Latest / Heroes Behind the Badge / Chris Cosgriff | Officer Down Memorial Page Founder

Transcript

Chris Cosgriff | Officer Down Memorial Page Founder · Heroes Behind the Badge

• 0:12
  Paul Boomer: Today's guest is Chris Cosgriff, Police Captain and founder
• 0:15
  of the Officer Down Memorial Page.
• 0:17
  At just 19 as a college freshman.
• 0:20
  Chris launched ODMP from his dorm room.
• 0:23
  Nearly three decades later, it's become the nation's leading digital
• 0:27
  memorial, honoring fallen officers and keeping their stories alive.
• 0:31
  In this episode, you'll hear how a single idea grew into a movement, the impact
• 0:36
  it's had on families and communities, and how Chris continues to serve on the
• 0:40
  front lines of Law Enforcement today.
• 0:42
  Here's the full story of Chris and the officer's down Memorial Page.
• 0:47
  Dennis Collins: 19-year-old Chris Cosgriff, okay, college
• 0:51
  student at James Mason Freshman.
• 0:53
  Most kids in his position would be running away from the police or avoiding
• 0:58
  the police or complaining about the police or protesting the damn police.
• 1:03
  And here's Chris, 19-year-old Chris, taking a whole different route.
• 1:07
  That really impressed me that sent a message 'cause that was so.
• 1:12
  Uh, different than what most college kids that I knew, including my own
• 1:16
  kids were doing at 19 years of age.
• 1:19
  So, might be interesting to start there at the beginning.
• 1:22
  This was back in 96, I believe.
• 1:25
  Yep.
• 1:25
  At James Mason University.
• 1:27
  Chris Cosgriff: James Madison.
• 1:28
  Dennis Collins: James Madison.
• 1:29
  Not Mason.
• 1:29
  Madison.
• 1:30
  Yeah.
• 1:30
  And I got my Madisons and Masons.
• 1:33
  Yeah.
• 1:34
  But.
• 1:35
  Uh, 1996.
• 1:37
  Tell us, tell our audience what you did that, by the way, folks is still
• 1:43
  alive and well and prospering today.
• 1:46
  Welcome to the podcast, Chris.
• 1:48
  Chris Cosgriff: Oh, great.
• 1:49
  Well, thank you.
• 1:49
  Uh, yeah, so, uh, January, 1996, I was a freshman, James
• 1:55
  Madison University in Virginia.
• 1:58
  And,
• 2:01
  I. Just finishing up, uh, a time when I was in, in high school, just, uh,
• 2:07
  getting interested in, technology, the internet back in the day that
• 2:12
  was dial up AOL and, and all that.
• 2:14
  And, um, you know, I entered school in a technology program that the, it
• 2:19
  was a brand new degree program, called Integrated Science and Technology,
• 2:24
  which sort of was like a hybrid, between computer science and business.
• 2:30
  Right?
• 2:30
  That's the best way to describe it.
• 2:31
  It's evolved since then, but at the time, that's sort of what it was.
• 2:35
  And so freshman year I started learning how to, make webpages
• 2:39
  learning HTML, and j, just the basics.
• 2:41
  And I, I was, backing it up a little bit.
• 2:45
  In high school, I had been, uh, an explorer for the Fairfax City Police
• 2:49
  Department in, in Northern Virginia.
• 2:51
  It's a small department.
• 2:52
  At the time it was.
• 2:53
  Probably 60 officers or so.
• 2:57
  And, um, you know, I told the, the explorer advisors, my only my dream in
• 3:03
  life is to become a cop and you know, I'm gonna be a cop here in Fairfax City.
• 3:09
  you know, and I, I don't know what time I'm gonna do until I'm 21, when
• 3:12
  I can't, you know, when I can go to the academy and my ex, my advisors,
• 3:18
  you know, I, you know, I don't.
• 3:21
  whatever their motive, they're like, no, don't become a cop.
• 3:23
  Go to college and learn technology and get a degree and go do, make a lot more money.
• 3:28
  Right.
• 3:28
  I'm like, I'll show them Oh, about the money, right?
• 3:31
  Like, I'll show them.
• 3:32
  Ha ha ha.
• 3:32
  And so, so fast forward back to January 96.
• 3:37
  I've learned a little bit of HTML learning how to do webpage, and this was, um, I
• 3:43
  think just a year earlier, Craig, you can correct me if I'm wrong, around 94,
• 3:48
  95 was the dedication of the memorial.
• 3:51
  Um, and when I was
• 3:52
  Craig Floyd: 1991.
• 3:53
  Chris Cosgriff: Yeah, so when I was an explorer, I had actually participated
• 3:57
  in that dedication and the walk from the capitol to the memorial, and I
• 4:00
  got one of those slides that I still have actually in my office here I
• 4:04
  have, displayed that, that flashlight from the memorial dedication.
• 4:09
  And so that, you know, as an explorer touched a little bit about, fallen
• 4:15
  officers and stuff, but it wasn't really on my mind until January of 96.
• 4:23
  And so I, I still get a little emotional talking about it, but that's
• 4:27
  sort of, you know, it's, it's made a big impact on my life ever since.
• 4:32
  And that was when, um, there was a newspaper article on the Washington
• 4:37
  Post about Terrence Johnson, who murdered, uh, officer Albert Claggett
• 4:43
  and Officer James Swart from in Prince George's County, Maryland.
• 4:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 4:47
  Um, those murders happened in 1978, but he was just being released from prison.
• 4:53
  Wow.
• 4:54
  And the, the, the Washington Post did this big expose on him, and
• 4:59
  I just didn't think it was right.
• 5:00
  And so, my connection to Law Enforcement, my connection to like,
• 5:04
  knowing that the memorial was, had just been dedicated a few years earlier,
• 5:08
  I was like, well, what can I do?
• 5:09
  I'm just a college kid.
• 5:10
  I know.
• 5:10
  HTML.
• 5:11
  There was no website for the memorial.
• 5:13
  And so I just was like, well, I can create a memorial for these
• 5:15
  officers on, on, on the internet.
• 5:18
  Right?
• 5:20
  around that same time, just within a few days of this article, Officer
• 5:25
  Lori Vaird in Philadelphia was murdered, responding to a bank robbery.
• 5:31
  She got in the Washington Post, like three sentences where
• 5:34
  Terrence Johnson gets this whole.
• 5:36
  Metro section, front page spread.
• 5:38
  And I was like, that, you know, that's, not right.
• 5:41
  So I sat down and, and she was the, the first memorial created and within
• 5:46
  a few days, uh, Brian Peney in Fort Lauderdale, Florida was murdered.
• 5:51
  He was one of the, the second or third memorial created.
• 5:54
  Dennis Collins: Remember that.
• 5:54
  Chris Cosgriff: His twin brother, just a few days after that, emails me saying,
• 5:58
  "Hey, thank you for this memorial. It really means a lot." And, um.
• 6:04
  That's when it hit me how important this was.
• 6:06
  And so from that day forward, I vowed like, I'll always be
• 6:09
  involved, I'll always do this.
• 6:11
  And it, it just sort of really caught.
• 6:13
  Caught, um, momentum after that.
• 6:16
  And it's, you know, uh, at one point I would, I would argue was the most visited
• 6:20
  Law Enforcement website in the world.
• 6:23
  Right.
• 6:23
  For a number of years.
• 6:24
  Bill Erfurth: And Chris and Chris, let's chime in and that website that
• 6:28
  you're talking about is the ODMP, the Officer Down Memorial Page.
• 6:33
  Chris Cosgriff: Yeah.
• 6:33
  Thank you Bill.
• 6:33
  Bill Erfurth: And you are the founder of the Officer Down Memorial Page
• 6:37
  of which today is one of the most prominent sites to go and, uh, research
• 6:44
  and find and honor, uh, officers that have fallen in the line of duty.
• 6:49
  And you are that man that created that.
• 6:52
  Chris Cosgriff: Yeah.
• 6:53
  Yeah.
• 6:53
  Absolutely.
• 6:53
  Right.
• 6:54
  And, and, uh, you're, you're right, it is the Officer Down Memorial Page and,
• 6:57
  you know, I refer to it and I think most people refer to it as ODMP and,
• 7:03
  You, you know, this, these days, it gets about 4 or 5 million visitors a year.
• 7:09
  you know, we, we have the, the website, the mobile app, email notifications,
• 7:15
  plus a series of events that help support the organization and some of the other
• 7:20
  initiatives that, ODMP supports as well.
• 7:23
  So, this upcoming January will be the 30 year anniversary.
• 7:29
  you know, looking back over these 30 years has, wow, been quite a, ride.
• 7:33
  Um, I, I stepped down last September as the executive director, after 29 years.
• 7:41
  And, um, I'm still on the board of directors and I'm still involved, but, the
• 7:46
  day-to-day operations, it was, like giving up a child, but I, I did step back and,
• 7:52
  Bill Erfurth: and why did you do that, Chris?
• 7:54
  Why did you do that?
• 7:55
  Chris Cosgriff: Uh, well, so.
• 7:57
  about 12 years ago or 13 years ago, I decided, you know what
• 8:02
  I'm, after I graduated college, I ended up not being a cop.
• 8:06
  I took the advisor's, uh, advice and I went into the IT field, but I maintained
• 8:10
  my work with ODMP on the side as a, essentially as a hobby, on the side.
• 8:16
  And, um, got older and older and then I was in my mid thirties and
• 8:20
  I thought, you know what, if I don't do it now, I'll never do it.
• 8:23
  So I applied at one, one department and that was not the Fairfax City
• 8:28
  Police Department, it was the Fairfax County Police Department.
• 8:32
  I got hired and at, at 35 years old, went through the academy and, that was in 2013,
• 8:41
  um, last year I was promoted to captain.
• 8:44
  And, you know, with the increased responsibility and expectations
• 8:47
  here, I just, after 29 years, can no longer balance a full-time job at
• 8:53
  work and a full-time job with ODMP.
• 8:55
  And so, you know, it was time to hand over the reins and, um.
• 8:59
  That, that's why, that's why I'm no longer the executive
• 9:02
  director, but I am still involved.
• 9:03
  Bill Erfurth: But, great.
• 9:04
  So, before, before, uh, Craig, before you jump in, I, I want to
• 9:08
  ask one more question and let, let Craig take it from here.
• 9:12
  Uh, because this kind of goes into what you just said about, uh.
• 9:16
  You applied and you got hired.
• 9:18
  What were the dynamics at that point in time?
• 9:21
  So you're 35 years old, everybody probably knows about the ODMP website.
• 9:27
  They know of you and about you.
• 9:29
  So how was that going into the job?
• 9:33
  Uh, you know, the, the interaction with, with folks there, how was
• 9:37
  that a po a, a real positive?
• 9:39
  Was it, you know, something that was.
• 9:42
  Different.
• 9:43
  Chris Cosgriff: Yeah.
• 9:44
  I mean the people in Law Enforcement, in the agencies knew, uh, you know, I would
• 9:48
  argue I was treated no differently than any other applicant and any other recruit.
• 9:52
  Um, you know, the hiring process took the same six to nine months to a year.
• 9:57
  Is anyone else applying?
• 10:00
  you know, the, the, my Academy classmates, didn't know for
• 10:04
  the first few days about it.
• 10:07
  Um, however, at at one point, uh, you know, because our
• 10:10
  academy, like most academies throughout the country, use ODMP.
• 10:15
  As a teaching tool.
• 10:17
  Right.
• 10:17
  Um, you know, so, uh, every single day in our academy class, if there was a
• 10:22
  line of duty death, one of the recruits would have to come up and write it
• 10:25
  on the board and read the memorial.
• 10:28
  And I know, you know, different academies do different things, but,
• 10:31
  it would be rare for an academy not to somehow incorporate information
• 10:37
  from ODMP into their, curriculum.
• 10:39
  Dennis Collins: Interesting.
• 10:40
  Chris Cosgriff: And so it was, it was very, very soon
• 10:42
  after we started where, um.
• 10:46
  The sergeant in charge of the academy, uh, you know, there was a line of duty death.
• 10:50
  So he asked every, you know, the, the class as a whole.
• 10:53
  Does anyone know about Officer Down Memorial Page?
• 10:56
  Uh, of course I'm the only one who raised my hand and, uh, he, um,
• 11:00
  you know, put me on the spot to, to explain what it was, and, and ex And
• 11:05
  then he asked me, he knew who I was.
• 11:08
  He asked me, you know, how do you know about it?
• 11:10
  And I had to go into that whole thing.
• 11:11
  So he was just putting me like, you know, on the spot.
• 11:13
  But, um.
• 11:15
  But again, throughout the, you know, the rest of the academy I was.
• 11:19
  The third oldest person in the, in the class of about 50 or 60 people.
• 11:24
  but, you know, I was treated no differently passed.
• 11:27
  I had to meet the same requirements as everyone else.
• 11:29
  And, um, I, I held my head high and, uh, I was honored actually in my graduation.
• 11:36
  Craig Floyd here was the, the guest speaker, which, was awesome, you know,
• 11:41
  because he and I had had a relationship for many, many years through.
• 11:44
  His work with the National Memorial and my work with ODMP and you know,
• 11:49
  we've become friends and it was, it was just, it was wonderful to see
• 11:52
  him there and have him either guest speaker, which was coincidence.
• 11:55
  I had no idea until, because they don't tell us anything about the graduation.
• 11:59
  You set that up.
• 12:00
  Dennis Collins: That was a setup right?
• 12:02
  Hey, before we go, Chris, great story here, but I'm, I'm Craig.
• 12:06
  I know you have a lot of questions, but let me just remind everybody this
• 12:10
  podcast, heroes Behind the Badge is brought to you by Citizens Behind the
• 12:15
  Badge, the leading voice of the American people in support of the men women of
• 12:21
  Law Enforcement, it's citizens behind the badge.org, or some people say.org.
• 12:27
  If you like what Chris is talking about today.
• 12:30
  If you like this podcast, will you do us a favor, hit subscribe.
• 12:35
  Hit like hit follow.
• 12:37
  Okay.
• 12:37
  That way when we release new episodes, you will be on the inside.
• 12:43
  You'll get first notice of a new episode, and we release new
• 12:47
  episodes on a regular basis.
• 12:49
  Okay?
• 12:50
  Citizens behind the badge.org.
• 12:54
  Craig Floyd, our founder, the Chairman Emeritus of the National
• 12:59
  Law Enforcement Memorial.
• 13:00
  Uh, I don't have to introduce him to you, Chris, and uh, I think
• 13:04
  Craig has got some great questions.
• 13:05
  You guys have known each other for years and I can't wait to hear the conversation.
• 13:10
  You two have Craig take it away.
• 13:12
  Craig Floyd: This is a real honor because Chris and I, uh, I have
• 13:15
  lost touch over the last few years.
• 13:17
  Uh, I've left the Memorial fund and, uh, he is busy protecting me and my family.
• 13:22
  I live in Fairfax County, Virginia.
• 13:24
  So Chris is, uh, my protector along with, I don't know what, uh, 1200 or
• 13:29
  so other officers at Fairfax County.
• 13:31
  So, um, I'm very privileged to have, uh, one of my protectors with us today.
• 13:37
  I wanna do a couple things.
• 13:38
  One, I want to go back to the incident that you, uh, alluded to that kind of
• 13:43
  inspired you to create ODMP, and that was the murder of Albert Claggett and Brian
• 13:49
  Swart , um, from Prince George's County.
• 13:52
  Uh, I don't know if we, um, uh, got into enough of the details,
• 13:56
  but I wanted our audience to know.
• 13:58
  These are two Prince George's County police officers here in Maryland,
• 14:01
  just outside of Washington, DC.
• 14:04
  It occurred in 1978, the incident where they were both murdered
• 14:08
  by Terrence Johnson at the time.
• 14:11
  He was 15 years old.
• 14:12
  He and his brother were arrested that day for rifling through, uh,
• 14:17
  the coin, machines at a laundromat, a fairly minor crime you would think.
• 14:24
  Right?
• 14:24
  They take him into the station.
• 14:27
  They fingerprint him, and as they're fingerprinting him, uh,
• 14:30
  Albert Claggett, uh, is in a struggle with Terrence Johnson.
• 14:34
  Johnson grabs his gun shoots and kills Albert Claggett.
• 14:37
  And Brian Swart, who, uh, hears the commotion and the struggle,
• 14:42
  tries to come to the rescue and he is also shot and killed.
• 14:46
  Killed by this 15-year-old, theft suspect.
• 14:51
  Uh, he goes to trial.
• 14:53
  He's, uh, convicted of manslaughter for Claggett's murder.
• 14:57
  and, um, he was, uh, not guilty by reason of insanity for murdering Brian Swart
• 15:04
  . So a lot of controversy, obviously behind that incident and the murder
• 15:09
  and the subsequent conviction.
• 15:11
  He was sentenced to 25 years in jail, but was released early
• 15:15
  in 1995 and two years later.
• 15:19
  Obviously there was a lot of controversy around his early release.
• 15:23
  The police community was in, uh, an uproar, as was the community.
• 15:27
  Uh, and two years after his release, uh, he and his brother once again, were
• 15:33
  caught robbing a bank and be as police closed in, um, Terrence the murderer,
• 15:40
  the cop killer, died by suicide.
• 15:43
  Um, so that's the story.
• 15:45
  It, it's rather, you know, very troubling of course, but this is the incident
• 15:52
  that inspired, uh, the Officer Down Memorial Page and Chris Cosgriff to
• 15:57
  do what he did as a college student.
• 15:59
  I couldn't be prouder, of anyone for doing what he did to honor our
• 16:04
  fallen heroes and Law Enforcement.
• 16:06
  And, and I should point out that, uh, over the years Chris and I
• 16:10
  have worked very closely together.
• 16:12
  Uh, me with the.
• 16:13
  Memorial Fund and Chris with ODMP.
• 16:16
  And, and we had a, I think, uh, Chris, and you can comment on this, a very
• 16:20
  collaborative type of relationship.
• 16:22
  He would visit our office often, and he would, and his volunteer leaders, uh, with
• 16:29
  ODMP would, scour the, uh, libraries and internet and anything they could find to
• 16:35
  find older deaths, line of duty deaths in Law Enforcement that had not been found.
• 16:41
  And Chris, tell, tell me about, uh, tell our audience about the work you
• 16:45
  did in finding these older deaths.
