Shows / Heroes Behind the Badge
Heroes Behind the Badge
From the front lines to the final call, Heroes Behind the Badge brings you the untold stories of America's law enforcement community. Led by Craig Floyd, who spent 34 years working alongside police officers across the nation, alongside veteran facilitator Dennis Collins and law enforcement expert Bill Erfurth, this podcast cuts through misconceptions to reveal the true nature of modern policing. Our dynamic trio brings unique perspectives to each episode: Craig shares deep insights from his…
Episodes
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Tom Lange — The Airport Witness and the Missing O.J. Simpson Evidence | Part 2
Tom Lange was the lead LAPD homicide detective on the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. In the second half of his return to Heroes Behind the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Tom Lange — O.J. Simpson's Lead Detective Answers the Accomplice Claim | Part 1
Tom Lange was the lead LAPD homicide detective on the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. His first appearance on Heroes Behind the Badge…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Dave Reichert — Hunting the Green River Killer | Part 2
For years, Gary Ridgway was at the top of the Green River task force's suspect list, but investigators lacked the evidence and the science to prove it. In Part…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Dave Reichert — Hunting the Green River Killer | Part 1
Dave Reichert went into homicide at the King County Sheriff's Office in 1979. In 1982 he was assigned one of the first cases in what became the Green River…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Dave Hinners — The Arrests, the Trial, and What It Cost | Part 2
Dave Hinners was a Wichita patrol officer, not quite three years on the job, when he became the first officer to speak with the lone survivor of the December…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Dave Hinners — First Officer at the Wichita Massacre | Part 1
Dave Hinners was not quite three years into his career with the Wichita Police Department in December 2000. Today he is the executive director of the United…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Bill Bratton — Sweet Alice, the Bronx, and What the Job Costs | Part 2
Bill Bratton led six police departments over fifty years, including the NYPD twice and the LAPD from 2002 to 2009. In the second half of this conversation, the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Bill Bratton — Broken Windows, Stop-and-Frisk, and the Defund Years | Part 1
Bill Bratton is the only person ever to have led both the New York City Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. He joined the Boston Police…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Barry Black — Building the Case Against Timothy McVeigh | Part 2
Barry Black retired from the FBI after thirty-one years as a master bomb technician and master instructor. On April 19, 1995, he was one of only two FBI bomb…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Barry Black — The FBI Bomb Technician at the Oklahoma City Bombing | Part 1
Barry Black spent thirty-one years in the FBI. He joined wanting white collar work, having changed his major and his university to get an accounting degree…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Frank Pegueros — Answering D.A.R.E.'s Critics, and What the Job Costs | Part 2
Part 1 covered what D.A.R.E. teaches now. This half is about the people who teach it, and about the criticism the program has carried for forty years. Frank…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Frank Pegueros — What the D.A.R.E. Program Actually Teaches Now | Part 1
Francisco "Frank" Pegueros spent 26 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, retiring as a captain, and has spent the 30 years since as President and CEO…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Morgan Wright — What the JonBenét Ramsey Crime Scene Actually Says | Part 2
Morgan Wright is the founder and CEO of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, a nonprofit that works cold cases toward resolution rather than…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Morgan Wright — Reinvestigating JonBenét Ramsey From First Principles | Part 1
Morgan Wright is the founder and CEO of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, a nonprofit that takes on cold cases and works them toward resolution…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Bill Buford — He Owed It to the Men He Lost at Waco | Part 2
In Part 2 of this two-part conversation, retired ATF agent Bill Buford takes listeners back inside the gun room during the February 28, 1993 raid on the Branch…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Bill Buford — Surviving the Waco Raid as an ATF Agent | Part 1
Bill Buford spent nearly three decades in federal law enforcement, first as a Green Beret in Vietnam, then as a Special Agent with the Bureau of Alcohol…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Jim Freeman — Inside the Unabomber's Cabin | Part 2
Jim Freeman spent 32 years as an FBI Special Agent, rising to Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau's San Francisco field office. In the final two years of the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Jim Freeman - Leading the FBI's Hunt for the Unabomber | Part 1
Jim Freeman spent 32 years as an FBI Special Agent, rising to Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau's San Francisco field office. In the final two years of the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Rick Harcrow — Inside Attica: The Stats, the Families, and the Hidden Cost | Part 2
Rick Harcrow spent 37 years as a correctional officer at Attica Correctional Facility — home of the deadliest prison riot in American history. In Part 2, the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Rick Harcrow - Inside the Attica Prison Riot: What Really Happened | Part 1
Rick Harcrow spent 37 years as a correctional officer in the New York State prison system — 30 of them at Attica Correctional Facility. He wasn't there on…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Tom Lange — The OJ Simpson Case: What the Jury Never Heard | Part 2
Tom Lange was the lead homicide detective for the Los Angeles Police Department assigned to the OJ Simpson murder case — one of the most watched criminal…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Tom Lange — Lead OJ Simpson Detective on the Evidence the Jury Never Heard | Part 1
Tom Lange was the lead homicide detective for the LAPD on the night of June 12, 1994. When a call came in about a double homicide on the west side of Los…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Sheriff Mike Neal — The Walmart Shooting and What He Brought Home | Part 2
Sheriff Michael Neal was a wildlife officer with no business being at a West Memphis crime scene the afternoon of May 20th, 2010. He was over an hour away when…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Sheriff Mike Neal — 16 Years of Survivor Guilt After the West Memphis Ambush | Part 1
Sheriff Michael Neal is a law enforcement officer, a combat veteran of one of the most dramatic police incidents in modern American history, and today the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Rafael A. Mangual - The Data Behind "Criminal [In]Justice" | Part 2
In Part 2 of his Heroes Behind the Badge conversation, Rafael Mangual opens with the story that drove him to write his book. In July 2019, Brittany Hill, 24…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Rafael A. Mangual - Why Killers Walk While Cops Go to Prison | Part 1
Rafael A. Mangual is a senior fellow and head of research at the Manhattan Institute's Policing and Public Safety Initiative, and the author of "Criminal…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Blake Boteler — The Bounty, the Arrests, and the Funeral That Never Happened | Part 2
Blake Boteler is a retired ATF Special Agent and former petroleum geologist whose two-year undercover infiltration of the Sons of Silence outlaw motorcycle…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
He Spent 2 Years Undercover With the Sons of Silence (Part 1) | ATF Agent Blake Boteler
What does it actually cost to go undercover for two years with one of America's most violent outlaw motorcycle gangs? Blake Boteler knows. He's the retired ATF…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
CPR on "Superman": The Partner Rick Rossman Couldn't Save — Part 2
Part 1 ended on the Thanksgiving 1983 murders of Rick Rossman's Metro-Dade partners Richie Boles and David Strzalkowski — shot with their own service weapons…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
He Called It Suicide. By 2:14 AM, Two Partners Were Dead | Part 1
Thanksgiving weekend, 1983. Only five officers were assigned to cover an entire Miami-Dade, Florida district that night. Before his first call, Rick Rossman…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
She Wrote the Words on the National Police Memorial — Here's Why | Part 2
In Part 1, Vivian Eney Cross revealed how her husband — U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Chris Eney — was killed in a 1984 training accident, and how the system…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
She Was Taken to the Wrong Hospital While Her Husband Died | Part 1
On August 24, 1984, U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Chris Eney was shot and killed in a training exercise — accidentally, by a fellow officer and friend. When his…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Can You Spot a Serial Killer? BTK, Son of Sam, and What the FBI Found - Part 2
In Part 1, Mindhunter co-author Mark Olshaker traced how FBI legend John Douglas unlocked the psychology of serial predators through audacious prison…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Serial Killer Psychology Exposed: Inside the Real Mindhunter - Part 1
Documentary filmmaker and Mindhunter co-author Mark Olshaker opens with one of the most chilling sequences in American criminal history: Ed Kemper - a 6-foot-8…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
The Nancy Guthrie Case: What Investigators Got Wrong - And the AI That Could Solve It - Pt 2
What if the technology to solve cold cases already exists — and most law enforcement doesn't know how to use it? In Part 2 of this two-part conversation on…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
The Nancy Guthrie Case: What Investigators Got Wrong - And the AI That Could Solve It - Pt 1
Was Nancy Guthrie abducted, or was it something else entirely? In Part 1 of this two-part conversation on Heroes Behind the Badge, we sit down with Morgan…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Officer Deaths, Safety, and the Hard Questions
What does it actually mean to say officer deaths dropped below 100? In Part 2 of this two-part conversation on Heroes Behind the Badge, we sit down again with…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
The Story Behind the National Law Enforcement Memorial
Before the names are etched in stone, there are lives. Families. Communities forever changed. In Part 1 of this two-part conversation on Heroes Behind the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
When Enforcing the Law Makes You the Enemy
What happens when the people sworn to enforce the law are treated as the problem? In this episode of Heroes Behind the Badge, we sit down with Chuck Marino, a…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Policing in the Age of Viral Video - Power, Perception, and Trust
In this episode of Heroes Behind the Badge, we sit down with Rich Stanek for a candid conversation about policing in the age of viral video—and what happens…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
They Had ONE Bullet Left - Inside the Beltway Sniper Arrest (Exclusive Firsthand Account)
Most people think the Beltway Sniper case ended with a dramatic takedown. It didn’t. It ended with a quiet rest stop, two officers, and a decision that sounds…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Inside the Crisis Facing America’s Police Leadership: Steven Sund Breaks It Down (Part 2)
On January 6, 2021, the failure wasn’t a lack of warning. It wasn’t a lack of experience. It was a failure of permission. In this episode of Heroes Behind the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Inside the Crisis Facing America’s Police Leadership: Steven Sund Breaks It Down (Part 1)
In this Episode 1 of Heroes Behind the Badge, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund joins the conversation to take viewers inside one of the most…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
He Survived a Shotgun Ambush Then the System Failed Him - Part 2
"Three years. That's all it took for my shooter to get away with it." =============== **EDITOR'S NOTE:** This is Part 2 of Tom Weitzel's story, originally…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
He Survived a Shotgun Ambush Then the System Failed Him - Part 1
In August 1987, Riverside, Illinois Police Officer Tom Weitzel stepped out of his squad car to check a suspicious vehicle parked on the wrong side of the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Inside the Crisis Facing America’s Sheriffs: Anthony Amerson Breaks It Down
In this powerful episode of Heroes Behind the Badge, Executive Director of the National Black Sheriffs Association, Anthony Amerson, shares the extraordinary…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
JFK Assassination: Dallas Aftermath, FBI Tensions, and Jack Ruby’s Final Chapter
Sixty years after the JFK assassination, the questions and consequences still echo through Dallas. In our final episode, historian Rick Janich shares the…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
JFK Assassination: The Human Stories - Marie Tippit, Clint-Hill, and-the Witnesses of Dallas
Beyond the headlines of November 1963 were the families, officers, and everyday citizens whose lives changed forever in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
JFK Assassination: How Lee Harvey Oswald Was Captured - The Dallas Police Timeline
On November 22, 1963, shots rang out in Dealey Plaza — and the world changed in seconds. But behind the iconic images of President John F. Kennedy’s…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Beyond the Badge Finding Purpose and Joy After Policing
What happens when the badge comes off? When the mission changes, but the heart that served still needs a place to go? In this second part of a powerful…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
The Weight We Carry Breaking the Silence on Police Suicide
Every year, more law enforcement officers die by suicide than from all line-of-duty causes combined. In this powerful first part of a two-part conversation…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Steve Sund on When Cops Are Told to Stand Down
What happens when officers are ordered not to act, even as lives hang in the balance? In this gripping episode of Heroes Behind the Badge, former U.S. Capitol…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Chris Cosgriff | Officer Down Memorial Page Founder
At just 19 years old, Chris Cosgriff founded the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP) from his college dorm room. What started as a student project has grown into…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
America’s Crime Crisis: Politics & Fallout (Part 2)
In Part 2 of this series, we move beyond the statistics to reveal the real-world consequences of America’s crime crisis. From Baltimore’s violent crime surge…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
The Truth Behind America’s Crime Stats (Part 1)
Why do politicians and media outlets say crime is down while Americans feel less safe than ever? In Part 1 of this two-part series, we expose the hidden truth…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Chief Joe Morris 9/11 Story (Part 2) | Leading the Recovery at Ground-Zero
In this second and final part of his powerful 9/11 story, retired Port Authority Police Chief Joe Morris shares what it was like to lead the recovery effort at…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Chief Joe Morris 9/11 Story (Part 1) | From LaGuardia to Ground Zero
On September 11, 2001, the Port Authority Police Department suffered the greatest single-day loss of life in U.S. law enforcement history. Thirty-seven…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Boston Bomber Found Hiding in Backyard Boat
Episode Description: The shootout was over, but the nightmare had just begun. With one bomber dead and the other wounded but dangerous, former Watertown Police…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Boston Bombers vs 3 Cops: 7-Minute Firefight
Episode Description: April 19, 2013. Three small-town police officers found themselves face-to-face with the Boston Marathon bombers in what became the most…
- Heroes Behind the Badge
Police Officer Becomes FBI Leader: 36 Years Behind the Badge
From beat cop to FBI leadership - Louis Quijas made history as the first police officer to become FBI Assistant Director without coming up through federal…