Latest / APD Pod Squad / Season 2, Episode 24; Master Police Officer Jason Gall, new officers Yahsheem Kendrick and Fraizer Fitzgibbon, and Captain Jonathan Brown

Transcript

Season 2, Episode 24; Master Police Officer Jason Gall, new officers Yahsheem Kendrick and Fraizer Fitzgibbon, and Captain Jonathan Brown · APD Pod Squad

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Fitz is the APD pod squad.
0:04
SPEAKER_02: I'm Rick Rice.
0:06
SPEAKER_02: In this episode with Kids Going Back to School This Month, I'm joined by Master Police Officer Jason Gall, one of APD's student resource officers, who you'll usually find at Asheville Middle School.
0:16
SPEAKER_02: Also, two of our newest officers to hit the streets are Yashim Kendrick and Frazier Fitzgibbon.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: Kendrick and Fitzgibbon will begin field training immediately following BLET graduation, like days later.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: And that is coming up soon.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: We'll get to know a little bit more about them and their journey to become APD officers.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: And Autumn will be here before you know it.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: Cooler weather, football, pumpkin spice, and everything under the sun, and the fall edition of the Citizens Police Academy.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: Captain Jonathan Brown joins me as registration is now open.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: It's all coming up on season two, episode 24 of the APD Pod Squad.
0:55
SPEAKER_02: Getting to know Master Police Officer Jason Gaw, thanks for joining me.
0:58
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
0:59
SPEAKER_02: You are one of our SROs, and with school going back, I guess you're going to get busy pretty soon, huh?
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's gonna it starts ramping up here in the next couple weeks.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: So how long have you been an SRO?
1:10
SPEAKER_00: This will be my fifteenth year.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I'm starting my fifteenth year.
1:14
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so almost all of your time at APD in the school system.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: So you're the guy that people go to with all the, you know, okay, how does this work?
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, sometimes.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I mean the whole team is really um really good.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: We've all been there for quite a while now, so you know we we all bounce things off of each other.
1:33
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell It kind of seems like some of the SROs, that's what they have done.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: It's like they haven't moved within other departments, like some officers do.
1:41
SPEAKER_02: You know, you move from uh you're on patrol here and that beat there, and then maybe you go up to fourth floor here.
1:47
SPEAKER_02: But the SROs, I guess because it's pretty specialized.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you get to know it's something that we have to build, you know, you have to build on.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: It's not something you can work for like maybe six months and then be at move on because you're building the relationships with the kids.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: So you know, over the last 15 years, you know, I started off uh at uh at the elementary level and I've kind of moved around.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: I've done some high school and done some uh middle school, and well, I'm at the middle school now.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: You kind of meet these kids and you build that relationship with them.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: So it's very important that we s we stay on for as long as we can just uh because we're we're building those relationships before you know they move on.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell It's all about trust.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: Is they gotta know they can come to you with something and trust you.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
2:26
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell And not just with something, hey, I saw this going on, but with bigger pictures like safety.
2:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:32
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you see something happens nationwide at another school, does it really give you pause and start to think about how important your job is, even more so?
2:40
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Absolutely.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean you you start wondering, you know, can this happen here?
2:44
SPEAKER_00: We kind of build on that safety stuff.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, we do a lot of training on it, and uh I do a lot of research on when incidents happen at other schools, you know, try to learn how that started, where it all began, just learn from that and see if I can bring some of that into the schools to help to help build my relationship with the kids.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell Yeah, we fortunately haven't had a big situation here in the Asheville City schools of violence or uh Well, let's knock on something, please.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: No, really, because it you say can it happen here?
3:15
SPEAKER_02: The short answer, of course, is yes, it can happen anywhere.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh because you can never you can never know what's going to cause somebody to do that.
3:22
SPEAKER_02: Correct.
3:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean you can examine it after the fact, of course, but it rarely is it stopped beforehand.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: Right.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: You get to know these kids from the jump at middle school, right?
3:30
SPEAKER_02: So three is it three years or four years?
3:32
SPEAKER_02: Three years.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: Three years for Asheville Middle.
3:34
SPEAKER_02: And you've been there for how long?
3:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh I've been in the middle school.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: This will be my third year at Asheville Middle.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you're really kind of just getting to know this group of kids, and some of them are uh you've got one batch through and starting to learn the next.
3:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:45
SPEAKER_02: But you were in elementary before that.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: That's like six, seven years.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, you could really build something, I think, is starting at the elementary level because they start to meet you, they start to see you around.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: So by the time they get to middle school, they understand that why the police uh police officers are there, and then in the high school.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: As SROs, all of us kind of build that relationship all the way through so they can see us being there.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: When I first started, it was like, why are you here?
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And now they understand, hey, we're here for a reason.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, they see the news too.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: Right.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: And then we uh go into like I started going in the sixth grade classrooms last year and spoke to them, just had like a meet and greet type thing.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: This is why I'm here.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Please come to me, you know, you know, because we're not only police officers when you get into schools.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: We become counselors a lot of times.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of the kids will come to us and want to talk about their life, you know.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: So it's just another person to to talk to.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of love that part of it.
4:44
SPEAKER_02: Some of the kids that you had in your first couple of years at the middle school, you probably had at the elementary school.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: So you knew them for a long time.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there there was definitely several of them that I already knew coming in.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the first day they come into sixth grade, it's like, hey, I remember you, you know, so that's pretty cool.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: You see them more than their parents or some other people.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, sometimes you get nine years worth of that.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: So do you have kids of your own?
5:07
SPEAKER_00: I do.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: I have two daughters.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh they uh one of them's getting ready to start grad school at UNC, and my other one is a social worker in South Carolina.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell So did that help you with your job a little bit raising them?
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean that's you know, growing up, my dad was a police officer, my brother was a police officer, so it was just something that I was just born into and something I always wanted to do.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: And when I came to Asheville City, I you know, there was always something I I kind of felt like I I wanted to go into the schools.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: So when an opportunity arose, I I just jumped on it.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Couple years on patrol then before that?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: With Master Police Officer Jason Gall right now.
5:47
SPEAKER_02: He is one of our student resource officers, SRO.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: So when do you and them go back to school?
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I think it's the I'd have to look on the calendar.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: This is something you should really know.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: We're two weeks away, so it's like the 24th, I say think, is something like that.
6:03
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, the one thing it always kind of fascinated me a little bit, because I'm I'm a damn Yankee, right?
6:08
SPEAKER_02: I'm from the North.
6:09
SPEAKER_02: We went back to school.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: It was always after Labor Day.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: And but here it's August.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: And it used to be even earlier in August.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Yeah.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh a couple years ago, we were going back like the second week of August.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Now we're now we're like a the last week of August.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell And I never really understood why different areas kind of do it differently.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: I guess they say it's weather related or something along those lines, but I was always like, let's squeeze the most out of summer we can, and maybe that because Buffalo weather is just brutal.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh I'm from Pittsburgh, so I understand.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: So you get it.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
6:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally understand.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: All right.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: So are you a Pittsburgh sports fan?
6:43
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell I am a huge Pittsburgh sports fan.
6:45
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell So all the teams.
6:46
SPEAKER_02: All the teams.
6:47
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
6:47
SPEAKER_02: So Pirates and Steelers and Penguins.
6:50
SPEAKER_02: So what's your favorite of the three?
6:51
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
6:52
SPEAKER_02: The one that you trouble the most.
6:54
SPEAKER_02: We're just about to kick off the NFL season you got Aaron Rodgers taking the snaps again this year.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus I would probably say Steelers, Penguins, then Pirates.
7:02
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: The Pirates are just kind of a situation there where great ballpark, great history, but the owners just don't want to spend the money.
7:13
SPEAKER_02: So we're probably not going to get baseball next year.
7:15
SPEAKER_02: Everyone sees this one, this big strike or whatever you want to call it coming.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's the reason why we're going on strike.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: But Dodgers fans would say it's because of teams like the Pirates that won't spend the money.
7:27
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's probably somewhere in between that, right?
7:30
SPEAKER_02: So is it the ceiling or is it the floor?
7:31
SPEAKER_02: And the answer is probably both.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's definitely.
7:34
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
7:34
SPEAKER_02: You have fifteen owners as of right now that aren't even spending to the floor.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: And then you've got teams like the Dodgers that are like, well, here's the rules.
7:43
SPEAKER_02: We're loaded.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: We're loaded, yeah.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: We're just going to go get guys like Terek Scuball and nanna nanna.
7:48
SPEAKER_02: You know, and and as a Dodgers fan, I love it, but I get everyone else not loving it.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, growing up in Pittsburgh, pirates were everything to you.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna age myself here, but I grew up in the late 70s, early 80s where the pirates were we are family.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm the same.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: I watched those guys.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Willie Stargell, Dave Parker.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was just guys.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: I went to the games and stuff.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh so a huge pirate fan.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Just watching them fall the way they have since like I w I go back to like 92.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean 91, 92 when they were in the playoffs against the Braves and the Braves beat them every time.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: So I s I I still have some hatred towards the Braves.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: You know what they draft guys and they developed guys like like Paul Skeens and all these different And they all get traded as singles.
8:38
SPEAKER_02: If you looked at the guys that used to be pirates and formed a team of that, that'd be a great team.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: And I've been to plenty of games at Three River Stadium, the old.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: So I went to college in Erie, Pennsylvania.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: So I went to Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, and I've got plenty of friends in the Pittsburgh area, right?
8:53
SPEAKER_02: So we would go down there.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: One of my best friends grew up in Mars.
8:56
SPEAKER_02: They've got some great city names up there.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh, they do have some good city.
8:59
SPEAKER_02: I I mean they've got a whole planetary thing going on for starters, right?
9:02
SPEAKER_02: So you got Mars and Jupiter and all those different things they got up there.
9:06
SPEAKER_02: And then they got ones like Zealand Opel.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh, they got some weird ones.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: They have got some names up there.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: And so I spent a lot of time like in the summers, because my one of my first jobs out of college was in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: And so we would come down to Pittsburgh, it was a radio station.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: We'd come down for like state high school championships and stuff, which were usually in the Pittsburgh area.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: You know, wrestling or basketball or football or whatever.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: So we'd go down there quite a bit.
9:28
SPEAKER_02: So I spent a lot of time there and I'd meet friends there.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I I'd get the Permanent Brothers sandwich and and all those I was at the original in the strip just that's of where I had my first Permanent Brothers was the original.
9:39
SPEAKER_02: And I think it was when it was the only one.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe that I think believe the strip district didn't have the only one.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: For years.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: And now it's in every corner and at every exit.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, my dad worked for the University of Pittsburgh in the ear in the 70s.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Pit Panthers.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Pit Panthers.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a huge Pit Panther fan.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: And uh I moved out of there in 87.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: We moved my my dad moved from he was a police officer at the University of Pittsburgh, and then he worked for the steel mills, and the steel mills shut down, and then you know, things happened.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: We ended up moving to Orlando, Florida.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: So we've got similar paths because I graduated high school in '86.
10:11
SPEAKER_02: You know, so I got out of my hometown about the same time you did and went to college in Erie.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: And then in 1990 graduated and started moving around, but I worked in Pennsylvania for a little while longer.
10:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh so I love the Pittsburgh area.
10:22
SPEAKER_02: I st I always do.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: I was just through there a couple of weeks ago driving home to Buffalo, and I always enjoyed the mountains and the landscapes and the bridges and all the different things.
10:32
SPEAKER_02: Not this time, because we just we go around it.
10:34
SPEAKER_02: You know, if you're just going through West Virginia, you just take 79.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: So you but I've been through that tunnel many, many times.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: Uh but it really enjoyed that area and it's really come a long way.
10:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of those steel cities, as they call them, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, they've really come a long way.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: It was it's totally different than I'm actually going up there this weekend.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: So well, since we're now I usually ask the question where you're from, we already answered that one.
10:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was born in Pittsburgh.
10:59
SPEAKER_02: Which of the small towns?
11:00
SPEAKER_02: Uh Munhall.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: So a lot of my friends were from the uh the different ones that end with hills.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: So North Hills, Penn Hills, a bunch of them.
11:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh so I knew a whole bunch of folks from Pittsburgh.
11:12
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: You got homestead and Munhall are like right back back to back to each other, and that's where I grew up.
11:17
SPEAKER_02: It's a great area.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: So the other question I always ask is what's one thing that most people don't know about you?
11:22
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
11:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: So I've been thinking about this.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: Um A lot of people already know this, but before I became a police officer, I was a golf pro.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Holy cow.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And uh I was a club pro.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: So you still 15 strokes better than me on your average round.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: So I worked at Bahill Country Club where Arnold Palmer No way.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I worked under Arnold Palmer for Did you meet Arnie?
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh Yeah, he was there every week every every winter.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: So you know, he was my main boss.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: So I yeah, I got to meet him.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: But being there, this is the part that maybe people might not know.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Being there, I got to meet a lot of famous people there.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, they got a PGA tour event there, so I got to meet a lot of people.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Nicholas?
12:04
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I I didn't mean Jack.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I actually got an autograph of both of them on the same hat.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Holy cow.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: I hope that's protected in your lock and key.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: It's safe.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Um but I got to meet, you know, Tiger.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: All right.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: So Tiger lived really close to there when I was when I was there.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: But here's here's the part that maybe people don't know.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: So EA Sports used to film the Tiger Woods video game there.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: It was either the first year or second year Tiger Woods was doing the the video game.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And EA Sports was there.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: And the guy that was the producer of the of the game asked all the guys that were working in the Pro Shop if they wanted to be in the game.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people don't know this, but my name is in the game.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Shut up.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: For the t the it was either the first year or the second year.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: So just one of the golfers in the field.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it was one of the golfers in the field.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: You never see me, you can't pick me out, but my name is on the leaderboard on several times.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: But here's the catch it was only on the computer game, not on the video on like the PlayStation game.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: So you'd have to go to the computer game to find my name.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: So but we had to sign over our rights to EA Sports to get us on the game, and it was pretty cool.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: That is awesome.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so a lot of the people don't know that.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: But I don't think hardly any of that is one of the best nuggets that I have received in the three years of the APD pod squad.
13:25
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty cool.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: Well, and as a golfer, too.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: To me, that's that is just amazing.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:29
SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: That's one of those just what?
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was that's why I was thinking about it, but I I knew I had had to lead into the story and how I even got to that spot.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: So do you still golf?
13:41
SPEAKER_00: It's been a few years.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh when I was golfing on a regular basis, it was all fun and games and stuff.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, I enjoyed it and had a dream.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: And so did you try and make one of the mini tours back then?
13:54
SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: My dream was to wait till I got to 50 and and go that route, but then you know, life happens and golf kind of just sat on the back burner, and now I don't play hardly at all.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh, get your sticks out.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: We'll go play.
14:07
SPEAKER_02: You know, we got a few people here that do.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: I know.
14:10
SPEAKER_02: I'm always looking for some new folks to play.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: I I played with some of them and I just don't have you know the time.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: The schools really take up a lot of my time.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: I would imagine.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're uh Monday through Friday, uh eight to four.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Then we got uh football games, basketball games.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's true, extracurricular.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we we we work a lot and uh coming weekends, I just want to spend it with my wife.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: I don't blame you.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't blame you.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, yeah, there are times where I'm sitting there watching some golf on the weekends and I'm like, man, I gotta go back out there and play.
14:41
SPEAKER_02: So Captain Brown, who is also on this episode, you know, his son is trying to become a golf pro.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: He's down with the club.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: Oh, is he?
14:47
SPEAKER_02: He's at the Carolina Country Club now as an assistant golf properly.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: And he was at the cliffs at Walnut Cove prior to that, which of course is hosting a PGA event coming up.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: Coming up.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: Uh you gonna go to that?
14:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna try.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm sure you can get it in somehow as a member of security.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: You can just kind of that's what I'm gonna do.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm looking into that.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: Technically, it is not in city limits, but I'm sure they could use some extra hands, right?
15:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking into it.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: I I'd like to see a little bit of it as well.
15:13
SPEAKER_02: It's unfortunately a weekend that I had out of town just as it lands at my 25th wedding anniversary a couple of days after that.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: But for the Thursday-Friday, we're I'm still here, so I'm gonna try and leak out there just to see you.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: I know it won't be the biggest names because it's the week after uh is it the President's Cup?
15:32
SPEAKER_02: It's one of those.
15:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it is.
15:37
SPEAKER_02: It is the week after.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: So you just know you're not gonna get the Scotty Schefflers up there.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but you know what?
15:41
SPEAKER_00: I like watching the younger guys.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: The other guys are there's a lot of great up and comers.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it and they're out there trying and to give them an opportunity to maybe take a championship home.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's it's great watching those guys.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: And there's been some first-time winners this year on tour, some of these younger guys that are coming up, so it's exciting every time the new blood gets in there.
16:01
SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely.
16:02
SPEAKER_02: It will be interesting, and I know we're boring people that aren't golf fans, but to see how this live golf thing, how how this kind of fleshes itself out.
16:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh some of those guys will return to the PGA tour, and if so, or is there anything punitive?
16:14
SPEAKER_02: It'll be interesting to see how that shakes up.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, golf has really changed over the last several years with all those different things, you know, with that simulator golf too.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: It's just I kind of lost interest a little bit.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm still watching some, but all all the things that are going on in it, it used to be so fun.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: Like the best of the best would always play every week.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, they pick their tournaments and we'll end with this so we don't have to bore people too much longer about our golfing.
16:40
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: But besides Bahill, which of course for people in the golf know it's an amazing legendary course.
16:46
SPEAKER_02: What's the best course you've ever played besides that one?
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Oh, the best one?
16:50
SPEAKER_00: Oakmont.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: You played Oakmont as well as I got to play Oakmont in Pittsburgh one year, yeah.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: I was wondering, because being from Pittsburgh, obviously that's another legendary course that Yeah.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: One year I went up uh I spent a week up in Pittsburgh one year and I got to play La Trobe, which is Arnold Palmer's home course.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And uh one of the members got me on to Oakmont, and I tell you, the tough it's the toughest course I've ever played.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: But the open's been there many times.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Long, rough, and uh glass for greens.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: The greens are all coned.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it was ridiculous, but it was fantastic to play.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, it was great.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: You you play a you play a hole that's like 630 yards, and then you play a hole that's like 280.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: It's like what is going on here?
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Like the they had a par four that was like going back, but I think it was like 290 yards uphill of par four.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: And then you play a par three that's 280 yards.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good luck with it.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't I don't even drive that far.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of, you know.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: It was ridiculous, but it was so much fun because you have to take a caddy.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: You have to walk it.
17:56
SPEAKER_02: There's no carts on that course.
17:57
SPEAKER_02: It's like the ocean course, the Kiawa.
17:58
SPEAKER_02: That's probably the best course I've played.
18:00
SPEAKER_02: Played it twice.
18:00
SPEAKER_02: Once in the dead of winter, once in the dead of summer.
18:02
SPEAKER_02: Right.
18:03
SPEAKER_02: And it's just like either one had its own kind of brutality to it.
18:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: But the wind was always a thing.
18:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:08
SPEAKER_02: I've got a picture of me with the caddy when I played in January, and I'm wearing those winter golf gloves.
18:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
18:13
SPEAKER_02: We're both wearing the knit cap.
18:14
SPEAKER_02: It had to be like probably wind chill in the like maybe 40 minutes.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you're gonna play.
18:19
SPEAKER_02: Of course I'm gonna play.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: And love every minute of.
18:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was certainly freezing cold, but afterwards, what memories, too, right?
18:27
SPEAKER_02: So well, good luck as you go back to school with the kids.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: Hope you have another good, safe year.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: Master Police Officer Jason Gall, thank you for joining me.
18:35
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: Getting to know Yashim Kendrick.
18:38
SPEAKER_02: Yashim, thanks for joining me.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: It actually got you out of class because you are still in B L E T, but you guys are like in the last couple of days, right?
18:46
SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: Is there any tests or anything left, or is it just the ceremony which is coming up?
18:51
SPEAKER_05: Well, it's just the ceremony coming up.
18:53
SPEAKER_05: I mean, I mean, most of us are looking forward to it.
18:56
SPEAKER_05: Um now is just smooth sailing until next week, next Friday.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: So is this just kind of a refresher what's going on right now?
19:02
SPEAKER_02: Just a couple of things, because I when I pulled you out of class, it was Sergeant Loveland was in there doing some stuff.
19:06
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's just uh like extra training.
19:09
SPEAKER_05: We're in post B LET now, so we're just going over so like we have to do MOS for to qualify with our handguns, rifle training, more de-escalation training, and just extra training after the fact so we can get ready for the road.
19:23
SPEAKER_02: You're pretty excited though, right, about the graduation ceremony and getting into it and then doing your field training.
19:27
SPEAKER_02: I'm really excited.
19:28
SPEAKER_02: Um I can't wait.
19:30
SPEAKER_02: I cannot wait at all.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: It's the biggest smile I've seen you.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: So besides just saying hello to each other in the hall, we haven't really had a chance to talk.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm encouraged by what you say so far and looking forward to getting to know you a little bit more.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: And that's what we're doing here, right?
19:41
SPEAKER_02: This is just like a conversation.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: So let's talk about your journey to this point because someone told me that you had attempted this and didn't make it, and this is your second try.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: So even the more excitement level, right?
19:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: So tell me about that.
19:56
SPEAKER_05: I did go through originally in 2024.
19:59
SPEAKER_05: I went with uh Bunker County Sheriff's Office.
20:01
SPEAKER_05: I went through, was expecting it to pass, and I was like, oh yeah, man, I'm getting there, but then like I realized that the test taking part was like my biggest struggle.
20:12
SPEAKER_05: And I kept trying to study, and then like I got to the end, which was courtroom security, and that was my last test failure, and I had to unfortunately leave the program.
20:21
SPEAKER_05: And then I left there, worked in the jail for a little while, and then I wanted to see if they would put me back through and give me another shot.
20:29
SPEAKER_05: I was told no, like I have to work in the jail the rest of my career.
20:32
SPEAKER_05: So then uh I was like, I'll just take a break and maybe apply to somewhere else.
20:36
SPEAKER_05: So I left the jail, worked with FedEx for a little while, met now retired Sergeant uh Martinez, okay, Ricardo.
20:44
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I delivered to his house and then asked him if you guys are hiring.
20:47
SPEAKER_05: And he was like, Yeah, put in the application.
20:49
SPEAKER_05: I did, got approved, went through the whole uh test taking and then physical uh assessment and then polygraph and psyche vial.
20:58
SPEAKER_05: And then I'm here today.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: So Sergeant Martinez, for people that don't know, is was part of our recruiting.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: So that's the easiest recruitment he ever did.
21:05
SPEAKER_02: Somebody knocking on his door and because he's usually having to, you know, locate people and find them and get them into the system, and there you are.
21:13
SPEAKER_02: Hello, are you you know, take it?
21:14
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: That's a good story.
21:16
SPEAKER_02: And it speaks to your resilience, though, I think.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, somebody that didn't make it the first time, went into a a similar line of work, you know, somewhere in that kind of parallel universe, and and then was told, nope, this is it, this is your destiny, and you're like, no, it isn't.
21:29
SPEAKER_02: And so next thing you know, APD, and has it gone pretty well so far for you?
21:35
SPEAKER_05: It's gone great.
21:36
SPEAKER_05: I actually did a lot better than I I did the first go around.
21:39
SPEAKER_05: And I honestly think it happened for a reason.
21:42
SPEAKER_05: I think I was meant to be at the Asheville Police Department.
21:45
SPEAKER_05: So where are you from originally?
21:47
SPEAKER_05: I'm originally from Charlotte, North Carolina.
21:49
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so not far from here.
21:50
SPEAKER_05: Not too far.
21:51
SPEAKER_05: I grew up there uh before I went off to college.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: So seeing how saw you went to B L E T through the program with attempt to go into the sheriff's office.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Did you want to come to this region?
22:01
SPEAKER_02: Is that why you just wanted to come to the mountains?
22:03
SPEAKER_02: Or cause you've got all kinds of agencies you could have chosen, chosen from.
22:06
SPEAKER_05: So I actually uh it started from me going to college.
22:10
SPEAKER_05: I started with my first college at Welch, which is in Tennessee, and then I went and played basketball at this uh it was a student athlete student athlete world is what it was called, I believe.
22:20
SPEAKER_05: And we went and played basketball in Argentina, and that's when I met the coach from Penn State.
22:24
SPEAKER_05: He liked the way I played, he liked my demeanor, my character.
22:28
SPEAKER_05: So he offered me, so I went there, played basketball there for a year, and then tried to dunk on somebody at Lehigh uh College, Lehigh University, uh-huh, and broke three ribs.
22:40
SPEAKER_05: When you were dunking on him?
22:41
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, when I was trying to attempt, I made the shot.
22:43
SPEAKER_05: I was gonna ask, did it go down?
22:45
SPEAKER_05: It was an N1.
22:46
SPEAKER_05: It was an N1.
22:47
SPEAKER_05: But Oh, well that's got you posterized him.
22:49
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I played it.
22:49
SPEAKER_05: And broke your ribs.
22:50
SPEAKER_05: I ended up finishing the game actually.
22:52
SPEAKER_05: Like I didn't realize once I got up, I was like, oh, maybe I just lost my breath.
22:56
SPEAKER_05: And like because of the adrenaline, I'm finishing the game, I'm playing, going up and down, and then I'm just like, okay, like we go to locker room, game over, and I just sit down and it just hit, and I'm just like, oh, holding my ribs, and then I end up coughing, actually coughing up blood.
23:12
SPEAKER_05: Oh gosh.
23:12
SPEAKER_05: And then I went to the hospital that night, they did the uh X-ray, and they put some like fluid that made me feel really hot that I never had before.
23:20
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
23:21
SPEAKER_05: They use it to like light up so they can see the uh okay, yeah, so you can see the damage that kind of yeah, I get that.
23:27
SPEAKER_05: So and then they let me know I had three broken ribs and I was out for the rest of the season.
23:31
SPEAKER_02: And and so Lehigh is obviously not a league game.
23:33
SPEAKER_02: Was that early season then, too, probably right?
23:35
SPEAKER_02: Oh geez.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: So just a couple of games in and it's over.
23:39
SPEAKER_02: And was that your eligibility too?
23:40
SPEAKER_02: That was it?
23:41
SPEAKER_05: I actually had two more years after that, but I ended up transferring to Warren Wilson, which is down the street.
23:47
SPEAKER_05: Right.
23:47
SPEAKER_05: That's how I got to Asheville.
23:49
SPEAKER_05: Ah so So there we are.
23:51
SPEAKER_05: So finished yeah, finished there, finished there, and was like, I mean, I didn't see myself going to the next level of basketball, so I was just like, I always wanted to do law enforcement.
24:00
SPEAKER_05: I got family in it, I got a cousin that's an officer in Gastonia.
24:04
SPEAKER_05: I mean, why not give it a shot up here?
24:06
SPEAKER_05: And plus I like the area.
24:07
SPEAKER_05: I became a mountain man, as you see.
24:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:10
SPEAKER_02: So well, we got a couple of things in common in the world of basketball.
24:13
SPEAKER_02: I was I was not a scholarship player and I would did not play in D1, but I walked on at D2 Gannon until I broke both my ankles.
24:20
SPEAKER_02: One and I got taped up, and then the other, and then your toast by then, because neither one of them is strong enough to play.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: And so that year was uh 1987, six.
24:29
SPEAKER_02: So we went to the national championship that year and lost my freshman year.
24:34
SPEAKER_02: Last year, Ganon won the national championship, and it was actually on ESPN two or something like that.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: And so that was in the their first national championship.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: So really good program.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't, you know, I was just a walk-on.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: I just liked to play.
24:47
SPEAKER_02: You know, I the I was there to practice and have fun and do all that kind of stuff.
24:51
SPEAKER_02: And so I I loved to play basketball.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: That was my that was my thing.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: And we're about the same size.
24:55
SPEAKER_02: You could probably jump over me, I'm sure.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: But so you would have been in the world of college basketball, probably either small forward or shooting guard or uh yes, shooting guard, point guard.
25:03
SPEAKER_02: Isn't it amazing how like six four or whatever is not like tall?
25:08
SPEAKER_05: When I came from high school and I realized the size difference from like six three to like six eight, six nine, up to seven foot.
25:17
SPEAKER_05: I wasn't sure if I can like either shoot or make a layup over them.
25:20
SPEAKER_02: So here's in high school, I was a center, right?
25:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm only six four, right?
25:26
SPEAKER_02: And I was a lot thinner then.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: I was like 185.
25:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, so just a high school skinny little punk.
25:32
SPEAKER_02: But guess who I guarded who played in my league three years, because we went the same years?
25:37
SPEAKER_02: Christian Leitner.
25:38
SPEAKER_02: Christian Leitner.
25:39
SPEAKER_02: So I'm guarding Christian.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he played for Nichols Academy, which was in my league, the Niagara Frontier League in Buffalo.
25:45
SPEAKER_02: There's actually a a picture in the old Buffalo news, uh like the high school preview of me jumping center against him.
25:52
SPEAKER_02: I'm probably up to his elbow.
25:53
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like so I had to guard that guy three years in a row.
25:57
SPEAKER_02: So six times, in other words, because we played twice.
25:59
SPEAKER_02: And so that's I was a center in high school.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: So I go to college with those skills, you know, the all those skills around the block type stuff.
26:06
SPEAKER_02: And I'm told that I'm now either a small forward or a shooting guard.
26:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:11
SPEAKER_02: And that and I'm like, okay.
26:12
SPEAKER_02: So I had to learn a whole bunch of new stuff.
26:14
SPEAKER_02: And it was fun.
26:15
SPEAKER_05: But I mean, I think if you go even further now in the NBA, it's like point guard is what, six, eight, nine?
26:21
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
26:22
SPEAKER_02: It's ridiculous.
26:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, six four short.
26:24
SPEAKER_02: You know, so but it's so you played down the street.
26:27
SPEAKER_02: Did you ever play UNCA?
26:29
SPEAKER_02: No.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: The Sun Wilson is uh D.
26:32
SPEAKER_02: But sometimes in the early part of the year, UNCA will play the exhibition games against them.
26:37
SPEAKER_05: They played our women's team.
26:38
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
26:39
SPEAKER_05: We play we end up playing Elon.
26:41
SPEAKER_02: I think we play Elon uh Charleston Southern.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: And they're in the big South.
26:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:46
SPEAKER_02: So I do the public address uh announcing for UNC Asheville.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: And also the Southern Conference, which comes here in the spring, the big tournament and stuff like that.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: So I just wondered if I had seen you play or not.
26:55
SPEAKER_02: No, I probably not.
26:56
SPEAKER_05: With that.
26:56
SPEAKER_05: If you if you did it for Elon or Charleston Southern, most likely, but no, we didn't play UNCA.
27:02
SPEAKER_05: Do you play anymore?
27:03
SPEAKER_05: Do you ever get out there and just I mean, because of BLET, no.
27:06
SPEAKER_05: Because the schedule has been so like compact and like just the test taking the studying.
27:11
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: I'm not even sure where the pickup games are in this town anymore.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: I don't know either.
27:15
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't know.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: I I I haven't done it because as you can clearly see, I'm way too old to be getting out there and playing kind of pickup basketball at all.
27:23
SPEAKER_05: I know they do uh play some at the YMCA right across the uh From the Family Justice Center down the uh the yeah, the I don't I don't know I'm not familiar with the area just yet.
27:32
SPEAKER_05: But you're gonna need to be.
27:34
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
27:36
SPEAKER_05: But it's it's it's downtown.
27:38
SPEAKER_05: It's the Washington City.
27:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's across from the Family Justice Center.
27:40
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
27:41
SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I I guess they do have a court there, probably.
27:44
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, they have they have a court.
27:45
SPEAKER_05: Like sometimes you can go in there and just play with like random people.
27:48
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
27:48
SPEAKER_05: I actually like when I did before being LET, I played with some random guys and we made a group chat, and like occasionally they go up there and run some play-up games with each other.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: So there's an APD group that you got to get on.
27:59
SPEAKER_02: They play at lunchtime.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
28:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh I I'm on that list because I, you know, I thought I would do it and stuff, and then I next thing you know, I'm pulling hamstrings and calves, and I'm like, you know what?
28:09
SPEAKER_02: Because I still do things, I still I do Spartan races and all this other stuff.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: But basketball's different, man.
28:13
SPEAKER_02: The jumping as you get older is really like an invitation to get hurt.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: It just is.
28:19
SPEAKER_02: And the landing, the jumping, the landing, the knit.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: I have one dunk in my high my high school and college career, one, and it was the ugliest thing you have ever seen.
28:28
SPEAKER_02: That you know, it's the guy that kind of goes up, the ball barely goes over the rim, and then you kind of grab the rim.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: That was my dunk.
28:34
SPEAKER_02: I had one.
28:35
SPEAKER_02: So it still counts.
28:36
SPEAKER_02: It's two points.
28:37
SPEAKER_02: I count it.
28:39
SPEAKER_02: That's the most important thing.
28:40
SPEAKER_02: So there's one thing you gotta learn.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: You gotta learn your way around town, right?
28:43
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: Because that's, I mean, you're gonna have to go to this address and whatever, and I don't think there's time to pop in it in GPS.
28:49
SPEAKER_02: You gotta start figuring things out.
28:50
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I do.
28:51
SPEAKER_02: I'll try my best.
28:53
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm I'm not gonna say I'm close, but I'm I'm trying.
28:55
SPEAKER_02: Like I'll I'll get there one day.
28:57
SPEAKER_02: Well, I can tell you're excited about graduation and getting started in field training and all those things.
29:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh you're not even officially like an officer yet, right?
29:06
SPEAKER_02: But have you thought about down the road what you might want to specialize in, some sort of field, or you're just gonna start with patrol and see where it goes from there?
29:14
SPEAKER_05: First I was leaning towards going toward going to detective, but then um I was like, I wanted to get in like a leadership position, so I wanted to go first.
29:22
SPEAKER_05: I want to just start out with sergeant.
29:24
SPEAKER_05: Like I want to work patrol and then eventually work my way up to sergeant.
29:28
SPEAKER_05: And after that, I'm just open to whatever.
29:31
SPEAKER_05: I just that's just my main goal for now.
29:32
SPEAKER_02: Well, I know we're excited to have you, Yeshim Kendrick.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, and good luck.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: I'll be there at the graduation.
29:38
SPEAKER_02: I'll be at the uh behind the podium there with the MC.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: So the day that this lands, uh I believe is Thursday, and then your graduation is the very next day.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: So when does your field training start?
29:48
SPEAKER_02: That following Monday?
29:49
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
29:50
SPEAKER_05: But some some of my class may start that following Saturday.
29:53
SPEAKER_05: So like the next day?
29:55
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
29:55
SPEAKER_05: So is your family gonna come to see you graduate?
29:58
SPEAKER_05: Uh yes, my family is coming up.
29:59
SPEAKER_05: They're actually getting Airbnb Thursday, and then uh I'll probably stay with them and then come in and then do the practice and graduation on Friday.
30:07
SPEAKER_02: Well, that's awesome.
30:08
SPEAKER_02: So uh pre congratulations, you're not quite there yet, but you will be.
30:12
SPEAKER_02: It's all it's all done but the shouting, as they say, and and good luck.
30:16
SPEAKER_02: And welcome to the Asheville Police Department.
30:17
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
30:20
SPEAKER_02: Getting to know Fraser Fitzgibbon, did I say that right?
30:23
SPEAKER_02: Uh yes, sir, you did.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining me.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: Member of our B L E T program right now, and just about to graduate and get out there, right?
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh yes.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: We'll be sworn in on the 14th and be uh fully on the road on the 15th or 17th.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: Gotta be excited about that, right?
30:36
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we're ecstatic.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: We love the education portion, but being hands-on, getting to work with the community, it's gonna be pretty darn nice.
30:43
SPEAKER_02: Let's go back to the beginning.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: And when I say that, where were you born?
30:46
SPEAKER_01: The very beginning.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, I have a British background, a hundred percent.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: So born in the United Kingdom, two British parents.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: We came to the United States when I was five.
30:55
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in Mississippi, so I lost all accent.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: Uh that was gonna be the first thing I'm sure I would ask or anyone else is like, where is it?
31:02
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: The uh it's totally gone.
31:04
SPEAKER_01: Mother still has it, but um I got my citizenship in New Orleans when I was seventeen, right before I enlisted.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: And uh that's my origin, though.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: As it sounds very unlikely.
31:14
SPEAKER_02: The deep south, Mississippi, that'll wipe out any kind of English accent, I would imagine, right?
31:18
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be six grade it was gonna be.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, about forty-five minutes from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where I grew up.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: So you can get the whole Cajun experience, the Creole language, which uh is a dialect in itself, especially more bayou areas, but where we grew up was more coastal.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: A lot of y'alls and cornbread-fed people and teachers.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: So you know, it ruds rubs off on you really quickly.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell, Jr.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: So what brought your family to Mississippi from England?
31:49
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: My stepdad was a meteorologist in the Air Force, so we did a lot of uh base hopping, you know, spoke in Washington, um Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, and then finally the longest stint from uh for him was at Keysler Air Force Base, where I was eventually stationed at.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: I was there from about roughly sixth grade all the way through high school.
32:07
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell So born in England, but not an English citizen, an American citizen, correct?
32:11
SPEAKER_01: Fully American citizen as of 17 citizens.
32:14
SPEAKER_02: Because your dad is a member of the military, he was just stationed there then.
32:17
SPEAKER_02: Is that what I'm getting?
32:17
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Oh, that was my stepfather.
32:19
SPEAKER_01: Mother remarried.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: My um my British father, British mother.
32:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was a full-blown citizen from there till five.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: And remarried, and then uh we came over here because of that.
32:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
32:30
SPEAKER_01: So you got a little bit of everything in there.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: Very different childhood.
32:33
SPEAKER_01: A lot of base hopping and uh people meeting, a lot of good experiences as we followed him through his military career throughout the country.
32:40
SPEAKER_01: Do you find yourself uh having a craving for tea on occasion in the afternoon, an afternoon tea, or no?
32:45
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
32:45
SPEAKER_01: My mother insists on it, as well as Sunday dinners.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh a Sunday roast is what they call it.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: It's something we still do to this day.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: That's a great tradition, though.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: It is.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: It brings all the family together.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us has a busy life.
32:58
SPEAKER_01: We've got little kiddos running around, my other siblings, and I do as well.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: So it it gets everyone grounded, comes back together.
33:04
SPEAKER_01: We can do a lot of catching up that way.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: So you said grew up in Mississippi, and you also mentioned your service, so you served as well.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh yes.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: I was able to graduate early at the age of 17.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh my mom, only way she would let me join the military is if I picked the Air Force.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what I did.
33:21
SPEAKER_01: So she signed my age waiver and I was able to go.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: And uh I turned 18 on the day of our boot camp graduation.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: So it was a win-win for me.
33:30
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell, Jr.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: How long were you in the Air Force then?
33:32
SPEAKER_01: Roughly around two years active time, four years in the reserves, mainly stationed out of Keysler Air Force Base.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: I was a aerospace medical technician, so just general medic.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh so we did from hospital services to EMS, uh, you know, combat trauma care.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: My best assignment was the Hurricane Hunters being assigned there, uh, with one other sergeant being their direct line medic, making sure all the uh flight staff are qualified to go and they check all the boxes.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: So we did you know a lot of their physicals, wellness upkeep um to keep those guys operational and flying.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell But obviously didn't go career military, so uh did not go career military, no.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: The time was excellent.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: I met some wonderful people along the way.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: I just found other endeavors throughout that piqued my interest.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: So one contract was good for me.
34:20
SPEAKER_02: So what made you want to be a law enforcement officer and one in Asheville?
34:25
SPEAKER_01: First off, um Asheville with the size of the department, the opportunities available from a department standpoint.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: Um we have a massive presence, a large jurisdiction, and a very diverse community that we can interact with.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: I mean, um I live in Hendersonville, we frequent Asheville.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: Um so I'd much prefer to work uh where I associate.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: Um with Asheville, the availability to go any department I so choose, as long as I'm willing to do the work and be diligent in my professionalism and conduct and continued education, I can take my career any which way.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: So that was a big driving factor of why Asheville.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: But we'll put us on the radar in the first I mean, just in general.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: Realistically for me, I was uh doing a lot of like corporate world items, uh such as project management uh items before this.
35:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh total different culture and um chasing you know green lines on a paper is not as rewarding as doing something hands-on and engaging.
35:22
SPEAKER_01: Um I would say for the driving factor for the law enforcement portion is uh what made me take the step is I recognized uh the former Chief Lamb.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: I saw him in an advertisement.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: And I remember roughly a decade ago being at Walmart, he used to do secondary work there.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: The way he conducted himself and those very few brief interactions.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: True cops cop, professional man.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: Never elevated voice, never uh had a change in demeanor, and that was impressive.
35:51
SPEAKER_01: But as soon as I saw his picture on the advertisement, I was like, I noticed he was part of the leadership.
35:57
SPEAKER_01: I clicked apply right then and there the same evening, just uh from the impact that Ashwell PD officer had on me roughly a decade ago.
36:05
SPEAKER_02: He hired me, so I enjoyed working for him.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: He was my first boss, and everything you describe is accurate, very even keeled, great demeanor.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: Like he was a cop's cop.
36:15
SPEAKER_02: He had done everything in this department, came up through the ranks, experienced everything, as you can imagine, all the different departments.
36:23
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, he was involved in some of the scary stuff, you know, and some of the other stuff, and rose to the ranks all the way up to chief, and then of course just retired uh not that long ago in December.
36:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so now he is enjoying the good life down in South Carolina and uh and you're getting your your career just started as his finished, and that's why you started.
36:44
SPEAKER_02: So that's quite a story.
36:45
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: I just figured uh I'm gonna join a place that was impressionable on me directly.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, I didn't need any fancy buy points because they spoke for themselves.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: It was uh realistic and raw and real, and you could see it in action when they were working, and I've always been drawn to that level of professionalism, that demeanor, and uh that community policing aspect again.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: These are our peers, these are our neighbors, and they were doing the job.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: That's really anchored me in to continue this uh pursuit here.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: Cadet Soon to be officer, Frazier Fitzgibbon joins me right now, and really Soon to Be, uh, as I was talking with Yashim Kendrick, your classmate, this will this episode here will land a day before you guys graduate.
37:31
SPEAKER_02: And so it's it's this close for this episode and this close for you guys.
37:37
SPEAKER_02: How has it gone so far?
37:38
SPEAKER_02: How has it been?
37:39
SPEAKER_02: Does it met your expectations, the classwork, all the things you've learned?
37:43
SPEAKER_01: I would say overall, with this being an in-house academy, our instructors are our future supervisors, our future co-workers.
37:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh we learn both state requirement and in-house policies, practices, and how we do business.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh every story that's a teaching moment comes from a quarter mile down the road where we'll be actively working.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: The academics were challenging at times just because of the sheer volume that we have to absorb and uh digest.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: However, uh, when it comes to all the hands-on training uh directly from instructors from your department that have 20 plus years, I mean there sometimes when we're doing practical exercises, we can have 250 years of experience in the same room.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: And they're your coworkers.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: So the academy as a whole exceeded my expectations there.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: Everything was real uh in regard to the training practical based on something that has been experienced in Asheville, which just made it much more important that we take everything seriously and put our best foot forward.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: You said real.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: It gets real, real in about a week.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: When you'll be in the field doing your field training.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: You excited about that?
38:52
SPEAKER_01: I cannot wait.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: They just announced who our field training officers are.
38:56
SPEAKER_01: So I've been assigned for a senior police officer.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: I'll be assigned to Central District and North.
39:02
SPEAKER_01: We're downtown all the time now.
39:03
SPEAKER_01: It's very enjoyable.
39:05
SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited to get out there and uh see what we can do.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: Lot of challenges in downtown Asheville, and you'll be exposed to all of them.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: Yes, a lot of challenges.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh I think what a time to be engaged and involved.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: I'll be on day shift too, so I can you know interact with the business owners, tourists going through some of the local populace.
39:23
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure there'll be challenges, but um, there's a lot of upside there as well.
39:26
SPEAKER_01: Get my name and face out there a little bit, uh mesh with the fellow public, the fellow officers, and uh we cannot wait.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: I can speak for the rest of our class.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: They they are just itching to get out there and uh you know contribute, you know.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: Is your family gonna come up to see your graduation?
39:42
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell They absolutely are.
39:43
SPEAKER_01: Um my grandmother, actually from the United Kingdom, should be flying in to make the graduation, which is a big feat because she she's 78 years old, coming from the U.K.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: So um that's a big toll on her.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: So but it's a big deal that this is all happening.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: So I'm really appreciative that I have you know support from across the pond as well coming to see the big day.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: Have you decided who's gonna pin the badge on?
40:06
SPEAKER_01: I believe it's just gonna be my mother, because she is like my rock and foundation for everything across my whole life.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she kickstarted my career early by you know, by me nagging and constantly like, Come on, Mom, please let me enlist.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay, do it, be safe, be smart.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, every endeavor I've ever taken, she's been a fullbacker on.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: As long as it's you know in a good direction and she knows it'll be a good in best interest for me.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, she's always been there every step of the way.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: So she'll be the penny my badge for me.
40:35
SPEAKER_02: So we've learned a lot so far, and we may have covered the question that I always ask, which is what's one thing that most people don't know about you?
40:42
SPEAKER_02: Did you think about that at all?
40:43
SPEAKER_02: Is it something we haven't covered?
40:44
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm probably the own only southern accented uh English person you'll meet, um especially around here.
40:53
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: And uh one thing people don't know, my probably biggest regret is I was spending that time in Mississippi right beside Louisiana is that I took three years of French and I don't remember any.
41:03
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's that's that's probably my biggest regret that I've done.
41:06
SPEAKER_02: I took four years of Spanish and I actually taught it for one year in high school.
41:10
SPEAKER_02: I don't remember anything.
41:11
SPEAKER_02: Gosh.
41:12
SPEAKER_02: It's like if you don't use it, it's gone.
41:14
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
41:14
SPEAKER_02: You know, absolutely.
41:15
SPEAKER_02: So well, welcome to the Asheville Police Department.
41:18
SPEAKER_02: We are just so close to you getting your badge and getting out there in the street and and already talking and learning more about you right now.
41:24
SPEAKER_02: I know you're gonna have a great career with the Asheville Police Department.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: Is there anything you aspire to, any particular department down the road?
41:31
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
41:31
SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate that.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: Sir uh one platform item that uh interests me is definitely working in the traffic unit.
41:37
SPEAKER_01: I think they make real world impacts right away, whether it's uh you know under the influence drivers, I mean that's something you can actively help preserve and uh preserve life and just keep the general public safe in a real-time succession.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: And down the line, I would love to explore uh the criminal investigation division when I get a bit more experience under my belt.
41:57
SPEAKER_02: Well, the traffic safety unit, one of the things we're able to bring back as we expand our ranks, and you're part of a class of I believe it's eleven.
42:04
SPEAKER_02: For us now, it's nine.
42:05
SPEAKER_02: Nine, okay.
42:06
SPEAKER_02: So you got nine uh that are graduating, becoming new officers, and as we continue to grow our ranks, we bring things back, like the traffic safety unit and some other things.
42:13
SPEAKER_02: So you're part of the solution.
42:15
SPEAKER_02: And so thank you, Fraser Fitzgibbon, and congratulations.
42:19
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, sir.
42:21
SPEAKER_02: Joining me now, Captain Jonathan Brown, and if it's August and you're here, that can only mean one thing.
42:28
SPEAKER_02: Citizens Police Academy is right around the corner.
42:30
SPEAKER_02: We're getting ready for the fall edition, aren't we?
42:32
SPEAKER_06: We are.
42:32
SPEAKER_06: This will be the sixth class that we have produced since we came back online in 2024.
42:38
SPEAKER_02: So there was a few years even after 2020, that weird year of 2020.
42:43
SPEAKER_02: Now we had it before then, correct?
42:46
SPEAKER_06: So we were in session, if I've got this correctly in my mind, 2020 when COVID hit.
42:53
SPEAKER_02: That would have been the spring edition, right?
42:55
SPEAKER_02: That would have been the spring edition.
43:01
SPEAKER_06: That's right.
43:01
SPEAKER_06: And they discontinued the class and it went offline for a number of years.
43:06
SPEAKER_06: And then we brought it back in 2024.
43:08
SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
43:09
SPEAKER_02: That little gap gave you a chance to kind of look at it and say, what worked?
43:13
SPEAKER_02: Let's try something different.
43:15
SPEAKER_02: And every time there's a new class from from the fall to the spring to the fall of the spring, you guys tweak it a little bit.
43:20
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
43:20
SPEAKER_06: So what's interesting about that, Rick, is that when I was newly assigned to the unit, the Citizens Police Academy, while the program itself was not new to me, I was very familiar with the program.
43:33
SPEAKER_06: I had taught in it in years past.
43:35
SPEAKER_06: I had never produced it.
43:36
SPEAKER_06: So this was a new seat that I was sitting in.
43:39
SPEAKER_06: And it gave me an opportunity to look backwards and say, okay, how did they do it previously?
43:45
SPEAKER_06: Then also an an opportunity to refresh the program and uh roll it out in with some minor tweaks and modifications.
43:54
SPEAKER_06: And that's what we did.
43:55
SPEAKER_06: And once we started in 2024, each class we've made a few adjustments here.
44:00
SPEAKER_06: There and uh we feel like we're kind of fine-tuned and got it where we want it.
44:04
SPEAKER_02: Hitting your groove.
44:05
SPEAKER_06: Right.
44:06
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: Just about every department, every group, every branch, whatever you want to call it, is presents, right?
44:12
SPEAKER_02: And so it's ten weeks, and sometimes you'll have two different ones or even three different ones, or the canines and the we always got to follow the canines, the communication.
44:19
SPEAKER_02: You always put us the same night as the canines, and we always follow them, and it's impossible to follow the canines.
44:25
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
44:25
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
44:25
SPEAKER_06: Well, that's a tough, tough act to follow because everybody's when you couple our our uh our traditional canines with then we have core and the therapy dogs and hope.
44:37
SPEAKER_06: That is a tough act because everybody falls in love with them every time they see it.
44:40
SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
44:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're like, and they don't want to see them go and then oh geez, these guys.
44:45
SPEAKER_02: But you know what's interesting from where where I sit stand, actually, because we present uh myself and Will Shepard and Samantha Booth are a combination thereof.
44:53
SPEAKER_02: When I look into the group, there's obviously several people I don't know, but always people that I recognize, because you will see people even from the professional staff at APD that take the course.
45:04
SPEAKER_06: That's right.
45:04
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, and you will have people at the city of Asheville that take the course just to learn about the APD, and then of course you will have members of the community.
45:12
SPEAKER_02: So it is truly a diverse group, ages and sexes and positions and all those things.
45:19
SPEAKER_06: It is.
45:19
SPEAKER_06: We get participation from city staff, from APD staff, and uh usually in each class, that's anywhere from three to five seats in each class, and we love having that.
45:31
SPEAKER_06: Uh we love having that engagement.
45:33
SPEAKER_06: It uh provides a a perspective from within the city, from other city departments.
45:38
SPEAKER_06: For example, last class we had traffic engineering participate, and there were opportunities where we would talk about things that we had done, maybe on a traffic enforcement side, that our traffic engineer who was sitting in the class was able to help add some context to the subject.
45:54
SPEAKER_06: So it's really nice to have that.
45:55
SPEAKER_02: So about 30 people, give or take, right?
45:57
SPEAKER_02: Give or take, yes.
45:58
SPEAKER_02: And and we've had for the last couple almost like a waiting list.
46:01
SPEAKER_02: So you establish you're like, okay, we got 30 people, but we've already got 15 like kind of signed up.
46:06
SPEAKER_02: The open seats are getting less and less, so people need to, as the TV commercial always says, act now.
46:11
SPEAKER_06: Yes, so true.
46:12
SPEAKER_06: And great point to bring up and talk about because this being our sixth class, what that means is we have approximately 125 people that have already gone through the class.
46:24
SPEAKER_06: Thankfully, we are very appreciative and humbled by this, but thankfully, everybody seems to be very excited and energetic about their experience.
46:32
SPEAKER_06: So they want to share that.
46:33
SPEAKER_06: They want to share that with their circle.
46:35
SPEAKER_06: And uh I get emails routinely from people that I've never seen or heard of that says, hey, count me in on the next class.
46:43
SPEAKER_06: So what I've had to do over time is just create a running list of folks that have reached out and uh come this time of the year.
46:51
SPEAKER_06: We'll reach back out to them and say, Hey, you you contacted us.
46:54
SPEAKER_06: It's time, so if you want to uh participate, here's the uh link for the application.
46:59
SPEAKER_02: Captain Jonathan Brown is with me, and now is your opportunity to sign up for the fall edition of the Citizens Police Academy.
47:06
SPEAKER_02: How do they do it?
47:08
SPEAKER_06: So there's a couple of ways.
47:09
SPEAKER_06: You can go to our social medias, Facebook, Instagram, there'll be a link there.
47:13
SPEAKER_06: Also, this may be the mu the easiest way to do it is just Google Asheville Police Department, Citizens Police Academy.
47:20
SPEAKER_06: It'll pop up and you just follow the links.
47:23
SPEAKER_06: If you want to uh go to our APD website, uh we have it on a webpage there so you can find it there.
47:30
SPEAKER_06: Uh so there's three or four ways that you can find the link for the application.
47:33
SPEAKER_06: But again, I I would just Google it and uh you should have no problem.
47:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've looked at it.
47:37
SPEAKER_02: I've googled it myself, and it's just it's a short application.
47:40
SPEAKER_02: It'll just take a few minutes.
47:41
SPEAKER_02: Your basic information, of course, and then of course, why do you want to do it is a question.
47:45
SPEAKER_06: It really helps us just get to know you.
47:48
SPEAKER_06: And it helps us when we are building out our class, we really want to be intentional with uh the makeup of the class.
47:57
SPEAKER_06: So we have some professional diversity and we have uh different perspectives that that we're bringing into the classroom, and we found that that really enhances everybody's experience.
48:06
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell So if someone were to say, I hope this to be the first step in my creation of an evil empire and the downfall of Western civilization as we know it, they might not be accepted.
48:16
SPEAKER_02: Like if Skeletor, for example, if he were to, you know, something like that.
48:20
SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell I would say this.
48:21
SPEAKER_06: We we do have a bar, uh however high or low that may be at times.
48:26
SPEAKER_06: Um yeah, that we we we're definitely looking for folks that will enhance the experience for everybody.
48:31
SPEAKER_02: So I think the best part and from you've said and me talking with people in the alumni association and all that is in some cases how people are almost to a 180 from what they thought happens at the Asheville Police Department to what they learn really happens at the Asheville Police Department.
48:49
SPEAKER_02: You see those eyeballs just open.
48:51
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
48:51
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and and that doesn't mean that it's a critical mindset or adversarial position.
48:57
SPEAKER_06: What that means is folks come in thinking that they understand police work, they've watched the TV shows, they've seen it from whatever perspective they've seen it from.
49:07
SPEAKER_06: They come in and sit through ten weeks of content and presentation and they truly walk away with a different impression.
49:14
SPEAKER_02: I mean, all you've got to do is scroll our social media posts and really just pick any post because there's always the experts to be found on there, right?
49:22
SPEAKER_02: And the things that people think are happening or not happening versus the way it actually happens, things that you know, things that I know.
49:29
SPEAKER_02: It's there's just this vast chasm.
49:32
SPEAKER_02: And so we encourage everyone to do this.
49:35
SPEAKER_06: We're an open book.
49:36
SPEAKER_06: And it answers that most important question of why.
49:39
SPEAKER_06: Why did they do that?
49:40
SPEAKER_06: Why did they do it that way?
49:42
SPEAKER_06: Why did they wait to do it?
49:43
SPEAKER_06: I I think that is really the kind of the most important part of this program from an educational, informational standpoint is it gives us a chance to tell you who we are, what we're about, but why we're doing the things we're doing, kind of how it happens.
50:00
SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
50:00
SPEAKER_02: So the nuts and bolts are ten weeks.
50:03
SPEAKER_06: Ten weeks every Thursday, six to nine p.m.
50:06
SPEAKER_06: Free meal.
50:07
SPEAKER_06: Free meal if you come at five thirty.
50:08
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you gotta go there.
50:09
SPEAKER_06: We'll have a catered meal each week.
50:11
SPEAKER_06: Then we'll we'll have uh from six to nine uh presentations.
50:15
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell And what is the first week that it starts?
50:17
SPEAKER_02: If someone's looking at their schedule and saying, Oh, my September is kind of busy or something.
50:21
SPEAKER_06: September 17 will be the first week of class, and it'll go 10 consecutive, I think, to November 19, the week before Thanksgiving.
50:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it wraps up right before Thanksgiving, so don't worry your holiday weekends and everything won't be affected by it.
50:33
SPEAKER_02: It's a good little window there from September to late November.
50:36
SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell We will have one Saturday that we will be outside of the classroom at the um driving course, and we'll be doing uh simulated uh type uh scenarios with our uh instructors.
50:50
SPEAKER_06: So that week is called You Become the Officer for a Week.
50:54
SPEAKER_06: And uh what we found is most people seem to enjoy that week out of out of the ten.
51:00
SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
51:00
SPEAKER_02: That's the one that people talk about.
51:02
SPEAKER_06: That's the one that memories are made that week.
51:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, people would pay big money for that kind of experience in some like theme parks or whatever.
51:09
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
51:10
SPEAKER_02: It is absolutely free.
51:11
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
51:12
SPEAKER_02: The Asheville Police Department, Citizens Police Academy.
51:14
SPEAKER_02: So easiest way, once again, just Google Asheville Police Department, Citizens Police Academy, and make sure you look at the fall edition.
51:21
SPEAKER_02: It might bring up another one or some past one.
51:24
SPEAKER_02: But you'll see it right there.
51:25
SPEAKER_02: A quick click, a quick application.
51:27
SPEAKER_02: Do it now and make sure you're a part of the fall edition.
51:29
SPEAKER_02: Look forward to having you.
51:30
SPEAKER_02: All right, Captain Jonathan Brown, thank you, and we'll see you soon.
51:33
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Rick.
51:35
SPEAKER_02: That's it for another episode, but not just any episode, the final episode of season two with some fun changes to take place for season three.
51:44
SPEAKER_02: More on that to come.
51:45
SPEAKER_02: Thanks to my guests today, Master Police Officer Jason Gall, new officers Yashim Kendrick and Fraser Fitzgibbon, and Captain Jonathan Brown.
51:53
SPEAKER_02: And of course, thank you for listening.
51:55
SPEAKER_02: We're almost at 8,000 total downloads, and we're also seeing a lot of activity on the APD YouTube channel.
52:02
SPEAKER_02: That's right, we've got a YouTube channel now.
52:04
SPEAKER_02: Over 550 downloads there, which is awesome.
52:07
SPEAKER_02: Love it.
52:08
SPEAKER_02: If you've got a question or topic, suggestion, something we haven't done yet, call 828-250-8800 and leave a voicemail.
52:16
SPEAKER_02: That's 828-250-8800.
52:18
SPEAKER_02: Or you can email us at APD Podcastfeedback at AshevilleNC.gov.
52:25
SPEAKER_02: Listen and subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts and don't miss a single episode.
52:30
SPEAKER_02: I'm Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad.