound off.
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  Speaker 1: You can send your emails to comment at kfab.com. You
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: can call us at 402-558-1110. or you can leave us
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a recorded message on the talkback mic, and we'll play
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: it on the air. We are very happy that you
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  Speaker 1: are with us. And today, our guest is Patrick Dempsey,
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  Speaker 1: who is president of the Omaha Police Officers Association, better
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: known as OPOA.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, and thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 3: You bet. I haven't seen you in a while. How
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: are you?
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  Speaker 2: It has been some time. I am doing great. The
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  Speaker 2: summer is wrapping up. Kids are back in school, and...
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  Speaker 2: Policing is in full force and in the front page
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  Speaker 2: of every newspaper.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, it seems to be. I got to just ask
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  Speaker 1: you personally, how are your kids? I remembered one time
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  Speaker 1: I was standing on stage with you. You were getting promoted.
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  Speaker 1: We were out at the training center. Your youngest little
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  Speaker 1: boy was entertaining the crowd to the point he was dancing.
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  Speaker 3: He was making faces.
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  Speaker 1: And this is supposed to be a ceremony to... To
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  Speaker 1: promote you, and he was just entertaining everybody.
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  Speaker 3: It was hilarious.
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  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: What was his name?
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  Speaker 2: His name was Connor. That little boy is in pre-K today.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, my goodness.
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  Speaker 2: And I was just informed yesterday that he was in
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  Speaker 2: a little bit of trouble for kissing a girl on
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  Speaker 2: the lips. So we have our hands full.
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  Speaker 3: Is he taking after his dad?
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  Speaker 2: It was not from his dad, no.
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  Speaker 1: This is really funny. But no, your kids were great,
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  Speaker 1: and he was really funny, what he was doing on stage. Pat,
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  Speaker 1: you have been in the Omaha Police Department since 2010.
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  Speaker 2: I believe? Yes.
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  Speaker 3: That's when you started?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: And then you have been president of the Omaha Police
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  Speaker 1: Officers Association since?
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: May of 24. Okay. All right.
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  Speaker 3: So a couple years now.
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  Speaker 1: Can you just explain to our listeners, because people have
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: asked before, why does the fire union call themselves Local 385,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: like a real union, but you all call yourself the
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  Speaker 1: Omaha Police Officers Association?
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  Speaker 3: You don't call yourself a union. What's the difference?
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  Speaker 2: So many, many moons ago, we used to be associated
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  Speaker 2: with the AFL-CIO, which is better known as a union.
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  Speaker 2: We were a part of them until about 2014, 2015.
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  Speaker 2: when we had a little bit of a falling out
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  Speaker 2: over a little incident that took place in Ferguson, Missouri
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  Speaker 2: at the time. There was an officer involved shooting down there.
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  Speaker 2: And at that point in time, they had kind of
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  Speaker 2: turned on law enforcement, the management at the time, not
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  Speaker 2: the organization, but the management of that organization. It kind
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  Speaker 2: of turned on law enforcement at that time. At that
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  Speaker 2: point in time, there was a vote amongst our membership
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  Speaker 2: to leave that organization and kind of go out on
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  Speaker 2: our own. So that's kind of where the spawn of
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  Speaker 2: the Omaha Police Officers Association came from. We still are
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  Speaker 2: a union. We still are a collective bargaining unit with
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  Speaker 2: the city of Omaha and all of our members, but
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  Speaker 2: we have just a little bit different name.
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  Speaker 1: And then your job as president at the Omaha Police
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  Speaker 1: Officers Association is to be the chief negotiator with the
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  Speaker 1: city when you're negotiating your labor contracts or other issues. Yes.
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  Speaker 2: So I get the opportunity to negotiate with the city
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  Speaker 2: on any type of labor grievance.
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  Speaker 3: Lucky you.
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  Speaker 2: It's so much fun. I'm sure you miss those days.
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  Speaker 3: No, I don't. No, I don't because we've negotiated. But,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it does.
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  Speaker 1: And I said this to Trevor Towie, who was president
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  Speaker 1: of the fire union, who was on last week. It
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  Speaker 1: really you guys are you are negotiating on behalf of
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  Speaker 1: your members. It puts the mayor or any mayor in
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  Speaker 1: kind of a predicament because we are supposed to be negotiating,
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  Speaker 1: representing the taxpayers. But at the same time, you are
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  Speaker 1: all our employees. And we want our employees to have
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  Speaker 1: fair benefit, fair salary.
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  Speaker 3: We want to be competitive. We want to be the best.
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  Speaker 1: So the mayor has kind of got on a double-edged
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  Speaker 1: sword there.
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  Speaker 3: It becomes difficult sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: It makes it tough because you have to try to
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  Speaker 2: appease a lot of different entities.
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  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: On my end, we're ultimately the parent. We're trying to
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  Speaker 2: make all the kids happy. We're trying to make all
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  Speaker 2: of our members happy and put them in a position
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  Speaker 2: of power and put them in a position to succeed.
