Latest / APD Pod Squad / Season 2, Episode 1; Chief Mike Lamb, Deputy Chief Sean Aardema, Deputy Chief Jackie Stepp, SPO Isaiah Senyak, and the History Minute with Hannah Silberman

Transcript

Season 2, Episode 1; Chief Mike Lamb, Deputy Chief Sean Aardema, Deputy Chief Jackie Stepp, SPO Isaiah Senyak, and the History Minute with Hannah Silberman · APD Pod Squad

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_05: This is the APD Pod Squad.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_05: The first episode of the APD Pod Squad landed on August 24th, 2024, just over one year ago.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_05: In this episode, the first of season two, we look back at the past year with Chief of Police Mike Lamb, Deputy Chief Sean Artima, and Deputy Chief Jackie Stepp.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_05: Sure, we'll talk about Hurricane Helene, of course, but the past year was so much more than that.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_05: So the four of us, together, will discuss the bad and the good.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_05: And there was a lot of good.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_05: In the History Minute with Hannah Silberman, we highlight some of the more colorful characters who have held the title of Asheville Chief of Police, like Ambrose Augustus Featherston, Herschel Springfield Harkins, and Alfred Hunter Baird, who was quite the adventurer.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_05: And senior police officer Isaiah Seniak from the Community Engagement Division joins me with all the happenings in the busy month of September.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_05: It's all coming up on episode one of season two of the APD Pod Squad.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_05: Joining me now, the largest cast ever to be assembled in the APD Pod Squad studio, a record not to be broken as we don't have any more room in here.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_05: Chief of Police Mike Lamb, Deputy Chief Sean Artima, and Deputy Chief Jackie Stepp, thanks for joining me.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, it's our pleasure.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having us.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_05: As we look back at the first year of the APD Pod Squad, basically from last year this time to right now in August, going into September, and looking back at all the things that happened over the past year.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, obviously the elephant in the room is Hurricane Helene.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_05: So we'll talk about that, obviously, but also things that affected all of you as individuals with different roles within the Asheville Police Department.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_05: And let's just go ahead and start with Hurricane Helene, which was at the end of September 2024 and is just about the beginning of the APD Pod Squad.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_05: We'd started it August 24th.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_05: So a month later, there we are within this thing that we've never experienced before.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_05: So, Chief, let's start with you.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_05: How did that change you, your approach, your job, and everything here at the Asheville Police Department over the course of that year?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_05: What did it do to your job over that year?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh gosh.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh I really think it made my position as chief of police more collaborative.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: We weren't really just doing police operations at that time.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: We were basically doing emergency management operations.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, you know, we were helping with infrastructure mapping, we were helping with transportation, side and security resource allocation.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: We were having to work closely with the state emergency operations center, Buncombe County Emergency Operations Center, other executives, and uh NCDOT.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then whenever we had the dignitaries come in, like all the presidential candidates came in, and then different folks from Congress, different senators that came in, having to work closely with Secret Service, Capitol Police, just to do a variety of operations.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: So there were, I feel like a lot of partnerships formed, you know, across the community of Asheville, across the state of North Carolina, and then nationally as well, um, given the amount of folks that we had that that came and helped us also.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_05: Everybody did a little bit of uh different things outside their normal purview during that because it was such a a different thing.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Deputy Chief Step, you had a blow-up mattress in your office.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_05: I recall that.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_05: You were sleeping overnight sometimes and and doing a lot of things that you probably weren't accustomed to doing during that.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: I s I slept here for the first couple of weeks, but I echo what the chief said.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: That was a moment that that truly tested us as an agency, but also as a community.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, it really just the resilience of of the police department, the community, everybody coming together.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: It shows what we can do when we all come together.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Deputy Chief Artemis, what do you remember most about all that?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, obviously there's the images and the things that occurred, but big picture wise.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: The thing that sticks out to me the most, and it's it's one of those things they say it's kind of human nature where you kind of gloss over the bad and focus on the good.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, when I I really think hard about what sticks out to me is that no one ever got upset.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um we had officers coming in on their time off, essentially volunteering their time to do stuff out of their wheelhouse.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: We had officers from all over the United States come here and every single one of them had an excellent attitude.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: It was all about public service and serving this community and every single person in this building.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's what they were geared toward every day when they came in.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't think that's me glossing over it.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's an accurate assessment of what I saw every day.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: And that's something really I'm the most proud of is because it would be real easy in such a stressful environment to, you know, have some people that they kind of break, they kind of break down, and you know, maybe they can't handle it, but that didn't happen.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody stepped up to the plate.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_05: We had officers and professional staff that were personally affected during the storm with loss of property and things of that nature, and they almost ignored what was happening to them personally to help the greater good of the Asheville Police Department.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: We had officers the morning of the storm who were still at work, some officers who had even worked the night before and then could not get home because uh bridges were washed out, roadways were flooded.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, when communications went down, we had officers at work that still had no idea, you know, what the condition of their homes were like and, you know, what was the status of their family.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, these officers continued to work, they continued to protect the citizens of Asheville, and even with knowing that there was, you know, that there were some struggles at home as far as like, you know, different portions of land getting washed away, furniture insides of homes being damaged, uh, cars that were damaged.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: I really think it speaks to the dedication of the officers that they were very task-focused during that time.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: That the officers were upholding their oath.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: They were protecting and serving the citizens of Asheville, even in the most dire situations and not knowing what's happening at home.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and with that, Rick, I was going to say the professional staff, too, that that really stepped up to the plate and came in alongside the officers, took care of the officers, and just kind of went really above and beyond and were in a lot of the same situations that the officers were in in terms of uh what they experienced personally from the hurricane.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Something else that occurred, and if you look back in history, you'll see something similar, like in times of war, medical advances out of necessity.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_05: Well, we had already established a drone unit here at the Asheville Police Department, but it was something that needed to expand and advance to do the task at hand.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_05: And it did exponentially.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: It did.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: It the attention that we got from the storm allowed us to get some donations and also form some partnerships with different drone companies and also drone operators that came from other jurisdictions and other agencies, and they were able to bring that technology with them.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: But we were able to also use the drones to do infrastructure mapping.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: So we were able to survey damage after the storm, see what the condition of the water lines were, see what the conditions of the rivers were, do bridge surveys to make sure that bridges were um solid enough so that cars could go across them again.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so the uh city and the state really relied on the different infrastructure mapping we were able to do with the drones in order to determine that a roadway or a bridge was safe to open up traffic for again.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell We got help from so many outside agencies during that.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_05: Is that this is my first experience with something like this?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_05: Is that the natural reaction anywhere?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_05: Or do you think people had a special attachment maybe to Asheville and our department and our unit and really just wanted to help here because of maybe relationships that we'd developed?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you hit the nail on the head.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: Is that was relationship driven?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Chief Lamb had a really good pre-existing relationship with a North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and that was one of the first probably phone conversations you were able to have.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um and within 24 to 48 hours, that group had people headed our way.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: So it it was a direct result of relationships that our agency had fostered over time.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Not in the room right now is Captain Brandon Moore.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_05: We talked about the drone uh unit.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_05: He was instrumental with that.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_05: And because of that, a new certification, a new waiver, that was the first in the nation.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_05: Talk about that, Chief.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that was the beyond visual line of sight waiver or uh BVLOS waiver that we were able to obtain.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: That allowed for drone operators to be able to fly the drones without having to watch it launch, go into the air and then and then go to uh the des the destination that it was going to.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: And also the drone operators don't have to watch it return and then go back to the dock, which is a requirement for drone pilots to have to do.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: So having that waiver has allowed us to place docks at different locations around the city.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: And the uh drone operators can launch from their console at the police department, and then the drone will launch from whatever dock it's at, whether that be in North Asheville, West Asheville, downtown, so that they can operate those drones from a centralized location.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_05: So I believe the number that was tossed around as far as how long we were affected, I think with the EOC being opened, was 156 days.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_05: I think I've heard that term, which is almost half a year.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_05: So when did you all feel like we were starting to come out of storm and into normal operations again?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_05: DC Steph?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell The big turning point, I think, for everybody, not just us, but was when we were able to get water, uh even potable water, is when we really started to feel like, okay, everything's gonna be okay.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that was a little before Thanksgiving.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_05: Am I right there?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_05: It was it was like right the week before Thanksgiving, I think it was.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's funny you brought that up, because you know, just to kind of link the partnerships, the full spectrum of city services.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: I think somebody who ended up becoming a a pretty popular local celebrity was Assistant City Manager Ben Woody.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh with his water updates.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: Who and he did a phenomenal job.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's reflected in how much people appreciated him and expressed that both on both on social media and you know.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: He got kind of famous from that.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: But point out that a lot of the visuals that he used in those presentations came from APD drones.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_05: And without those drones, they wouldn't have had those initial shots as early as they did.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_05: They couldn't get up there to North Fork.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_05: They needed the drones to get the visuals to know what they had to do to attack the situation and get the water back going again.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was both the North Fork and B tree as well, because so many trees were down and the roadways were washed out that they had to use drones to be able to do that survey.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_05: All right, let's talk about some other stuff that happened over the course of the year.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_05: I I know that last year here statistically wasn't a great one in some ways.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_05: We had a record number of homicides and some other things, but so far, 2025, and Deputy Chief Artemis, this is your universe a little bit more.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_05: We're in a good place with I guess crime statistics this year.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_05: Certainly, homicides are down, some other things are down.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's always tragic when you have a homicide.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: The end full stop.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's extraordinarily more tragic when you have a record number of homicides like we saw in 2024.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: To only have two, and that's not to discount the victims in those two particular cases, their family and people that care for them, but to go from a record year the year before to be where we are today.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: There's likely a number of factors, but we we truly believe that the predominant factor is the work that we've done in developing our relationships through the gun violence task force because the majority of our homicides in 2024 were a result of gun violence.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so we doubled down on our commitment to that task force, which again is a data-driven, repeat offender-focused task force that's specifically designed to work with all of our partners, both local, state, federal, prosecutors across the board, to focus our resources on the people that are actually carrying guns, using guns, and sometimes are projected to become victims of gun violence themselves.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_05: Keeping with the positive, we've got a couple of things that kind of work together: recruitment, development, and also the pay ladder schedule, which I know DC step we're talking about the past year.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_05: I think you've been working on that for longer than a year, and it kind it finally came to fruition this year and into this budget season.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and what a significant step forward for our agency.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we had one goal going into this, and that was to address compression and to create career progression for us to be able to attract laterals and uh new recruits.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we did that intentionally so that we could go back this year and really focus on one issue, and that's the competitive market rate, bringing the base pay, even for police officers through the ranks up.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Historically, we tried to fight both.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: We tried to address compression as we could, and then also the competitive market rate.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: But now that we were able to pass this milestone, I look forward to the future and and being able to get us up to a more competitive market rate.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: But from what we've heard so far, is always room for improvement, but very positive feedback.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_05: And Chief, I suppose we should uh give a shout out to city leadership for supporting that plan.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh for council to be behind it and to uh to back the plan.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we've seen a lot more support from our elected officials, uh, from city council over the last uh two years.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: So this this last spring of 2025, and then the spring before that, they issued a proclamation for police week and police officer memorial day, um, recognizing the sacrifices that officers locally and also nationwide have made over the years.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then also being more supportive of us within the pay plan, within uh approving that paid ladder, and then also, you know, working with us through the process.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so I really feel like the communication between the police department and council and also the city manager's office has greatly improved as well.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_05: And as we continue to extrapolate those positives from the past year, Deputy Chief Step, let's not forget about the 30 by 30 initiative.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_05: And for some people that are not familiar, that is the goal of having 30 percent of all new recruits be female by the year 2030.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you for bringing that up, uh, Rick.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited to have entered into that pledge, that initiative.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: We've got uh Officer McKinsey Gallion, who just became our first female SCAT instructor, and uh we're getting ready to send our first uh female detective to polygrapher school.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: So just uh excited about the opportunities here for women and more importantly, to be a part of a leadership team who values diversity.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_05: I think anyone that walks the halls of 100 Court Plaza, Building 81, whatever you want to call this, will instantly notice uh a female presence, obviously, in our DC's office, and and on every floor at every level, professional, sworn, non-sworn, there are women in valuable positions within this uh department.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, as an example, Rick, on the first floor, you've got a lot of our professional staff, our public information desk, uh logistics division that's got sworn and professional staff.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: As we move up to the second floor, uh some of our community engagement division, uh those officers there are female.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: You've got the detective division, uh, who also has a number of females as well.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then on the third floor, uh, of course, you've got myself, uh, our public information officer, some administrative staff, and then uh even up to the fourth floor, you've got uh our recruitment and training unit who has females.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_05: And women making an impact on the street as officers of the Asheville Police Department as well.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_05: You know, if there was a word that actually would be like the word of the year in the past year with several of the things that we've talked about, it would be support.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we're getting support from City Council, we're getting some support from the citizenry themselves, and we're getting a whole lot more support from people wanting to work here.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_05: And so a couple of things there.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_05: We had a large graduating class and now the first in-house police academy since 2013.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_05: So talk about that.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we we used to run an in-house police academy.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: We ran that from 2005 to 2013.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Deputy Chief Stepp was actually in the very first in-house class that we had in 2005.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know what's interesting about the in-house classes that we had during that timeframe is whenever we had resignations post-2020, the majority of the officers who stayed were ones who were part of the in-house academy.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm very proud that we've been able to bring that back in uh collaboration with uh AB Tech and their B L E T program.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so we've got 21 in the class now, and they are progressing through the different classes that they've had and are and are do they're going really strong right now.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: I d I'm also proud to see that they're working as a team together, supporting each other, studying together, working out together.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so that yeah, the the cadet class of 21 is four times larger than any class we've had for the last, gosh, I think since 2016, if I remember correctly.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then the academy class that we had before that was a cadet class of 15.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so those those 15, that that class is three times larger than any class that we'd had for the last five years.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so they are currently out in field training, um, learning the ropes from field training officers, and we we hope to have them out on their own uh later this fall.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about some of the great relationships we built around town, and we'll start with you, Deputy Chief Artemis.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I was fortunate enough to be asked, actually I asked to be considered to be to have a post on the Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority of the City of Ashley.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: Fortunately, the the mayor, I guess, felt that I was a good candidate, and she she appointed me to that board.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um I've served in that role since January.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh historically, we we haven't always had a super excellent relationship with the housing authority.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, I I've learned a lot personally about the mission of Hacker.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, one of those the primary things is for them to have a good relationship with the police department.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Well, now it's kind of built in.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: And since I began serving on that board, that relationship has improved exponentially.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not taking any credit for that, it's just kind of opening doors and saying, like, hey, here I am, let's talk.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: It has resulted in us having a meeting recently with the new chief operating officer of the housing authority, and that was a super productive meeting.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, Elisanto, she's a great human being.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, she's deeply committed to the safety and security of the residents in housing.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, I I point all that out to say it's unfortunate, but in light of talking about our record here in homicides, homicides and aggravated assaults disproportionately affect community members in Asheville that live in housing authority properties.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so we're trying to do everything that we can.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: Not, you know, because the chief said it last night at the housing board meeting, as a matter of fact.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we can't arrest our way out of those problems.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's gonna take relationship building in those communities and and increasing the amount of trust between those residents and the police department to to truly solve a lot of the issues long term.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: I think we're well on our way there.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: Going left or right in the room, we'll go to UNEX, Chief Lamb?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Over this last year, I've been or I had been a part of the COC board.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: So the Continuum of Care Board, and I filled the public safety chair, and that really gave us an opportunity also to um build relationships with a lot of the uh the outreach partners and the different collaboratives that really focus on providing services to the unhoused.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason that's so important is because a lot of the crime issues that revolve around the unhoused are significant, and we were able to have those discussions within that room to talk about longer lasting solutions to crime and homelessness.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so it's it's much better to be able to do those things in in collaboration, not just looking at it from a law enforcement perspective and a law enforcement lens, but looking at it from a community lens as well, because we were able to work with ABCCM, Homeward Bound, Sunrise, Safe Shelter.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's good to be able to have conversations during the board meetings and some difficult conversations as far as you know folks holding other folks accountable whenever those crimes start to occur.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um I went off of the board in June, and now Captain Jonathan Brown has taken my place as the board liaison.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: Deputy Chief Stepp.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'll focus more a little bit on line level, like the the importance of relationship building.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: We all sit on boards.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: I sit on Big Brother, Big Sister, hope to launch the Bigs and Badges program here before too long.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, we've got a dedicated community engagement division who do a wonderful job in scheduling events to put us out in the community, put themselves out in the community, build relationships, whether it's through a cookout, within the last year or so launched a new junior police academy.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they've reamped and restarted the Citizens Police Academy.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: So they are really striving to, in every way they can find ways to build those relationships throughout the community.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: We have chess with a cop down at Pritchard Park.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many different avenues that that division is trying to go down to build those relationships because they understand the importance of those long lasting, trusting relationships.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_05: And as we wind down the year and look Forward to another year in 2026, just around the corner.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_05: I'll do the same thing.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_05: We'll just go left or right.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_05: Is there something you're looking forward to within the department, outside, inside?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_05: Anything come to mind?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I actually signed off this week on the panel questions for candidates for the traffic safety unit.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: We are really optimistic and looking forward to bringing that unit back.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's something that's been needed for some time.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, not just to make safer roadways within our community, but also to to really give officers who have an interest in that line of work some career progression to give them an opportunity to specialize in traffic safety issues, whether it be collision reconstruction, whether it be speed enforcement, but a big component of what our expectations are for that unit moving forward in light of what Deputy Chief Steph just talked about is community engagement.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: There's an education piece to that unit that that we're really, really optimistic about.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_05: And I guess the bicycle team is kind of them possibly coming back will be another community engagement piece.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: It it definitely would be.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: Also the community celebrating with us as well.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Another way to celebrate with past APD.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: So September 6th, we're having a picnic and a department tour and also a history presentation for our retirees.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: So it'll be it'll be great to sit to see them come back.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I look forward to seeing some of my old lieutenants and sergeants and uh the different officers who helped mold me through my career.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_05: Well, let's hope we have a hurricane free fall, and everybody enjoys all of our gatherings that we have.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you all for coming in, Deputy Chief Artemis, Chief Lamb, Deputy Chief Step.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_05: Come by the APD Pod Squad.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_05: Let's do it again next year.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_05: All right, thanks, Rick.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Rick, and congratulations on your one-year podcast.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_05: It means I'm still employed.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_05: It's awesome.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_05: Time once again for the History Minute with Hannah Silberman.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_05: Hannah, thanks again for joining us.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Glad to be here.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we got something very historical uh coming up that you're a part of.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_05: You heard the chief mention the cookout coming up with the retirees.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_05: As part of that is a little uh history segment that you're doing, right?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_05: So what are you gonna cover in that?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have a limited amount of time, so probably just the earliest years of the department.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_05: Just kind of some of the cool stories.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, because you you don't want to be talking about something that happened like in the 80s when these guys were there.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_05: Might bring back some memories for those guys.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_05: But that's something fun to look forward to.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_05: And then of course, uh, we have our big event coming up in I believe is uh October, I think, at the Orange Peel.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_05: So that's another big event that we're having as a department uh celebrating 150 years, which is why we're having it in here for every podcast episode and learning a lot.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_05: So what do we have this episode?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, today we're just gonna talk about some of our early chiefs.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Okay, we got some colorful ones, I would imagine.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_05: I mean we've we've had a few that we've already discussed.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_05: Uh who is the one dude, Ambrose?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_05: I f I forget about him, but uh uh the name sticks out, and I remember looking at a picture of him, and he looked like an Ambrose.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_05: So we got some more guys like that?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the thing about our chiefs of police and the 1870s until about 1920 is that they were elected or appointed every single year or every two years.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we had a lot of chiefs.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell That's a lot of turnover.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_05: So did you have often the same guy like get another term or no?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_05: It was always changing?
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell Sometimes but um sometimes they would serve two years, go for a break, and then come back again later.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes they serve two terms in a row.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell And when you get a system like that, sometimes you're probably not getting the pick of the litter, I would think, too.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_05: You might get like a political appointee that is a friend of somebody.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell It was incredibly political.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it was often they would say, especially in like the 1880s to the 1890s, the chief was actually the most powerful position, and often the aldermen were picked depending on who they would appoint to be the chief of police.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell So a lot of stuff going on.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_05: Chicanery, you could say.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: I mean, we had all the officers were also elected every year.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_05: Officers too?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes they would get kicked out because of their politics.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was quite a thing.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Times were different.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_05: Enlighten us.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell So we talked about Ambrose, who is the saloon keeper.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: He was our very first chief.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: But our second chief was Herschel Springfield Harkins.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, that's another great one.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_05: We've talked about him before, haven't we?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have, yeah.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So he was the IRS collector.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: He did uh tax collection in the mountains, and he was in this really awesome shootout in Henderson County in the 1870s.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he later became the mayor of Asheville.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so we we did talk about him once, so he was very interesting.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason we're bringing it up now is also because the election cycle usually went May to May, but in the 1910s, most of them were appointed or took office in August or September.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's William Gaston McDowell.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he grew up in the Smith McDowell house.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: His grandfather was the one who built it.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, the one right there in A B Tech's campus.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he actually worked for the department for more than 40 years.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he served as the chief of police twice.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_05: The McDowell family is one of the big historical families in Buncombe County.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's Francis or Frank Nash Waddell, and he was the grandson of Francis Nash, the Revolutionary War General that Nashville, Tennessee, and Nash County are named after.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I am familiar with that guy.
• 29:42
  unknown: Yeah.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: His other grandfather was Hugh Waddell, who was a French and Indian war general.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_05: Now we're going way back.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus And he served for two terms, actually.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next one to succeed him was Alfred Hunter Baird, and he was the first cousin of Zevelyn Baird Vance.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_05: And the funny thing is you're giving full names, right, including like middle names, because people back then did.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_05: It was like a full thing.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like you gave all three of your names.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_05: Like I'm wondering at what point in history we stopped doing that.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, they used to refer to people quite often by their first and middle initial.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something I've dealt with very much in the history research, because it wouldn't just be Alfred Baird, it was A.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: H.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Baird, and you had to go figure out who that person was.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, Ulysses S.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_05: Grant, et cetera, et cetera.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_05: All the ones like that that come to mind that, yeah, they have William H.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_05: McLe McKinley.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_05: Uh all the different ones where they use that middle initial.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yep.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: So Alfred Hunter Baird is particularly interesting to me because he was a Confederate Army colonel, but he served at the age of 20, leaving a cavalry regiment.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell Well, now you know this, but some people don't.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_05: That back then you basically formed your own regiment and paid for it.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_05: So that's how you became like somebody of rank in the military, at least in the South, more so than the North.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_05: You basically paid your way into it.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_05: You could be a captain or you could be a colonel.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's whatever you called yourself because you had the money to back it.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: But at the age of 20, I can't imagine.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then after the war, he moved to Texas and became a rancher and was a bona fide cowboy who herded cattle between Texas and Wyoming.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: But he moved back to take care of his aging father.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when he became our chief.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_05: People really lived lives back then.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, seriously.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_05: They did some things.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can check out his mustache.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_05: That is a lot of facial hair for a short area small.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_05: It's like his entire mouth area is completely covered.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_05: It's like a hockey puck just sitting right there in his face.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: He looks very well kept, though.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_05: Well, no, it looks well groomed.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not saying he wasn't.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: We had a tobacco warehouse owner named John Carter.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: William Alfred James, we've talked about, was the one who had the got into the fight and they shot his badge, and that's what what saved him.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then John Lyarley is one of my favorite old-time chiefs.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: He started with the department in the 1890s.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: He gets elected twice in 1898 to 1901.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was very, very well respected chief and law enforcement officer.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: He eventually comes back.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: He works as a patrolman for several years.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: His younger brother becomes our chief of police.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then he becomes the chief in Canton, North Carolina, after working as an officer with the paper mill.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: But then he gets offered a position as a captain.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: So he quits that to come back to Asheville PD and then becomes our chief again in the 1913s.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then he becomes the sheriff shortly after.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_05: So at what point did the whole system change and they stopped doing it every year and it became more of the way it is now, like more modernized?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_05: What like what year block?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_05: Are we talking like the 20s, the 30s, the 40s, the 50s?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, how far along in the path until things became more like they are now, where guys kind of climbed through the ranks and then they were, you know, named the chief after being you know gone through a series of qualifying interviews or et cetera, et cetera.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell A big turn was in 1923 when the public safety commissioner petitioned the other commissioners.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that is actually the exact point that we stopped appointing them every year.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was just until determined.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: They removed the term limits that said that every appointment is made for an indefinite period of time.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the exact 1923.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_05: So we have a an actual date.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then um between 1923 and the 1930s when we got the Civil Service Commission, civil service then governed how we chose our chiefs until the 70s.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Okay.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_05: So we only had about give or take about 50 years of the previous system.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it still uh it made us we had a lot of chiefs.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell We couldn't have been alone that way, though, right?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_05: I would think most cities probably operated the same way.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_05: You know, at least the the small-ish ones.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe places like New York City or whatnot, or the largest cities might have had a different system.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_05: But I'm guessing almost everyone was operating that way.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell Well, I think what was so different about policing then was that there wasn't any single path to having a career in law enforcement because it was also political that you had to apply, you had to have certain connections to get that job, and then it wasn't guaranteed.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: One year you might be a cop, the next you might not.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they would jump around to different agencies and different positions constantly.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_05: So career police officers didn't really exist.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: They could if you were a certain type of person.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the other interesting thing was it often interchanged with the tax collection department.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: The tax collectors and law enforcement were deeply connected into the 1930s and 40s because it was usually a rough business to go collect taxes from people.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell Well, for people that know the history of like with the Untouchables, the movie The Untouchables, how they got El Capone was in the tax universe, not in the law enforcement universe.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_05: But in that movie, those two groups were kind of interchangeable.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_05: They both kind of worked doing similar things.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell I would think of it more like um in Robin Hood, where you have the sheriff that goes around to the doors and tries to get the money from people's houses.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_05: Sheriff of Nottingham?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_05: That guy?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, that's like a bad guy.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: But you had to go go to people's doors and knock on their houses and be like, you know, cough up your money.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that was probably a little harder than it was even.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_05: And now I can't get the song out of my head from Brian Adams.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for that.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_05: Everything I do, I do it for you.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the the final mention I'll make on our early chiefs is Frank Jordan, who is one of our most memorable and well-known chiefs.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's most known for capturing Will Harris, which we'll talk about in November.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_05: That's a great story.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: But he was also just a super interesting guy.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: He served on and off with the department for nearly 15 years, and he became our chief only from 1903 to 1905.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: He quit briefly and then came back and was our first detective.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: He actually was our first plainclothes officer for 1907 to like 1909.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then he retired from here, became an insurance investigator, and did 40 years until his 80s as an insurance investigator.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_05: So he could be a lifelong insurance investigator, but probably not a career policeman.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_05: So that's where we were.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_05: Well, thanks for that insight into some of our chiefs.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_05: Looking forward to hearing more about the Will Harris uh story.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_05: I know a little bit about it, but I'm I'm really interested in your take and your depth on that particular story.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_05: It's one of the big history stories of Asheville that a lot of people are familiar with, but maybe we'll have something for them they haven't heard before.
• 36:14
  unknown: Yep.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_05: Hannah Silberman and the History Minute.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you again.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_05: From the Community Engagement Division, Senior Police Officer Isaiah Seniak back in the chair.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for joining me.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_05: I kind of missed your uh turn there a little bit because you were away for like, what is it, two months in training, right?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_04: I went to uh general instructor school, which was a phenomenal experience, uh kind of difficult.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, that allows me to be able to teach different courses in the B L E T curriculum.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_05: This is big because we are now having our own in-house academy.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_05: So we need more instructors to be able to pull it off.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: And uh and I like instructing too.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I like the opportunity to bring my own pedagogy, my own personal style into the uh the curriculum as well.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you're definitely the only person I know that's gonna drop the word pedagogy.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_05: Pedagogy?
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_05: That's that one.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I was a communications major, and I never even used that one.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: That's a good word.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_05: Well, anything over four syllables to me is uh I I try and stay away from just so I don't mess it up, which I just did.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_05: So part of the community engagement division, of course, and uh always busy, and this time of the year is a great time of the year because you can do things in inside, you can do things outside.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, let's take a look at some of the things we got coming up.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_05: I know our quarterly coffee with a cop is just around the corner.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_04: So that's coming up Friday, September 12th, and that's gonna be in West Asheville at West End Bakery from eight to ten.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_04: They have really good pastries there, too.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_05: So right around the corner, I've mentioned this to others uh from where I lived at 6th Vermont Avenue for the longest time.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_05: They actually made our wedding cake.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_05: Uh-huh.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_05: West End Bakery did.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_05: They probably did an amazing job.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and they got so busy that was like part of their original thing to kind of, you know, get business and get, you know, they don't even do it anymore.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_05: Uh they don't even that part of the business because it's a major pain, I would imagine, baking wedding cakes and delivering them and all that stuff.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_05: I couldn't do it.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_05: No, I can barely make brownies like from a box.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_05: So you want to be making a wedding cake.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_05: Uh so that'll be what time?
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_04: Eight o'clock, I believe?
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's eight o'clock, and it goes to ten o'clock.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_04: It's just an opportunity to get together, discuss any sort of issues, problems, network, build lines of communication, that sort of thing.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_04: And it's very laid back.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and you know, we move it all over town, right?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_05: So we're in South Asheville, East Asheville, and so this is our first time in a while in West Asheville.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_05: And and every neighborhood has their own set of situations and circumstances where they need to be heard by the Asheville Police Department.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_05: So we hope they all come out, all the neighbors and join us for coffee and engaging conversation.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: I I have had some of the best conversations at coffee with the cops, actually, um with various members of the public.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh they come there and it's it's just the nature of the interaction is such where it can kind of people get laid back and more relaxed and more freely to open up.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I can, I don't know, it just opens those those lines of communication, like I said.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_05: A little more disarming.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you're just standing, it's early in the morning, you're not real fired up yet to like yell at anybody.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_05: So you're just gonna have your coffee and kind of ease into the day.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe share some concerns that you got, and maybe we can solve some problems too.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_04: So what else we got?
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_04: Another thing coming up is a super cool event.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it's uh September 18th, which is a Thursday.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_04: So mark your calendars.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's gonna be from 5 to 9, and we're gonna be going out to the Texas Roadhouse where we're gonna be doing a tip a cop event.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_04: And the money is gonna be going to Special Olympics.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_04: So uh if you go to Texas Roadhouse on Thursday, September 18th from 5 to 9, and you mention the fact that you're there for Special Olympics, Texas Roadhouse is gonna give 10% of uh the proceeds to Special Olympics.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um in addition, they're gonna have hats and t-shirts for sale where 100% of the proceeds go to Special Olympics.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna have officers there, and there'll also be athletes there.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_04: So we'll be doing things like I don't know what it'll be what we'll be doing.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: There, we'll see.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's been a while.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_04: I used to work in a restaurant a long time ago, but I we'll see how it goes.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, so I there's there's a whole bunch of like restaurants that use the word Texas that use road, that use house.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_05: Where's the location for this?
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's the one on Hendersonville Road.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_05: Hendersonville Road, the one outside Biltmore Village?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, so right near I-40.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, so there we go.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_05: All right, so now we know Hendersonville Road, just outside Biltmore Village, buy I-40 Texas Roadhouse on the 18th.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, 18th from 5 to 9.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_04: Mention the fact that you're there for Special Olympics.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_04: It's a great cause and it should be a lot of fun.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, go eat some protein and raise money for a good cause.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_04: So we also school's back in session, so it's a great reminder to be careful when you're out driving around.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_04: Make sure you're aware of the fact that there's gonna be children, bikes, cars stopping, frustrated parents, all that kind of stuff when people start getting into the routine.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_04: So school buses are out, use caution, stop for them.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_04: Don't pass them.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_04: It's five points on your license.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_04: And it's uh it's important to keep those kids safe.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you could hurt somebody too.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_05: That's a bad thing.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_05: So just take a deep breath, leave a couple of more minutes early, like me.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_05: I live right next to a school.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_05: Didn't think about it when we bought the house that much because I'd never lived right next to a school.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_05: So it's uh, was it Sand Hill Venable Elementary, I guess is the one right there.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_05: And it's a two-lane road.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_05: So you know when they're backed up, either lining up for the day or the afternoon, either dropping off or picking up.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_05: It's gonna take a few extra minutes, and sometimes you're gonna be stuck behind it.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_05: But don't get frustrated, please, because that's when accidents happen, that's when people get hurt, and that's when you get five points on your license for maybe passing a bus.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_05: So you don't want that either.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_04: Throw in a good podcast and leave a couple minutes early.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_04: You'd be amazed what you can pick up and learn just by a few minutes earlier with book on tape.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_05: Great time to take in the APD pod squad.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_05: Just while you're sitting behind a an old like a 78 Chevy, waiting for the line to pull into the school wherever you happen to be.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_05: But it's that time of the year, so just be aware of that.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_05: Senior police officer Isaiah Senaak, thank you again for joining me.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for having me.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_05: Appreciate it.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for listening to the APD Pod Squad.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_05: And thank you to my guests, Chief of Police Mike Lamb, Deputy Chief Sean Artima, Deputy Chief Jackie Stepp, Hannah Silberman with the History Minute, and Senior Police Officer Isaiah Seniak.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_05: Off to a great start in season two.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_05: If there's something in particular you'd like to hear discussed, call 828-250-8800 and leave a voicemail.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_05: If you have a question for Chief Lamb, call that same number, 828-250-8800, and ask the Chief.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_05: That's 250-8800.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_05: Or you can email APD Podcast Feedback at AshevilleNC dot gov.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_05: I'm Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad.