Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line 09-16-2026: Dixon Detective Brad Dempsey talks Cops & Bobbers 2026

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Talk Line 09-16-2026: Dixon Detective Brad Dempsey talks Cops & Bobbers 2026 · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, Sauk Valley. You're with The Waking Crew here
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  Speaker 1: on FM 95.1 and AM 1460 WIXN. It's 816 on
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  Speaker 1: your Wednesday, September 16th morning. Happy hump day, y'all. It's
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  Speaker 1: time for Talk Line, and I'm joined in the booth
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  Speaker 1: for my first time since taking the helm at the
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  Speaker 1: legendary Mark Steve Marcos Studios. It's Detective Brad Dempsey from
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  Speaker 1: the Dixon Police Department here to tell us about an
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  Speaker 1: upcoming event. Brad, how are you today?
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  Speaker 2: Good morning. I'm good. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: I'm good. It's always dry here in the booth, climate controlled,
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  Speaker 1: so you guests are the one who really brave the
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  Speaker 1: outdoors to be here, and I certainly appreciate that. And
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  Speaker 1: while that'll kind of lead us to why you're here today,
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  Speaker 1: I always like to first get to know guests that
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  Speaker 1: come in, and I always got to ask, it always
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  Speaker 1: gets me going as to how people end up in
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  Speaker 1: their profession. So I'd like to ask, how long have
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  Speaker 1: you been with the DPD, and what got you into
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  Speaker 1: law enforcement, man?
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  Speaker 2: I've been with Dixon since.
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  Speaker 3: 2014 and born.
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  Speaker 2: And raised in Dixon.
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  Speaker 3: And just as a job that I had a lot
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  Speaker 3: of interest in when I was like in high school
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  Speaker 3: and be able to serve the community that I was
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  Speaker 3: born and raised in and went to school here and everything.
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  Speaker 2: And just an exciting job. No, no, no two days
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  Speaker 2: are the same, you know?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Local boy makes good. I love it. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: when meeting folks who, you know, they, they had that
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  Speaker 1: idea in mind, uh, almost didn't take them no time.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know where, did you ever consider being in
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  Speaker 1: anything else where, uh, Were you considering being a playwright
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  Speaker 1: at one point and something tipped the scale, or did.
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  Speaker 2: You always know? I was actually interested in being a mechanic. Really?
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  Speaker 2: I still like working on cars.
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  Speaker 3: I have an old Camaro that I work on a lot,
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  Speaker 3: but then I just realized that was kind of frustrating
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  Speaker 3: at times, so I decided to go a different route.
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  Speaker 1: No, that's awesome. And actually, you're not the first person
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  Speaker 1: I've talked to who I'm like, because I'm not mechanically inclined, man,
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  Speaker 1: at all. Unfortunately, I should have. adopted that skill set
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  Speaker 1: somewhere but I had had plenty of buddies and I'd
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  Speaker 1: ask them like man you could make a killing as
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  Speaker 1: a mechanic bro why aren't you doing this and he's
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  Speaker 1: like dude, I don't want to do this all day long.
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  Speaker 1: He's like, I like tinkering with my vehicle. He's like,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to do this all day long.
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  Speaker 3: That's exactly how I am. I love working on my
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  Speaker 3: own car and that's about the extent of it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So no, that, that's really cool. Um, did you,
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  Speaker 1: so going into law enforcement, did you know you wanted
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  Speaker 1: to become a detective? How'd that shake out?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, that actually has only been about a year. So
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  Speaker 3: I was in patrol for most of my career so far.
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  Speaker 3: And then, yeah, I've been a detective now for about
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  Speaker 3: a year and love the change up different pace. It's
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  Speaker 3: totally different. It's a whole different thing now.
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  Speaker 1: Was that like the plan? Did you hope to go
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  Speaker 1: to that? Not necessarily.
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  Speaker 3: No, it was just one of those that the opportunity
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  Speaker 3: arose and looked into it, and I'm really glad I
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  Speaker 3: took the change, and it's been nice.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: No, that's really cool. It's a special skill set and,
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  Speaker 1: like you said, no two days alike. Gosh, I don't
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  Speaker 1: think anybody can say it better in a case like that,
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  Speaker 1: so that's really cool. But you came here to let
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  Speaker 1: us know about an upcoming event with the DPD, Cops
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  Speaker 1: and Bobbers.
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  Speaker 3: Yep, so this is going to be our 20th year.
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  Speaker 3: I've been running the program for about 11 years now.
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  Speaker 3: And it's a fishing derby. Most people that are local
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  Speaker 3: know or have heard about it anyways. It's just a
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  Speaker 3: fishing derby. It's from 9 to 11. And there's a
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  Speaker 3: lot of prizes. There's a lot of food. The food's
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  Speaker 3: always been provided. Stuff we raffle off. There's trophies. It's
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  Speaker 3: just a fun day where we get law enforcement and
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  Speaker 3: just the general community members bring their kids out and
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  Speaker 3: have a fun couple hours fishing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's no surprise to hear that this has
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  Speaker 1: been something that's been going on for so long. Dixon just,
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  Speaker 1: you know, along with a lot of other police departments
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  Speaker 1: in the Sauk Valley, adopting this community policing model, just
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  Speaker 1: really getting involved with folks going well beyond just law
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  Speaker 1: enforcement and that aspect of the job. And so you
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  Speaker 1: guys are, you all get known for this, become kind
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  Speaker 1: of local celebrities in your own right. And it's so cool.
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  Speaker 1: I love seeing that. I love seeing the interactivity with
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  Speaker 1: the kids. And who knows, man, you could be setting
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  Speaker 1: up somebody to become the next future detective in the
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  Speaker 1: DPD and maybe you'll be their boss and it'll all
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  Speaker 1: be because something like this happened, yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Definitely, and that's honestly our goal. We like to have
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  Speaker 3: a good interaction. And who knows, like you said, maybe
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  Speaker 3: we're going to make a difference to somebody. And we
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  Speaker 3: want to be on the level where people just realize
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  Speaker 3: that we're normal people and they can come up to
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  Speaker 3: us and talk to us.
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  Speaker 2: Um, they get to know us.
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  Speaker 3: I also teach like all the Alice training and stuff
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  Speaker 3: like that and all the schools and, and these kids
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  Speaker 3: all know me. They all know exactly who I am,
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  Speaker 3: even though I'm not working and they come up and
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  Speaker 3: say hi to me or they, you know, and unfortunately
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  Speaker 3: I don't always remember them.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: Cause we're seeing a lot of different kids, but it's
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  Speaker 3: really rewarding when they come up to you and even
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  Speaker 3: at cops and bobbers, like just to smile on their
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  Speaker 3: face when they catch a fish. And then they, you know, they,
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  Speaker 3: they remember you from the year before and talking about
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  Speaker 3: the fish they caught last year, things like that.
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  Speaker 2: It's, it's really rewarding to hear that.
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  Speaker 1: So.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It creates those memories that last with them. And sometimes
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  Speaker 1: it's easy to think, you know, I, this was cool.
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  Speaker 1: I put on a nice event for the kids and
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  Speaker 1: go on, but you never really know just how much
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  Speaker 1: of an impression you're making, uh, on a kid with
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  Speaker 1: just such a simple thing. And, uh, Going out and
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  Speaker 1: fishing is just one of those pure, pleasurable pastimes that
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  Speaker 1: kind of resonates with most folks. So I love hearing
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  Speaker 1: about this. Again, when is the time?
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  Speaker 2: It's this Saturday.
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  Speaker 1: This Saturday.
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  Speaker 2: Weather pending, obviously. Sure.
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  Speaker 3: And it's going to be from 9 to 11, and
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  Speaker 3: then there's going to be lunch provided at the end
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  Speaker 3: of that.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: And then we do trophies and things. I remember when
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  Speaker 3: I was young, I would get trophies for fishing derbies.
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  Speaker 3: I used to do the Elks Fishing Derby a lot.
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  Speaker 3: okay and then yeah the trophies are the coolest especially
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  Speaker 3: for younger kids and they get trophies they can display
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  Speaker 3: in their on the shelf in their room or.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever yeah i had a little pinewood derby trophy that
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  Speaker 1: i had for like third place i held on to
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  Speaker 1: forever that was a crowning achievement for me for a long.
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  Speaker 3: Time these are so cool and they are a big
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  Speaker 3: fish on the top and yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Hey i like to hear that it's a customized cool
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  Speaker 1: trophy for the event so yeah no they they love
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  Speaker 1: that thing that's awesome And so you'll be keeping folks updated.
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  Speaker 1: As I know, we got a little bit of, as
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  Speaker 1: you said, weather pending. So kind of looking ahead to that.
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  Speaker 1: Where should folks be looking for those updates?
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  Speaker 2: Our social media.
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  Speaker 3: And then the big thing is we have a pre-registration process.
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  Speaker 2: So if you pre-register, they get a t-shirt. Awesome. Really
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  Speaker 2: cool t-shirts this year. And if they pre-register, they get those.
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  Speaker 3: So there's over 40 people that pre-registered this year so far,
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  Speaker 3: which is a pretty high number.
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  Speaker 2: But if.
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  Speaker 3: for some reason we don't have it this Saturday, I'll
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  Speaker 3: reach out. Or they can follow through with our Facebook
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  Speaker 3: and look at it. They can still get their shirts
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  Speaker 3: and things like that if for some reason we don't
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  Speaker 3: have the event due to the weather. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, there you go. Love seeing that pre-registration. Not surprised
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  Speaker 1: that you've got so many sign-ups already. These are always
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  Speaker 1: popular events in the community anytime the DPD is involved.
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  Speaker 1: So love hearing this. Anything else you wanted to share
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  Speaker 1: this morning, Brad?
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  Speaker 3: Um, no, just to keep our fingers crossed on the weather.
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  Speaker 3: And then we'll, we'll try to, there's a lot of
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  Speaker 3: other people that I involved and food and other vendors,
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  Speaker 3: things like that.
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  Speaker 2: So we'll have to try to make a decision at
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  Speaker 2: least the day before.
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  Speaker 3: So, so everybody will, will know at least by Friday,
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  Speaker 3: maybe tomorrow, if we're going to have to cancel. And
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  Speaker 3: then if, if we were able to reschedule, we'll look
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  Speaker 3: into that as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, keep your, your eyes on there. We'll keep
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  Speaker 1: our fingers crossed with you. Uh, but no matter what,
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  Speaker 1: you know, with, uh, officers like Brad here and others
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  Speaker 1: at the DPD that, uh, It's never the last community event.
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  Speaker 1: They're always involved in so much. I love the calls
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  Speaker 1: of the cops during the summertime, the water gun fights,
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  Speaker 1: you guys out at touch-a-truck events, just everything. It's definitely
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  Speaker 1: not the last one, and I'm glad that folks like you, Brad,
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  Speaker 1: are here kind of guiding that helm. And I'm sure
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  Speaker 1: I'll be speaking to you about the 20th cops and
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  Speaker 1: bobbers when it comes up. I'm not going anywhere, and
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  Speaker 1: it sounds like you aren't either.
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  Speaker 3: We'll have it be bigger and better next year, then,
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  Speaker 3: if for some reason, like I said, the weather holds
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  Speaker 3: us back this year.
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  Speaker 1: Love it. Thank you for coming in, Brad, and for
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  Speaker 1: everything that you and the DPD do for our community,
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  Speaker 1: not just keeping the streets safe, but for events like
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  Speaker 1: this for the kids. We thank you for your service.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.