Latest / APD Pod Squad / Season 2, Episode 15; SPO Taya Overholt, Lt. Russ Crisp, WLOS Reporter/Anchor Taylor Thompson, and SPO Dennis Pace

Transcript

Season 2, Episode 15; SPO Taya Overholt, Lt. Russ Crisp, WLOS Reporter/Anchor Taylor Thompson, and SPO Dennis Pace · APD Pod Squad

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_06: This is the APD pod squad.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_06: Coming up on this episode, did you know that April is National Car Care Month?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_06: Makes sense tough to keep it clean in the spring.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_06: But you know who does the best job at battling the pollen and the bird droppings and such?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_06: Senior police officer Taya Overholt, who won us the Perlith Award at the recent APD Awards Banquet for having the cleanest squat car inside and out.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_06: She also won a Merit Award.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_06: April is also National Pickleball Month, and nobody is as passionate about that as Lieutenant Russ Crisp.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_06: So we'll get some pickleball pointers and see how things are going in professional standards.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_06: From News13 WLOS, Taylor Thompson joins me.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_06: We'll explore the relationship between the media and law enforcement, and we'll see if she's celebrating National Hug and News Person Day, which is coming up on April 4th.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_06: And senior police officer Dennis Pace from Community Engagement.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_06: That unit is wrapping things up with the arrival of spring, including preparations for the Junior Police Academy with applications for that now open.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_06: It's all coming up on season two, episode 15 of the APD Pod Squad.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_06: Senior Police Officer Taya Overholt joins me.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_06: Go Bills.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_06: Go Bills.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_06: See, you knew it to say.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_06: And you're the one that sprung that on me just a second ago.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm like, where did that come from?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm about to say, are you from Buffalo?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_06: But it was neighbors.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_06: You got some neighbors from Buffalo?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: Joe Savistano that used to work here.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_06: The thing about people from Buffalo is you know they're from Buffalo because they're going to tell you.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_06: It's pretty obnoxious, actually.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_06: Actually.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_06: In a lovable way, we're really harmless, but we are so dedicated to our teams and even like the food in our city and everything else, because Buffalo's basically been a national punching bag for like a century.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_06: So we get a little defensive about like where we're from and our teams, but they're actually the only people that I've ever offended by calling them a Yankee.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: Because they're from the North.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: I called them a Yankee and they're like, no.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: You can't say that.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's that has colonial ties or something.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: Whoa.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_06: Jeez, I don't know about all that.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_06: That's that's getting a little deep.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_06: We we don't like the association with what people consider to be your typical Yankees, though, which are like the people on the coast, like the Philadelphia, the Boston, the New York City.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_06: All of those people are just they're different.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_06: We're almost more Midwestern in a way.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_06: Uh Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, all those cities, Detroit, and heading that way toward Chicago are really a little more laid back.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: They don't have the accent either, really.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_06: Not as much.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: Not as much.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_06: Not as much.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_06: Although my family members do.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_06: I lost mine because I spent, you know, 30 years in broadcasting.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_06: You kind of eliminate it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_06: You try and get rid of it so you can fit in anywhere.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_06: But where are you from?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: Three hours away, Alamance County, in the middle of nowhere, sort of like forty minutes away from Chapel Hill.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, no, I I lived in Fayetteville for a while.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: Snow camp?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_06: I've never been.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: There's nothing to do in there.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_06: No, but I've heard of it.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_06: I I mean when I lived that direction, uh I was there in the uh late 90s.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_06: I worked in Fayetteville from ninety six to ninety nine.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_06: Give or take.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_06: Met some good military folks there.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: I lived right next to the military base in Snow Camp.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, which branch is there?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Just I have no idea.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: I would assume infantry because there's just shooting all the time.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_06: But that's when when I was looking at apartments in Fayetteville, so I learned this when I was living there.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_06: As the fiscal year is winding down, they like go round the clock on the artillery range using everything they got, all the munitions.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_06: Because that way they get the money for the next year.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_06: So what happens then is all the apartments that are close by like develop cracks in the walls.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_06: And so all the apartment complexes have all these cracks.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_06: And I went to see them right about then.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_06: They said, Oh, don't worry, this happens every year.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_06: We come and we fix that and it'll look like new.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm like, Every year, why?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_06: And they explained.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_06: So it's they just go nuts with the artillery, and you hear it for miles and you can feel it too.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_06: That's awesome.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_06: So it is kind of awesome when you're there.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_06: And you haven't been.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_06: And I was actually able to use the uh the wind tunnel.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_06: They have like a um the skydiving wind tunnel that they have there for their Air Force.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: For their special force.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_06: It was pretty cool.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_06: It's like you pay big money to do that in some places.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_06: So what was it like growing up in tiny snow camp in Alamance County?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: Awful.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's just a bunch of slaughterhouses, and uh that's it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: We had to I had to commute to school like 40 minutes.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_06: But I used to pass by those on the way to uh Wilmington.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_06: Uh there was a bunch of the turkey ones and there's chicken.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the chicken ones.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_06: I gotta tell you, in the summer, man, they get ripe.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: Well, because every month there's a manure spreading day, so all of them have to do it on the same day.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: So for like three days a month, everything smells like poop.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_06: It's awful.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_06: It is just and of course it's summer, so your windows are sometimes down and you're like, oh, roll them up.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: Roll them up.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but your property taxes are like a dollar and a donkey, so it's fine.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_06: So what got you to leave?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_06: Going to go away to school or just just wanted to get out?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I had a I just applied everywhere and UNCA gave me a full ride, so I went there.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell So you're a graduate of UNC Ashville?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_06: Bulldogs, go Bulldogs.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_06: You know you don't seem to follow.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, I don't really do sport ball.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm their uh I'm their public address announcer for their basketball team.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, their basketball teams actually pretty good.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I've been doing that for well since they opened the new arena, since they opened Kimmel Arena, which has been what, twelve years, give or take?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: It was there when I was there.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_06: Sometime around then, yeah.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_06: So you went there for criminal justice?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: No, they didn't have criminal justice.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I just did um communications and uh language, you know, because I knew pretty much any bachelor know as long as you go to through B L E T you can apply.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_06: So did you know you wanted to be a cop, or was that just kind of one of the things you might want to do?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but then I spent a lot of time at a desk and doing internships.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, this is not for me.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: So um and then I started I saw Brooklyn 99 for the first time.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yeah.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I want to do that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_06: And it's just like that, exactly.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's pretty close.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's the close it's the closest show I've ever seen.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_06: So it has its moments, right?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_06: So were you at the APD Awards banquet a couple weeks ago?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: I had to work.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_06: I I didn't see you there, so I wasn't sure.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_06: You obviously know you won two things, right?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: The Merit Award and the Cleanest Car.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_06: The Cleanest Car Award.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_06: Which is now I'm impressed by the Merit Award.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_06: That's all fine.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_06: That means you're a great cop.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_06: Essentially, for people that don't know that, it says top 10 percent, a hundred plus arrests over the period of the year, almost 300 citations, which is like more than one a day.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_06: So when people see you come and they're like, oh, crud.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_06: Here comes overvolt.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_06: Oh man, and she's got her citation pad with it.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's mostly because it's we have a lot of activity in downtown.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: So like most of those citations came from like Aston Park, French, you know.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_06: So the superlative award for cleanest car inside and out.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_06: Congratulations.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: I was hoping to win that one.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_06: So I I I made a joke and nobody laughed at the uh at the event because I was I'm seeing it, right?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_06: I said, hopefully you can give my wife some tips.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_06: And I heard a few groans, and I'm like, I'm just kidding, people.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's just probably because cops keep their cars filthy.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_06: She says, I've heard that.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_06: So but there's no like Cheeto dust on your steering wheel and nothing like that.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: No, I got crippling OCD.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_06: So So inside and out.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I have a car vacuum that I keep, a tiny vacuum.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I vacuum it every day, wipe everything with sanitizing every day, and I take it through the car wash every day, every shift.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's like my coffee.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's how I like to start the day.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_06: Have you ever hand waxed it?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_06: That's next level.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: That is next level.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: No, no.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's not my personal car.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_06: So how does your personal car look?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: The same.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_06: No, do you hand wax that?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: I do.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like once once a year, whatever.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: If it's a 2016 Buick Encore, it's paid off.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: I want to not have to have another car payment.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm just I keep it really, really nice.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: I don't like all the doodads in the new cars.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: So the only way I'm gonna be able to have a pristine 2016 car is if I keep this like it.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_06: So you and I are gonna get along just fine.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_06: Because once I pay off a car, I will run that thing into the ground.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm dying with it, yeah.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's like as long as this thing goes and I can keep fixing it at a reasonable cost.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: Well, my husband used to be a mechanic, so he knows.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it's an American car.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: So and I've kept it perfect and oil changes and everything.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: So like I should be able to die with it.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell Honestly, he'll tell you this, I'm sure.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_06: It's hard to work on the new cars.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_06: There's so many computers in there, you can barely do an oil change.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and like the Fords, like I love my cop car, but like me and my sergeant and one other person have had the same glitch where like the windows just won't roll down.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: You have to turn your radio Bluetooth off to like fix it.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's too seriously?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's just way too complicated with the computer and how much power it has.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_06: Well, at least you found a workaround.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I found the workaround.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: You have to turn off the Bluetooth, turn off your car for five minutes, turn it back on, and then your windows will work.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_06: Holy cow.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_06: So my dad actually he resisted buying a new car for the longest time because he wanted the hand crank windows.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_06: He was an old gearhead type.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_06: I like those.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, so my family car, you and probably your husband will uh like this.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_06: Our family car back in the 70s was a 1967 Chevelle Supersport.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_07: Ooh.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_06: We're talking two-door, like jacked up, fat tires, Hearst Shifter, like the whole he used to go and drag it like on the weekends out at Lancaster Speedway.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: Does he still have it?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_06: That was his biggest regret, is that he he turned that in.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: He don't see Chevelles anymore.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_06: Well, he needed to get a family car.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you know, because now he had two kids.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: He don't have kids.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_06: What what he what he should have done is he said I didn't need to turn it in, though.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_06: He goes, I because they didn't give me much as far as a trade-in for it, which is hard to believe, but they didn't.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_06: So he should have just kept it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_06: You know, just get the new car, sure, for the kids, but should have kept it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't worth a 3K.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_06: Oh my gosh.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_06: It was ridiculous.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_06: So he he told me about all of his cars and he's seen he showed me pictures of them.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_06: One point he had a 57 Chevy with a 56 Corvette engine in it.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_06: And it he said it was the fastest car anywhere.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_06: He would go and he would race it.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_06: So my mom raced it one time.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_06: She borrowed his car.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_06: He went to work, he worked at the factory.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_06: They weren't married yet.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_06: Like out of stoplight or no, they they just used there used to be this drag strip that was an old airport, and kids would go and drag there, and people didn't mind.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_06: They let him John Wick.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, this was like yeah, it's like 60s and 70s.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_06: I mean it wasn't a big deal for kids to do that.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_06: It's what they did.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_06: So mom blew the engine, right?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_06: In that car.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: Because it was a manual?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, I would guess, but it wasn't apparently the oil, there's an oil leak, and so somehow blew the engine.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_06: But dad's first question was, did you win the race?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: Did she?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_06: She did.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's hot.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_06: So mom retired one-o.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, nice.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_06: He goes, You can't race my car ever again.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_06: But I'm glad you won.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it was worth something then, at least.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_06: It was.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, Bragg and Wright.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_06: So he's fastest car in the what they called the Twin Cities.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_06: So I grew up in a town called North Tanawanda, which is just north of Buffalo.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_06: Isn't the Twin Cities in like I'm sure there's twin cities everywhere, but that particular one is North Tanawanda, Tanawanda.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_06: And we were divided by the Erie Canal.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_06: So they grew up in Tanawanda, like where they went to high school, moved to North Tanawanda.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_06: So that was the twin cities.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_06: So he always said fastest car in the twin cities.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_06: He was pretty proud of that, too.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_06: So how long have you been with the Asheville Police Department?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Coming up six years now.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_06: So your B L E T class would have been what 2019, 2020?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh 20.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_06: That's kind of a rough year to begin your career in law enforcement.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_06: 2020 was that was a year.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: That was bad.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I lived downtown and the riots were still going on, so we had to like board up our windows and stuff.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: You could smell the tear gas still.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_06: A little bit of everything that year, I mean that year was just wild on so many levels.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_06: I lived in Charleston uh at that point, and I had been running a brewery, uh, Palmetto Brewing in Charleston is where I lived and worked, and I was on furlough.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_06: But you know, getting unemployment, and then of course the extra unemployment, and living in Charleston.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_06: So I hate to say this to people because people actually, you know, they died during COVID and all of it.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_07: I loved COVID.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_06: But I see I lived at the beach.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_06: I had all the time in the world, and nobody was like moving around and traveling, so it was like the only time down there that the roads were empty.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was nice.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_06: And so I lived in James Island, which was nice.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_06: Hop, skip, and a jump from Folly Beach.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_06: And so I used to ride my bike down Folly Road, which you would never do on a normal day because you will die.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_06: It is a road that is just vicious and packed, and but it was wide open.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_06: So I would just get in my bike and ride my bike to Folly Beach, which they had blocked off for COVID.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_06: It was blocked at the bridge that crosses it.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_06: You were not allowed to drive there.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_06: But if you had a bike or if you were local, you could walk onto it.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_06: And so we had the beach all to ourselves, and we'd go out to the lighthouse and all these things.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_06: So that summer of COVID, man, I I enjoyed myself.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, like I just graduated college and I was a bartender still.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: But it let me stop, you know, the restaurant was closed, was on unemployment, and then I was like, oh, this is a great time to apply for APD.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: And we live downtown, me and my husband, um, and he just bought us electric scooters when they were like sort of new or whatever.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_03: So we were able to just go all through downtown and like the parking garages and whatever just on the streets because nobody was out.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_06: Because no one was out.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_06: Where were your barked internet?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: The Blackbird by the aloft.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: And like um waitressing.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_06: Very nice.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_06: Never I've never been to it, but walked by it a ton of times and stuff.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_06: I I know exactly where it is.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_06: Do you like it there?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: The owner's really great.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: He now owns um uh well the chef bought it and now he owns that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: Shiloh Gaines, the new place, the crowbar, and the deli on College Street.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_06: So that gives you something if you ever want to go back and make a couple extra bucks in the side, you got some bartending experience?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: I would never go, I would never go back to uh service industry.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: No, yeah.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: No, I liked it at the time, but I'm not going back.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_06: A similarity between your job now and then is dealing with people.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_06: What's that like dealing with so many different people every day?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_06: All these different people, all these different personalities.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_06: How quickly can you identify kind of who they are and what they're about?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: Really quickly.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: I would say most people actually like when you deal with so many people, you realize that a lot of people are the same.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so it's actually, I don't know, it's really fun and intriguing for me when I like talk or meet someone that sort of goes away from the the norm, you know what I mean?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: Or you know, or they're just odd or quirky or something.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: I like it, but I like talking to all the different people.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell How is community sentiment right now?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_06: What kind of vibe are you getting from the community as opposed to maybe three, four, five years ago what they felt about APD officers?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_06: Has it changed?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: I think so.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for sure.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: Like when I first started, you know, people wouldn't like people would call us to trespass somebody like a vagrant that's sleeping on their patio or something, but like in the notes it would be like, only call me, don't want to be seen talking to you, you know, just like come here and do the job.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like people wouldn't even want to be seen like talking to us.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: But now I can tell that like the business owners and stuff have been a lot more empathetic and people have come up and just been a lot more open to talking and seeing us as like people.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: I mean the job's really hard anyway.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_06: It's a hard job to begin with.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_06: And then when people don't appreciate it and you go home every day and you're like, why am I doing this?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Powell Well, even back then it's like it was sort of in vogue to hate the police.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: Like my sister, she's on uh Asheville Tinder, which is brutal.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: Or hinge, she would hate it if I said Tinder, but it's it's hard for her to find people because she's in sort of like an a more alternative crowd, but like it was hard for her to find a match for like a while.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: She still hasn't, but like because people in their um profile description, it would be like Aquarius love to go out like dogs, A cab.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like it would just be vogue to hate police, even if people don't really feel that way.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: So it just sort of made it tough to go about your daily life.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_06: Senior police officer Taya Overholt joins me.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_06: Switching gears, the question we ask everyone what's one thing that most people don't know about you?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: All my close friends know this, but um my dad is a doomsday prepper, or he likes to say survivalist prepper.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I grew up off the grid because my mom is also um she used to be like a uh extremist, vegan animal activist, um you know, like the type that dresses up and like goes breaks into a slaughterhouse and like lets out steals the cows and stuff.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: And um she wanted land in the middle of nowhere sh where she could legally have all these animals.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um and eventually like 300 cats.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: So my mom has currently like over 200 cats.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_05: Yikes.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: And my dad is still a doomsday proper.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: They still live in that land, but when I moved to college, he got on the grid and got like a flushing toilet and electricity, so that was really nice.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell So a lot of beef jerky around the house, canned goods, things like that, all the I'm vegan, so well like my mom raised us vegan.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: So I've oh I've never eaten meat.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_03: I've never tried meat.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell Holy cow.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_06: Never even tried it?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: My mom raised me vegan for like moral reasons.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um I've tried cheese.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not a fan.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_06: Um be some cheese, I'm sorry.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: If you go your whole life without it, it tastes really weird.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_06: Like, no, I imagine it would.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_06: Your your taste buds and your likes and whatever are gonna be formed early.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_06: So it's kind of you know, if you don't have something in your formative years, I would guess it would whatever that is.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_06: It could be the most delicious thing in the world, but to you it's gonna taste.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's pretty messed up.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like if you grow up on PETA videos and everything, and like you don't have friends over because you live in the middle of nowhere on like a compound with compost toilets, like you don't really I didn't have many friends until I was like 13, 14.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um It's like really weird, like seeing the meat from an outside perspective when like that's what you've grown up on and you never were taught to eat it.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, she really clockworked orange me.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I ate a Milky Way once when I was a kid, and she was like, you just murdered a cow, you know, and I I threw it up.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's really intense.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I've I've I didn't eat it for the longest time because of moral reasons, and now it's just like it's gross to me, you know.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: But also I'm violently allergic to like eggs and milk.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_06: Your body probably wouldn't be able to process a lot of that stuff if you've never had it.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_06: So you're just full out all vegans then, or I'll eat like a heath bar and Cheetos sometimes.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_06: I won't tell anyone.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's really good.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_06: Cheetos, especially.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_06: I'm a big fan of the Cheetos.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the puffs.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_06: Don't do it before you get in your squad car, though, because the behind your fingers and the whole thing.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_06: What is your favorite dish then?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_06: What is your favorite vegan dish?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: I really like Asian food.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_06: Well, you got a lot of options there.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_06: They use a lot of vegetables, a lot of noodles, a lot of things you can do.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: They they invented tofu.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean it's all yeah.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: So probably like um tofu basil stir fry or like pad thai.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: I eat it.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_06: I love some pad thai, make no mistake.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's suana thai orchid.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_06: I'll get it with chicken usually.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_06: But I mean, but I still love the flavor of it.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_06: Uh there's a place uh right by my house in Sardis Road.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_06: I think it's called Pad Thai.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_06: Or something right by the outlets, right by the Tanger Outlets.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_06: It's on Sardis Road there.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_06: It's delicious if you're looking for a new Thai place.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I didn't know that existed.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: I thought I did all the places Nashville.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_06: Well, it it's uh so it used to be like a house, it looks like a house.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_06: And so the front porch is kind of dining and everything else, and it's it's literally a hundred yards from the intersection.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_07: Oh, awesome.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_06: So right there off Brevard Road, Sardis, right there by Tanger Outlets.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_06: So next time you're on that side of town, by all means, if you're looking for a new place, there you go.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_06: So that must have been an interesting childhood then.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_06: If I mean, were the kids other kids like shunning you or you just didn't see them?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_06: Were you homeschooled or no?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: We we commuted, but because that I was always always late to school, and my mom would always pick us up in like a a Subaru, like with a goat in the back, like 90% of the time.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't mean to laugh.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_03: No, I know.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: No, she was constantly like moving farm animals around and stuff, and she was a landscaper, so it was always like trees coming out of the car.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: She was a cat hoarder.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_03: So um 200?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_06: They got 200 cats?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_06: Are they mostly outdoors?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_06: They're like kind of no.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_06: No?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: So when I was a kid, she had like um cows, donkeys.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: She had a rap like a hundred rabbits and a thing, but she lived in a trailer in the middle of nowhere.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: So after you get like, you know, and then she like started getting rid of the other animals and really latched on to like cats.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: There's cat hoarding runs in my family.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Powell Okay.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_06: I've considered my wife to be that at times, but most of her head is nine.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_06: So I I thought I thought that was a lot.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_06: That is a lot.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_06: It it yeah.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_06: Uh when I met her, she had nine.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_06: And so she's hot.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_06: So I kind of, you know, I'm obviously.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: Was it a big house at least?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, it was.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_06: And they actually had the cats separated when I met her.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_06: There was a there's two stories and there was a door that actually went to the upstairs.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: So that's nice.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_06: There were four that were upstairs, five that were downstairs.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_06: And they almost kind of all self-separated.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_06: They like had their own room, you know?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_06: A lot of small bedrooms in this particular house, so they all kind of had their so you never really saw all nine at once.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: My rule is no more cats than there are bedrooms in the house.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's a good rule.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: I have three cats.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: I have three bedrooms.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_06: We've got we've got two right now, but we also have a herd of deer that come through every day and we see them.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_06: And we've behind our house we have uh groundhogs that we have named all.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_06: Uh so we've got uh Chunky, Chunkster, Sir Chunkalot, and Parliament Chunkadelic is my favorite.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_06: Uh so we they're all fat, of course.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_07: I love groundhogs.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_06: And so well, usually they're gonna cause harm to a house when they're that close, like trying to get underneath your house.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: Ours never do.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_06: So you can see right from my back door, they have this like complex that goes into this hill that's right behind my house.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_06: So it's a huge opening.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_06: So they must have a whole condo system in there.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_06: So you can see them coming and going.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_06: I should really I just, by the way, I just saw them this week come out for the hibernation for the first time.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_06: So I took a picture, I was sitting outside, and my wife's like, honey, they're they're out, they're ready, like, so yeah, so groundhogs are awesome.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_06: So we got the groundhogs, we've got a fox that runs through the neighborhood.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_06: Uh we have a bear that helped himself to our jack-o'-lantern pumpkin on my front porch uh this past.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_06: I opened the door and there he was.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: Was it post Halloween?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_06: I hadn't thrown it away at that point, and I'm like, okay, all yours.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_06: I had taken the candle out, so it was completely organic.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_06: It was good for he ate the whole thing except the stub.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_07: Nice.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_06: So thank you.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_06: And then he moved along.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_06: And and he actually leaves our garbage cans alone.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_06: So I don't know.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_07: That sounds like a good bit.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_06: I I'm gonna keep them.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I do appreciate you coming by.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_06: Senior police officer Taya Overholt.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_06: Congratulations on the awards at the recent banquet, including the cleanest car award.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_06: You'll have to defend that next year.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm if it's still there, no one's gonna take it.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_06: Hand wax.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_06: Gotta get the hand wax.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_06: Take it to the next level.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_06: Thanks for joining me.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_06: Getting to know Lieutenant Russ Crisp, thanks for joining me, Russ.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_06: Glad to be here.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_06: I got to know you pretty early on in the game because you were in patrol.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, I was.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_04: I was the executive officer over the patrol division.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and so I had to come to you constantly.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_06: We had we had a lot of conversations.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_06: We sure did.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_06: Like so I got to know you uh as much as anyone like on the front end, like you and Captain Silberman, heading detectives, right?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_06: So those are the two departments that I've always got to go to for answers.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's correct.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_06: So we get to know each other quite a bit.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_06: But now your current role uh in IA safe to say that's not the most desirable position in the Asheville Police Department, but it's just one of those things somebody's got to do it.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: It is, yeah.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's necessary.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's uh it's a job that a lot of people don't want to do, but uh definitely necessary.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_04: I think people appreciate the fact that we do have the professional standard section um because people do appreciate accountability, and so I I take my job seriously and and will work my hardest wherever I'm assigned.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_06: Now there's some rules that go with that, though, right?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_06: Like you nobody does that for too long.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_06: It doesn't it rotate?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Powell Historically it has.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think there's anything that's that's written down, but I spent some time in there as a investigator, as a sergeant, and stayed in there for about five years and rotated out, which was nice.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_04: Five years was was enough for me at that time.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: And uh getting reassigned back there as the lieutenant over over the section has been uh it's a different experience uh being the lieutenant instead of a sergeant.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um but it's also some of the same work.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_04: So I sort of knew what I was doing coming back in.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell The stressors are different than being a different type of officer here, right?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_06: I mean it just because of what you're investigating and what you're dealing with.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Powell Absolutely.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the administrative and internal investigations, it's uh a different kind of stress.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: Instead of like being on patrol or in criminal investigations, you're looking at, you know, members of the public who are, you know, the players in in all the investigations you're doing a lot of times in professional standards, it involves employees that work here.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_04: So people that you know, people that you've worked with, worked for, or have worked for you.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell Do you think people look at you differently when you're doing this job, like, oh, here comes Lieutenant Chris?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_06: It's like don't say anything.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean that's you know, that's sort of the the stereotype and the things that you see in TV and movies about internal affairs and and professional standards.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um I feel like we have a really good group here uh in professional standards now.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um so I don't think it's exactly that way, but it's also I had to learn when I was in professional standards the first time that whenever I would call people, I would have to let them know on the front end if it was not a professional standards related phone call, like, hey, this this isn't a work thing.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_04: This is totally a a social call because they're they would be on edge and it would take me sometimes a few minutes into the conversation.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_04: I'd be like, What's wrong?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_04: They're like, we just like cut to the chase.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me, tell me why you're calling.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, Well, I was just do you want to go play golf?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_06: Just trying to get tea time, and I'm just gonna let's talk about that stuff.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_06: So I know you live in Haywood County.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_06: I do.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_06: Are you from Haywood County?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_04: No, I am not.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_04: So I was born in Wake County.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh my dad worked for the DOT, so we moved around some.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um when I was uh still a small child, we moved to Swain County, lived in Bryson City, stayed there until I was going into the fifth grade, then we moved to Bunkham County to Weaverville, and that's where I I grew up uh from fifth grade through graduating at North Bunkham.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: And then I moved to Haywood County in 2006, whenever uh I got married.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_06: So are you a uh Pisgah Bear or a uh Tuscola Mountaineer?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely a Pisgah Bear.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, sir.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_06: That is boy, I tell you, that is a dividing line there, isn't it?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_04: It is, yeah.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: There's there's no question.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_04: You know you're either one or the other.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_06: So that's a great football game, though, when they play.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_06: And it it was a shame, of course, when the one stadium got damaged.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_06: And but the whole community came together when that happened.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_06: It goes to show you the rivalry is just the rivalry for its sake.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_06: It's people don't genuinely dislike each other.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_06: It's just kind of there to root against each other sometimes in a fun way.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_06: But the entire community rallied for the team and the stadium and all of that.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: And it it does.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: The Haywood County never disappoints whenever things happen or you know, the football game happens between Tuscola and Pisgah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's great to see.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_04: The the atmosphere is so electric.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_04: It brings a lot of attention to to the area and also to the athletes that are out there, the student athletes that are out there performing and and and doing a great job.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, a lot of them go on to you know to play college sports and things like that, and the support that those athletes get from the community as a whole is is great to see.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_06: Haywood County got a little bit of a double whammy from Mother Nature.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_06: They've had multiple storms that have caused major damage.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_06: Everyone around here knows about Helene and had to deal with Helene.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_06: Nobody came out unscathed there.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_06: But a year previous, Haywood County had a major hurricane damage there, and the Pigeon River flooded, and we had what seven or eight people, I believe, passed away died.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so that was um was it Fred?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: Fred.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: I think it was Fred.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_04: That's what it was.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, so that that happened.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, Buncombe County wasn't very severely impacted by that storm like Haywood County was.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_04: So whenever Helene hit, obviously in and around western North Carolina, all the pictures of the damage and everything.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_04: But in downtown Kenton, which I live very close to downtown, I can walk to Main Street from my house.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: The results in the downtown area itself were very similar to what we had seen the year before, as far as how high the water got, which businesses had unfortunately been flooded again.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_04: And you could see the businesses starting to prepare when Helene was on its way, the ones that had been flooded, they started moving their stuff out because they they knew, like, hey, if it's going to be like last year, then then we know what we need to do.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_06: I've always thought that downtown Canton had so much potential.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_06: It's like a hidden gem.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_06: If you just look at it like, you know, from a bird's eye view and you look down at it, you're like, man, that could be something.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_06: You know, there's there's still some businesses that don't operate there.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_06: There's some boarded up storefronts and things like that, which have been that way for a while.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_06: But there is some growth there.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_06: There is some restaurants that have moved in.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_06: I hated seeing bare waters decide to kind of fold up and and move away, but now it looks like a new business is going to go in there.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: There there is.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not sure exactly what it's going to be.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um I've heard some rumors, but I don't want to repeat those because I don't I don't know what's exactly going to go in.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_04: But there are new businesses moving into town.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_04: There's a new restaurant that's open on Main Street.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um I spend a lot of you know time and and my money on the on the small businesses there in town just to support them.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_04: So it's exciting to see because it is a great downtown area.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: The town of Canton does a really good job of holding events.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_04: Labor Day is a a huge deal in Canton.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: There's always a parade and they have a concert.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_04: They do a lot.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_04: The town of Canton does a lot for the people of Canton and of Haywood County.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it's fun to see.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_04: And uh Mayor Smaters does a good job of trying to bring stuff in and keep the attention there to make sure that positive things are happening.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, the backbone of that community for so many years was the paper mill, or employed so many people, and now it's shut down and it's not kind of like the what's next.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_06: There's some potential there as well if they can figure that out.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_04: There is.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that's I think what most of us are waiting on to see like what happens with that.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they talk about maybe like mixed use area on the side of the paper mill, or you know, what's gonna happen.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_04: Right now they're in the initial stages of of deconstructing it and and tearing it down and getting a lot of that stuff out of there.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_04: But nobody really knows like what what's gonna wind up there.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_04: There's a lot of cautious optimism that it, you know, it it could be awesome because I mean the Pigeon River runs right through the property.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_04: And as you you know, spoke of bare waters earlier and you know, the river walk and everything there, like that is a that is a huge draw.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_04: People people love the pigeon river, love being outside, being outdoors.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_04: So I think there's you know huge potential there for for it to be cleaned up and used as a multi-use space for people to enjoy.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_06: I'm thinking golf course right in downtown Cannon.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, let's do it.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_04: Let's put a top golf right there.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_04: Top golf.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_06: That'd be something, huh?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that would draw folks.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, we could leave the uh the some of the buildings there.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_04: You could hit the buildings or like have the train driving through.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_04: I like it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_04: That would be awesome.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_06: That'd be that would be the greatest ever.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_06: Lieutenant Russ Crisp joins me.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_06: So when did policing come into the picture?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_06: When did you start thinking about that?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I was at UNCA.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_04: I was a education and history major.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, was going to be a teacher.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_04: Didn't really know what I wanted to do while I was in school.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_04: I was working uh as a security guard at the Biltmore estate at the at the front gate and the admissions gate.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: And routinely the Biltmore estate hire or has company police officers there.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_04: And then there would be other police officers visit those guys on the estate, or some of them would work secondary jobs there.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the guys I worked with said he was coming to take the the entrance test at the police department, and it was like the next week.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I'll I'll give it a shot.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I came and took the test, got an interview, went through, went through the whole process and and got offered a job.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_04: And like I said, I didn't know what I wanted to do.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_04: I was I was in line to become you know a teacher, and I'm like, you know what, I'm I'm gonna give this a shot and just and just see if I like it.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I I had never considered it before that point, and you know, I've been here over 20 years now, and I absolutely love it.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_06: A different route than a lot of folks that kind of know and they take criminal justice and go to college for it specifically, and then they just kind of there's that path.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_06: But you went a different way, and 20 years later, here you are.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_04: It's still here, yeah.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's uh they haven't got rid of me yet.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm very appreciative of that.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's very nice of them to let me stick around this long.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_04: But I couldn't really imagine myself doing anything else.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_04: This is what I was meant to do.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_04: I I get a lot of fulfillment out of it.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: I love customer service.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_04: I see policing as a customer service profession because we're we're helping people usually or a lot of times it is uh somebody's worst day when they're having to call us.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_04: And they they need some kind of help or advice or something.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_04: I love helping people out.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_04: So I think that's that's why I've enjoyed it so much for so long.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_06: I was inspired to invite you into this particular episode because I saw that April is National Pickleball Month.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_06: And you are a pickleball fanatic, my friend.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: I enjoy playing pickleball, yes.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_06: That that is a very true statement.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_06: I have learned there's a bunch of you guys here at the APD that play pickleball on a regular basis.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_06: I didn't know that.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: We we have a a good solid core group of guys that like to play.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I started playing probably about three or four years ago, like really getting into it.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_04: I used to play basketball with some of the guys, and um, we have a group from the that work for the Air Force out of the federal building that we got we got hooked up with probably eight or nine years ago now, playing basketball, and a couple of those guys started playing pickleball, and we made fun of them at first, and then they're like, just come out here.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_04: And man, after about like the first 10 minutes, I was like, Man, this is this is so much fun.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_06: I think it's the name that kind of throws people a little bit.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_06: The first time you hear it, you're like, wait, what?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_06: Pickleball?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_06: What I can remember hearing it myself, because it's only as a sport been around that anyone's heard of like 10 years or less.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it really has caught on.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_06: It's exploded.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_06: It really has.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_06: But the way I explain it to people, I've only done it like once, literally, in my life, once.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_06: And the way I explained it to people, it still didn't know what it was.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, imagine standing on a ping pong table.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_06: That to me, that's more accurate than tennis.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_06: More it's like you're on a ping pong table, similar when you look at the paddle size and the things like you know, it's kind of like the standing on the table version live action of ping pong.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_06: A lot of similar rules, except this thing with the kitchen.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_06: What is the deal with the kitchen?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_04: Man, like you you have to be very careful.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_04: You don't want to be in the kitchen.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, that is something that we we struggled learning.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_04: And whenever we learned the rules about the kitchen, like if the ball drops and hits in the kitchen, then you can step in the kitchen or be in the kitchen and then hit the ball.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_04: But man, like we used to roast each other all the time because like they would come up and like just kill the ball at the net, but they would be standing in the kitchen and be like, hey, you're in the kitchen.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_04: So it took the bigger.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_06: Which is the area closest to the net.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_04: It is.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not sure how wide it is, maybe three or four feet.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not I'm not sure on the exact dimensions.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so it's not big, but you would be astounded that at the amount of times if you're standing right at that kitchen line, not in the in the kitchen.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_04: So you're really close to the net within three or four feet, and people try to overhand smash the ball and they hit it to the hit it into the net so many times.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I can imagine.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_06: The time that I played it didn't take long for me to kind of catch on.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_06: I could see myself getting better as I I was playing.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_06: I only played for like 30 minutes, one day.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_06: That was it.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_06: And by the end, I'm like, okay, I get it.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_06: This is kind of fun.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_06: But where's all the terminology come from?
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_06: Have you done the research with with the deal?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_06: What is the kitchen?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_06: Why did it get called that?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_06: Pickleball itself, or the name, any idea?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_04: Historically, I don't know.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_04: I have no idea.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_04: As before three years ago, if you would have said, tell me about pickleball, I would have had I would have had no idea what you were talking about.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um but I describe it to people just like you do.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's like you're you're playing giant ping pong, but you're you're on the table.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_04: Spin on the table.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_04: I I I play it a lot like ping pong with putting spin on the ball and and trying to shape shots.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_04: Man, it's a blast.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: And we have uh made a lot of you know positive community contacts because sometimes we will play inside in a gym, but many times we'll go out and play it with you know, these community members and groups will be out playing at you know, Malvern Hills or Weaver Park.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: And we've got to know a lot of people and made some friends with these, you know, sometimes there's 12, 15, 20 people out there, you know, playing four or five games at a time because you play outdoors on one half of a tennis court.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_04: So if you have a tennis court, you have two pickleball courts.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_04: Or if you have two, then you've got four.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_04: So we have had a great time getting to know people and playing and laughing a lot, laughing at ourselves, laughing at each other.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's a great way to exercise.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_04: You get into it what you or get out of it what you put into it.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um so you you can burn a lot of calories, especially if you're playing one-on-one.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_04: You're moving a lot.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's a it's a lot of fun, it's really good exercise, and it's a great stress relief.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_04: Like if you want to go out there and you just want to hit the the whiffle ball type ball really hard a few times and and relieve some stress, it's excellent for that as well.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_06: And some people though, they take it really seriously.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_06: I've seen it.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_06: It's like you were having fun, you were laughing, but there's people, but I'm telling you, they are legit intense with the some people get very mad.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we've had a few people, if they don't think you're taking it serious enough, then they get frustrated that you're laughing and having a good time, whether you're winning or not, you know?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_04: So it's pickleball protocols.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I guess.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so the the standards are different.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_04: We've had a a few games with and there's uh a couple places that we don't go play anymore because some people take it way too serious, and we just try to avoid those those places now.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_06: You all should get some t-shirts, the uh uh APD PA, the Ashville Police Department Pickleball Association.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely get get some t-shirts made and just rock those and make it happen.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_06: The one thing also I know about it is in certain neighborhoods people get mad because of the noise it makes.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_06: It's like it's caused some genuine like uh problems in certain communities, like HOA communities, is like how close it is to certain houses and whatever like that.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_06: Because you hear it all you can hear it all day long.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_06: They'll play from like sunrise to sunset.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's pop it pop up.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_04: It is it is loud.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_04: It is it is loud.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_04: It's surprisingly loud.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_04: So the Montford Park where they have pickleball lines on the courts, and also in Mavern Hills, you're sort of down in a little bowl, so it it's even louder there.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_04: So you can hear it further out.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: Weaver Park's not as much because you're right next to Merriman Avenue right there.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_04: So in the in the ball fields down in the hole to your to your left or right, so it the sound travels different there, but man, at those other places, like it's even it's even louder there.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_06: If you had to make uh make a call and you're only allowed to play one for the rest of your life, golf or pickleball?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_04: Is the golf free for the rest of my life?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's not.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_06: It is that that does make it easier, doesn't it?
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_06: It does.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_06: Because golf has gotten super expensive.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I love it, you love it, but man, you cannot get on a course these days anywhere for p less than what 60, 70, 80.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_06: I I mean it used to be uh I got here in 99, and we got a decent amount of courses around here, not a ton.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_06: We've lost a few because of Helene, which makes it even worse.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_06: And we've lost a few others because of just those being encroached by developers and and things of that nature, which probably you know makes sense that it's more expensive.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_06: But you could get on somewhere for 30, 35, 40 bucks back in the day, 25, 20 bucks at a at Muni courses, not anymore.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_04: No, sixty dollars used to be top dollar.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's like a high.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_06: Grove Park Inn, you could play.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_06: They they used to have rates for like citizens, like after like five o'clock or something during the week.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_06: And we would go and play during the week.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_06: We'd get on there at like, you know, 5 30 or 6, and you'd almost get$18 in.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_06: And if you get, you know, darkness kills one or two rounds, no big deal.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_06: But it would, I think it was$40.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_06: I think that was the rate, and this was like the early 2000s.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_06: But it was like a beautiful course.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_06: You're like, oh, okay, let's let's play there.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_06: I think they're charging like$200 now, some crazy rate.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_04: It is.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's you know, obviously, you know, with inflation and everything has gone up, but yeah, the the price of golf, because I played a lot before I had any kids, and then um my son's 14 years old now, so 14 years ago, I stopped playing so much golf.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: And then now that my kids are getting older, I have a little more opportunity to play some some more now uh over the last couple years.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, I definitely had some sticker shock whenever I got back into playing more.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, man, like this is 60, 70 bucks whenever I want to play.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_06: It's like a special occasion now.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_06: I got invited again this weekend, I'd love to play, but it is the whole day.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_06: When you get right down to it, it is most of the day if you're gonna play.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_06: Your round is gonna be probably over four hours now because courses are crowded despite the cost.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_06: You know, there's the travel time, and then afterwards, you're probably gonna need to hydrate with something.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you don't want to be dehydrated on your travel back home.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_06: No.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_06: So you need something afterwards.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_06: A chance to recount the round and all the shots that could have been.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_06: So you're talking about a you know, a six-hour thing.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_06: So you've also got to have somebody at home if you're married that's sympathetic and understanding.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like, hey, like this is this is great for stress relief.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_04: And if somebody that I work with is there, you know, we're gonna solve some problems at work, too, while we're on the golf course.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_06: You know, my wife has never objected to my golf, and it I never really questioned it.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_06: I just thought I was, you know, blessed.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_06: And now I'm like, you know, maybe she likes having me out of the house for the entire day whenever I like, and I start to think about what is the motivation there?
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, maybe she is a pickleball aficionado and you don't know it.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_06: She's running off to play pickleball when I'm on the golf course?
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_06: You think so?
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_06: It's very possible.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_06: It's very possible.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_06: Very possible.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_06: Lieutenant Russ Crisp joins me.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_06: So with 20 years in, knowing the formula, you've got five to seven years, eight years left.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm probably looking around eight years.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_04: That way my daughter will be graduating high school.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm not I'm not in a hurry to get out, but I'm also not looking to to hang out much longer than I absolutely have to.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_06: Is there something else that you haven't done that you'd like to do in a department, an area that you'd like to try, do?
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Powell I've been blessed since I've I've been at the police department.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_04: I've I've spent a lot of time on patrol.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um one of my main goals whenever I got hired here was to become a canine officer.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_04: I had the opportunity to do that.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_04: I got to work in the criminal investigations as a lieutenant, um, back to patrol, been in professional standards twice.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_04: Can't say that that was on my list ever, but I've I've been there twice now.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um so no, like I'm I've always been willing to give stuff a shot.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um there's a couple of divisions and places I haven't worked yet, but I can't say that there's you know anywhere that I'm like, man, like that's I'm trying to avoid void that so you're a young man.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_06: You'll be a young man when you retire from the Asheville Police Department.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_06: Is there something else outside of the policing universe you've had your eye on?
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_04: Not as a career when I retire.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody that I talk to that has retired says that they highly recommend retirement.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna need something to occupy my time.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: I I enjoy doing a lot of different things.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I can I can handle things, you know, outdoors, minor home repair stuff.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, I love old things.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_04: Like I love old music, cars, houses, you know, any of that stuff I'm passionate about and enjoy, you know, either working on or with.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, I will find something.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_04: I just don't know what.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_04: I try not to make too many, you know, futuristic plans because you don't you have no idea what's going to happen and what it's gonna hold and really trying to you know pay attention to to the here and now and and enjoy, you know, living every day.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_04: You know, somebody I'll once said, I I forget who it was that told me, you know, somebody had made the comment to them, like, well, you only live once.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_04: And they're like, uh, you know, I don't agree with that.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you only die once, but you can choose to live every single day.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_04: So that's something that I try to do and try to try to remember, you know, just to like, all right, like here's here's another day, like let's let's make the most out of it and and do what we can, help somebody out.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_04: That meant you know, makes you feel good to help somebody out and uh and just have a have a good day, go to bed, get up again, and you know, live that next day.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I've always been a workaholic, like I've always had multiple jobs in my life, and I've always thought to myself, there's no way I'll really fully retire.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_06: I'll always do something.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_06: But I got a taste of doing nothing during COVID.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_06: I was furloughed, I was in Charleston, I had time on my hands, I got to really like it.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, you know, maybe there is something to this retirement.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_06: I got like a mini retirement, like a little blast of it.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_06: And so now, for somebody that has at least eight years left based on my formula, I probably think about retirement way often than I more often than I should, uh, but I'm also looking forward to a little bit of that leisure activity, filling it with maybe some you know golf, maybe some other things, but I think I'd like to find myself doing something as well just to stay busy.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: And keep your keep your mind, you know, going.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_04: I I do think that I could play you know golf and or pickleball every day and not get tired of it because it it's always a different experience.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_04: And you know I would like to try to get tired of it by by doing that a whole bunch.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_04: I will try very hard to get tired of it.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_04: And just see if that's possible.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_04: And then if I do, you know, might as well go hang out at the beach for a few days to try to recover from too much golf or pickleball.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_06: You know the thing about the the golf especially is there's always a different course.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_06: There's yeah it's always a place you haven't played.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_06: Exactly there's always that.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_06: And we're getting into golf season so hopefully I'll be seeing you on the course sometime soon.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yes sir absolutely Lieutenant Russ Crisp thanks for joining me.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yes sir joining me now from News 13 W L O S Taylor Thompson.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_06: Thanks for coming in.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited to be here.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's weird being on this end of it.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm actually a little nervous I'm usually the one asking the question I think you'll be fine.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_06: So I don't know if you knew this but April 4th is National Hug and Newsperson Day.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_06: Oh don't want to jump the gun and I'm not much of a hugger so there shall be no hugging today but if you see Taylor on April 4th don't just lean in and violate her space.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_06: Make sure you give her a heads up make sure it's okay in advance.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_06: Don't just surprise her.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_06: Well thank you for joining me but you know you have been begging to come in here for a long time.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: All right all right don't just put it all on me.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited but you know it's you wanted to have me on a little bit too I did.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_06: Well I'm I'm interested in your perspective because something we've been talking about around here and something we've been trying to do at the Asheville Police Department is develop relationships with the media outlets because we think there's a benefit there.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_06: So that was one of the questions I wanted to ask you is how beneficial is it to have a good working relationship with local government officials, be it law enforcement, be it fire, be it council, be it whatever, as opposed to an adversarial one?
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: Gosh, I mean it's it's not just beneficial, it's it's necessary for us to be able to do our jobs.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean you think about every story that we do you know I say a lot of times when it's like a serious story we'll have team coverage on things, right?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: And the way they do is you have two reporters.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: One is on what we call nuts and bolts and then the other is on the real person story, right?
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: But the real person story always has to follow the nuts and bolts story because a story can't happen if we don't have the facts, if we don't have here's here's the press release, here's the facts of what happened here.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: And we have to start there and that is so necessary for us to do really anything.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: You can't go talk to that real person if you don't know what you're talking about, if you don't have the facts of something are you a nuts and bolzer or are you a uh with y'all I'm a nuts and bolzer because I just I I love you guys so much.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I love when I get to come to APD.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I am a real of course a real person cider.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean you always want to hear what how this is really affecting someone and I mean that's really what local news is about is how can we help the real person.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: But the start of that help comes from y'all.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean we wouldn't be able to do our job without having that relationship with y'all and and the trust of it comes on both sides.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know I mean you have to trust me to even want to give me the information because you know I'm sure there's been times when you know maybe you guys feel like you've done that and then it blew back in your face.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you know there's trust on both sides to where you feel you can tell me something and I feel I can come to you and and believe that you're really giving me what you're able to give me and then I can go from there.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean it's more than beneficial.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's the only way we can do our job.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell pulling back the curtain let's talk about the process.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_06: I'm sure people are curious how you guys assemble your stories and the newscast which of which there used to be a six and an eleven now there's a a five a five thirty a six and eleven then the morning and then the web and all of those different things.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_06: So I know you have your daily meetings, you get your stories, you get your marching orders.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_06: Walk us through your creative process.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well my creative process, you know I guess for example, when I'm doing a story with y'all is typically a press release might be sent out by you.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: And you know I'll read it and then I'll give you a call and that is just in itself you know back to our relationships talk is where that really comes from because if we didn't have that relationship then one you might not even answer my phone call.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_02: Or two you might just be like sorry we got nothing available today or not even answer.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: You never know.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: So you know I start my day off I'm gonna call you and you know I'm just like hey here's what I read here's what I need what can you do?
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: And you know typically you're like I will here's what I can do.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'll let you know I'll help you and then you know kind of go from there.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: So let's say it works out and you're like hey Captain Silverman can talk to you at 1130.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we're gonna come by talk to Captain Silverman and then go from there.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then once we get the facts of that story then I can go based off of that.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so where did this happen?
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: Where can I go to then find that real person to talk to?
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: Which is sometimes easier and sometimes more challenging.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know it just starts there.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: So then you know in a perfect world we leave from y'all we get that factual information we need and then we go find our a real person and our real story.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus You know we have some officers that are very comfortable like Captain Silberman in front of a camera and some are not so I have to coach some and then others I think I I can leave more to their devices.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_06: Deputy Chief Artem is very good at it.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_06: Others are and some are just they get that camera that light goes on and they just freeze.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_06: The second you guys walk away they're like I wish I would have said this.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_06: I wish I would have said it like that.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm like you know what practice makes perfect the more you do it the easier it is.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_06: But what I always try and tell them when you're or anybody else is doing a story, I go, they're gonna make you look as good as they can because it makes them look good.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus It's true.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean we only look as good as y'all do because if if y'all aren't giving a good interview, it makes me look bad.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because then it's saying well was she not a good interviewer?
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_02: Was she not good?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_02: Was she not comfortable?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: Does she not ask them the right questions?
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: So you know making y'all look good of course you know because it's the right thing to do but it also you know kind of shows how well I can do my job.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell that stands out that you've done like either with us or with somebody else that just it just instantly comes to mind like man I nailed that one.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh Rick you're putting me on the spot this wasn't this wasn't one of the pre-questions you gave me so I could think of a story before now I know.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_06: Gotta be thinking on your feet.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell Okay I have one.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell Okay I have one that I love.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_02: This was a few months ago that I did and this family this actually wasn't with y'all this Bunkham County family during Helene they lost their cat and they thought the cat was obviously dead had died during the storm.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_02: So the cat was left in their house and they left the house in a rush to go to the family member's house and they watched their house be destroyed and float away and just assumed our cat obviously our cat was gone.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_07: Right.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so here we are when I did this story it was probably right at the year mark, so a year after that and I'm going out there and talking to them and they've finally been able to move back into their house and you know they're just getting situated again.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they're sitting out there one night and you know a year later the cat shows up.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_02: They get home they're back in their house and somehow this cat managed to survive for a year in it obviously an area that flooded extremely bad bad enough to wash away their home and somehow just survival mode and and as soon as they were back came back to the family.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_02: And just being able to like see that cat and you know everyone's crying because it's like animals are so emotional and you know you love your pets and just there's so many stories especially during Helene but it's just you know happy ones like that because there wasn't obviously a ton where it is that happy reunion.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like what are the odds that this cat lived for a year on its own just to make sure it could find its way home.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell and it harkens back I'm sure to that family too is like we lost our house we lost everything but at least the cat came back and at least you know story of recovery and all those and you're right it didn't there weren't a lot of great stories to come out of Helene but there was a lot of stories of people helping people, neighbors helping neighbors, but there was also death and destruction.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: So you know underneath it all one that I did with y'all I don't know if you remember this but it y'all were finding all the like the pictures and the things that people lost during the storm and you had that huge table of everything.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_06: It was detective to grave.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: That was uh really emotional I mean just seeing like because you don't know where those came from you don't know the state of that person's house.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know the state of how that person is how how they fared through everything.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so just finding you know pictures and memories and artifacts that came from so much loss.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_02: I mean the fact that y'all took the time to really put all these together to try to return them to their owners that was that was really special.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus And you know Detective deGraves came from your universe he worked at the Asheville Citizen Times he was a writer before he came here.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_06: So he was a news guy knew how to tell a story and I think somehow finding those photos because maybe of his background a little bit it clicked with him the need to r to create this reunion of photos with ownership because sometimes it's all you have left of something and that could mean so much to someone.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_06: And it did to so many families I I saw some of the people that came in for the photos and you should have seen the looks in their faces.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_06: Just a simple photo.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_06: You know it's like I lost everything but there's that photo you know so let's uh let's tell the Taylor Thompson story here.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell gosh all right you know this is we we ask uh everyone in the room a couple of questions one of them of course is like where were you born where were you from I am from Marietta Georgia I typically tell people I'm from Atlanta Georgia until I started dating my current boyfriend who is actually from Atlanta and quickly corrected Marietta is not Atlanta.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: So for those who know where Marietta is it's a little northeast of Atlanta and that's where I grew up.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then do you want me to keep going?
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_06: I can give you my whole story well the story.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_02: Tell the Taylor Thompson story there and then I went off to college at the University of Alabama Roll Tide.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: My boyfriend goes to Indiana so you can or went to Indiana so you can picture the uh sports year I just yeah it was a game just a small game Rick that was a really good time for us.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well better for Indiana I you know I know I know these things um so I graduated from the University of Alabama and then you know I got told my second semester of college by one of my very kind professors who you know pretty much told me that I would not be going back to Atlanta like I thought I would.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: My plan was to I always wanted to do journalism.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: I was actually focused more on sports journalism in college and wanted to be you know the next Aaron Andrews thought I would just move back home be a big time reporter in Atlanta at 22 years old and that was going to be my time.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_02: And she was like just you know very nicely brought me back down to earth and was like Taylor people end in Atlanta.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_02: You definitely don't start there.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like what?
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: So yes so I went about three hours uh southwest of Atlanta to a small town called Albany Georgia some people call it just like Atlanta Oh I'm sure it's just no a lot of similarities so um so I spent a year down there kind of getting my start as an MMJ which is basically just a nice word to say you do everything yourself.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I did that for a year and then I did upboard mobility and transferred within the company up here to Asheville and that was in the fall of 2022.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes fall of 2022.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I was 23 when I started here in Asheville and I'm 27 now.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it feels like I've basically spent the majority of my career here because I have and it's just crazy I've just grown so much here.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean from kind of being the newbie and the the young 23 year old to now I mean I know you know depending on who's listening to this people are going like, oh 27 still so young and I'm like I know but like in the sense of like where I was then to now it feels night and day.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: I went from being a reporter here to then I was promoted to our weekend morning anchor.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: So now I anchor and a lot of my reporting now is more special projects and more things that I am passionate on and get to do.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: Podcasts and things podcast and you know being with y'all.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's been great.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's been you know it's just crazy.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_02: I've spent most of my adulthood here in Asheville and I I love it.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus I had the same culture shock as radio is a similar thing.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_06: I went to college and I had this dream of instantly going maybe to oh going back to Buffalo or Pittsburgh or they hit these big markets and I you quickly got slapped in the face by it doesn't work like that.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell You start in the smallest market and you learn and you know what you probably need to.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_06: You do.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_06: You need to learn and and then grow and no one's a polished stone you know right out of college.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_06: You think you are because I just spent four years learning this stuff.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_06: I know everything.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_06: Everything there is to know and then quickly realize you don't know squat.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus I like to give the analogy of it's like your freshman year in college and you're in that crappy dorm room with the shared bathrooms, the you know the tiny room that you're in the community style dorm.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, you know, oh we hate this in the moment but it's so much fun you have to go through it to appreciate when you move into an apartment.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_02: And it's the same thing with this job.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like you have to be at the Albany Georgias of the world to appreciate when you're in Asheville.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus It's a true story.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah and Asheville's a nice place to be I mean it it's considered a small TV market but I listen I've been in small TV markets that weren't anywhere near Asheville as far as amenities and things to do and the culture in the Trevor Burrus plus I'd give us more credit than that, Rick.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_02: We're a medium sized market.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus You know thank you Greenville Spartanburg uh so Asheville Greenville Spartanburg for some people don't know is uh a multi-city DMA as they say so it's not one city it's not New York it's not Chicago it's not all those suburbs sure they count but it's the city it's the big city.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_06: Here they literally have multi-markets.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_06: It's we're an hour apart.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_06: I believe it's the same way in the eastern part of the state I think it's Newburn there's like three or four cities over there that all count as one TV market, but there's no one city.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_07: Right.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_06: So because of that, News 13 WLOS really serves primarily Asheville and western North Carolina.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas the other networks mostly serve Greenville Spartanburg it's a very niche thing that we get to do here where we are really the only ones here.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know we don't have those competitors at every story here.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_02: There's multiple stations.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's just us and it's a really special thing that we really just get to be the ones to to cover everything and it's really our territory.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus But you know at the same time you have to challenge yourself because you're you're not having another another medium challenge you that is true.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_06: You don't have another market that might steal that story from you.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus Right.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_06: Which sometimes means you got to work harder.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus Yeah.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_06: You got to produce the results and do it without that competition, which can be tougher.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell That is true.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_02: It can be tougher and I that does come with a lot more self-challenge and you know more meetings of you know just the newsroom really getting together and being like here's what we need to do, here's here's how we're gonna accomplish this and not letting yourself drop the ball because you're right.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean if we're not there then maybe just nobody's there, you know?
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we always really try our best to to be at everything and do everything to the best of our ability.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell We keep going back to Helene because it's certainly the most recent thing that really kind of grabbed the whole community and affected the entire Western North Carolina community and beyond.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_06: You haven't been here long enough to have some of the other events that were kind of big but not that big we had the flooding we had 2009 floods we had Francis and Ivan we had we had some different events in Asheville prior to your arrival that you can't really use as a kind of reference point.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_06: So you know Helene, so we'll talk Helene.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_02: Did did you feel a certain responsibility to the community above and beyond just reporting the news during that I mean so much so to where I don't even feel like on a personal level that I've even really processed it because I think the second that it happened we just went right into how where do we go?
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: How do we get out there?
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_02: What communities do we need to hit first?
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_02: What's even going on?
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like how do we get out there and check on these people and make sure that they're okay by getting their story out there about what happened.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_02: I remember that Friday morning waking up at my apartment and just it was you didn't really know, you know, like you knew going into it because of those days of rain that were leading up and you know our meteorologist everyone was saying this is going to be really bad.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_02: But sometimes people don't believe you, you know?
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so and of course why would we ever think a hurricane would hit the mountains?
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_02: So you can't even blame people on that one.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_02: But just waking up that day and you know I had power for a little bit and then my power went out and I was like I've got to get to the office.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to get to work right now.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm leaving my apartment and it's flooded and people are out there trying to just figure out what's going on.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: So luckily there's another exit I was able to take and I'm only five minutes away from my station.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I got there and it's just complete you know chaos because everyone's just like those who can get there are there.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: But then we, you know, we didn't even know at the time like for other people who couldn't get there, are they okay?
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_02: Are they just not here because they can't get here or because a tree fell on their house.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you just didn't know.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_02: But you know the first thing was let's just get out the door and let's see where we can go.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I remember I got in the car with um one of our photographers Steve Wilder and we headed out to Barnardsville was our first stop.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it was you know it was kind of like we were living in this um what is the word I'm looking for like after like a crazy thing happens and um like a dystopian type yeah yes yes and because it's like you go you leave the newsroom and we had a generator there.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_02: So when you leave that there's no cell service there's nothing you know you're just like gone until you're not it was flying blind for a while.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was our first thing we just went out there to the community and just to see everything that happened and then the next morning I was closer to home in River Arts District.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean everyone I think this was what was so surreal is like that day two when people are really starting to get outside of their houses more and just kind of looking and we were all standing in the river arts district and there was still just that rushing water just covering the lower half of the river arts district and people are just standing there looking at it.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so we were too I mean to the point where we're all just like I can't believe this you know it's hard to process.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_06: I know we had some some things around here some milestones that kind of were the turn the corner moments we one of them was the closing of the EOC when we stopped operating as an EOC.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_06: And there were some other things in your world was there a certain daytime that you guys decided okay it's time to do more than Helene?
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, let me tell you.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: So we were leading up to that one year mark really heavy I mean I feel like we pretty much focused the entire first year after Helene on just Helene related stories because there were so much there was enough of them.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_02: There was so much going on that it went from just people trying to survive into recovery mode into rebuilding mode.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so that first year everything we did was pretty much focused on Helene.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_02: And we really had a great kind of send-off to it during that one year mark we hosted our first show like our first uh show outside of the station and we did it at Bears Barbecue and that was really great.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_02: It was on the one year mark since Helene and we hosted a show there and we had the mayor on and we had just you know our meteorologist to kind of recap that morning of and we were going in and out of power and how they were even trying to describe what was happening to people.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_02: And we did these roundtables with different business owners in all different communities to kind of talk about you know their perspective and where they're going from here.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_02: So we did a lot at the one year mark to kind of put a bow on it.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_02: I have to you know kind of walk on on saying that because obviously Helene is always going to be something that happened to us and it's always going to be something that changed us.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_02: But we felt, you know, from a community standpoint it was like it is time to turn that page because it's not helping people to just keep reliving what happened and to just keep going up to the same people and being like, oh and how does that make you feel like when Helene hit how how are you doing you know and it's like it's not really helping people at this point.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so I started this project with photographer Matthew Yates.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_02: He's amazing and it's called Taste of the Town because we were trying to figure out a way to you know not let Helene go, but let it go enough to where you know we are kind of moving on from just the sadness of it.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_06: It's not so you're not moving on, you're moving forward.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_06: Right, exactly you're never going to move beyond but you need to move to the next step.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and so it's called Taste of the Town and what we do is we still go to different areas but we just don't talk about Helene.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know we talk about the restaurants and the food they serve and what is Silva like you know what is that what is brevard like what what's going on in Waynesville?
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_02: What's happening on Main Street?
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_02: And really just highlighting their businesses and these were businesses that were obviously hit and you know some were devastated by Helene.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_02: Some were just hit in the business side because we didn't have any business because we you know had that thing where we didn't have water and so places couldn't be open.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of just highlighting these places without having to make it about Helene.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know and that's kind of where we're at of how can we always remember this but in a sense where what we cover now is moving forward and not focusing on what happened to us because that doesn't help build us back better.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell it gave you a chance to see some of the small towns that maybe you hadn't been to before and we've got a lot of cool ones we have so many cool you mentioned Waynesville and Brevard and the so many cool small towns Asheville's great and I love Asheville.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_06: I live in Asheville that's you know when you think of western North Carolina you think of Asheville but oh my gosh there are so many mountain towns that are just amazing to go to my wife and I haven't done it in a while but we used to do like just an overnight somewhere like we'd go to Bryson City and just get like a little hotel right near there and just hang out one night.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus One of my favorites is uh Switzerland Inn it's 10 it's like the was it Mitchell McDowell county line up there Little Switzerland?
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah Little Switzerland.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I love it up there.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_02: There's just so many cute things like that.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Ross Powell We got so many of those too.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_06: You'd mentioned your start here and then of course Atlanta is that the goal or whatever so what is the five 10 15 20 year Taylor Thompson plan?
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_02: Gosh Rick if you could tell me that that would make my life a lot easier I go back and forth all the time.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll never forget growing up my papa told me that I need to have my own talk show and it needs to be called the Taylor Talk.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a good name.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_02: It is a good name right I papa came up with it.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_02: I do have to give him credit for that.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_02: But um I is so in one world I'm like how do I grow to be able to do that because that's really what I want to do is talk to people.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know I don't think it's a secret to say I do want to move back to Atlanta eventually that's that's where my family is, that's where my boyfriend is, that's where pretty much my entire life aside from my job is and you know obviously the way this industry works is you know I was 18 went off to college and I've been gone ever since because it just hasn't been an option to move back there.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_02: So at some point I would love to to be back home with my family and Does that mean doing news in Atlanta?
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, does that mean I don't know.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's hard for me to even think about not being an Asheville because I just feel like I've grown, not even just I mean, through my career, I've grown grown so much as a person here that I wish I could just take this place with me everywhere I go.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't know.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's a talk show, maybe it's reporting in Atlanta, maybe it's anchoring in Atlanta, maybe it's all the above.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_02: The world is my oyster right now.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_06: I hear things that podcasts are taking off.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard that too.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I don't think it's a secret that I like to talk.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_06: So I think you think you can.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_06: Taylor Thompson, ladies and gentlemen, News 13W LOS.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much for joining us.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_02: This was so fun.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_06: Senior police officer Dennis Pace is back in the room.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_06: Welcome back, Dennis.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_06: Well, thank you.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_06: All right, the weather is warming up.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_06: We've seen the pollen on the cars and coming down from the trees, which means the community engagement division is becoming more and more active by the day.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_06: All right, now we got a couple of academies, one of which is already kicked off, Citizens Police Academy.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_05: Citizen Police Academy, we just wrapped up week two.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_05: It's the biggest class ever.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_05: 32 have signed up this time.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_05: We had a lot of applicants.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: We capped it at 32 this time.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_06: That's awesome.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_06: So coming up soon with uh applications now available, the Immersion Academy, that is brand new.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_01: The Immersion Academy is brand new.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_01: It is targeting college age kids 18 to I think twenty-two.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_01: Some young adults that have a strong interest in uh law enforcement career.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing targeting um recruitment effort at uh local colleges to give them exposure to what policing is about and what we do here at APD.
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the academy, uh they actually talk about the process of the recruiting, the the application process and everything else like that, and try to get them prepared to enroll in our fall academy class if they want to.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I can't think of really another job, another profession where you can kind of taste it and feel it before even like applying for it.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_06: Sure, you can get like an internship somewhere, right?
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_06: But that that's a full commitment where you're actually physically somewhere working in a way.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_06: This is just like, hey, is this the kind of thing for me?
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_06: And you get to see all all what it's about.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_01: I know when I was in the academy many, many years ago, that was one thing that I always was doing, putting this all this time and effort into this career that I thought I was passionate about, but I didn't really know until you get into it.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_01: And this would give you pre-exposure to, am I really passionate about this career?
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because the ones that succeed in the career actually have a passion for it and and want to do well.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so this would be a good way of of getting that exposure to see if this is the career you you want to do or not.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_06: Or finding out if it's not right for you.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_06: There are people that have committed to B L E T, gone through the entire program, graduated, and then they get out into the field and then only then realize, you know what, this is just not for me.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_06: Good time to find it out for us as a police department, but for them, quite a commitment for it not to be realized.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_01: From the time you get hired on to the time you hit solo status, it can be close to a year, if not over a year.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you dedicate a whole year to the profession to get out to realize, you know, it's not what I wanted to do, which is great for the ones that can accept it and like, okay, let me move on to something else, as opposed to just stick it out.
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because those officers usually will eventually weed themselves out, but sometimes they can take time.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_01: So the ones that can figure it out early, that that's great for them so they can start their own career path.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_06: So that is the immersion academy.
• 1:09:54
  SPEAKER_06: By the time this episode lands, we'll have applications open for the junior police academy.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_01: The junior police academy is gonna be our, I believe, our third year running for that.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_01: The application process opens up, I believe, April 1st.
• 1:10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we that we target teenagers 13 to 18, and it's a week of also f learning about the police department and and what we do.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_01: But we break it down and have a little bit more uh fun and do some other fun activity, not just law enforcement the whole week.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's a fun week too.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_06: The kids enjoy themselves.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_06: I mean the canines are involved, the bomb squad is involved, all those things.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we do scenarios.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Last year we we tried something different where we had them build a case and then did a mock trial based off the information that they did with the case.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we're just trying to improve it every year, and we get a lot of kids.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_01: We had a lot, we had a cut last year, kept that one also, and we had too many kids, and the ones that didn't get accepted last year, I encourage them to reapply.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_01: The older you are, the closer to the cutoff, the higher likely you will be able to get into the program.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a few years to go, don't let that discourage you.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_01: If I didn't get in this year, that might be just because you're young, and we want to get into people that that are close to aging out the opportunity.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_06: And the easiest way to find out about either one of those, just to Google Asheville Police Department, Immersion Academy, or Asheville Police Department, Junior Academy.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_01: So what else we got coming up?
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_01: April 18th, from one to four, we have the Truck City at the Asheville Outlets.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a lot of fun.
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's a blast.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of stuff with APD vehicles there, but there's all kinds of activities there for kids there.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the adults can find their inner child child and play around and climb inside their trucks too.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Usually the first hour of that is um we have it where no lights and sirens are going off, so people that are are sensitive to that stuff, they can walk around and see the trucks without having to be overstimulated with the lights and the sirens and stuff like that.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great idea.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Where is that gonna be again?
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be at Tanger Outlets for uh on April 18th from one to four.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, while you're there, you could poke your head in the brand new uh West Asheville Resource Center, the additional resource center that we have that we just opened this week.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_01: We usually the truck city and any big events uh at the outlets is usually on the back side over by the Interstate.
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that will be close to where our new office is.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_06: So if you're wondering if you know the outlets, uh Creighton Barrel would probably be the closest location in the back.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_06: When you see that, we are just to the right of that.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_06: So you'll see our door, we got our big logo right there in a glass door, and that is our new resource center out there.
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_01: The last thing I was wanting to talk about, I couldn't confirm before I came up here.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_01: I know last year APD partnered with Dunkin' Donuts for a special Olympics fundraiser.
• 1:12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I remember that.
• 1:12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Called Cover the Cruiser.
• 1:12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so as you went to Dunkin' Donuts, they would ask if you want to donate an extra dollar to buy a donut.
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_01: They would put it on their wall, and we picked a Saturday, it went to a a local Dunkin' Donuts.
• 1:13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I actually used my car as the display car, and we took the donuts and anything there there, and we taped it to my car to see if we could get enough donations to cover the car at that one Dunkin'.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_01: All the Dunkins around here would be doing it.
• 1:13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we just chose the one uh we only had enough people to do one location.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't quite cover my car last year, but that was because it was only at that one store.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_01: If we if we included all the stores, I would definitely would have been able to cover my car probably two or three times.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that event, usually the month of April.
• 1:13:38
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't confirm that yet.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_01: So be on the lookout for that.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you go to the Duncan Line, they they might ask you, hey, do you want to donate a dollar?
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Just know that all the proceeds of that stay right here in Buncombe County for Spo Buncombe County Special Olympics.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, keep an eye out on our social media for that.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_06: Once we get a confirmation for it, we'll uh post that everywhere so people can see, get some details on that.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_06: I remember last year uh the Duncan that you used was right by my house by uh Smoky Park Highway.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was X44.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_01: We were looking at that one.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have a few more people on the Special Olympics Committee this year.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we might be able to pull off a couple locations.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_01: We're hoping to, but if not, we'll we'll look at talk to the regional manager to see which Duncan has the most activity, and we'll probably go at that one if we can.
• 1:14:25
  SPEAKER_06: Another great event for Special Olympics on the heels of the day of giving with Jersey Mikes.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_06: I ran into uh Officer Fadler at the Jersey Mikes in West Asheville.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_06: We're both on our way home picking up some subs, and all the money that day went to Special Olympics as well.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_06: All good things.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_06: Senior Police Officer Dennis Pace, thanks for joining me.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_06: That's it for another episode.
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you to my guests, Senior Police Officer Taya Overholt, Lieutenant Russ Crisp from News 13 WLOS Taylor Thompson, and senior police officer Dennis Pace.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_06: And thank you for listening.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_06: Hey, if you got a question or a topic you'd like to hear discussed, or someone you'd like to hear from, just call 828-250-8800 and leave a voicemail.
• 1:15:07
  SPEAKER_06: That's 828-250-8800.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_06: Or you can email APD Podcastfeedback at AshevilleNC.gov.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_06: Listen and subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts and don't miss a single episode.
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_06: I'm Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad.