Latest / Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement / #138- "Blinded by the Line of Duty" with CJ Lehmann & Sean Feldmann

Transcript

#138- "Blinded by the Line of Duty" with CJ Lehmann & Sean Feldmann · Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: The light force the light's not working to extra penetrate each other's a wall there's some okay, cool.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm looking.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: So uh what looks good to the look of a facial reaction is you can tell somebody's focusing on something or see somebody.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so I glanced at him.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then I fuck and glance back a little bit about how I glance back is when I get there.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back viewers, watchers, listeners, I'm your host Tomorrow, and again we are coming to you from the 2026 Texas FOP TFA joint conference here in Dallas, Texas.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: And during these moments, we come in contact with members that we have relationships with or that we haven't met but are but know their story and I'm sitting with John Wilkerson today who just finished off your legislative update yesterday, heard some uh some good reviews.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: One was bad, but it was from your colleague, and I think he was just giving you shit.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: So that's he would do that.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: He would do that.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh he's just he's just jealous because I almost won a gun yesterday.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was uh that was pretty funny.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta think sometimes we as employees drop our business cards into some of the vendors' uh bowls because they give they have giveaways, and we had John, you had already won a an armor uh rack that holds your body armor, and when they pulled your name out of the bowl last night for a firearm, you know, uh decisions were made.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: I had had a few beers and I said, hey, easy to employee.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I heard I heard you yeeted that card pretty far.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I kind of screwed you out of an AR-15.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: So that's all right, man.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's all right.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_03: What did they say?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: A good buddy fucking.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: So there you go.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's Blue Falcon Award 2026, Tyler Owen.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's all me, brother.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: I am terribly sorry.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, I wanted to have John Wilkerson here, as you as the viewer and watcher know, John has been uh championing, championing uh the I guess fight against the workers' comp situations there at the state capitol.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: And the story that we're gonna bring to you today is is one of resilience and it also involves workers' comp and uh really this a true hero.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: So today we have CJ Lehman and then uh Sean Fetterman with Wilco.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: These two gentlemen went to the academy together, and CJ suffered a catastrophic event in 2018.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and we're gonna talk about that today.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Guys, I can't thank y'all enough for stopping by and visiting with us and telling y'all's story.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Appreciate you, yeah.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, man, for sure.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: CJ, we'll kick it off with you.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: Give us kind of a background of man, how'd you get involved with law enforcement, how you uh got involved with the situation that took place in 18, and and uh where do we go from there?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I don't know.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: I was working at a place that did high compression molding of plastics, and uh um I there was a couple guys I worked with, and uh they decided that they uh Giddings PD was sending them to the academy, so I was like, well, if they're going, I might as well do it.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: So went and did that.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um Golly.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: What what year was it at?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: 2016.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: 2016.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where I met Sean and uh went through the academy together.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Funny thing is, nobody failed out.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Surprise.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's a rarity.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, what was really funny, I think they were after what a month or two, they were only like six or seven others left.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we had you know a few drop early, early on, and uh, you know, CJ and I just kind of pushed through and made the best of it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I I went to ended up uh I went to work for Faye County, and that was that same year, so that was 2016.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 2016.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: It was like August, I think August 28th is what my start date was.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so um went through that, did all that stuff.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um extremely interesting because some of the stuff you do and see you you can't make that shit up.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: My wife is a dispatcher now, and now she finally believes the stuff I told her.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so which I think is funny.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: Both me and John have a rural law enforcement background of kind of where what we did.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: And you know what's interesting, being a rural deputy in Texas, uh yeah, Wilco, right?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you're gonna be in rural areas and looking at cattle, and then two minutes after that, you're in a metro populated area.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: Fayette County's not like that, but you know, but be it but me and John Wilkinson are we're trading, we always trade war stories, but to your point, you've got to be versatile to work in rural law enforcement.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: Way different.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's different.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you're out there in what do we call God's country.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because like Faye County is oh golly, almost 10,000 square miles.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 900 and something square miles, and at night there was only two of us.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we call it north and south end, and north end was busier because that's where the I guess you call it the what do you call it, the seat of the county.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, of course, that's always where the m major population is which is what city?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: LaGrange.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, if you know, if you ever heard the story of the chicken ranch, that's LaGrange, Tech.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Is that where they have chickens?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, yes, they I bet they think.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: If you ever go through Faye County, stop at the courthouse, and you can walk through it and you can actually see pictures from the chicken hanging up.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: It is very interesting.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, so um, I mean, what what made it hard for me was always getting griped at for speeding, but yet then they gripe because oh, why'd it take you an hour to get here?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I'm driving literally from one end of the county to the other.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: So it was it was a constant back and forth.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Right, it was funny.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Or you end up ramming a cow through a fence with your hood of your car and and you gotta go wash off the cow shit.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: I understand that.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: So, rural deputy is you have to be prepared.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like you are gonna be on your own for a while.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because even around us, uh, they they're all it's all small rural, it's all rural counties.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and it it's it's different because let's just talk about use of force.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: A Dallas police officer, we're sitting in Dallas right now.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: I can promise you, within a one square mile radius right now, not just Dallas police, but there's probably at least 300 law enforcement officers in this one square mile with different agencies, right?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so your use of force container might be might change a little bit for that.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: And so when you're in a rural setting like that, you can go from zero to a hundred seconds.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: And uh that's exactly kind of what we're gonna talk about today in your situation.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: You being a deputy in 2016, starting with the sheriff's office in late August, and then moving into November, being a two-year patrol deputy in a rule.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you think you've done a lot, right?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: You got a lot of experience, and then chaos breaks off.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: Give us kind of your perspective on on what happened that day and and how that day kind of unfolded.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um well, let's no uh we give the full rundown on it.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: I had just changed out of a charger into a truck, which was the sergeant's old truck.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like um the day before was clearly weak.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like uh usually the count like the city they have uh trigger treatment on the square, and so that was shut down and everything, and then uh so they had it on the first.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I was still actually in LaGrange, and uh because my my girlfriend time, which is now my wife, we took all the kids there and they were doing that, so I actually met them there, and plus it's uh oh what do you call it?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: Not show of force, but uh community presence and yeah, community presence engagement, yeah, engagement stuff like that.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I you know I volunteered for that stuff, and we were just sitting there, and I literally just found her, and about five or ten minutes later, after finding after finding out, um, a call comes over the radio that officers need help from the Dollar General and suspect ran to the Carter Motel, and that one of the officers, I think it came over the radio as a stab, as stabbed, I think, if I remember right.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so it's like, well, shit.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: So instantly I take off all one ass back to the truck, um, get in, get over to the Carter Motel, which is I don't know if I can say this.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Every community has one.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's a five-star establishment, is that what I'm hearing?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a red roof inn.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll we'll call it that.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll we'll we'll call it that.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: So made it there, got out and everything.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the other two officers that uh one of them he had gotten stabbed, the dude had a fixed blade, but whatnot, a knife, but it was a knife.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like a like a shinker, okay, I guess you'd say.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you could pull up the court records and look at reading that stuff, you you'd laugh your ass off.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: But either way, um anyway, so we'll get the thing, okay, because he was he had a uh was an I blue warrant, but basically had a warrant for failure to register as a sex offender.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I do remember I went over there one time and knocked on that door trying to uh make contact.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I know for a fact, like the city of LaGrange went over there numerous times.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the lady that registers them, I think, for the city had one over there.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: He ended up being at the Dollar General, and that's when the other two officers made contact with him.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: He ended up uh cutting the one in the finger real bad and uh knocked the other officer over, was able to get somehow didn't get shot.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: They they, you know, of course, you know, this is the whole Weston Lethal thing, all that other crap that breaks broke out because of everything.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, uh he ended up making it back to his hotel roomslash apartment, I think is what is the best way to put it.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: So we get there, um, pretty much we kind of like cordon off that little area, whatever.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: And uh what's funny is is one of the main guys that FTO'd me, um he was over there, in course City of LaGrange.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't think any other of the other sheriff's deputies made it.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: They might have because they were they were all waiting for me to come after that.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: We were gonna meet up.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: But uh they might have been, but I think they were getting other stuff, like getting stuff together, getting ready there, and then like they might have been on the back side because I was on the side, like it's it's so hard to describe how it is because it's basically it's it's say a hotel built in the 1950s, so it's single story, and then they added on like these other rooms that have tent on the outside with a door that's probably made in the 1930s.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll just say it's it's a haven, yeah, if that makes any kind of sense of your imagination.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we're there, and then uh it's like, okay, well, what are we gonna do now?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, basically it's a barricaded subject.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like whatever.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I'm not making the call.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's uh kind of like uh not our jurisdiction kind of thing.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, you know, we'll let McGrange do it.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um I see a Lagrange officer, like I said, I'm horrible with names, but he came walking up on the sidewalk and he had keys in his hand.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, okay.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then I heard another McGrange officer asking him, like, hey, you got your vest on?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: And he said no.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so me being me, it's like, give me the keys, go somewhere else.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm the type of person I'm not gonna see somebody get freaking center punched, you know, like uh if you ain't got your shit, go away.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, it's just yeah, no, it's my it's my personality.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like I have a vest on, you don't go, just get back somewhere safe.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I grabbed the keys and uh stuck them in the door.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's all exterior, so it was weird because of the way it's shaped, but someone on the left-hand side door opens up outward and to the right.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I stuck the key in, turned it, of course.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: After listening for a little bit, left the key in, I turned the doorknob, and I actually locked the door.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: And thinking about it after the fact, it's like that was a fucking ambush.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like I freaking knew it.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like thinking about it after the fact, not realizing it at the time.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was like, well shit.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I turned the key, unlocked the door, grab the doorknob, and fling it open.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the same thing we're all taught for any kind of tactical, you let the ring breathe.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Fling the door open.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: And uh nothing, nothing, nothing, no noise, talking, don't hear, you know, no communication.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: I moved actually across, come backward, come back and cross over.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I know I had an officer to the left from LaGrange, I think I had one on the right of me, further right, and I had tied just a little bit of the door, and the one on my left said that's a wall right there, which would which would explain I couldn't see nothing.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And like even the flashlight on my gun, it just it was so bright that day that it wouldn't penetrate that.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, okay, he says there's a wall right there, so there's got to be a wall right there.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: And my partner is over here because there's an alcove that comes out and he's right there.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, I I have my gun up, and the light, of course, the light's not working to actually penetrate.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: He said there's a wall there, so I'm like, okay, cool.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm looking, so uh, like what most people do, they're looking for facial reactions.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: You can tell if somebody's focusing on something or sees somebody, and so I glance at him, and then I gl and glance back, and literally by the time I glance back is when I get hit and uh in the face with a shotgun.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I didn't know that at the time.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: I just know I got freaking hit, and uh believe it or not, it did not hurt that fucking back.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Even though I mean it's like because it literally hit me in the head, it it hit hard enough to spin me and throw me down to the ground, but it didn't hurt.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: It um if you uh if you were to take a denim pillow and just smack somebody as hard as it can and get like a glancing blow, that's what it felt like.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was freaking weird.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it was it was bird shot too.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, federal f come find out federal number nine bird shot.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it's the smallest shot you pretty much you have in a shotgun.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so my head looks like a freaking snow globe when you take an x-ray.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, there's oh golly, my wife had fun with it because there were so many that were on the surface areas, and she's sitting there.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: I have a one of my buddies a little bit before they had gave me an infidel benchmate.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Sharp as shit, and I kept that thing sharp as shit.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: But my wife thought that thing was a scalpel and she just likes cutting shit out.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, but anyway, so I got a little collection of freaking lead pellets, but uh no, it just shoots you, and then and then they then did your other officer.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: Freaking hell broke lose like it was, and the only thing that popped in my head was because I well, the way it's shaped, you'd have to um if you were to look at a satellite photo of it, because it happened on the backside, and you can see the different alcoves of what it is.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: And the only thing I'm sitting here thinking is I have Lagrange PD and SO people to the left.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: I have basically in front of where I was, uh two deputies and the Lagrange cop, and then two further left were even more.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the only thing I was going through in my head was please don't shoot me in the freaking ass.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: My ass was up in the fucking air.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, granted, it spun me around, and I I still I took my hat, I still had my my gun in my hand, and I literally had it, because I made sure I had it it basically as I was falling, I spun and I knew the way I was gonna land, so it's literally literally my arm is in between my legs, and my gun's still pointing roughly in that freaking direction.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, I I don't know, just the way of thinking.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because I didn't want to shoot because I didn't know how hard I spun, because I couldn't see it.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like literally when it hit me, it just was like instantly kind of black kind of thing.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably from just the sheer force of the impact.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then um, well, knowing where they were at, I wasn't gonna send around.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Even though I I probably could have, because I was aiming at that exact point in just reaction time.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, nope.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: But the only thing I was going through in my head was please don't shoot me in the fucking ass.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't worried about the guy shooting me in the ass.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was worried about them shooting me in the ass.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's a metal, it was a literally a uh oh what the heck do you call it?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like a 10 side, literally corrugated 10 was on the side of that build.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Was the suspect ultimately shot and killed?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: No, he got hit oh golly, was it seven or nine times?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember anymore.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was seven times.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: DPS DPS SWAT came out.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they ended up as a renal team.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because uh one of my one of my buddies, I'm like I'm a big dude.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I was probably the biggest dude, say, on like there, basically.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm built, I was built like a brick shit house.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, it's just the way I was.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: But um, it was funny because Godman's was working for fake.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: I shouldn't have said his name.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're good.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Good luck.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: They'll have to try to find his ass.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, um, he was there and um he actually tried grabbing my boot because technically I was still I think I rolled, I was able to go, I when I fell, I went more towards the right, so I was not open to the door.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: And the suspect was still shooting.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like he shot at uh a couple of the other officers, um, and that's when he got like basically he came up straight in front of the door and well, all hill broke looks.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: But he tried grabbing me by the booth and dragging me.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, all the crap we carry on our belts and everything.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Between that and we have outer carriers for our stuff, it was just digging into the ground, and I was like, I was like, dude, let go of my fucking leg.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I'll get up and get over there.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I was able to crawl up and get over there and everything.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: And um, but yeah, I think DPS SWAT showed up and I know they got the bear cat stuck.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Was there a was this kind of a scoop and go type situation where they they scooped you up and immediately took you to the ambulance?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, I went straight to the ambulance.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: I walked walked there, got in, did all that crap.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um were you airlifted or reground?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: You were flu, right?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I thought.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: I got I got lucky as shit because they had the light, like they would not have been able to airlift me because they're they're the helicopter that uh Oh, what is it?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: Is it not Starflight?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was I think it's life flight that's out there.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: One of the one of the medlife helicopters.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was one of those.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't Starflight or it might have been Starflight.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember anymore, but uh so they use like the smaller helicopters.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, I ended up having the lightest crew.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: And um from what I was told was they were literally throwing crap out of the fucking helicopter to get underweight to make sure, and uh, but I I remember them dragging me in like I can't see at all.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like I I knew I got shot in the face, I thought half my head was freaking blown off because I would breathe and it just burned all through my face because it, you know, it jacked up all my sinus cavities.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: I had pellets go through basically through my nasal channel, whatever crap.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, but uh it was um I'm trying to say, but anyway, they got me on there and I was I ain't gonna lie, I was squishing that thing like a freaking sardine because I remember having my legs tucked up just so they could get me in there because I'm like 6'4.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's my 6'4, and you're a hefty, you're a hefty man.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and yeah, but even then I weighed 280, 290.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like got to have that payload balance to make the flight.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: And not, I mean, I like when I say I was built, I I was muscular, but I was like, I don't know what that what would you call it?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: You were just a freight train, buddy.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I wasn't I wasn't friggin' fat, I was just yeah, just big corn fit.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was about to say we could call that corn fit.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, corn fit fact.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Go run our laps in the academy, man.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Once once CJ got going, you didn't want to stand in front of the good luck.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: I it's gonna take me a minute to stop.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: You know what's cool though, honestly, for you guys to be at different agencies, at what point did you get the phone call and did you start responding and and what was bracing through your mind?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: Getting that kind of news about your friend, uh, you know, me, me and JW have been on the receiving end of those phone calls of of classmates or friends that we've lost, and it's not easy.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's crazy is uh probably about a month before CJ's incident, just scrolling social media and read, you know, one of those kind of clickbait news news items that said, you know, Fayette County deputy was shot, and you know, I'm like, you know, I know CJ and a few other of our classmates work in that area, and it ended up being another state.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um Georgia.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was Georgia or Iowa or something like that.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, um that night that CJ, um, probably I'd say about two hours after him being shot, um, one of the classmates called me because they knew that I was I was living in the Austin area, and that's ultimately where where CJ went and uh just went straight down to the hospital and and coordinated, um, worked with y'all's field team, um, got CJ's mom squared away in a uh in a hotel, worked with APD, um who was kind enough to help facilitate transportation for his family to and from the the hotel back to the uh the hospital.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think you were there for about a week and a half.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Shit, it was like 10 days or something.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, about about a week and a half, and um was gracious enough to to have a supportive um agency and and we took the time and we actually got although he was discharged, he wasn't he wasn't ready to to walk.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he actually had to be transported back in an ambulance back home.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so we worked together and and got him an escort back home.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um just did a just a short little uh law enforcement procession and um stayed in touch a year a year after uh well when did when did you and Sonny get married?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh low, you're you're trying to get your buddy in trouble now.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well our anniversary's uh Monday.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we got married the following Yeah, 2019.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then in November, uh, I I used to work in West Texas and had some contacts on some deer leases.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, CJ was like, Yeah, I'm I think I'm ready.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we got him uh one of those scopes where it can Bluetooth and you can see the the scope screen, got that zeroed in, and uh a year, almost a year to the day after his him being shot, took him out and he had uh he had a deer 90 yards headshot that he he took care of through the guidance of lining up the sights uh with me and on the pump.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh it was uh pretty pretty great to be able to see him kind of you know still be able to be involved in in some ways.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was on a that was a uh custom built uh it was AR-15, it was uh 6'5 grink.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: You said AR-15, yeah, like the one that was given away last night.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, on the the like the one Elmost won.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about a true custom, like that was a nice gun.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, you people go through guns, like you go through phases, you go through pistols, ARs, blah, blah, blah.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: This one was it was all billet, CNC.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: It had my badge engraved on it.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: And like everything, it was built to my specs.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like I I built ARs for God, I don't know how many years.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so it had it has everything in it that I did, and then uh that was just freaking fun.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: When you took me on that crap, I first I mean almost got a shot at a uh if if you have ever Oh Goody.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, some Goodyeats right there.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: So John, I I want to go back to to where you talked about John.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, as far as field services are concerned, I think we in field services, all of us have been cops.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: And and it's those moments that we don't look forward to necessarily, but we always live up to the moment.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: Meaning, because we it's our time, our drilling's pumping, we want to be there for the member, and it's our way to give back.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I think you've responded to multiple ways, as as I have.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: Give us kind of the field rep perspective of when situations like that happen, you know, what happens from from a field services and TMPA side from start to finish of kind of what we do to take care of the member.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you hit the you hit you hit the nail on the head right there, it's taking care of the member.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we do, that's what we focus on.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when those calls come in, a lot of times um we're the ones that take those calls because as a field rep, you build relationships with the communities that you're in.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so you may have taken the call or you may have seen it come out on an email, um, or the field rep that's on call knows it's your area, so they they they may reach out to you.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: But man, it's it's just about taking care of the members.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so a call like that comes in.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: If it's a member that was shot, uh, you know, involved in a car crash, whatever critical incident there was, you know, first thing we want to know is is what's the status of our member?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then second thing is is what are the status of our members' buddies that are probably our members as well?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and and where can we help?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Where can we plug in and help?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's really a delicate situation on those uh because we want to be there to help.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I know a lot of times departments look at us like we're trying to get involved in areas that we don't need to be involved, and we have to really let the departments, uh, supervisors, and even some of the buddies of the officers that are involved know that, hey, look, man, we're not here to do any investigation, we're not here on anything like that.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: What we're here to do is take care of our members, and it may be something as simple as going to the hospital and checking on them, um, making sure everything's good there.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: But then it could be also more complicated, uh, where we're, you know, they may have family members that are coming in from out of town.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so we want to make sure that we've got hotels covered.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: If they have any any needs whatsoever, I don't care if it's a toothbrush that their that their spouse or that their cousin who's coming in to see them may have left at the house.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's what we're here for.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're gonna do.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and and we've done that time and time again.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and even when some of our members make the uh the ultimate sacrifice, um, you know, case in point, one of the one of the members here this evening, that's this uh, or excuse me, a widow that's here this this this evening to receive a reward.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the things that we did is we coordinated a uh an escort from the San Antonio airport all the way to Copper Scope, Texas, uh, to escort, you know, his his um five-year-old daughter.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it that that's just uh that's a snippet of what we do, man.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it it Tyler, you hit it on the head.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I told you this when you said it, it's taking care of the member.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we are focused on, that's what we're laser focused on, and that's what we do.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it could be anything, brother.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: It could.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and what's weird is that we in law enforcement we're all guilty of it.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: We we we get attend these different cops.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: Hell is probably going on this this conference, right?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_03: You're looking at what ADC, we're semi-clickish in the sense that we're gonna hang out with people we know.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and let's just be honest, cops are weird, right?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: They they stick to people they they they know and they're and they're not really outgoing, they kind of stick to little cliques.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: But in moments like that, when we know that it's a family or or a fallen officer or an injured officer, such as what happened to him, we stand up and we're gonna be there for anybody.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I just did just the other day I heard that one of our members was traveling through Arkansas and had a flat tire, and through FOP contacts, we were able to facilitate getting the tire changed, putting them in the hotel, and it's it's just going above and beyond.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's the cool thing.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: And it's really unique that you guys were classmates.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: I remember some of my classmates in Dallas that I went to, I'm East Eastfield Police Academy, but I'm certainly not close like like you guys are.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: So it's rewarding for me that serving this was you know this profession 20 years, and now on the TMPA side, it's rewarding that there's hope in our profession and in the sense of brotherhood.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: CJ, talk about how how TMPA has helped you out.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: Again, we're you know, sadly, TMPA charities could be much more uh in the sense of our members maybe donating just a little bit more, just like just with the pack, and that's a whole separate podcast on the pack.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: But they don't members don't realize how what an impact it makes until they need it.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's important to highlight just what TMPA was able to facilitate with you and how we were able to financially assist you and your family during the sit situation.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because uh I remember, oh, what was it?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, I can't remember who was there, but somebody I remember they they came in, they introduced themselves and everything, and I think they told uh my wife and my mom and stuff that they had gotten a hotel room and gave them like gift cards for like food or what I whatever they needed and stuff.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, like my like my wife, she never left.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like she she never left the the uh hotel room, the hospital, the hospital room.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I know like my mom and my family, like they'd go to the the hotel room and uh either stay there the night and come back and stuff like that.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: And um like that helped tremendously as far as all that goes.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because your vision was impacted because of the gunshot.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I could two two board meetings ago, Brian Johns, who is is the region director for the area, uh, and I think you've got the contact with Wilco.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I uh you know, I'd I'd bought uh some meta Ray Bay and glasses probably about a year or so ago, and I was kind of scrolling through the settings, and I'm like, you know, this is this is kind of some impressive stuff that could really help CJ.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I I called CJ, I said, Hey, you need to go, you need to go find some of these and and snag them.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Followed up with CJ probably you know about six to eight months later, and his wife said, Hey, do y'all ever go buy those glasses?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, No.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I said, You know what?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's Christmas time, you know, let me let me think about this.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: And just called Brian.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, we do so much when when somebody passes uh in the line of duty and makes that ultimate ultimate sacrifice, and and we also do a lot for those that are injured.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um we always say remember the following and and we do.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think a lot of times we we sometimes forget to circle back with those that were critically injured and had to medically retire.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's circling back and checking in on them.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I just told Brian, I said, hey, if if TMPA wants to kind of step up here and uh purchase these for him, I think that you know they truly will change his line.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Change his light, really, truly.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, Brian and I went down in May and got you hooked up and talked about talk about what those are doing for you now.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, I've I'll I'll go back.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like I remember you saying that because uh somebody had or I had gotten a something else that used a camera and stuff, and it was about as useful as a brick.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like it it it irritated me more than um it helped.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like just trying to like and I jacked with it for six months to a year just trying to get it to it, but it doesn't use Wi-Fi, internet, none of that stuff.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's able it's supposed to be able to read this and like, yeah, it would, but it'd skip everything I need.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: Or it'd tell me people are walking by or oh, it like it could identify faces, but it it it it was just not user-friendly at all.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: If the kids was walking in and out of the room, it'd be like, Oh, Zoe's in the room.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it was Zoe's in the room.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: And just yeah, now uh it literally collects Dustin.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, ah, well, okay.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like he told me about it, and I'm like, is it gonna be like the same shit?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like because at that point it'd be just a waste of money.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so I didn't, but then you called me and said, Hey, we uh got you uh meta glasses, I'm like, okay, wonder how interesting this is gonna be.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: And uh anyway, so he came down, set him up, and uh we went out to eat at a local restaurant, and I was just like, okay, now this shit I can do.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because it actually told me like way more information and stuff, and you know, and then uh we went out.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the coolest thing was I was like, you don't want to put this crap to the test, it's AI.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: And we went out to a gun range, and uh I just asked it what it what it sees, and it's like, oh, you're at a gun range, da-da-da-da-da.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, okay, now this shit's scary.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like how did it like I guess because it because it even described the shooting benches that were set up.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, okay, this is cool.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh y'all had left, and so I just continuously played with it.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, it's AI, it's gotta, so it's it's it's gotta have a whole bunch of information.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm like walking around my house and I'm like, oh, what do you see?
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Or describe the room to me.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it went so far in depth, like it described, oh, recessed warm lighting, and like I'm like, okay, this shit's cool.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: They tire it up right now?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I think so.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta see what it tells you what you're looking at right now.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we'll hear it.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'll hear oh, we'll hear it.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: But it's not just like describing what it sees and stuff like that.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I can ask it some of the most random stuff.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: And it knows the answer to.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't drag my wife as nuts to you.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's also impactful because when Brian was explaining, you know, the the purchase, me and my and John were in that meeting.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: He was saying that basically you there are meta of volunteers for situations that you're you're dealing with, yeah.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_03: And that they volunteer to say you're you're walking out the sidewalk, turn right, turn left.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_03: And so yeah, talk about that and and how often be my eyes and how often it's an app.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: See, that's what those other things are supposed to have.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it actually it's on the phone.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: And glitchy as heck.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, but you can do so.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Say, like the kids are horrible about keeping it, took me six years to get them to keep the soap by the front by the uh kitchen sink in the same site.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, not having to go look for it.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: But so just whatever.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: Say I'm looking in the fridge for something, I can hit the front button to be my eyes, and a a real person, a volunteer, they're like their phone will ring and they can click on it and they see through the meta and they can direct me, like, oh, I can tell them what I'm looking for.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, hey, I'm looking for the man ace.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, okay, well, uh, turn your, you know, look to the right.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay, there it is.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, go up, up, that's cool.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Literally guide me to it.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh, you know, be my eyes also has a phone app, but this allows him to be hands-free, right?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because hands-free, and then, you know, you're not sure exactly what angle you're holding the phone at.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: What am I specifically looking at?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is just truly whatever his head is actually what his eyes would be truly seeing, is what that volunteer is seeing on one side.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: So if you asked right now, I would probably say there's an extremely good-looking gentleman sitting in front of you and Tyler Owen.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's see.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's ARless.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: What a month ago, I think I was in an accident, ended up with a broken back, so I was in the hospital, and I asked him where I'm at, and the dang things knew I was in the hospital.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: Just by the I guess the stuff it's seen.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and probably GPS, I was imagining.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, a little GPS in there as well.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I mean, it it's great because, you know, he can even ask the simple things of like who won the baseball game today, and he's not having to, you know, constantly well, like the top stories, like top like top news stories.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like uh, I d I listen to the news, which drives my wife nuts, and you gotta listen to it like for four hours just to figure out what happened for two stories or something.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's like it's annoying as crap.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I want to know what the top whatever things are.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, cool, whatever.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, if you can think of it, it can look it up for you.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it'll tell you it's changed his life in another way as well, because he used to be able to text via Siri through you know, AirPods and stuff.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't send pictures.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: He couldn't send pictures.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now he can say, hey, take a picture and send it to whoever.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I get quite a few pictures from him as well.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Probably a random shit.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I do my best.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: I do my best.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Tyler, what really what really strikes me about that conversation is is you know, it like you like you pointed out, you know, you got two guys that went to the academy together, you know, they built that friendship, they built that bond, something happens, and you know, it's what we do, man, we look out for each other.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: And his buddy reaches out to a board member, board member comes to TMPA board and says, Hey, we we gotta take care of our member, right?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then and so uh you know, TMPA charities stepped up and and helped make that purchase, uh, you know, to to give CJ uh the best chance at normalcy, you know.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and man, that just speaks volumes and uh at what our charities does, man.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: I I can't say it any better.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's amazing at what like just what this technology can do.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean just with that like the between not even using the be my eyes, but just the meta itself in like what it sees, uh reading to me.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um even his mail.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: He can, you know, he can uh read read his mail now.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm a I'm a little concerned about that because all the times that I've opened up the fridge and I tell my wife I I don't see the ketchup.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, now now she may give me a pair of those glasses so I can see the ketchup, right?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: It it's crazy.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it it's amazing at least how far it's come.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so I mean I I'm free like well I I'll do it now, see if it knows where I'm at.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: Hey Meta, where am I at and describe the room?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: At 482 Hyatt Region City Hotel Drive to downtown Dallas.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have a light to you're the median area.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: If a tone you see and you want me to help describe Yeah, describe what you see.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Show a Cyber Monday's.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: Hey Meta, stop.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: I knew we were in a conference ring with lab.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you heard it, but I would have chairs around it, cables and laptops and everything.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like Wow.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I mean by like it knew it was in a conference ring.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like and it had that uh address for it, of course.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it might use the GPS or whatever on the phone, but it described the ring to me.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it like somehow it knew, okay, this gotta be a conference.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's incredible, man.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and if I heard correctly, it told you the exact hotel that you're in too.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be getting right.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he told it he was at the the specific uh Hyatt Regency and in the address and then in uh reunion area.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then whenever he asked him to describe it, um if we went into the meta app, it would actually have a picture of what it took.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then it analyzes that through AI to be able to describe what it is.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and I guarantee you, whenever they made those, that they they it wasn't designed to help handicapped this, you know, or no unfortunate or disabled people.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: I want to say it was mostly because, oh, what is it for live stream people?
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because and oh, I can take short videos like it'll let me do like I think one minute reels or something.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I think they're mainly meant for like people that do live streaming and stuff like that.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I had bought them for a music conference.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just a music festival, you know, instead of having to sit there and try and take pictures and record the the shows.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to be able to enjoy the show and just pop it, pop a video on while my sunglasses are on.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can still enjoy the show, still have that memory to take back, and you know, like I said, playing through the settings, just saw all that.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_03: That's cool.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's amazing.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_03: Well, man, we can't thank you enough for coming.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: Speaking of live streaming, we got to sit this uh I gotta go downstairs here in a minute, get my live streaming set up for our banquet tonight, which is at six o'clock.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_03: Is there anything else that you wanted to cover that you think it's important for the members or listeners or watchers out there that are gonna be tuning into this podcast?
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_03: What you want them to hear from you?
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget about the Voyers.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_03: The Warriors, yes.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, it's it's like what y'all do for the members, especially when it comes to like, because I remember like I never thought much of it.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like I signed up for it basically for the CYA.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and um I can't remember, somebody had told me about it, I think it was my FTO, and he's like, you know, you need to get something.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, like what?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Well, I got TMPA, and you know, supposedly they're they're pretty good.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if something happens, you're involved in a shooting, you get shot.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: Whatever, they help.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they send they send lawyers, they come out, they make sure everything's okay.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, cool.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I did that, you know, signed up and everything.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, like even after I got shot, like I st I think I still pay my dues too, because I remember they I remember somebody had called me and uh I might need to check on that again because I don't know, I had like on having cards get cancelled.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: I had to I can't remember.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: But either way, I still I still pay the due, even though technically I don't need the protection, but I feel that, you know, for what y'all did for me and I don't know, pass it forward type thing.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: So like why not?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's what still still ten bucks a month?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: We went up to what thirty thirty-two dollars.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thirty-two.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thirty two dollars.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably ten d you probably had um, I bet you uh payrolled it up.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was ten ten bucks a pay period back whenever we signed up ten years ago.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we we need to circle back and have a part two on this because I want to dive off into the workers' comp aspect uh of how they failed you and then and how they're continuing to fail uh honestly public servants across Texas.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, majorly.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh see, there you go, Tyler only trying to get my blood pressure going talking about workers' comp this early in the don't get me.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, I can only imagine.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_03: Well, brother, I again I I can't thank you enough for coming in here, stopping in here, and also being here, uh being present tonight for the banquet.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be a memorable one.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and it's just another example why coming to these conferences are so important.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: So, again, for all of us TMPA, we greatly appreciate it.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_03: No, thank y'all for absolutely thanks for having me.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna wrap this up here at the TMPA 2026 TMPA Texas FOP conference again in Dallas, Texas.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_03: Big shout out to all of our sponsors.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna put all their information at the bottom during the description.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_03: To you, yeah.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: Does our friend not get any rapid fire questions?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yes, I forgot about that.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: We do three rapid fire questions for our guests, and I forgot to do that this morning with our with our Wesley Co.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_03: guest.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_03: What is your favorite cop movie or line from a cop movie?
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_03: What's your favorite cop car, and what is your favorite drink of choice when you're relaxing?
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, favorite cop movie.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: The funniest one I think was the one I got to see before I got shot, which what was it, let's be cops or let's be cops.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: But I used to love um, oh, the old one had to had high tower in it.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Police Academy.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: Police Academy.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: Police Academy.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good one.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: What's your favorite cop car?
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh favorite cop car, I gotta say it has to be the charge.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: Wait, wait.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_02: Now could you fit in the charger?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, fucking bear.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: They had to take the cage out.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I will I walk in the room trying to figure out what what beanstalk you fell off of.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, in the charger.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't put the seat all the way back, even though I got long legs.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because of the stupid cages.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: So basically, my back of my seat and my patrol car went to about let's see, this is straight up to about here.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: My feet, and of course, my just so I could get enough into it.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I was pretty much like this most of the time.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm a big dude, and uh the cages suck, but uh, I don't know.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: My name's Johnny, uh what is it?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Ricky Bobby, and I like to go back and release the old charger.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: No, yeah, the new ones aren't like this.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: Those old as shit.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_02: It was the old charger.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Those signed up with shit.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: They would.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: They would but the new ones, all of them sucked.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: If it rained or it was road, not good 55 miles an hour.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, yep.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_03: What's your favorite drink of choice?
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, favorite drink of choice is I'm gonna sucker for like uh either Jack and Dr.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_02: Pepper or uh crown like Apple Crown Sprung.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good one.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good one.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_03: That is good call, J Dub.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_03: I forgot about that.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_03: Hey man, we gotta we gotta place each other up here, brother.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_03: No doubt.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, again, man, we appreciate you coming on, and uh we'll write we'll do a part two with this about workers comp.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_03: Look forward to it.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, let's do it.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: All right, again, we're at 2026 TFA Texas FOP conference in Dallas, Texas.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: You guys thank you for tuning in.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for what you do, and uh, we're gonna get back to this banquet here a little bit and continue the celebrations here at our conference.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: Take care, God bless you, and as always, man, God bless Texas.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_03: We're out.