Latest / APD Pod Squad / Episode 25; Chief Mike Lamb, Sgt. Ricardo Martinez, SPO Preston Grondahl, Sgt. Lucas Lovelace, and The History Minute with Hannah Silberman

Transcript

Episode 25; Chief Mike Lamb, Sgt. Ricardo Martinez, SPO Preston Grondahl, Sgt. Lucas Lovelace, and The History Minute with Hannah Silberman · APD Pod Squad

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_05: This is the APD Pop Squad.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_05: In este episodio, me acompaña el Sargento Ricardo Martinez.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_05: Translation on this episode, I'll be joined by Sergeant Ricardo Martinez.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_05: Born in Spain, so trying to make him feel welcome.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_05: Please don't ask me to stay anymore in Espanol.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_05: My Spanish isn't as good as it used to be.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_05: Sergeant Martinez is part of the recruitment and career development section, and his hard work is one of the reasons that staffing numbers are looking up.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_05: We'll be getting to know Senior Police Officer Preston Grondel, who recently returned to the APD after a few years away.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_05: He also happens to be left-handed.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_05: Why is that important?
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_05: With International Left Handers Day on August 13th, he seemed like an obvious choice to be against.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_05: Chief Mike Lamb will chime in on recruitment, the in-house academy, and career ladder benefits in the History Minute with Hannah Silberman, a police chief with quite the resume.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_05: One that included being a World War I veteran and a wrestling star.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_05: Looking forward to hearing more about that.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_05: And with the fall edition of the Citizens Police Academy, just around the corner, Sergeant Lucas Lovelace with the Community Engagement Division shares everything you need to know about that.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: When it starts, how to get signed up, and who's providing dinner.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_05: Getting to know Sergeant Ricardo Martinez, thanks for joining me here in the podcasting studio.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Sure thing.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_05: Usually you join me in our little office pod area.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_05: All that is changing soon.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_05: You're going up to the fourth floor.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_05: I stay in the third floor.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_05: I get a bigger office.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_05: I'm pretty excited, but I'm gonna miss you being part of my uh little area, my little, I guess, not quite roommate.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_05: I would call it pod mate.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_05: Are we a pod?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_05: Pod, we're a pod.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_05: So I needed to get you in here because, and we talk frequently and I've enjoyed getting to know you, that I know that your time with the Asheville Police Department is kind of winding down.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_05: So let's start with that.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_05: What year did you start with APD?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Started in January of ninety-nine.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: January of nineteen ninety-nine.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're back in the Lamb days.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, uh Lamb was a class before me at B L E T, I believe.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_05: Now I know you've worn a lot of hats uh when you've been here.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_05: Like a lot of folks that have been here for 20, 25 years, different departments, different duties.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about some of them.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_05: I know that you were a detective at one point.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was in CID for uh I believe it was six or seven years.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Back in the late 2000s, 2007, I think, is when I started there.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I I did uh general assignment and the last four years I spent uh being a partner to Tony Johnson in computer crimes, ICAT crimes and part of a task force with the FBI and what have you.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_05: You were also on ERT at some point?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_05: Is that why you were a detective?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was before that.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Before that, I spent five years, about five years on the team.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_05: So most recently you have been a, I guess they would call this full-time recruiter.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_05: Is that appropriate description?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_05: And I think you are the first one the APD has had, if not ever, then certainly in a long time, part of our efforts to get our staffing levels back up.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: I believe that's correct.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that that is my full-time job now, and I focus on just trying to get people to come and apply with a department, and then they go to Sergeant Morgan into the hiring side of the house.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_05: Is that something you've enjoyed?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a very important job at this point.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_05: COVID and Floyd, uh, the riots that occurred here in Asheville and all of that.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_05: At that point, we got down to almost 50 percent, a little bit above 50 percent of our staffing, I think is what we had at that point.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_05: And now we have fought ever since to slowly get those numbers back up.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_05: Now, our current class that just graduated from B L E T was 15.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_05: And they're currently uh undergoing field training.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_05: I think that starts actually like right now, doesn't it?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_05: They've been in classwork for a while.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_05: I think you're correct.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_05: So they're feel they're doing FTO stuff uh until probably the about the end of the year, I would guess, right?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_05: Give or take.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_05: So we have another class about to begin, and this is exciting.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_05: Asheville's first in-house police academy since 2013.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_05: A class of 21 and 21 people that I'm guessing you know pretty well.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's uh uh played some part in bringing some of them to where they are now, which is great.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: So just to back up just a little bit, back in uh 2020, I was uh road sergeant and I was slotted nine officers to come to work every day.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And during that time, I had on most days three, if I was lucky, four people come to work.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: So not to say that that was a dangerous situation, and I'm I'm very pleased that it's getting better for the people that are doing that job now.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_05: The more police on the street, the better it is for the community, the safer it's going to be.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_05: It's simple cause and effect, really, at the end of the day.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_05: True.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_05: So we have a pretty diverse incoming group like we have here as already a member of the Asheville Police Department.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we've got men, we've got women, we've got some younger folks, we've got some older folks.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_05: What are you seeing as you're recruiting people in your many different ways?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_05: I know you go to recruiting fairs and we've got a recruiting service, a company that we pay, and and all that you're seeing, the interest for the Asheville Police Department, you've seen it go up, you've seen it increase.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: And technology helps with that because you know, we're relying on a company that feeds us leads, we're relying on advertisement.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're seeing people from Facebook, from LinkedIn, people from different places.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: We get a lot of people from Florida with interest, we get a lot of people from uh the Northeast with interest, and also from the central part of the country.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's pretty comprehensive where we're seeing that people are interested in coming to work for us with us.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: We have uh a lot of people that uh don't know where Asheville is, so that's that's uh uh you know, they're they're clicking on on jobs for different reasons and and then they become interested because it's not as hot here as uh as in other places of the of the state.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of reasons why people are interested, but we're happy to see that that interest is rising.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_05: Have you seen the new pay structure, the career ladder contribute in any way?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_05: Has anyone mentioned that?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, hey, I like what you guys are doing there, the new system you've got.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I have not had many comments on that yet, because it's so new.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm sure that that's gonna make a difference when I'm able to tell them that they're gonna make more money.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_05: All right, we got a class of 21 starting, let's just say right now.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_05: We're recruiting, you're recruiting for the next class after that, I would imagine.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_05: Uh that would start in in January, I would guess.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_05: Potentially somewhere between January and March.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, do we have any idea what kind of number might we might get for that?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully more than 21.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, are we on pace?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: I would say that the pace is not slowed down.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um we use a company called Safeguard that provides leads for us, and they they're able to automate things in a way that uh uses technology to better utilize my position.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: We have an intern that's pretty constant, but um having more people is always better.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that utilization of technology by by Safeguard helps us reach more people.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we of course make contact with them if we're able to and expand on their interest and hopefully make them a candidate to to come and apply and get hired.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: Getting to know Sergeant Ricardo Martinez, you might have noticed from his accent, there's a little something in there, a little Spanish, right?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_05: So two of the questions we always ask people that sit down for the first time, and you are a first timer, is where were you born?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_05: And something that we don't know about you, so where were you born?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was born in Madrid, in the capital of Spain.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my father and his family are longtime residents over many decades of the city.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: I lived in Spain for several years from the age of four and a half until I was 17 and I returned to the United States where where my mom is from.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_05: Obviously, Spain, Europe, all of that culture is very different.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_05: What's the biggest difference in in somewhere like Spain, like Madrid, which is a large city, of course, and like Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_05: What's the biggest thing that jumps out to you?