• 16:47
  Um, uh, the Memorial Fund was pretty good at it, but you, you gave, uh, quite
• 16:51
  a bit of boost to our efforts in UNC covering these older historical deaths.
• 16:56
  Chris Cosgriff: Sure.
• 16:57
  Yeah.
• 16:57
  So, history has always been interesting to me, and, and when we're talking about
• 17:02
  memorializing officers, you know, when, when we, when I started ODMP in 96, it
• 17:08
  was easy, uh, relatively easy of course to be, to learn of modern day deaths.
• 17:14
  And, you would think.
• 17:17
  These days, everything is instant.
• 17:18
  On the, on social media.
• 17:20
  Everyone knows about almost every single death in 96, that wasn't the case.
• 17:23
  So even modern day death sometimes you didn't hear about it until a year later.
• 17:29
  but I don't know, it's probably closer to 19, uh, 97, probably a year or two into my
• 17:36
  work with ODMP where we, where I started going backwards in time and, and that.
• 17:42
  initially was a result of, two things.
• 17:45
  One is that I knew that the memorial had historic, had honored historic
• 17:49
  officers and we wanted to be able to tell those stories as well.
• 17:52
  Um, but also we started as ODMP got a following.
• 17:56
  We would hear from survivors of, fallen officers from a few years ago
• 18:01
  or from, 50 years ago or something.
• 18:04
  You know, even further and saying, Hey, my grandfather was killed
• 18:07
  a line of duty or this per, this officer in my town was killed in the
• 18:10
  line, line of duty in 18 hundreds.
• 18:11
  Can you honor them as well?
• 18:13
  And so it took a little effort.
• 18:16
  my.
• 18:18
  College.
• 18:18
  One of my college roommates was a computer science major who is an
• 18:22
  absolute genius, uh, when it came to databases and coding and stuff.
• 18:27
  His, his name is Mike Schutz.
• 18:30
  that, that's important because when we incorporated ODMP as a nonprofit, he
• 18:35
  was one of our first board members also.
• 18:36
  And so, Fast forward a few years, he became my brother-in-law.
• 18:42
  um, so it, it, you know, keep it in the family I guess.
• 18:45
  But, uh, so we, we started developing, the first database
• 18:50
  and we started going back in time.
• 18:52
  And so then I had to decide, okay, well we want, you know, all these
• 18:56
  visitors are submitting these officers.
• 18:58
  I would, I had the, the master name list of fallen officers from the
• 19:02
  National Memorial, and I would see that.
• 19:05
  There were officers missing, we were getting names of officers who, the, who
• 19:08
  the National Memorial didn't know about.
• 19:09
  And to me that was perplexing.
• 19:11
  I was like, well, they must know everything right at this time.
• 19:14
  but very quickly we learned that there were,
• 19:19
  countless officers who forgotten through time.
• 19:21
  and that's not through negligence.
• 19:23
  It's not through any reason other than it, it wasn't a
• 19:25
  priority, to memorialize officers.
• 19:29
  N then that the way, the same way it is now.
• 19:33
  so I would start going to the, to my local library and get like looking at
• 19:37
  microfilm from, uh, older newspapers.
• 19:41
  And we would get it through interlibrary alone.
• 19:42
  I would get a, a microfilm from California or something through interlibrary alone
• 19:47
  and I would start researching an officer.
• 19:48
  And inevitably there might be another article about another
• 19:51
  officer in that same paper.
• 19:53
  And so.
• 19:55
  over the last 30 years, I, I've never kept track of the number of
• 19:59
  officers I've discovered, because to me, I, once I discover 'em or, you
• 20:03
  know, and honor them on the, on the website, I move on to the next one.
• 20:06
  Um, but I, I would have to estimate it's probably somewhere in the two to 3000
• 20:10
  officer range that, that I have personally discovered, killed on a line of duty.
• 20:15
  The, the earliest one.
• 20:17
  Uh, it was actually just about two years ago.
• 20:20
  I'm still doing research.
• 20:22
  He, he died in 1813 and he was a customs officer up in,
• 20:27
  Connecticut or, or Rhode Island.
• 20:29
  Um, so it's still, it's still one of those things I enjoy doing when I
• 20:32
  have the little bit of, uh, free time.
• 20:34
  I ha I do have, it's a lot easier now with all the online.
• 20:38
  Resources, so many newspapers are digitized.
• 20:41
  and, you know, so many other people are out there doing research and
• 20:44
  submitting maybe like one little clue.
• 20:46
  And, and then our team of researchers and, and myself can go out and, and
• 20:50
  really dig into it and get all of the records that are necessary to
• 20:53
  confirm it as a line of duty, death.
• 20:55
  Craig Floyd: It's amazing and Chris, I, I, I'd be interested if you feel the same
• 21:00
  way, but I, I know when we, uh, dedicated the National Law Enforcement Officers
• 21:04
  Memorial, there were 12,561 names.
• 21:08
  Today there's over 24,000 and about.
• 21:12
  I'd say half of the new edition, since we dedicated the memorial in 1991 were these
• 21:17
  older deaths that you're referring to, um, deaths that had not been discovered
• 21:22
  when we dedicated the National Memorial.
• 21:25
  In fact, that was one of our challenges that we, we started from scratch, more
• 21:29
  or less in terms of trying to identify fallen officers so we could put their
• 21:33
  names on the National Memorial, and the only source we had was the FBI.
• 21:38
  They had, uh, kept track of Law Enforcement fatalities
• 21:42
  dating back to 1961.
• 21:45
  and so we, we were on our own in terms of finding any deaths prior
• 21:49
  to 1961 and, and even deaths they had forgotten about since 1961.
• 21:55
  and you did the same thing, you and the Memorial fund.
• 21:58
  Um, we together, uh, did a lot of research and we had a lot of volunteers helping us.
• 22:03
  I know you did too, but.
• 22:05
  What a great feeling it is, uh, for me because the tragedy, the, the dark
• 22:09
  part of the story is so far removed.
• 22:12
  Uh, the family members who were deeply affected when that officer died, to find
• 22:19
  an older death, a death that occurred a hundred, 200 years ago, 50 years ago.
• 22:24
  To me that that's one of the more satisfying parts of working at the
• 22:27
  Memorial Fund, and I'd be interested how you feel, uh, at ODMP, I mean, I
• 22:32
  know you're big on the, the recently fallen officers and making sure those
• 22:36
  announcements get out quickly, but how about finding these older desks?
• 22:40
  What a great feeling that is, right?
• 22:42
  Chris Cosgriff: Yeah.
• 22:42
  I I share your, share your sentiment.
• 22:44
  Exactly.
• 22:45
  You know, one of the things for me is that.
• 22:48
  If these officers had been remembered, they would already
• 22:51
  be on the memorial, right?
• 22:53
  So the fact that they have been forgotten through time,
• 22:58
  at one point,
• 23:02
  their, towns, their cities honored them when they fell or
• 23:05
  were killed in line of duty.
• 23:07
  but especially in rural areas, there's no ongoing.
• 23:12
  Memorial for them or anything.
• 23:14
  And so, it's, great to, to pull that outta history, find the story piece
• 23:20
  together, their, their biography piece together, the events that uh, led to
• 23:24
  their death and then in a, in many cases, especially the historic ones, uh,
• 23:29
  where maybe the, the person responsible for a murder, went on the lam and
• 23:34
  wasn't arrested for a year or two.
• 23:36
  And like following that story through, through the manhunt and through the.
• 23:40
  Through potentially a court disposition and pulling all that back together and,
• 23:44
  and packaging it up into one memorial so people can read it and memor.
• 23:48
  And remember these people, you know now that they're memorialized on
• 23:52
  ODMP and their names are engraved in the National Memorial, their
• 23:55
  names are never forgotten again.
• 23:57
  They will always be available for every Law Enforcement officer for descendants
• 24:02
  who had no idea they were even related.
• 24:06
  we've reached, I've done discoveries and then reached out to people
• 24:09
  through genealogy websites who had no idea that their their ancestor was
• 24:14
  an officer killed in line of duty.
• 24:15
  Um, so it's great to make these connections to, to bring these officers
• 24:20
  essentially back to life through history and tell those stories and it is, it's
• 24:26
  like for you, I share that it's, it's extremely satisfying and, you know, I'm
• 24:30
  humbled to be able to be part of that.
• 24:34
  Craig Floyd: I wanna change a great partnership because, um, just a, a final
• 24:37
  comment that, ODMP and the, at the outset in 1996 and for many years was the only
• 24:45
  source really for recently fallen deaths.
• 24:48
  Right?
• 24:48
  The only ones, anyway, that was announcing it to the public.
• 24:51
  Somewhere where police officers could go to find out, if someone
• 24:56
  died in their profession recently and maybe they wanted to attend the
• 24:59
  funeral or at least express a, a condolance to the department involved.
• 25:04
  Uh, while the Memorial Fund was, uh, more interested in the long-term honoring
• 25:10
  of those officers, uh, we had a vetting process that was, uh, very, involved, uh,
• 25:16
  where we'd get all the details about an officer's death and then actually have
• 25:20
  a committee to review each case, make sure they met our criteria before the
• 25:24
  names would go on the National Memorial.
• 25:26
  And meanwhile, ODMP was putting out the early reports, uh,
• 25:30
  of those, uh, fatalities.
• 25:32
  So it was.
• 25:32
  A great, uh, I think partnership, uh, that lasted for many, many years.
• 25:36
  And, uh, which I, I just, before I turn things back to Bill, the criteria that
• 25:42
  you use on ODMP to put an officer on the memorial, I think our audience would be
• 25:47
  interested knowing who's eligible and, um, and how you go through that process.
• 25:53
  Chris Cosgriff: Sure.
• 25:53
  Yeah.
• 25:54
  So our, so our criteria, no surprise is, was influenced heavily by the National
• 25:59
  Memorial Criteria, a as well as the Public Safety Officer Benefits Program.
• 26:04
  So it's sort of a, an amalgamation of that.
• 26:08
  you know, we, we try to be as inclusive as possible, but at the core of it,
• 26:13
  you have to be a Law Enforcement officer with the power of arrest.
• 26:17
  Uh, with few exceptions, and those exceptions would be, probably
• 26:21
  along the lines of, corrections and detention officers who have
• 26:24
  responsibility as supervision of inmates.
• 26:27
  'cause you know, many of those, you know, those in our industry know that there's
• 26:33
  a different certification process, uh, between a fully sworn Law Enforcement
• 26:37
  officer of arrest and, and say detention or corrections officers in some areas.
• 26:43
  They have to be killed or die in the line of duty, or, you know, as a direct
• 26:47
  result of a line of duty incident.
• 26:48
  So the, the obvious ones would be, felonious attacks on them,
• 26:53
  gunshots, stabbings, physical assaults, vehicle crashes, uh,
• 26:59
  you know, other types of crashes, motorcycles, airplanes, boats, you.
• 27:06
  Accidents, right?
• 27:07
  Someone, an officer falls down a set of stairs or off of a
• 27:11
  wall or something like that.
• 27:12
  Um, and then, then you get into like the ones that are honored more recently, which
• 27:18
  would be like the heart attacks or medical related things that have a nexus to, to
• 27:23
  their work as a Law Enforcement officer.
• 27:25
  And so, and Craig, you probably remember this too, and you know, one
• 27:29
  of the things when we started honoring heart attacks and started honoring,
• 27:34
  Uh, say like strokes or aneurysms and, and things along those lines.
• 27:38
  We actually got pushback from, uh, I'll call 'em old timers in Law
• 27:43
  Enforcement where there was a stigma where if you were not shot and killed
• 27:47
  in the line of duty, it didn't matter.
• 27:49
  It wasn't a line of duty death to to certain parts of the
• 27:54
  Law Enforcement community.
• 27:55
  And so.
• 27:57
  One of the things that I established early on at ODMP is that every line of
• 28:01
  duty, death, we treat exactly the same.
• 28:04
  So whether it's a gunshot, whether it's a car crash, whether it's a heart attack,
• 28:07
  whether it's a, a drowning, we treat every single memorial the same, the, they are
• 28:14
  all formatted the same, the same type of information is on there, the same level
• 28:17
  of detail, that photographs, everything.
• 28:21
  and so we take a lot of pride in that and, and.
• 28:25
  You know, the, the development of these memorials over time, um, goes
• 28:32
  to honor that criteria and, and not really look for reasons to expand it.
• 28:38
  We, have over time, but to treat every line of duty, death as the same.
• 28:42
  And so COVID was a bit another example of a, um, big shift in.
• 28:49
  What is a line of duty death.
• 28:51
  Right.
• 28:51
  And so, uh, again, not surprisingly, and I know the National Memorial went
• 28:55
  through this too, is that when we started, started off honoring officers
• 28:59
  who died, that we could show definitively or Presump presumptively died of COVID
• 29:04
  that contracted the line of duty.
• 29:06
  Uh, we had a big pushback from that.
• 29:09
  and, um, you know, we.
• 29:11
  We stuck with it.
• 29:12
  We treated them all the same.
• 29:13
  And um, you know, I think people eventually came around and realized
• 29:17
  that this was a significant issue.
• 29:19
  I.
• 29:20
  Bill Erfurth: So I want to jump in and just talk about Chris
• 29:22
  a little bit and go way back.
• 29:24
  So, uh, when Chris and I were both significantly younger and, and we'd
• 29:29
  be there for National Police Week in Washington, DC and you and I are running
• 29:33
  around going to all the events and doing things, but, uh, you and Craig had a, a,
• 29:40
  uh kind of parallel synergy at that point, because both of you were probably some of
• 29:47
  the best known people in Law Enforcement, that weren't Law Enforcement and that
• 29:55
  was, uh, and, and, and then now you've, obviously, you've moved on and you're a
• 29:59
  police captain now and all, but, uh, one of the things I remember the most about
• 30:03
  us running around in Washington DC was, uh, your 5K run the officer down memorial.
• 30:11
  5K Run.
• 30:11
  Why don't you talk about that and how that, who did that benefit and
• 30:15
  how did that, that all come together?
• 30:17
  Chris Cosgriff: Sure.
• 30:17
  So, so it's, um, the, the, a lot of people call it the ODMP 5K, but it's actually
• 30:22
  the National Police Week 5K, uh, formally.
• 30:25
  And so, um, I will.
• 30:28
  The upfront, that was not my brainchild.
• 30:29
  We actually inherited that event from, an FBI agent who had started it.
• 30:36
  Um, and through, his own busy life was unable to keep it going,
• 30:41
  and, uh, reached out to us to see if we wanted to collaborate
• 30:44
  and, and eventually take it over.
• 30:46
  And so we actually took it over probably in year three or four of him.
• 30:51
  Uh, operating this.
• 30:52
  And, and we very quickly realized that it was around the same time where we, the
• 30:59
  ODMP was going through a transition of all volunteer to actually having a staff.
• 31:03
  And so, as part of that, of course you need funding.
• 31:07
  and so.
• 31:09
  Uh, when we took over the National Police Week 5K, we, we turned
• 31:13
  it into a sort of a hybrid.
• 31:16
  there were two benefactors, from the funds of it.
• 31:18
  It was, uh, US and it was also concerns of police survivors, uh, which is
• 31:23
  another absolutely amazing organization.
• 31:26
  And one close to my heart, and I know close to all of your hearts here.
• 31:29
  Um, and I coincidentally cops.
• 31:33
  The creation of cops was also as a result of Officer Cleggett and Officer Schwartz
• 31:38
  murder in Prince George's County as well.
• 31:40
  So, so the national police speak 5K.
• 31:44
  It's, pro coming up on 20 year anniversary of that, I would imagine.
• 31:49
  and we, you know, at the time we would take over downtown DC uh, during
• 31:53
  police week and it would start and end right at the National Memorial.
• 31:58
  Shut down the streets, it would run right by the US Capitol and it
• 32:01
  would end, start, and end again.
• 32:03
  Right.
• 32:03
  Literally at the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial, which, uh, had a a.
• 32:08
  Super significant meaning to, to everyone in attendance.
• 32:12
  can everybody, and we, it grew from when we took it over, there were just a few
• 32:16
  hundred people who ran it to, I think our, the, highest we had was right before
• 32:20
  COVID was about 3000, uh, participants from, from around the country and around
• 32:25
  the world, uh, would run that event.
• 32:27
  And so we've, we took the opportunity to create a virtual event so people
• 32:31
  in other countries could run it in conjunction with the actual event.
• 32:34
  Um, and just, uh, last year we started a. We call it the halfway to the 5K event,
• 32:40
  which is actually at the six month mark.
• 32:43
  So, and it's only half of a 5K and it's a completely virtual event.
• 32:46
  So we're trying to keep the momentum going throughout the year with this.
• 32:49
  And, and the ultimate goal, again, it's, it's, uh, it's a fundraising event for
• 32:55
  us so we can pay our staff and it's also, an event to bring awareness and
• 33:00
  allow the community and, and officers to run in memory of the fallen officers.
• 33:05
  So, Chris, how can people find out more about that?
• 33:07
  So you can go to the to the ODMP website, ODMP.org.
• 33:12
  or you can also go to the National Police Week, uh, 5K website, which
• 33:16
  is nationalpoliceweek5k.org..
• 33:19
  Bill Erfurth: So talk about the evolution of ODMP, how many staff, where you
• 33:23
  headquartered, what's going on these days?
• 33:25
  Chris Cosgriff: What's next?
• 33:28
  So, so the evolution, you know, it started in my dorm room on the eighth floor of
• 33:32
  Eagle Hall in Harrisonburg, Virginia, uh, running off of a school web server
• 33:37
  so that the very first version of it was jmu.edu/ODMP or something like that.
• 33:44
  You know, and, and today we are, you know, the headquarters is in Fairfax, Virginia.
• 33:48
  It's, it's near the, uh, our historic courthouse in the county.
• 33:52
  Um, there's a staff of six people in the office, and then we have some remote,
• 33:59
  software developers who help us as well.
• 34:03
  and so.
• 34:04
  Uh, you know, it's, it's a full-time operation and, uh,
• 34:09
  it's almost a 24 7 operation.
• 34:11
  Uh, you know, as far as the line of duty death notifications, you know,
• 34:14
  whether that happens on a weekend, a holiday at night, uh, as soon as we
• 34:17
  know about it, someone jumps on it to get that notification sent out.
• 34:21
  Dennis Collins: Wow.
• 34:22
  Chris, on that, I have a, um, I, I guess I signed up years ago when I
• 34:28
  first met you, and I don't even remember how I signed up, but all I know is.
• 34:32
  Every time there is, God forbid, another officer death on duty.
• 34:39
  Death.
• 34:40
  And also, I noticed you mentioned people who are about to get on parole.
• 34:46
  Okay.
• 34:47
  that you highlight, Hey, so and so was convicted, blah, blah, blah,
• 34:53
  and thereabout, they're a year or so away from getting out on parole.
• 34:58
  Okay.
• 34:58
  How could our listeners, our viewers get if they're not already
• 35:02
  getting the o uh, your, your, um.
• 35:05
  You know, your alerts, how can they get that and tell us a little
• 35:09
  bit more about the parole part.
• 35:11
  How did that become part of your service?
• 35:13
  Chris Cosgriff: Sure.
• 35:13
  So, so to get the alerts, uh, you go to ODMP.org, and or just Google, ODMP.
• 35:20
  It'll be the first result.
• 35:22
  And there's an option to subscribe to email notifications.
• 35:25
  Uh, you can, you can do it, uh, by creating an ODMP account, or you can
• 35:29
  just subscribe with your email address.
• 35:31
  You can also, if you Google or, uh, if you go to either the, iTunes store or
• 35:36
  Google Play Store, you can just search ODMP and download the mobile app.
• 35:40
  Um, and we do notifications through the mobile app as well.
• 35:45
  the, what was the second part of your question?
• 35:48
  Dennis Collins: the, I start seeing, I started seeing notices about people.
• 35:53
  Chris Cosgriff: Yeah.
• 35:54
  No parole for cop killer.
• 35:55
  So, so that's one of the programs,
• 35:59
  just memorializing officers wasn't enough for us.
• 36:02
  And so we wanted to make sure that justice was done also, because one of
• 36:05
  the most infuriating things, for me, I, and in fact the reason I started ODMP was
• 36:11
  because a cop killer was being released.
• 36:13
  Right?
• 36:13
  And it, and it frankly pissed me off.
• 36:15
  Um, so.
• 36:17
  One of the things that the organization did was to create a program to, uh,
• 36:23
  empower people within the community, Law Enforcement, uh, citizens alike,
• 36:29
  to be notified when a cop killer was coming up for parole and they could
• 36:32
  in turn, provide, uh, send a letter to the parole board, basically encouraging
• 36:39
  them to not, uh, grant parole to to the.
• 36:44
  Inmate.
• 36:45
  so it's been a very successful program.
• 36:48
  Um, we've had, hundreds of, over the course of the program's life, hundreds
• 36:53
  of, potential pearls coming up, and the vast majority, uh, have been denied.
• 37:00
  we have heard back feedback from.
• 37:03
  family members, uh, you know, survivors of the, the officer victims who said
• 37:07
  that the letters certainly helped and really were, you know, tipped the scale
• 37:11
  to ensure that they were kept locked
• 37:12
  Dennis Collins: up.
• 37:13
  Yeah, that's great.
• 37:14
  I mean, obviously honoring the fallen officers is, was the
• 37:17
  main mission, but I really.
• 37:19
  Enjoyed, I shouldn't say enjoyed.
• 37:21
  I guess I was happy to get those alerts that somebody is
• 37:26
  paying attention to this stuff.
• 37:27
  Yeah.
• 37:28
  You know, somebody's watching this and not just letting these guys go free.
• 37:33
  I mean, I mean, I guess probably on this call, all of us would
• 37:35
  probably like to see no parole for, uh, anybody who kills a cop.
• 37:40
  Unfortunately, that's not how.
• 37:42
  The entire United States thinks.
• 37:44
  But yeah, we keep trying and you are leading the charge, so yeah.
• 37:48
  Good for you, bill And uh, Craig, other questions for Chris?
• 37:53
  This has been very informative.
• 37:54
  I thought I knew a little bit about ODMP, but I didn't know
• 37:58
  as much as I should have done.
• 38:00
  I appreciate you coming on today.
• 38:02
  And one, one
• 38:03
  Craig Floyd: last thing I had Chris, is, even before the internet has
• 38:08
  expanded, I mean now we have ai.
• 38:10
  So you can ask questions all the time and was there a cop kill, uh, killed today?
• 38:15
  You know, whatever, and you get the answer immediately and you
• 38:18
  might even see a photoCosgriff.
• 38:19
  But you guys started doing that in 1996 forward.
• 38:24
  I'm just amazed at how your volunteer network must be massive.
• 38:28
  I mean, you must have been getting alerts from people all over the country saying,
• 38:31
  Hey, we just had a cop killed in my city today, and here's the information.
• 38:36
  I mean, how many volunteers have you relied on at ODMP over the years?
• 38:42
  Chris Cosgriff: Oh, countless.
• 38:42
  Countless.
• 38:44
  and.
• 38:46
  they've, many of them have become close friends.
• 38:48
  Many of them are people who just co you know, occasionally
• 38:52
  Will, will send something.
• 38:54
  but, or, you know, especially early on, we relied heavily on exactly what you
• 38:59
  described, which was someone in, you know, some, some little town and in the
• 39:04
  Midwest where, uh, an officer was killed in that town or the next town over and
• 39:08
  they heard about it on their local news and they, they contact us to let us know.
• 39:12
  Right.
• 39:13
  whereas.
• 39:15
  Through normal channels.
• 39:16
  Something that happened in Kansas would never make it to Virginia,
• 39:19
  uh, without the, these volunteers.
• 39:21
  And so we would get that information, we would go and, and source it.
• 39:24
  We would call agencies.
• 39:26
  We would use, you know, local news websites and or whatever we had
• 39:30
  to do to, to verify the details.
• 39:31
  Paul Boomer: More volunteers.
• 39:32
  And
• 39:32
  Chris Cosgriff: we would, you know, create the memorials.
• 39:34
  Uh, after that.
• 39:37
  Craig Floyd: That's interesting that, um, and you alluded to it earlier,
• 39:41
  that most of the time when a cop is killed in America, it, it doesn't get
• 39:45
  a lot of national attention, if at all.
• 39:48
  Uh, I know, uh, when I open up the Washington Post every morning, I, I would
• 39:52
  expect to see at least a blurb, if not a whole article about an officer who
• 39:57
  might have been killed in the line of duty at some other part of the country.
• 40:00
  But that's not really the case.
• 40:02
  As you point out, unless you have people in that part of the country,
• 40:06
  in that community where that officer died, most of us, uh, in the rest of
• 40:11
  the country aren't gonna know about it.
• 40:13
  But thanks to ODMP, we did learn about those deaths quickly.
• 40:18
  and ultimately their names did go on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
• 40:22
  so that they're remembered, forever.
• 40:25
  Um, we will never forget, uh, the Law Enforcement heroes who have given their
• 40:30
  life for this country, at the memorial at ODMP, and hopefully, as you pointed
• 40:36
  out, uh, because there are more memorials all over the country now in states and
• 40:41
  localities, um, these officers are getting their due honor and their due remembrance.
• 40:47
  So I hope that continues, but let me conclude my comments today
• 40:51
  by saying I'm very proud of you.
• 40:53
  Very.
• 40:54
  uh, it couldn't be.
• 40:56
  more pleased with the work you've done over many, many years to honor
• 41:00
  the fallen Law Enforcement heroes of our country, and I'm proud to
• 41:03
  be a partner of yours and a friend.
• 41:05
  Um, so thank you sir.
• 41:06
  And thank you for coming on our, uh, show today.
• 41:09
  This has, uh, been, I know our audience knows, you, knows ODMP,
• 41:13
  but now they know the whole story.
• 41:16
  Chris Cosgriff: Yeah.
• 41:16
  Well, I, I appreciate it and it's an honor.
• 41:18
  It's great to reconnect and with, with all of you and to, uh, be able to tell
• 41:22
  the story and I, you know, it's just, 45 minutes or an hour is not enough.
• 41:27
  It doesn't do it justice.
• 41:28
  But, you know, I'll, I'll leave with this.
• 41:30
  You know, Bill asked about um, the evolution of ODMP.
• 41:35
  Um, you know, from 96 until today, we've gone through several iterations of, uh,
• 41:39
  website design and the infrastructure.
• 41:43
  it was supposed to launch this summer, uh, where it got a little
• 41:45
  bit delayed, but hopefully within the next two weeks, Fingers crossed,
• 41:51
  uh, we'll have a completely new ODMP experience, a complete redesign.
• 41:55
  Again, that will really empower, uh, our visitors to go in depth into
• 41:59
  the stories and to find data and to do analysis into line of duty,
• 42:04
  deaths, trends, patterns, and uh, um.
• 42:08
  You know, more information about it.
• 42:09
  So keep your eyes out for that.
• 42:11
  That should hopefully, fingers crossed in the next two, two or three weeks be out.
• 42:15
  Dennis Collins: And you mentioned, uh, earlier that you
• 42:18
  are a charitable organization.
• 42:20
  I assume you're a registered 5 0 1 C3, is that Yes,
• 42:23
  Chris Cosgriff: we are.
• 42:24
  Yep.
• 42:25
  Dennis Collins: Tell the listeners, the viewers, how can they get involved?
• 42:29
  Because obviously you have a staff, you have a mission, and it needs
• 42:33
  funding, and part of that funding comes from the public, right?
• 42:36
  Chris Cosgriff: Yeah, it does.
• 42:38
  visiting our website, there's, there's ways to volunteer, there's
• 42:41
  ways to participate in our events.
• 42:44
  The National Police Week 5K.
• 42:46
  We have a, a motorcycle ride called the Officer Down Memorial Ride.
• 42:49
  Um, and you can also donate through there.
• 42:52
  It's a tax deductible donation in all 50 states.
• 42:57
  and there, there you can donate right online.
• 42:59
  Um, and then we also have the ODMP store, which is ODMP, branded
• 43:03
  merchandise to that has, you know, memorializes fallen officers and
• 43:08
  also supports the organization, through the proceeds of the sales.
• 43:12
  That's great.
• 43:14
  Dennis Collins: how can we thank you.
• 43:15
  I mean, you have created a digital monument, actually a digital
• 43:20
  monument that will forever declare that honor is not optional.
• 43:26
  forgetting.
• 43:27
  It is not acceptable and it's the core of your culture.
• 43:34
  It's the core of our culture at Citizens Behind the Badge.
• 43:37
  It's, it's so nice to talk to someone of a like mind and ob.
• 43:41
  Obviously, you and Craig have worked together for years.
• 43:45
  For the same mission, to never forget the people who have made the
• 43:49
  ultimate sacrifice for all of us.
• 43:52
  Chris, thanks for being on Heroes Behind the Badge.
• 43:55
  Uh, you've got a great story.
• 43:59
  remind them, uh, our listeners once again and our viewers,
• 44:02
  what is your website please?
• 44:04
  Chris Cosgriff: you go to ODMP.org.
• 44:06
  So stands for Officer Down Memorial Page, or, uh, search for ODMP
• 44:11
  in, iTunes or Google Play Store.
• 44:16
  Dennis Collins: Great.
• 44:17
  and great job, Chris.
• 44:19
  Yeah, thanks.
• 44:20
  Great job.
• 44:20
  Thank you, sir. I just wanna remind our viewers and our listeners,
• 44:24
  this is Heroes Behind the Badge.
• 44:26
  Today's hero was Chris Cosgriff, and you, if you didn't hear the whole
• 44:31
  podcast, go back and start over.
• 44:33
  It's a great story.
• 44:35
  It's a great story.
• 44:37
  remember this podcast, heroes Behind the Badge is brought to you
• 44:40
  by Citizens behind the badge.org.
• 44:43
  Citizens Behind the Badge is the leading voice of the American people in support
• 44:48
  of the men and women of Law Enforcement.
• 44:51
  Subscribe, follow.
• 44:55
  You'll be first in line.
• 44:57
  When the next episode comes out.
• 44:59
  Okay.
• 45:00
  Again, Chris, thanks again.
• 45:02
  We appreciate you.
• 45:03
  We appreciate your story.
• 45:05
  That'll do it for this episode of Heroes Behind the Badge.