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  Speaker 2: And we do what we can to try to put
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  Speaker 2: our best foot forward. And I know that always kind
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  Speaker 2: of creates a little bit of a rift between the
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  Speaker 2: union and management and the union and the city. But
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  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, I think everybody wants
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  Speaker 2: the same thing, and that is good employees who make
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  Speaker 2: a fair wage. And represent the city in a positive light.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, for a while, I mean, it seemed
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  Speaker 1: like the police all over the country was really getting
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  Speaker 1: a bad rap. And lately we've heard a lot of
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  Speaker 1: negativity about the police. But it does seem in Omaha, Nebraska,
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  Speaker 1: there is a real big support. of our police department.
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  Speaker 1: You see support blue a lot. We're going to get
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  Speaker 1: into the OPS issue in a little bit. But, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the one thing I just wanted to say, and I
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  Speaker 1: want to, for any police officer that is listening now, too,
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  Speaker 1: and for the public and the taxpayers, public safety, at
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  Speaker 1: least when I was the mayor for 12 years, was
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  Speaker 1: my number one priority. And public safety, if you put
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  Speaker 1: fire and police together, that is two-thirds of.
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  Speaker 3: The general fund budget.
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  Speaker 1: So, I mean, you can just see the amount of
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  Speaker 1: taxpayer dollars that goes into firing police, how important we
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  Speaker 1: do think in Omaha public safety is. And I just
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  Speaker 1: got to say this, okay? I got to get this
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  Speaker 1: out of my system here. It's because when I became
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  Speaker 1: mayor in 2013, the police budget was about $ 121 million,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and we had $ 804 sworn. I did the 2026 budget
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  Speaker 1: before I went out of office, so the budget we
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  Speaker 1: are in now went up to 216 million. So that
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  Speaker 1: went in 12 years from 121 to 216. And we
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  Speaker 1: went from 804 sworn to 906 sworn.
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  Speaker 3: That's quite an increase in that period of time.
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  Speaker 1: So we upped your budget 94 million in the 12
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  Speaker 1: years I was mayor. And now in the 2027 budget
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  Speaker 1: that Mayor Ewing just did, that has been approved by
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  Speaker 1: the council, it's going up to 235 million.
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  Speaker 3: So I mean, that is a chunk of change.
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  Speaker 1: When you consider the entire general fund budget's about $ 600
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  Speaker 1: million in 2027.
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  Speaker 3: But again, it shows the importance.
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  Speaker 1: And I still think if police and fire, if we
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  Speaker 1: don't make public safety our number one priority, then we're
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  Speaker 1: going to lose.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. One of the things that you leaned on as
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  Speaker 2: a mayor was the safety of the city of Omaha.
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  Speaker 2: You talk not only locally but nationally about this being
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  Speaker 2: a place for everyone to live, this being a safe place.
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  Speaker 2: for everyone to come and stay and enjoy. And that
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  Speaker 2: falls on the backs of our first responders. It's those
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  Speaker 2: first responders who show up and do the job every day,
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  Speaker 2: go after bad guys when nobody else wants to do
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  Speaker 2: the job, continue to show up post-2020 when we had
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  Speaker 2: the riots and everything else that took place across the country. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: But they continue to show up and do really good work.
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  Speaker 2: And I think we're seeing the fruits of of what
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  Speaker 2: you've done as a mayor and some of those contracts
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  Speaker 2: is we've seen a huge reduction in violent crime. And
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  Speaker 2: that's a testament to the men and women who put
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  Speaker 2: that uniform on every day.
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  Speaker 3: That's so true.
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  Speaker 1: And I've said this so many times, when that police officer,
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  Speaker 1: man or woman, puts on their uniform and leaves every
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  Speaker 1: morning and says goodbye to their family, they may never
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  Speaker 1: come home again.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that's just police work.
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  Speaker 1: Whether you're on traffic, whether you're on homicide, no matter
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  Speaker 1: what you are doing with that police department, It's a
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  Speaker 1: dangerous job and it's a dangerous job every single day.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the stark reality of law enforcement, right? It's
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  Speaker 2: not an office job where I'm going to sit in
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  Speaker 2: an office that's temperature controlled and I work from 9
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  Speaker 2: to 5 and at 5 o'clock I drive home and
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  Speaker 2: that's the end of my day. This job is a
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  Speaker 2: very dangerous job. It's a very uneasy job for some
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  Speaker 2: to– To swallow at times as far as the realities
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  Speaker 2: of what can happen here. It doesn't take rocket science
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  Speaker 2: to get on Google and see a police officer that's
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  Speaker 2: killed almost every couple of days. So we know it's
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  Speaker 2: a very, very dangerous job. And the reality is that
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  Speaker 2: we may not come home. And I think that's why
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  Speaker 2: we compensate officers the way we do. It's because there
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: is that reality that they may not come home. That's right.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And then you hear this woke movement throughout the country.
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  Speaker 1: And I heard it here in Omaha a couple weeks
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  Speaker 1: ago when a lot of parents were testifying in front
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  Speaker 1: of the Omaha Public School Board about the shot gloves,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: which we'll get to in just a little bit. But
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  Speaker 1: saying– this group that is saying to defund– and disassemble
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  Speaker 1: police departments, get rid of ICE, get rid of prisons.
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  Speaker 1: These people do not know what they're talking about. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you cannot have a safe city without law enforcement.
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  Speaker 3: You can't.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean, I think everyone that's listening today has
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: seen the movie The Purge, right? That's what's going to
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  Speaker 2: happen if we lose law enforcement. We're going to have
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: the purge.
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  Speaker 3: It's like anarchy.
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  Speaker 2: We need law enforcement. We need good men and women
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  Speaker 2: who will do the job. We need good SROs. The
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  Speaker 2: reality is that our school systems– specifically here in Omaha,
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  Speaker 2: have issues. We have students who are not there to learn.
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  Speaker 2: They're there to be disruptive. They're there to cause chaos.
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  Speaker 2: And we need those SROs in those schools to help
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  Speaker 2: deescalate that.
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  Speaker 3: We absolutely do.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, the size of our high schools in
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  Speaker 1: the city of Omaha are the size of a lot
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  Speaker 1: of small cities in Nebraska. And in those small cities,
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  Speaker 1: you have police departments or sheriff's departments. Somebody is going
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to make a bad decision one of these days, and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: they have already. I mean, there's been incidents in the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: last two weeks. There was a shooting several years ago
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  Speaker 1: at Millard South where they killed the assistant principal and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: shot the principal. These things happen. And that's why this
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  Speaker 1: SRO plan is so important. I don't think there's any
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  Speaker 1: bigger of deterrent than to have a cruiser sitting out
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  Speaker 1: in front of a school and knowing that there is
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  Speaker 1: an armed police officer inside that building?
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  Speaker 2: I would challenge any of those parents who show up
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  Speaker 2: to those school board meetings or any of those activists
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  Speaker 2: who probably don't have students in those schools to take
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  Speaker 2: a step and walk a day in the shoes of
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  Speaker 2: an SRO. They're not just there for security purposes. They're
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: there to be mentors to kids. A lot of these
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: school resource officers see these children as their own children.
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  Speaker 2: They mentor them. They teach them. They help them to
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: learn and grow as students. They're not just there as
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: this disciplinarian guy with a gun and a uniform. They're
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: there to really interact with the kids. And if you
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: were to go and actually step outside of a school
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: board meeting and step away from the activists. you would
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: see the great work that these men and women do
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  Speaker 2: every day.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, they do.
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  Speaker 1: And here, I'm just pulling something up because this just
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: made my blood boil. Some of these parents that were
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: testifying in front of the OPS school board called the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Omaha Police Department Klansmen. They called them Nazis. They called
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: them all sorts of names. One person said, why don't
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you all learn how to de-escalate? to be an adult.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: If you're scared as an adult in this job, working
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: with kids, then you might need to go to the gym.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Your physical standards are a joke. You're soft. I mean,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: they were this, your job is not supposed to be easy.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: They went on and on and on talking very negatively.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Towards the.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: It just made my blood boil to hear this stuff. Again,
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  Speaker 1: this is the group that wants to defund, to disassemble,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: and they think all this can be handled with social workers.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: One of them even said, I think it's time to
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: get Omaha police out of our schools. That would be
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: a big mistake.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: It would be a huge mistake. Look, everyone can be
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: tough behind a keyboard. It's pretty easy to get behind
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: a keyboard or microphone and talk tough. Absolutely. But that
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: JoinOPD website is always open. If you think that you
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: can do this job better, If you think that you
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: have the skills to de-escalate better than any.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: Of– We're taking applications.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: We're taking applications year-round. Come on over and you can
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: see what the men and women do on a daily basis.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Right. And talking about that, let's talk about our staffing.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: This all started back in 2020 with the George Floyd incident.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: It happened all over the country. People that wanted to
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: go– there was such a negativity towards law enforcement. People
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: that wanted to go into law enforcement were saying, eh,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I think I'll do something different. And the applications were
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: going down, down, down all over the country.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: We met. We all met.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: There's numerous things we did, and I just want to
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: go through a few so that everybody understands some of
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the things we did. And then we're going to get
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: to– why we're still down on low numbers. We did
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: increase the pay significantly. One of the things that when
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: you go into the academy, there was a training step.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: We called it the T-step.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: We eliminated that and put officers right into the first step.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: So we increased the pay. We took away the T-step
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: so that they get paid more in the academy. We
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: have year-round applications now. You still can only hold two
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: classes a year, though, and I think that's important that
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: we say that because of the length of the training.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: There's 22 weeks of training and 15 weeks of field training.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: And so it does– basically we can only take two
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: classes a year. But we are still taking applications year-round.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: What was happening is somebody, say, might want to apply
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: for Omaha Police Department and they might want to– are
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: thinking of applying for Lincoln too. And they said Lincoln
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: will be taking applications and we said– would say, well,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: we're not taking applications for two months. They would say– Well,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I'll go to Lincoln. So now we're taking applications year round. Also,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: those that are already certified in law enforcement, if they
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: want to come here, we made the decision to go
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: ahead and start paying them even before the class started.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: We could give them a job, pay them something to
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: keep them on our staff. And the other thing we
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: did that I felt was really important and very expensive,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and I want your opinion about this, is that the
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: city of Omaha's Omaha Police Department would always be 5%
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: higher than any law enforcement agency in the state of Nebraska.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Now that's a little difficult to do, but we were
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: dedicated to getting that done because what was happening was
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: this game of cannibalism that Lincoln would pass their contract
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and they would be higher than us and then we
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: would try to pass ours to get a little higher
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: than them. And then Papillion would pass theirs to get
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: a little higher. And this game was going on. And
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: we felt like if we would say we would always
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: be 5% higher, then that would stop. That would eventually
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: stop because they would say, well, we can't always catch
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: up with Omaha.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: Starting pay.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Right now, for an Omaha police officer, I have $ 79, 500.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: I have, after eight years, you can go up to $ 110, 000.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, so the salary for an Omaha police officer
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: is good. The benefits is good. These are the things
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: that we have done. Pat, why are we still down
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: at about, I think we're about 90 down still. We
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: are budgeted for 906. Why do you think we're still down? Currently,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: we are at 813, the last I checked.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Well, this may take a second to explain.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Go ahead.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: In 2020, we saw law enforcement get kicked in the teeth.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: They took the brunt of all of societal's issues and
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: took them and put them on the back of police
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: and kicked every police officer while they were down.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: And we saw it in Omaha too.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: We saw it in Omaha. Absolutely, we saw it in Omaha.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: And that really put a black eye on the profession.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: People did not want to join a profession that just
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: for doing a job, just for showing up on Monday—
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: that everyone was going to hate you, your family was
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: going to talk about you on social media, your friends
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: were going to blacklist you, and nobody wanted to talk
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: to you because you were doing something that you thought
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: was the right thing and joining law enforcement. So we
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: started in 2020 to really change what this profession looked like.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Then following 2020, 2021, we saw the economy change the
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: way it did, and we saw outside jobs, the private
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: sector really start to accelerate when it came to pay.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people said, well, I
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: can go into law enforcement, I can work shift work,
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: I can work nights, weekends, holidays, or I can go
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: to the private sector and I can make, if not
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: the same money or better money. So that really started
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: to separate us. At the same point in time, we
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: saw these smaller agencies who were having the same staffing crises,
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: but now they're down two, three officers, or say Lincoln's
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: down nine, 10 officers. Be able to make incremental changes
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: quickly to really start to bring those few applicants who
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: are in the field into the into their departments. And
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: when we saw those few applicants and that applicant number
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: start to drop, we saw them start to join smaller agencies.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I think a couple different reasons. They had pay parity
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: when it comes to the Omaha Police Department, who has
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: always kind of set that gold standard of where we stand.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: But they also saw a career where they could go,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: they could have mobility amongst a smaller department, maybe become
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: a detective earlier, maybe become a school resource officer or
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: a different specialty position. but then they also didn't have
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: to deal with the woes of Omaha. If you just
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: pick up the World Herald today or you look at
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: the news this weekend, you see what officers went through
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: this weekend down in the old market.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: And we're going to get to that, right?
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: You see these officers are getting kicked, they're getting spit on,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: they're being assaulted, they're running towards gunfire. All these things
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: are happening week in and week out. And people, I think,
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: start to realize, is that really what I want to do?
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: And I think A culmination of all of that is
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: the reason we are down today. Now, yes, we have
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: implemented some changes I think is instrumental in getting us
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: back to those numbers. The things that you implemented of
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: the 5% above sets the standard that we want the
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: best and the brightest here in Omaha. It sets the
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: standard that if you come to Omaha where you deal
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: with the most shootings, you deal with the most violent crime,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: you deal with the most problems here in the state
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: of Nebraska, we're going to pay you accordingly. We're going
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: to give you that payment. accordingly for what you do.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: We're taking applications year-round. Applications year-round is a huge step
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: in the right direction because I may want to be
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: a cop today and there may not be a class opening,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: but if you're not going to take my application and
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: you're not going to keep my information, in two months
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: from now, I'm probably going to lose interest and I'm
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: going to go on to a different field.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: So being able to keep those applications open year-round has
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: kept people interested, and we're seeing that with 30-, 40-person
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: classes twice a year that eventually I would say in
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: a couple, two, three years, we will finally get back
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: to full staffing. I really hope so.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Now, the current class that started in January, it started
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: out with 41. It's down to 37 now. That happens
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: a lot, some dropout. But– That still isn't as much
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: as we could have had. I know I've talked to
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Todd Schmatter before when I was still in office to
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: say if we could pack the max in, if we
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: could pack 60 in a class, let's go ahead and
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: Let's overstaff them. We've done that with FIRE.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: We looked at who potentially could retire in the summer,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and we.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Would overstaff them.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: We're still not getting the applicants, though, that we are
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: hoping to get.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Is that correct? I mean, we could have bigger classes.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. We are not getting the applicants that we had, say, 2010. 2010,
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: we have 1,500, 1,800 applicants vying to do this job.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Now we're getting 300, 400 applicants to do the job.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Within those 300, 400, you have to get them then
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: to show up. You have to get them to take
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: a written test, a physical test, and start that process.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: So a lot of people... think that, hey, this is
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: the career for me, and then they don't show up
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: to that step of the process. But what I have
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: been told is that our numbers are coming back up.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: We're starting to see incremental increases in those applicants, which
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: in my opinion shows that People still want to do
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: this job. People still want to protect the city of
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Omaha and do this job for the right reasons.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Now, I know Mayor Ewing in his State of the
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: City address in May said that we would be fully
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: staffed by the.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: End of the year.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: That's not going to happen. I mean, it's impossible for
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that to happen. But hopefully by next year. Hopefully, maybe
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: by the end of next year. Now, tell me, Pat,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: do you have of these things that I just mentioned
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: that we've done with the increased pay, with the year-round apps,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: with the 5% higher, we've done those things. Is there
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: anything else that you feel like we should be doing
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: in Omaha to be more attractive for people wanting to
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: be in the Omaha Police Department?
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: I think we really need to embrace that 5%. I
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: think the city needs to embrace that. What that 5% embodies,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: it's not just a number on a sheet. It's not
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: just a dollar sign. It's a commitment to the men
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: and women who do this job. It's a commitment to say, hey,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: you're coming to Omaha. We expect you to show up
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: in the old market when those fights occur. We expect
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: you to show up when a school resource officer puts
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: out a help. When we've set those expectations on you,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: we're going to compensate you for that. And that's what
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: that 5% is and should be and should continue to be.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: is a thank you to the men and women who
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: do the job.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: And so you feel pretty confident the steps that have
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: already been taken, give it some time, and hopefully these
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: things are going to turn around.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: However, we still have that group of woke people.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: That some are candidates now running for Senate, running for Congress,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: that are out there saying, I want to disassemble the police,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I want to defund the police, I want to do
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: away with prisons and ICE and everything else. This is
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: a real challenge that we're facing with these elections coming up.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: It's scary to me.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: It is. I mean law enforcement is the line between
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: good and evil, right? Like it's very cliche. It's something
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: you hear in movies, but it is the reality. There
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: are a lot of bad people in this world. It
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: doesn't take you more than 10 seconds to turn on
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: a local news station and see the bad people that
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: continue to wreak havoc across communities in the United States.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: Those men and women who do this job are peacemakers.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: They're here to protect you. They're here to protect your neighborhood.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: They're here to protect your kids. And when someone gets
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: on a microphone and says defund the police or defund ICE,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: I would love for them to pick up the phone
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: and call 911 and nobody show up.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, nobody's home. Sorry.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Because I could bet every dollar I have, which is
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: not much, that when something happens in their life— and
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: there's a serious crisis, they're going to pick up that phone,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: call 911, and pray to God that they're coming quick.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: That's right. And it's the same with the schools.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: You know, I mean, the potential of school violence or
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: another school shooting is out there. It's happened before. God
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: hope not, but it could happen again tomorrow. And you
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: just think if one of those incidents happens, what then
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: are the parents in the school district, in the school
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: board going to say? What is the Omaha Police Department
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: going to do to keep my kids safe? That's exactly
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: what you're going to hear.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. And we've gone through the training, our SROs, our
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: officers know what needs to happen. If those tones were
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: to come over that radio and a shooting call at
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: a school were to take place, they would know and
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: I would I would bet a lot of money that
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: they would take off running towards that gunfire and neutralize
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: that threat as fast as they could.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Pat Dempsey, president of Omaha Police Officers Association, is with
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: us today. Could you come back for a few minutes
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: after the break? Because I want to talk about the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: incident down in the old market.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Okay. All right.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: We will be back. Peyton's given us the stink eye
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: over there. He says we need a break. We're going
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: to take a break. Pat Dempsey with the Omaha Police
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Officers Association is still with us because we have more
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: to talk about, Pat. I wanted to talk about what
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the media called the gun battle that happened down at
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: 12th and Howard in the old market. Tell us what
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you know what's going on down there.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: So our officers were down in the area of 12th
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: and Howard, where they end up every night during the
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: weekend due to a large congregation of individuals who don't
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: patronize any of the businesses down there. They sit around,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: they loiter, they loiter on the sidewalks, they loiter around
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: their cars, but they're not down there to create business
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: or give back to the old market area. As the
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: officers were in the area, staging for bar close. Officers
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: heard a gun battle going on. That gun battle transitioned
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: down one block into the other. Those officers didn't sit idle.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: They didn't run for their cars. They didn't run for cover.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: These officers took off running towards that sound of gunfire.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: During that, they found a man shot in the leg
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: and immediately rendered aid, putting a tourniquet on that man's leg, ultimately,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I believe, saving his life. because of their quick actions.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: But after that, it sounds like it turned into nothing
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: but chaos. There was a pursuit of another car that
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: took place leaving the area. A help came out, which
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: is a helping officers is a call that says we're
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: in distress and we need every officer in the city.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: At that point in time, every officer drops what they're
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: doing in the city and heads towards the old market.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: So at that point in time, we had probably 90%
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: of The officers who were working in the city of
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Omaha at that point in time in the downtown area.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: And this was like 1 to 2 a.m.? Yeah.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: So predominantly when the rest of the city is the
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: busiest on the weekends, between that 1 to 2 o'clock
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: in the morning, those officers who could be in your
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: neighborhood or could be out west patrolling your streets or
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: patrolling your business– We're directed downtown to the safety of
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: those officers who are running towards gunfire.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: And again, this creates a huge issue for law enforcement.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: As we said before, we are still limited by our
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: staffing and our resources now. We're still trying to build
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: us up. to what we need to be to our
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: full budgeted strength of 906. So we're down officers when
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: something like this happens, when there's bad actors in that area,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: everybody comes down there and tries to help. Now, on
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: a daily basis, are we seeing more law enforcement presence
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: down in the old market because of these issues? And
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: I think maybe you could tell us a little bit
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: about just some other issues recently, what has happened down
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: there too.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so since the beginning of summer, we started to
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: have some issues at the Gene Leahy Mall. We had
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: to allocate some more overtime officers down there to really
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: address the juvenile issue. I believe that that's kind of
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: cleared itself up. But now we have a loitering issue
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: in the Old Market. And over the July 4th weekend,
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: we had a stabbing down there in front of the officers.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Beginning of August, we had another large fight where several
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: officers were assaulted. I believe the 16th, we had another
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: individual shot in the Old Market area. around 12th and Howard.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Then again, the following weekend, the 23rd, we had more
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: paper balls and tasers deployed, multiple resisting arrests and multiple
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: disorderly conducts and fights. And then ultimately, what we just
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: spoke about is the incident that took place this weekend
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: where there was a running gun battle. And thankfully... only
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: one individual was injured and that individual is going to survive.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: But you know, when you start firing a gun into
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: a crowd, lucky one was hit in the leg, I
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: guess you could say lucky, just as easily could have
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: been hit in the head. So this could have been
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: a really dire situation down there.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. We're extremely lucky that nobody else was injured.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Nobody else was seriously hurt. Our condolences go out to
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: the man who was injured. But we're lucky when stuff
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: like that happens in a very crowded area that others
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: weren't struck and others weren't seriously injured.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: And now those that are listening are saying, oh, this
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: sounds really bad. I don't want to go down to
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the old market. Now, the one thing I still want
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: to stress is even though OPD has been down on
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: our number of officers around 100, I'd say 80 to
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: 100 since about 2020, We still have one of the
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: lowest crime rates in the country for a city of
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: this size. We're a city of right under 500,000. And
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: you could bet our Omaha police officers are out there
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: on the street every single day, short-staffed, spread thin, but
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: still doing their job and keeping this city safe. We still,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I think we've only had nine homicides this year. Now,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: nine too many. Yes. But still, for a city of
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: this size, and we are into September, that is just crazy.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: It's just incredible.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: So they are out there doing whatever they can to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: keep us safe even though they still are short-staffed. So, Pat,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: in your opinion, what do we need to do down there?
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: We have had plenty of calls and emails saying, what
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: about a curfew?
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: You need a curfew.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: And I could just tell– I could tell people that–
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I ordered a curfew during the civil unrest back in
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: June of 2020. There had not been a curfew ordered
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: for years. A mayor can order a curfew if you
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: declare a state of emergency, and a mayor can only
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: do it for three days, and then it would have
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: to go to the city council for approval. But when
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I ordered a curfew, it was citywide. If you do
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: a curfew, it will not stand a court or being sued.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: There would be a real constitutional test if you had
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: a curfew in just one area. And so it seems
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: unreasonable to me to say, well, we need a curfew,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: but we're going to have to do it citywide to
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: control the old market. People would not like that either.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: The curfew that I did was 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: It was for 72 hours, basically. But I doubt it
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: would survive a legal challenge if we did it just
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: for one area.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: And here's why.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: And then you could give me your opinion, too. If
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: you had to do it in just one area, you
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: would have to set up a boundary. And say your
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: boundary is, let's say it's Douglas Street. Well, then they
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: could just go right across the street and say, we're
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: not within that boundary. Ha ha, you can't get me.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's the problem if you set a specific
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: boundary up. And then the other problem is, is with
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: a juvenile, they said, well, can't we do it just
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: by age? Well, that would even cause more problem because
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: it need more police because you would have to be
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: checking IDs. And then you run the risk of prohibiting
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: a constitutional behavior alongside a an unprotected one. For example,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: a juvenile is going to their car after a shift
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: and they can do that. But then would they be
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: punished for that if it was within that area where
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the curfew was set in just one area? So it
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: would require, I think, more police contact because you always
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: happen to determine who is a minor. There would be
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: a big challenging court for equal protection and because then
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: juveniles would be treated different than adults. So not all
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: issues in the old market, too, can be attributed to juveniles.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: So give me your opinion on a curfew. Is a
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: curfew something that we should be looking into? I don't
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: think so.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: So when it comes to a curfew, it comes down
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: to can law enforcement, the police working down there, enforce it?
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: And that's no. Our law enforcement, our men and women,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: our uniform patrol bureau guys who are the ones you
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: see in the black and white cruisers and wearing the
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: uniform with the blue stripe down their pants, they're the
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: backbone of the city. They're the ones that show up
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: when you call 911. They're the thankless ones that show
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: up in the middle of the night on your worst day.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: So real quick, if you see one of those guys
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: or gals out there in the public, please say thank you.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Please walk up to them and appreciate what they do
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: because it means a lot to them to hear from
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: you listeners about your thankfulness for what they do. When
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: it comes to the old market and the curfew, it
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: does make it very, very, extremely difficult. We're short staffed
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: down there to begin with. A lot of the officers
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: working down there are on overtime. I was just recently
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: made aware where we had an officer who's worked almost
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: 100 hours of overtime in two weeks. These are people
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: who are taking steps away from their families, their lives
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: to come back into work to protect the city of Omaha.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: And at some point in time, that strain of working
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: those hours is going to wear on them and they're
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: going to break. But as of right now, they haven't.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: They continue to show up. When it comes to the curfew,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: it makes it extremely difficult. You're now taking law enforcement
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: and making them the authoritarian of saying, hey, are you
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: loitering or are you patronizing a business? That's not a
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: position we want to be in. When we talk about
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: community policing, we talk about engaging our community, engaging the
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: citizens of Omaha. We don't want to be put with
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: that burden of now– checking IDs and saying, well, you're
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: 17 or you're 19, go home. And if you don't
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: go home, you face the penalty of law. That's not
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: a position we want to be put in. What I
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: would say to the people of Omaha is if you're
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: going to go down there, go down there and patronize
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: a business. Go down there and enjoy the area. Enjoy
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: a restaurant. Enjoy a bar. Don't go down there and
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: just hang out on the sidewalk. Don't go down there
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: and just sit around and wait to see what happens.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: If you're down there, be down there for a purpose.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Go enjoy Gene Leahy Mall. Go enjoy the Riverfront property
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: or go enjoy a restaurant or a bar. But if
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: you're just down there to sit around and drink in
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: your car or hang out, please don't. Please stay home.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Please recover it in your own neighborhood or your own house.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: And also, we have a lot of neighbors down there.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of residents that are living down there, too,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: that we want to make sure that they see us,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the Omaha Police Department, as their eyes. You are down
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: there to help keep them safe. And for those perpetrators
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: of violence, they need to see you as the watchdog.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: And you behave badly, you're going to get caught in
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the city of Omaha.
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: They need to know that down there.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: They do, and the same with the citizens of Omaha.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: If you're down there and you see something, say something.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: If you see an armed party or you see a
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: fight about to start, wave down the police and let
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: them know what's going on. Let us head that off
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: before it becomes a bigger issue. Don't just sit there
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: and pull out your phone and Monday Morning Quarterback and
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: record it so you can put it on your Instagram
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: for likes. Come over and get one of us. Tell
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: us what's going on. so that we can address it.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Pat Dempsey is with us with Omaha Police Officers Association.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Last thing, off the subject, but are you doing endorsements
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: in these campaigns that are going on? Pat, I got
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: to tell you, honestly, 100%, when I see all of
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: the vitriol, especially on social media, the name-calling, everything going
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: on with all these political campaigns right now, all I
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: can say is, geez, I'm glad I'm not doing this
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: anymore anymore.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: It's terrible. It's just awful. But we have a lot
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: of candidates. We have Congress.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: We have U.S.
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Senate. We have the governor's race. Are you guys endorsing?
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Yes. The Omaha Police Officers Association has chose to endorse
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: in a lot of different political races, both federal, state,
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: and local. We have given it to the candidates and
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: kind of given it up to them of how they
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: want to release that and how they want to roll
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: that out. Look, we want to work with politicians who
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: want to work with law enforcement.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of great politicians across the city
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: of Omaha, across the city of Nebraska, and our federal
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: delegates who really care about the citizens of Omaha and
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: care about law and order and work well with us.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: And those are the people that the Omaha Police Officers
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Association are going.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: To get behind.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Those who support our working conditions but also support the
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: safety of their citizens is who you're going to see
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: the Omaha police officers endorse.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: Do you endorse in the legislative races too?
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: We do.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: So have you endorsed in the CD2 race, the congressional
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: district too, Brinker, Harding, Denise Powell?
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: We have.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: Can you announce it?
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: The Omaha Police Office Association has chose to endorse Brinker Harding. Okay.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Brinker's been nothing but a positive role model to us
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: on the city council and will do great in Washington, D.C.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: What about for the U.S. Senate with Pete Ricketts and
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Dan Osborne?
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, we have.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: And?
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: And we are going to endorse Pete Ricketts. Okay. Once again,
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Pete Ricketts is the governor of Nebraska, kind of put
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: law enforcement first. He was there in– 2014 when we
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: really started to see the shift of Ferguson, Missouri. We
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: started to see that shift of defund the police. He
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: stood up for us in his time as governor and
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: has stood up for us this time in Congress. And
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: that being said, we appreciate everything he's done for us
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: and we wholeheartedly endorse him in Brink Harding.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: Okay. And then what about governor? Are you endorsing for governor?
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: We are.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: And that endorsement is simple. It's Governor Jim Pillen. Jim
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: Pillen has been An advocate of law enforcement, something that
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: you and I have spoken at length about and I'm
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: sure we could go on this radio show for three
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: more hours is property tax caps and everything else. But
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: the governor realizes if you put a property tax cap
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: on law enforcement or first responders, you defund the police.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: If you don't give them that ability to grow– We
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: defund the police, and Governor stood by us, and Governor Pillen's.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: Done a great job for us. Yeah, he sure did.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: He stood by it.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Pat Dempsey, we could talk for another three hours, so
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: many things to talk about, but I really appreciate you
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: being on here today. I appreciate you taking care of
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: your members of the Omaha Police Department, and I just
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: can't say thank you enough for the job that the
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Omaha Police Department does by keeping this city safe. So
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: thank you for your leadership, and thanks for being on
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: here today, and say hello to that little son of
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: yours for me.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. And like I said before,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: if you get a chance and see one of those
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: guys or gals in those black and white cruisers, please, please, please,
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: please say thank you.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Thank you again for being here today.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Anything that you hear on this radio station or that
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: you miss can be found at KFAB.com, Gene Stothert and
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: the KFAB comment line, podcasted. every single day. Jean?
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: Yes, and I want to thank Pat Dempsey from the
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Omaha Police Officers Association again for being on the show. Peyton,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: I had so many things I wanted to bring up
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: and talk about today. We're going to get those tomorrow
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: because I really wanted Pat to stay on. There's a
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: lot to talk about with what's going on with the
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Omaha Police Department. But once again, for any of you
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: that are listening, we are still wanting good applicants to
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: be on our police force. And I brought up the
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: salary just briefly. But we have changed their salary. When
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I first became mayor, to start out in training, it
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: was around $ 54, 000 a year. Right now, to start, the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: entry is $ 79, 500. After one year, it goes up to $ 84, 000.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: After two years, it goes up to $ 89, 000 and change.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: After six years, $ 101, 000. $ 920. So after six years on
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: the Omaha Police Department, you would be making $ 101, 920 a year.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: This is a good salary, and it also has very,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: very good benefits, and their health care benefits are great, too.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: Eight years plus, $ 110, 000 a year. Those are good.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Salaries and good benefits for being an Omaha police officer.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: So for all of those, the woke crowd that are
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: saying defund and disassemble the police department, again, you cannot
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: have a safe city without law enforcement.
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: We have a great police department.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: We should be very, very thankful for all they have
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: achieved by being about 100%. officers down since 2020. Hopefully,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: we're going to see this turning around now and more
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: and more people, good people, will be applying. The one
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: thing I did want to stress again is I've heard
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: a lot about we need a curfew.
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: A curfew cannot....
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Stand up in court. It would be legally challenged, unconstitutional.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: If you did a curfew just in one area, it
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: has been challenged with other cities that have done that
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and they have always lost. It would have to be citywide.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: And we don't want a citywide curfew to take care
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: of one small area in the old market. And doing
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: just a curfew for juveniles really runs a risk, too,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: because it would take more police officers to identify who's
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: a juvenile and who isn't. And if you tried to
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: set up a specific boundary in the old market, well,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: you know what's going to happen there. They're going to
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: stand right across the street from where the boundary is
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: and say, ha, ha. You can't get me here. And
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: so we need more crowd control down there. I did
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: ask the president of the Old Market Business Association if
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: he would be on the program, and he declined. He
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: did not want to be on. So I did make
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: that offer to him. The DID, which is the Downtown
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Improvement District, Holly Barrett is with that. She's out of
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: the country right now or she would have been on. But,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: you know, we've got a lot more to talk about
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: the old market. But the last thing we want people
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: to do is to hesitate going down there because it
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: is a great place. And we want people to go
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: down there and join all it has to offer. We
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: have lots more to talk about. We're just going to
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: have to get to that tomorrow because that is it
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: for us today. I want to thank you all for
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: spending this hour with us. We'd love for you to
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: join us again tomorrow. Next week, we're going to have
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: really good guests. We're going to have Brent Lindstrom on
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: and we're going to have the.
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: Governor on, too. So, yep, it'll be good. So I'm
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: Jean Stothert and this is 1110 KFAB.