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, is it is it literally what it looks like or how people behave?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_05: What's the what's the biggest difference?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_05: The food?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, all of that, I guess.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Pace of life is definitely different.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little slower.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_05: Things people say the south is slower than, say, the north.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_05: So you take it down a notch from there, talk about Spain.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, things are not quite as important.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they have a little bit more fun, I would say, uh, in life.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: For me, one of the things I enjoy the most when I go back and visit is the food.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: I miss the Spanish food.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_05: Can you get anything like it here, like currently or somewhere like that?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, cuda to downtown Asheville is definitely a very authentic uh option.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, and there's some websites from which you can buy authentic Spanish food.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: But uh yes, uh the food is what I miss the most.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_05: Talk to me about siestas, because uh that's a real thing, which I learned uh, you know, I I took three years of Spanish, right, in high school, and I always talk about the siesta and how it's like legit.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_05: I got a buddy that lives down in Bufort area, right?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_05: And he's got some guys that are I'm not sure exactly where they're from, but as you can imagine, they're dead laborers, and so they're working on his deck.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_05: He texted me once that my guys just stopped working and laid down in the driveway for a siesta.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_05: And so right there in the middle of the day, they just fell asleep in the driveway for like 30 to 45 minutes, and then they woke up and went right back to work.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Very common, still very common in Spain.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, a lot of the uh the work day is divided.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a lot of people start work, say at nine o'clock, they stop at one, they go home or go out and eat, and then they'll take, like you said, a 20, 30, 40 minute siesta, and then they'll go back to work and they'll work from three to six, seven, depending on what their schedule is.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: My brother still does that.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_05: I I'm here to vouch for the rejuvenative powers of that, because as a former morning radio show host, I would wake up at 3 30.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_05: Every day when I'd come home around some days noon, some days one, I would eat lunch and then fall asleep legit for 30, 45 minutes, sometimes longer, and I would wake up like a new man and it and I'd go on with the rest of my day, go to the gym, do the thing.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_05: But if without that, oh, I was useless.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, totally.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's yeah, it it the American work schedule is not very conducive to being able to do that, but it it it works.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_05: So born in Madrid, Spain, lived there until your teens, what brought you to the States?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, a number of circumstances I just I needed a refresh, I guess, when I was uh rowdy 17-year-old.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I my mom has family in the States, so I came I came to finish high school, start college, and all that here.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_05: And what brought you to the Asheville Police Department and policing in general, law enforcement?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: I moved to Asheville in ninety-six and uh yes, started looking for law enforcement jobs and uh landed it in Asheville.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have it in your family, like in your family history where it was something you saw you were exposed to growing up, or I think that I had a great great grandfather that was a police officer in the railroad system in the northwest of Spain.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: I believe that to be true.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be back in the Democratic.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Great, great.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_05: You're talking like what, 1800s?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah, a long time ago.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_05: Wow, things were different then.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: I was my brother did a stint in the police in uh a city called Salo in Spain.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: But other than that, yeah, we're I believe we're the only two that are you know direct family of mine that that have been in law enforcement.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_05: So of all the things you've done, and we mentioned some of the things earlier, is there a certain area that was really just kind of your jam that you gravitated towards?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_05: You look back at it as like that was really my thing.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I really enjoyed my time in CID being a detective and especially focusing on computer crimes.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: We got to hopefully help a lot of kids uh being part of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force with the FBI.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: That was uh a a good stint.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I really truly enjoyed being just being a a patrol sergeant, being able to help these kids come up in in what's not uh so much of easy times in in the police world and give them whatever whatever little wisdom I have just to be able to impart that and direct them and have a part in their upbringing.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: That was that was a lot of fun.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_05: Let me ask the second question now.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_05: One thing that most people don't know about you.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: I've struggled with this one, but I think I came down to I I hold a real estate license and I intend to perhaps utilize it once I retire.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_05: So there must have been a reason for you to acquire the license.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_05: What what would have that been?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my wife is uh a realtor, and uh I just enjoyed watching the interactions with people that she has and during COVID when things were a little bit slower.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: I can't say I was really bored, but I utilized the time to to acquire my license.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_05: So no plans on being the next married couple realtors on HGTV or nothing like that.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't think we'll work.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: She's way more established than I think I ever want to be.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_05: Did you enjoy getting it?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, was it difficult?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was hard, yes.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's it's they say the North Carolina portion of the test is hardest in the country.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, it was not easy, but it's also a topic that I'm really interested in, so I found it less hard to study.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_05: So you anticipate actually using it as like a profession when you're done here?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_05: Because you're wrapping things up pretty soon here.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, perhaps.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Perhaps.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure yet.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm also very interested in photography, videography.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: I have a distant past in that.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, we'll see what comes.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_05: And you've been a drone operator lately, been training for that.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm a bit of a novice in that, but I I definitely have an interest in trying to acquire some more hours of experience and get better at it.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_05: Because I know a lot of our drone operators are uh either retired, APD, they come back and work in that capacity.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_05: That's quite possible.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_05: That's something you could do.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's something I could do.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Options are always good.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_05: Good to have options.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_05: Right?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_05: So we talked about your time winding down.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_05: I know a lot of folks like yourself, they got it down to the the month, the day, the hour.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_05: Do you have a a date yet?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: I do not have a counter on my screen.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my projected date should be around the beginning of August, as I turn the uh magical age of 55 on in in July.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we're talking next August?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Next August.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_05: Next August.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_05: Next August.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_05: So like one year left.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_05: One year left.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_05: One year left.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that's kind of cool, right?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_05: I mean to to see yourself not only winding down one career, but then the the thoughts in your brains, like what's next?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I still love coming to work here.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's this has been a rewarding job for almost 30 years, and uh that's important.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: It counts for something.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_05: Well, and you get a window for your last year, too, because we're about to move a whole bunch of offices around here.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_05: It appears that way.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_05: And so you you get a window, you get to get to see out into the world for the final year of your service.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, that'll be nice.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_05: Now, if you could uh do one thing differently, one thing that you haven't done within the APD, and obviously probably not enough time to do that, is there something that you wish maybe you uh a direction you would have gone?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: No, I truly think I did try to promote further than where I am, and I didn't I didn't get there.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm happy that I didn't because I've I've realized that um I'm in a good spot.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've done the things that I wanted to do.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Our agency is large enough where I've been afforded the opportunity to, like you said, wear many different hats throughout my tenure here.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um I'm pretty pleased with what I've done, where I've been, and um the relationships that I've made and the difference that I've made.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I wouldn't say that I would do many things differently.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_05: My uh Spanish teacher, I hasn't I nobody has called me Ricardo in a long time, but with the name of Rick, when I was back in the day, high school learning Spanish and even teaching it to some elementary school.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_05: I can't remember anything, by the way.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_05: Don't start speaking Spanish on me because I got nothing for that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_05: But I was Ricardo Arroz.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_05: Very good.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_05: It's I could even roll the R's.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_05: Can you can you get that's all I could that's all I got, though.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_05: That's it.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_05: Three years of Spanish, I could tell you the house is blue and where's the bathroom?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_05: And that's if you don't use it, you lose it.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_05: Is there any other languages that you do?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: I understand Catalan, which is um a dialect of Spanish in the uh northeast of the country.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little complex to speak for me at this point.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell How big is the difference between uh the language that you grew up learning using, and even say let's let's say South America and all those countries down there in Mexico and El Salvador and Portugal and all of those.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_05: Is is there a huge difference or can you understand it?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can understand it fairly well.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there are some countries, and don't ask me which, but they have a much thicker, I would say, accent, but it's really not an accent, it's just different.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: They use different words and different modisms as they speak, and some are harder to understand than others, but for the most part, I can I can get around.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you could look at the difference between, say, the United States and England, you know, the old the Queen's English type thing, and they think we've completely ruined their language, if you ask them.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_05: So uh we think we've improved it.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_05: But I don't know.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm kind of leaning toward England, actually.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_05: Some of the words I don't understand happen with the kids these days.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_05: But Sergeant Ricardo Martinez, thank you so much for sitting down with us.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_05: I know you were nervous, you're like, well, you're gonna give me my questions in advance, you're gonna and you did just fine.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_05: See?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_05: My pleasure.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_05: Getting to know Senior Police Officer Preston Grundel.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome to the podcast studio.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_05: So you got uh like a brace on your wrist.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_05: On your left wrist, and your, it's my understanding, left-handed.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_05: So this has been a problem.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_04: A little bit, yeah.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, just in time for International Left Handers Day.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_04: So you know all about it.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean you'd be celebrating, right?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, certainly.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it's actually funny because you know I write left-handed, but uh almost everything else I shoot right-handed, I bowl right-handed, I throw right-handed, I'm ambidextrous with a baseball bat.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: So the wires got crossed a little bit.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_04: I'm even right-eye dominant, actually.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm kind of the same way.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm right-handed with most things, but when it comes to baseball, softball, I bat lefty.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_05: And in golf, I don't hit lefty, I hit righty, but I'm right-handed.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's like I got different things going on.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_05: It's the lefty baseball thing that throws some people.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_05: It's like most people that bat from the left side, the left-handed, are left-handers.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm not.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_05: I'm the opposite.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_05: So there you go.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_05: So it's just God's got a good sense of humor.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_05: So how did you hurt your uh your wrist, your hand?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_04: Uh well, uh there's an old saying with grandals that like if we didn't have bad luck, we wouldn't have luck at all.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but it was like my second night.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_04: I'm actually just coming back to APD, and my second night of patrol, we ended up getting a foot chase and had to tackle a guy, and you know, there's a whole thing.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_04: I don't remember exactly what happened, but I have a good idea now.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I stood up and I was like, dang, my finger is killing me.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: I think I, you know, maybe jammed it or something.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: And then as time went on and that adrenaline dump kind of wears off, I was like, actually my whole hand hurts.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_04: And then uh yeah, I was typing up reports, having issues with that and everything, because anytime you get in a foot chase and you have to tackle somebody, there's extra reports to be done.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_04: And uh so I thought, you know, maybe I sprained it pretty good or pulled something and uh ended up going to get it checked out and I had fractures.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh geez.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_05: So how much longer you gotta wear that thing?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_04: And uh unfortunately I found out yesterday that it's gonna be two more weeks on top of the two weeks that I've already waited, and you know, I'm ready to just go to work.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_04: So having to sit around and wait just I mean you just got back.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_04: You kind of realize how important your hands are in this line of work.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_04: Kind of big.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_05: Kind of big.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_05: And so two reasons really that I invited you in here.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_05: One is because of, well, international left-handers coming up on August 13th.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_05: Celebrate how you will with uh Flanders out there, Bum Diddley D with the left-hander, or the leftorium, the the straight, you know, with Ned Flanders and the Simpsons.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_05: And that's one reason I invited you in here because you are left-handed.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, the other is because of your saga of sorts.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_05: You're were an APD officer, right?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_05: Left, and have returned.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_05: And we're seeing a few of these returnees.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_05: And it's all part of the uh the growth of our staffing numbers, which is a good story to tell.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_05: So let's go back to the beginning with you and joining the APD the first time.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_05: So what year was that?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_04: That was back in 2017.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_04: I was 23 at the time.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_04: Just a kid.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, just a kid.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_04: Got sworn in.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_04: So started January 3rd, went to the academy, swore in about August that year, and uh hit patrol.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_04: I was working in the downtown area, ended up working on the downtown unit for a short period of time, did crowd control, bike patrol, and then um became a field training officer also.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_04: Did some training, um, dealt with the crowd control stuff back in 2020, and then it was about that time, you know, there was nobody really knew what was going on in the country.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_04: And um I ended up going over to Canton uh for a time because they had an opportunity for uh school resource officer, and I had gotten injured during the riots, and uh at the time, you know, for me, there's like a certain expectation that I had on myself to perform at a level that you need to, especially in the city of Asheville, because there's wild stuff that happens all the time.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: Because my back injury, I didn't really feel like I was able to.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I thought, you know, being an SRO would be a great opportunity to kind of stay in law enforcement uh because I'd already invested so much time into it.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_04: You know, kind of take it a little bit easier, explore like a different avenue in it.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_04: Really good for me career-wise, because I learned so much.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_04: They didn't really have much of an SRO thing going on at the time.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, as a matter of fact, there was a brief period of time where I was the only SRO in the town.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um and then eventually we started getting more officers in that were interested about it.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_04: And uh with that, they kind of handed me the reins and I was kind of running the show over there for a while.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, as far as the schools go.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, knowledge is power.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_05: So anytime you you go to not only a different department, you know, different organization, different agency, but you go to a different position within that agency, you're learning things.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_05: You know, how different how different agencies do things, for example.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_05: What are what is their process and this job in particular?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_05: So you got a chance to learn a different agency's processes and a different job.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's a big part of me coming back, is that you You know, d I don't think there's any such thing as accidents when you make decisions in your life.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know, coming back, I don't feel like I would be the officer that I am today h had I not made those decisions.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_04: I would probably be on some other path in the department right now if I would have stayed.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_04: But um I learned a lot of good things that I do not regret.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: And then coming back, being able to bring that to the table, hopefully, I think will be pretty useful.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_04: Did did you live out in Haywood County or do you live out in Haywood County?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um I do, yeah.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, I'm actually close to the end.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, that's where my family's at and everything.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_04: And uh me my girlfriend and I, we live pretty close to the edge of Haywood County, uh almost going back into Leicester and stuff like that.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_04: But all right, okay.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: Cool little area.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: It's quiet.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_04: Living up a mountain is kind of interesting, you know, especially bears and all that kind of stuff.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, I just having that private nature, man.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, it's great.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_05: So it what was the decision and when did you start thinking about returning to the APD?
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, it's not to like knock an agency or anything like that, because um, I think everyone's out there doing the best that they can.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I guess when you get this position where you have kids in your life, like as a guy, your whole mentality shifts, like, okay, I'm not this like running gunning cowboy anymore.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: I gotta, you know, people that expect me to be home at some point in time, right?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I gotta worry about my family and everything.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: There's just some situations where, man, I'd I'd get into a car chase or something wild and didn't really have as many resources.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_04: And that's a big thing with APD, is like you got resources, man.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_04: Just before I left Canton, like we had to work a pretty serious case and things that you'd call a detective out for, you know.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_04: And uh sometimes you're just the guy that has to deal with it out there.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_04: So it's got its good and bad, you know.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like you learn a lot because sometimes you're just the guy that's gotta deal with the thing.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_04: But um, you know, outside of that, it's really good to be back and some of that stress has kind of taken off a little bit.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_05: Did the new pay scale career ladder that they established anything to do with your returning to APD at all?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_05: When you saw that, you did you see that and you have you know where that goes?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I'll be honest with you, I kind of knew just coming back, figuratively speaking, like APD is a bigger agency, so by default you're gonna make more money.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't really know about the like pay scale change, so I was kind of floored to find out about that.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_04: So the reality's still kind of setting in.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, I it wasn't necessarily I didn't really come back for the money.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_04: It was I came back for the camaraderie, like having resources and actually, you know, having some help, you know, whenever you're going to some of these crazy calls.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_04: Because it doesn't matter what agency you go to, a lot of folks will say, oh, the grass is greener on the other side, but you're still gonna deal with the same stuff that you would deal with at any other agency.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_04: The frequency might be tuned down a little bit low, but um no, you're still gonna be dealing with all that same stuff.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_04: So that was kind of a big reason why I came back, was more of that rather than the money was kind of like a afterwards surprise sort of thing.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's nice.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_05: Were there some officers that you were friends with previous that are still here that you got to kind of reunite with?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, actually, um, some of the guys that I used to work with on the team before I left, like Ann Aiken and um Shane Ball, um, Stroop, and then uh some of the fellows that I used to work with in Charlie District, Begley and Mike Sorensen and all them, yeah.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: So Begley is another one that went away and came back.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_05: I I stole him from APD for a little bit.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_05: Is that right?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, I see how you are.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_05: Getting to know senior police officer Preston Grondel.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_05: The questions that we always ask, anyone that sits down here, of course, is where were you born and something about you that most people don't know.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_05: We'll start with the easy one.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: Where were you born?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_04: I was born in Staples, Minnesota.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's a little town in uh Wadena County.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_04: It's like mid-state.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_04: That doesn't help anyone.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um give me an idea.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's about I mean Minneapolis is it.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_05: That's uh Minneapolis-St.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_05: Paul.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: When you come to Minnesota, that's about it.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_04: About three and a half hours away from Minneapolis, like northwest.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_05: Well, of course, unless you're a fan of Prince, then you would what Lake Winnatonka, I guess, is the area there.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_05: But uh now, from what I understand, from people that have lived in Minnesota, as long as you don't mind the cold, and now I'm from Buffalo, so I get that.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_05: As long as you don't mind the cold, I understand it's beautiful.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_04: It it's great.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_04: You know, fishing, uh, you can burn yourself out with fishing, deer hunting if you're like a big game hunter type thing, you know, that's you're huge.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of wilderness, a lot of all that stuff.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, you'll see a dead possum on the side of the road down here, and up there, it's like that's what it is with the deer.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like they're just all over the place.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, no, like fishing, all that stuff.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_04: The the big thing that people don't know though is uh out in the country a lot, it gets insanely hot in the summer and it gets insanely cold in the winter.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like you almost don't get used to either or.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: Like I remember growing up and you know, hearing it would be like over a hundred degrees in the summertime for the two months of summer that we got, and then it starts snowing in August.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I remember uh the year that my family left, I think we had a bad snowstorm come through and it hit like negative 80 with wind chill.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_04: Oof.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_04: Nuts, absolutely nuts.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, so we didn't get the extreme cold in Buffalo, we got the snowfall growing up.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_05: So it would get cold, and make no mistake, colder than most other places, but not like not like Minneapolis, Minnesota, and all that.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_05: All that that whole kind of Midwest cold is a different type of cold.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_05: I I I never got that far north.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_05: I was Joplin, Missouri, which is as far west as I went.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_05: But it was almost a different type of cold even there in the winter.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_05: It's the humidity.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_05: It just it feels colder in a weird way.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_04: So uh what took you and your family from there?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: I was still just a little guy when we moved.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, my mom, her my granddad on her side, uh, he actually used to own a little body shop downtown Asheville.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: That's actually where Asheville Pizza and Brewing is.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um The one on Cox Avenue?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_04: And uh it was called City Body and Paint.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, absolutely.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, I know where they're that was his uh little shop, and then you know he kind of helped out with the transmission shop.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_04: They'd kind of throw business back.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_05: Well, if you look at the building right now, it looks like it should be that type of a business.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, honestly, to see the big awning and everything and all that.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_04: To see like them selling food there now and like the stuff that I used to see at the body shop.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like really glad they cleaned it up.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure they didn't.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_05: No, deep clean, deep clean, I'm sure.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like mice and they're like, that didn't happen.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure it's not the case now, but back then, yeah.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: It was it wasn't unheard of to see that.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_04: But uh yeah, it was a big poll, like um just having the I guess familial resource.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_04: We got moved down and uh just been here ever since.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_05: I can't help but notice you got arm sleeve tattoos.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_05: Now, on your left arm though, those are a lot of music notes.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_04: So what's that all about?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_04: This is actually the fun fact about me.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_04: So great, let's transition right into that.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_04: So I used to uh play in a band before I decided to grow up, but um, we never did anything super huge.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_04: It was just a bunch of kids having fun.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_04: But uh my granddad's favorite song, he was a pretty big influence on my life, and uh he was huge supportive of me like doing all the music and art stuff.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_04: And his favorite song was What a Wonderful World by Lou Armstrong.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: Oh so uh when he passed away, uh he passed away, excuse me.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um I got the Taurus sheet music for the piano uh worked into the sleeve, yeah.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_04: So that's an actual song on there, not just random notes.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_05: Well, if you're not in any sort of formal like pattern, but but so somebody could come along and just what a wonderful Maybe not, but has anyone recognized it ever?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_04: Uh no.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um after I've told someone that they've taken a look at it and they were like, oh wow, actually, yeah.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_05: See, I'm not a musician, so I would never have known that was anything but I I see the notes, of course, but I I don't know.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_05: I played music, like, but when I played music on the radio, I put push one button was the whole start.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_05: And then the song starts, and that's that's the end of my works.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh what instrument did you play?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_04: I was a little bit of a mixed bag.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_04: I started out playing bass guitar.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_04: We played heavy metal music, and at the time my buddies and that whole like Christian Bale Batman had come out, right?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: I was just goofing around one day and I was trying to like mimic his voice, and they were like, actually, if you push your voice a little bit harder, you'll be able to do all those like heavy metal screams.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, okay.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_04: And so I did, and then I became their like lead vocalist for a minute.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_04: Christian Bale, that whole thing.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_05: And then you start getting turned, and then you use that as turn it up a little bit.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was like heavy metal screaming, and then I'm like a terrible singer.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um well, you don't need to be a good singer and have and people don't care about the lyrics, they just like always yelling at me.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_05: This is cool.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_05: Falk out.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_05: So a lot of great bassists over time.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_05: Paul McCartney was a bassist.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I was not I wasn't a heavy metal guy as much.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_05: Gene Simmons.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: Gene Simmons was uh uh what's his name from Rush, bass guitarist and singer.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_05: Getty Lee.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_05: He's yeah, I grew up on the border of Canada, and that they're the Rush is a Canadian icon, so it's kind of uh so one of the little things that a lot of people don't realize is the Canadian radio has to play a certain percentage of Canadian artists.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, okay.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_05: What radio station you are, yeah, a percentage of your artist has to be Canadian.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_05: So you're gonna get a lot of Brian Adams, yeah, a lot of Celine Dion, a lot of Rush, yeah.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_05: All those bands, and there's not a ton of them.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you gotta play Canadian artists.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_05: So I grew up in the border listening to some Toronto radio stations and things like that.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_05: So I heard a lot of rush growing up, and of course you heard Brian Adams.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_05: That's much Celine Dion.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_05: That was a little bit a little bit a different station, though.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you're probably right.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_05: There's probably plenty of it, just not on me.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_05: So you play music at all anymore, or just kind of get it.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_04: I I dabble with uh I'm trying to learn a guitar, except right now with the wing.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I got that.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_04: So I got a uh semi-hollow body um like ES335 type guitar.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um play a little bit of everything with that sort of thing, and I just I dabble with it.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we need to get an APD band then.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_04: So who else here would play an instrument that you know?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: Oh man, there's a few guys.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, we got like 150 people here, right?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_04: It's good, you've got to be somebody, something.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_04: I mean it's funny.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um way back when uh we played a few shows together.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um he was in a different group, but Spencer Brunkhorse.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah, he uh he plays music.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_04: He used to have a band and everything too.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, so you know we're having a 150th anniversary party in the fall, right?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's in September or October.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_05: So you've got that much time to get a band together.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_05: So you plenty of time, right?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_05: Couple of guys, a few practices.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, just get out there and play Smoke on the Water or something.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_04: Easy or something.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_05: I'll be in the back on Freebird.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, there we go.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_05: How about that?
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_05: All right, appreciate you.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_05: Senior police officer Preston Grondel.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_05: By the way, before we go and don't take this the wrong way, has anyone ever said your last name belongs like in like uh Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, like one of their characters?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I get the joke all the time.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um in Haywood County, people are like, I can't pronounce that, so they call me Gandalf at the police department.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_04: Not the only one.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then um it's actually Norwegian, uh means Green Green Valley in Norse.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_05: Green Valley.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_05: Perfect.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that makes perfect sense because that's who settled in Minnesota.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's uh the Norse.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_05: That was the uh matter of fact, the the Norsemen was the original uh mascot for the Minnesota hockey team before they were the North Stars.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_05: Gotcha.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_05: They were the Norsemen.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_05: So there you go.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_05: Very cool.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_05: Huge hockey fan over here.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_05: I would imagine you would be at least a little bit of one growing up there.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_05: I was more of the martial artist in the family than anything.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that can come in handy in hockey.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_05: I think so.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_05: They throw it on once in a while like that.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much for sitting down with me.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_05: I appreciate it.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_05: Not a problem at all.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_05: Chief Mike Lamb joins me now.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_05: Chief, you just heard us talking with Sergeant Ricardo Martinez and senior police officer Preston Grondel on a variety of subjects, getting to know them and discussing recruiting and the career ladder and the new in-house academy, the first Asheville Police Department in-house academy since 2013 with a class of 21.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_05: Let's start there because we're seeing those recruits in the hallways every day.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are, yeah.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's nice to see the uh 21 recruits that are wandering throughout the agency, doing different things, helping out.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: We had National Night Out recently, and some of the recruits even showed up in the different neighborhoods for National Night Out.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really showing their their dedication towards the agency.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it is wonderful to have them back and have an in-house academy that is back at the Asheville Police Department.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: We had an in-house academy from 2005 to 2013.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, those are a dedicated group of officers, everyone who was part of that in-house academy as the years progressed.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is because when we look back at the officers who had resigned during the, you know, post-2020 and and uh the few years after that, the bigger percentage of those were ones that did not go through the in-house academy.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we see folks that when they go through the in-house academy, they're more familiar with the culture, the mission, um, and they're also more, you know, attuned with the agency and dedicated as well.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_05: I'm happy to report, and I know you missed this uh Spartan race, you were out of town for it.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_05: But we had several of the recruits, maybe six or seven, that raced as a group with APD.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm here to tell you, they raced together, they supported each other, and that's a great start for them.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: It is, you know, they uh and I love to see the teamwork within that group and that you know they they have a no man left behind philosophy because that uh is really what we need within the police department is that, you know, that they were working with each other to get through each obstacle.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: If one, you know, got the penalty, then they all did the penalty.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and really taking that teamwork approach because, you know, having that teamwork approach, um not only within the agency, but also teamwork with our community is what really helps make the community safer.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_05: Another way we're adding to our ranks is lateral transfers.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_05: And we talked with Officer Grondel about that.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_05: He is one of those, although he was here before, but came from another agency after he tried something else out, so he's back.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great to have Preston back because he he was a great officer when he was here, and it's so wonderful to have him back at the agency.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Last place he worked was downtown in Charlie District, uh, when I was the district commander there.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just had a great work ethic, uh, built great relationships with the community.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's great to have him and also uh another officer, Travis Dyke, who was a former APD officer that came back.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Good to have him back as well.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we're also getting inquiries from other officers that that want to come back to the department.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: And our pay ladder has really helped to incentivize folks to come back.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we also hear they're coming back because of the the culture of the department, the morale is higher in the agency.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the officers feel more supported, not only from within, but also uh from the community as well.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's different community community organizations and and uh public officials, elected officials that are showing a lot more support for the department.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: But with the pay ladder, um, we now can recognize an officer's experience, whether they were with APD or with another agency, and we can bring them in at a higher rate of pay depending on their years of service.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: So they can come in as an officer or a senior police officer, then there's senior police officer level two after that, or SPO two, and then master police officer, and then master police officer two.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: A recent hire is Travis Dyke, and Travis came in with 20 years of experience.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so he automatically went to the master police officer two level and the increased pay that's associated with that.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: But we not only have the career ladder, we also have the incentives that draw people here as well.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, an example of that is um, you know, you get anywhere from a three to five percent, depending on your education level.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're on a specialty team, you get an additional three percent pay.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you work night shift, you get an additional two dollars an hour.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're on a specialty team or on call uh for the department, that's thirty dollars a day that you get.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then our secondary employment or ex or off-duty employment is a higher level than I've than I've ever seen in the last uh almost 28 years that I've been here.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we're doing a lot of good things that are really drawing a lot of good talent to the police department or back to the police department.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_05: And all those things you mentioned, they all add up.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_05: And it's it all adds up to more recruits and more transfers and larger numbers, which is good for the community.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_05: It means more officers on the streets, which means safer streets.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Having more officers on the street, having more recruits coming in definitely uh, you know, helps with public safety.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when we look at 2020 and the resignations that happened, we had to stop answering certain calls for service.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: So there were we wouldn't go to cold calls anymore.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, example, if somebody had a larceny or a damage to property, if it wasn't in progress or and there was not a suspect on scene, you know, we had to stop going to those calls.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with trespassing calls where folks would not willing to prosecute.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Those types of calls we couldn't go to anymore because we had to be able to have enough officers spread out across the city to answer 911 calls for service.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then we also had to disband a couple of units.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: For example, we had to disband our traffic safety unit, our public housing unit, our downtown unit.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Those units had to go back to patrol because again, it's the the most important thing is that we have to be able to answer a 911 call.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: When someone says somebody's actively actively breaking into my house, that we have to have an officer that can respond to that and the response time be quick.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to look at our response times and see what calls we had to discontinue going on so that we could keep that level of customer service.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: So with officers coming back, with us able to um increase our recruiting efforts and have more new recruits, we're able to, you know, start going to more calls, offer a better level of customer service, and start to bring back our specialty units.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, an example of that is our traffic safety unit that we are we are in the process of filling right now.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so important for us to bring back traffic safety because of the number, a record number of fatalities we've had over the last two to three years.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we know I know for at least the last two years we've broke records on motor vehicle collision fatalities.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: So having TSU back, uh it'll enable better investigation for those crashes.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: But most importantly, those uh that unit will be able to do more speed enforcement, more reckless driving enforcement, and be able to rein in those dangerous driving behaviors.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_05: All this is good news for the community in the Asheville Police Department.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_05: So thank you, Chief Lamb, for joining us once again.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you, Rick.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_05: It's time for another History Minute with Hannah Silberman, something I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this year.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you again for sharing the the great history of the Asheville Police Department with us, Hannah.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_05: So what do you have for us today?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_06: So I have an interesting story about a member of our department.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_06: In the 1900s, we had a member of our department named James McIntosh.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_05: Got it.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_06: And in 1916, a competition developed between the Asheville Police Department and the fire department.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_05: So we have competitions now.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_05: We have the uh the what's it, the tug something where you pull the fire truck and it's like a strength.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_05: So we get tip tug, exactly.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_05: So what was that competition?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_06: So we have traditionally battled them on the baseball field as well.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_06: I will say in the 50s we had a team called the Strong Arm of the Law, which I'm kind of a big fan of.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_06: But in the 1916, James McIntosh was a big man.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_06: They called him Big Mac.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_06: And in fact, his obituary claim to you as a good friend of Thomas Wolfe because they used to wrestle together.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_06: Wrestling.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_06: So he challenges a large fireman to a wrestling competition.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_05: Like high school style, college style wrestling, that type of wrestling.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, like on a mat.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_06: Think about 1960s, 16 strong men.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_05: Tell me more.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_06: This friendly rivalry developed between this fireman whose name I cannot pronounce.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_06: His first name is Adolph.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_06: They battled on the mat on July 4th, 1916, but it ended in a tie, which was very disappointing.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I guess that happens in wrestling, doesn't it?
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I don't I've never been a wrestler, but I guess that can happen based on the points, I suppose.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_06: I think it was it was the best of four or something, and they both got two.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_06: And apparently people at City Hall were invested and there were jokes about who was putting bets on who, and it got a lot of hype.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_06: So a few weeks later, he challenged a heavyweight champion of Asheville to another match, which was gonna take place during Labor Day festivities at Aston Park, which was a big deal.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_06: Um and it was one of the primary attractions.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_06: So and this is like a professional wrestler.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_06: So they went up and they decided that it would be the best of three so that there couldn't be a tie, but eventually Drake won, but it was very, very close.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_05: Here's what I know about wrestling.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_05: It'll wear you out.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_05: I couldn't imagine having three matches against like the same guy.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_05: By the end, you'd be spent.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_06: But let me tell you this between those two matches, James McIntosh rescued a family from the Swannanoa River on July 16th, 1916, during the 1916 flood in Asheville.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_05: That guy had a heck of a little stretch there.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so apparently he jumped into the the river, and there's a quote it said, The big policeman proved his grit and prowess in the water by swimming across the swollen stream to bring the marooned residents across the water.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_06: So he went into these people who were stranded in the middle of the river and made multiple trips back and forth to rescue this family.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_05: So he was a wrestler and a swimmer.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_05: So quite athletic.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_06: And so he was the only police officer that was deployed to World War One, which happened right after those matches.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_06: Um he served in the infantry in France and he became the wrestling champion of the 81st Wildcat Division.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_05: This guy should have like a bronze bust around here somewhere, shouldn't he?
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_06: And he was uh an opera singer, which I would actually put a note as well.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_05: White the Renaissance man.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_06: He's a really interesting guy.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_05: I guess he was.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_05: I would have liked to known Mr.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_05: Mac Macintosh, right?
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_06: Big Mac.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_05: Big Mac.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_05: They named the sandwich after him, can I assume?
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_05: No, I uh well, you know, I'm just throwing that out there.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, so I too have a wrestling story, not the same type of wrestling.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_05: Uh the year was nineteen ninety something.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_05: I was in Joplin, Missouri.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_05: The radio station I was working at was involved in a wrestling event.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_05: Like I say, not that kind of wrestling.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_05: With the WWE style and whatever.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_05: So I was supposed to be the manager of.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_05: For a, I guess they'd call it a midget match.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_05: That's probably not the proper usage anymore, but that was that's what it was at the time.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_05: There were midget wrestlers.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_05: So one of the wrestlers, his name was Little Tokyo.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_05: Some of our listeners will recognize that name.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_05: He was like a famous little wrestler, I guess.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_05: So each team had a regular wrestler and a midget wrestler, and then I was a manager.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_05: So at one point they were supposed to tag me, I was supposed to go in, nothing was supposed to happen, I was supposed to leave.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I go in and Little Tokyo runs at me with his head down, aimed toward, as you would imagine, a sensitive region.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_05: So the first thing I could do is I pushed his head down.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_05: So his head went between my legs and I instantly pile drived him.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_05: Have you seen professional?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_05: You know what that is?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_05: So you drop a guy kind of on their head, and that was not authorized.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_05: I pulled it off perfectly, but I can now say I pile drived a midget.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_05: You're speechless.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not making any of this up.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_05: I'm in the locker room afterwards, and him and the other guy came running up to me.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_05: I thought they were literally gonna kick my butt because it wasn't planned.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_05: And instead, they gave me a hug and a high five.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_05: My life flashed before my eyes at that point.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_06: It's quite a story.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I have a hard time keeping up with you, Hannah.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_05: And that was another the second part was nothing to do with the Asheville Police Department.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_05: But History Minute with Hannah Silberman.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_05: Joining me now to talk everything, Community Engagement, Sergeant Lucas Loveless.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for joining me.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_05: We have got a lot going on right now as summer is winding down.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we do.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: Community engagement is always busy, but right now, uh the big thing coming up is our Citizens Police Academy.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: We are now taking applications for the Citizens Police Academy.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that Captain Brown would love to be here right now to speak on it, but he's put me in his shoes that I can sit here and talk about the Citizens Police Academy.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate that.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we're gonna have a good one, I think.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_05: Already the uh the enrollment is off to a roaring start.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_05: We do have some room left, though.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: Plenty of room left.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_02: We're always willing to make room for folks, but the good thing is we do two a year, too.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_05: That's true.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_05: We wrapped up an amazing spring Citizens Police Academy.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_05: And some people remember last year's fall police academy, the folks that joined it, we know that it was a bit abbreviated because of a certain storm changed all of our lives.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: Changed everybody's life, but we still were able to have, I believe, five weeks of it.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_02: But those folks were shortchanged a little bit.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: So if if they want to sign up again, bring it on.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think they would love to do that.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: But we really are excited.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: Every time we do the Citizens Police Academy, it gets better.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: I have been part of three now.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: It continues to get better each time Captain Brown puts together a great series of days in a row that you can come and learn everything and be immersed into the Asheville Police Department.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, because you know, every time you do another one of these, you'll learn a little something.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_05: You're like, you know what, next time we'll do instead?
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_05: And so they just keep getting better each time.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_05: I know that I've presented twice and the first time was okay, I thought.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_05: Second time, I'm like, I'm gonna change this a little bit up, and it was better.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_05: And so when I present in the next one, I'm looking forward to making some more tweaks.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_05: So it just keeps getting better each time.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: We try to tailor make it for each person.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_02: We want to make it the best thing we can every time where they show up each week and again are immersed into the Asheville Police Department's ways, understanding their policies, procedures.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_02: Anything you thought you knew about policing, you get to see it firsthand and hear from our lieutenants, captains, sergeants, our canine handlers, everybody.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: Each week is different, and specifically giving people a chance to learn about the department.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, things are always changing.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_05: So the Citizens Police Academy is always going to be changing because the real police academy, since the last time we even did one, we have now begun a new in-house Asheville Police Department, police academy.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_05: So that's the first time since 2013.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_05: That's been over a decade since we've done that in-house.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_05: So that's a new development, something to talk about.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, it is.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very excited that we're doing it in-house again.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: I had the opportunity to be a part of an in-house academy in 2010, and it's a great opportunity for these guys that are starting out.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_05: So for these folks that want to sign up, what is the easiest way for them to get all the information that they need and to sign up and put in their application for this year?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell The best way for me, I would say, is for folks to just Google the Asheville Police Department, Citizens Police Academy, go to the website there.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: Once you do that, there's a form that you're gonna have to fill out and you're submitted your application.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't take long at all.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then you will get a response within the next couple weeks that says this is when it starts.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I did it here while you were talking and I brought it up that quick and then clicked to the link and saw the application.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't take long to fill that thing.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: No, not at all.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: Just a basic questionnaire of why you're doing it, where you learned about it, all those things that you would get with any other application.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: Again, the ones that we've had in the past have a great diverse group of folks from the community, and it's an opportunity to network for those folks also.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_05: Little perk for you.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we feed you before every class.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, the food we get is from all around Asheville.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's a great opportunity to try out some different cuisine, too.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, local restaurants, it's free.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, you make new friends sometimes too.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_05: Because these are, as you mentioned, people coming from different walks of life.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you make a lot of new friends, you get to hear experiences from other folks' aspects throughout the class, and then at the beginning, you have one concept of the police department.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think everybody at the end would say that they have a new uh enlightened sense of what the police department's about.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's just fun too.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_05: You get to do things like drive a cop car, for example.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, most people don't get to do that.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_02: You get to do ride-alongs, drive cop cars, and really we try to put you in a spot towards the end of the academy where you feel like you're a cop for a day.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: Someone's gonna put a bombsuit on.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're always somebody that's gonna put a bombsuit on.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna get to get probably bit by a canine, which is always a fun day.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_02: With protective wear.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we're not getting anybody hurt.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're absolutely taking safety precautions at all times.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_05: But it's a lot of fun, and it starts in uh September 18th, I believe, is the first class.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_05: Ten weeks, I believe it is.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, 10 weeks, September 18th through November 20th.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: And the applications are going right now.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it ends August 21st, so we need to get everybody's application in as soon as possible.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll be getting started.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_05: Like you said, when you first sat down here, yes, things are always happening in community engagement.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_05: So let's talk about some of the other things that are coming up in August and early September.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: Several different back to school events that we have coming up on August 16th.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be in PisgaView for a back to school event where they're giving them out backpacks.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I know that Debbie will be there, I'll be there, Officer Corps will be there.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: Those kids love them.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody loves Officer Corps out there.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: We also have Shiloh's back to school event, which will be at the Shiloh Center down in the Shiloh area.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be out there that day also with a tent, table, police car, letting the kids play.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's going to be bouncy houses, a little bit of everything, uh, but also giving out school supplies, helping that community, which will be a lot of fun.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_02: August 23rd, a couple more things going on.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: We have the Great Men Doing Great Things Fall Festival at the Asheville Mall.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: Our school resource officers will be there.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: And on that same day, we also have a Boy Scouts event at the Tanger Outlets.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll have a lot of our specialty units out at the Tanger Outlets.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_02: The Boy Scouts have put together a big event, so we're gonna be there partnering with them.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then coming up September 12th, we have secured the West End Bakery for a coffee with a cop.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna be on Haywood Road, West Asheville, September 12th.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_02: Most likely it's gonna be 8 to 10.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's usually our time frame for the coffee with a cop, uh, but in the West End Bakery.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I heard you have used them before, correct?
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_05: So they made our wedding cake uh way back in the day.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_05: I could have hit that place by throwing a baseball.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_05: I literally lived around the corner.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_05: So that's right near the intersection of Haywood Road and Vermont Avenue.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_05: My wife's home, her family home, was the first house, 6 Vermont Avenue.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_05: So when West End Bakery opened, it was kind of part of the rejuvenation of West Asheville.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_05: It was one of the very first.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_05: It was that, and then the the Bledsoe building is the large two-story brick building right next door that has Westville Pub, and the investors were the same for both.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_05: Some of the same people.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_05: And a little quick story.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_05: When we came home, our wedding night after the reception, right?
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_05: The limo guy drops us off and we're rolling in there.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know what time it was.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_05: It was it was late, you know, one, two o'clock, whatever it was.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_05: Stacey is in her wedding dress.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_05: I'm in my talk, but we're all sweaty and stinky and had a heck of a night.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_05: We roll out.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_05: We hear it in this super quiet night.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_05: Congratulations! And we're like, we're looking around.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_05: We're like, did you hear that?
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_05: Up here.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_05: And so we look up, and at the top of the Bledsoe building was our the people that had made our wedding cake.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_05: No, yes, it was so Christy, I believe, was the name of one of the owners, I think her name was Christy.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_05: It was two women that opened up West End Bakery, and they were on the top of the Bledsoe building with some other people.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_05: And it was apparently that day or right around then that they had signed the lease to renovate and buy that building and do the different things like Westville Pub.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_05: And so they were on top of that building congratulating us at like one o'clock in the morning.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_05: And for those of you wondering the year, it was 2001.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_05: So almost a quarter century ago.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_02: I won't tell you how old I was at that time.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't a police officer yet, though.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll say that.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_05: I show the gray.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, yes.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_05: That is my West End bakery moment.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_05: They used to make the best cinnamon rolls in town.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: Their food looks amazing.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't wait to go there for coffee with a cop and have a couple of their pastries.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, we used to go all the time.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_05: I used to go almost every weekend.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_05: I would go on a Saturday morning and let them make my coffee.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we look forward to having everybody out in West Asheville.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, we can get a big crowd from the Haywood Road corridor there that can show up and hopefully be able to just converse and talk.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, West Asheville's a different area.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's a different city, basically.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: So we want to be out there and talk to them all.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_05: At one point, it was lit literally a different city.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_05: Until they finally decided it's all one Asheville.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_05: So it's it definitely has a different vibe to it, that's for sure.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_05: It is.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_05: It's fun, though.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_05: So hope to see you out there for coffee with the cop.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_05: And hey, if you're thinking again about Citizens Police Academy, sign up now.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_05: Just Google, like I just did, Citizens Police Academy.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_02: We've tried to make it as easy as we can for folks to be able to get signed up because we really want to have a great showing every time.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: We want to put out a great product.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: We want to have a big crowd.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: We want people to spread the word of how Asheville's doing things.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_05: There might even be a few celebrities that are part of that class.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_05: I can't be interesting.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_05: We can't have like autograph hounds signing up.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: No, we don't want people hanging out outside trying to take pictures within.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_05: Some local folks that you may be familiar with may be a part of this upcoming class with you.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we look forward to having everybody sign up.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_05: All right, Sergeant, thank you for joining us again.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you for having me.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for listening to the APD Pod Squad.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_05: And thank you to my guests, Chief Mike Lamb, Sergeant Ricardo Martinez, Senior Police Officer Preston Grondel, Sergeant Lucas Lovelace, and Hannah Silberman with the History Minute.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_05: We're coming up on one year since we began the APD Pod Squad.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we've covered a lot of ground, but there's still so much more to talk about.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_05: If there's something in particular you'd like to hear about, call 828-250-8800 and leave a voicemail.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_05: That's 828-250-8800.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_05: And we'll try and get to that.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_05: If you've got a question for Chief Mike Lamb, call that same number, 828-250-8800, and ask the Chief.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_05: That's 250-8800.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_05: Or you can email APD Podcastfeedback at AshevilleNC.gov.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_05: That's APD Podcast Feedback at AshevilleNC.gov.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for listening.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_05: I'm Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad.