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This episode is sponsored by a company I've used for well over a decade and that is 511.

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I wore their uniforms back in Anaheim, California and have used their products ever since.

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From their incredibly strong yet light footwear to their cut uniforms for both male and female

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responders, I found them hands down the best workwear in all the departments that I've worked for.

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Outside of the fire service, I use their luggage for everything and I travel a lot and they are

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also now sponsoring the 7X team as we embark around the world on the Human Performance Project.

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We have Murph coming up in May and again I bought their plate carrier. I ended up buying real

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ballistic plates rather than the fake weight plates and that has been my ride or die through

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Murph the last few years as well. But one area I want to talk about that I haven't in previous

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sponsorship spots is their brick and mortar element. They were predominantly an online

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company up till more recently but now they are approaching 100 stores all over the US.

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My local store is here in Gainesville Florida and I've been multiple times and the discounts you see

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online are applied also in the stores. So as I mentioned 511 is offering you 15% off every

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purchase that you make but I do want to say more often than not they have an even deeper discount

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especially around holiday times. But if you use the code SHIELD15 you will get 15% off your order

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or in the stores every time you make a purchase. And if you want to hear more about 511, who they

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stand for and who works with them, listen to episode 580 of Behind the Shield podcast with

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511 regional director Will Ayres. This episode is brought to you by Thorne the industry leader in

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nutritional solutions. Now Thorne is actually trusted by eight US national teams and championship

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athletic space need two things. We need efficacy meaning the products do what they say they're

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They were so successful that athletic teams and even special operations teams reached out to them

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and they started supplying them as well. Very recently they actually opened their doors to the

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general public. Now what sets Thorne apart is they manufacture their own products in a state of the

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formulated with no stearates or arbitrary fillers in the cleanest manufacturing process. Most of

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you listening come from a profession where it can take its toll physically and mentally and many of

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us are not able to bolster our nutrition purely with the food that we eat and that's where

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supplementation comes in. So if you're ready to maximize your health and performance visit

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get 10% off your first order and if you want to learn even more about Thorne go to episode 323 of

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behind the shield podcast and you will hear my interview with Wes Barnett and Joel Totoro from

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Thorne. Welcome to the behind the shield podcast as always my name is James Gearing and this week

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it is my absolute honor to welcome on the show veteran law enforcement officer John Womack. Now

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what makes this conversation so powerful is at the age of seven John was a victim to drunk driving

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after his mother's boyfriend wrecked the car and John was ejected. After a long mental and physical

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recovery he ultimately became a police officer and in 2016 was assigned as a sergeant over DUI.

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So we discuss a host of topics from the millions of accidents on American roads,

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some proactive solutions to reduce the number of injuries and deaths, alcohol, cell phone distractions

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and his work with the non-profit Mothers Against Drink Driving Walk Like Mad. Now before we get to

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this incredible conversation as I say every week please just take a moment go to whichever app you

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listen to this on subscribe to the show leave feedback and leave a rating. Every single five

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star rating truly does elevate this podcast therefore making it easier for others to find

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and this is a free library of over 900 episodes now so all I ask in return is that you help share

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these incredible men and women stories so I can get them to every single person on planet earth

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who needs to hear them. So with that being said I introduce to you John Womack enjoy.

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So

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well John I want to say thank you so much for taking the time and coming on the Behind the Shield

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podcast today. I know that you have not only a passion when it comes to road safety when you're

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wearing uniform but obviously there's an origin excuse me an origin story when it comes to that

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as well so I want to begin just by welcoming you to the show. Thank you very much for even having me.

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So where on planet earth are we finding you this afternoon? I'm currently in Land O' Lakes Florida

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is where I've been for the last 23 years and the last two of it of my retirement. I retired in

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March of 2022. All right well I want to start the very beginning of your timeline as I said before

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is obviously it's very pertinent so where were you born and tell me a little bit about your family

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dynamic what your parents did how many siblings? I was born in Tampa Florida pretty much lived here

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my entire life in Tampa till I met my wife and then we moved up here in Land O' Lakes did a

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little time in Brandon but I was born in 1970 just to my mom my mom was a single parent she my dad

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was never in the picture still is not in the picture I met him but still not in the picture

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we went to she was a I guess like in a I don't know what her current title maybe an accountant or

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some type of purchasing and money type thing for a it was called Tampa Independent Dairy Farmers

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Association is where she worked that I can remember my entire life but we grew up in

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Templetares for the most part is where I grew up and she dated a guy I don't remember exactly when

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but I can remember at least when I was seven he was around he was an alcoholic so from that point

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he was around for that I can remember I don't know how long before seven but at least till probably

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12 so at least five years in my life but other than that I just had a few uncles I got no siblings

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I'm an only child that were in in the picture. Well let's start around the age seven then because

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I know that was a very pivotal point in your life and most of us can't remember too much prior to

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that age anyway so walk me through you know the events that happened when you were a seven-year-old

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boy and what how alcohol contributed to your near-death. Okay so like I explained my the guy my mom

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dated was a an alcoholic so I don't ever remember a time where he was not impaired at least the

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majority of the time I don't think I ever saw him where he had not been drinking but I know as far

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as going anywhere that it wasn't just it was not a big thing back then you know in the in the 70s

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it DUI penalties were not there they didn't really I don't know it I want to almost say like they

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didn't really care about it so as much it was like a victimless crime as long as you didn't hit or

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kill anybody which we all know that that could that could end up happening at any point. So

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I turned seven in December of 77 and then in January it was January 6th of 1978 is when

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my mom her boyfriend and I were all on our way to a family gathering I don't even know if it was

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a really our family it was kind of like his friends and some of his family but mainly his side of the

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the picture was where we were headed out in the Turkey Creek area I don't know if you're familiar

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with that so if you're going out towards Brandon on Highway 60 you would go out going towards Bartow

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and in between like Brandon and Bartow there's like a little area that's called Turkey Creek

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and Antioch so it was out in that area so we were traveling down Highway 60 going east

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and at he had already you know partaken in some alcoholic beverage beforehand

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and you know and what we preach nowadays is you know especially teaching kids now we always would

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say hey you've got a voice you know if you see your parents drinking too much at dinner or at a

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friend's house or wherever you are you can speak up and say hey listen I don't I think you've I

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don't want to ride with you because I think you've had too much to drink and you know you know

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I don't want to ride with you because I think you've had too much to drink back then you just

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didn't say that you got in the vehicle and you did what you were told the truck we had was a 68 GMC

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step side pickup truck no seat belts it wasn't a law back then so I don't think I never wore seat

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belts to be honest with you until oh man till I probably started driving my senior year of high

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school I don't think I ever wore a seat belt so we're on our way out there not wearing a seat belt

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I'm sitting on the passenger side my mom's in the middle and he's driving and we're at a point

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where we're gonna make a northbound turn making a left from 60 onto Turkey Creek Road I guess he

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felt like he had enough room he made the decision to go and he did not so he violated the right away

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of a single vehicle and they basically t-boned us kind of like at the crease of the door in the

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fender of the passenger side which immediately made that door open so not being seat belted in

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I was ejected somehow I don't know I don't remember any of that I just kind of remember sitting in the

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middle of the intersection and then I don't remember anything after that until I guess I came to or

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somehow they got me to I was talking I remember talking under the vehicle and then it was actually

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my mom's boyfriend telling me that everything was going to be all right I was under a vehicle pinned

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and they were working to get me out so what was weird about that whole thing is I don't remember

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how or why but my shoes my shorts my shirt everything was off of me somehow during that crash

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shredded the only thing that I had on was just my underwear socks everything was shredded so while

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that the vehicle I was pinned under it I guess the battery had cracked so it became where it was

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leaking quite a bit I ended up getting you can see here I got a scar that pretty much takes up

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the entire right side of my face that's all from the battery acid I got a little scar on my elbow

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and a few spots on my back which is kind of weird because it's nowhere else you know so I don't know

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if it had gotten on the ground and where I was laying it was concentrated in the area or whatever

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but all I can remember I remember waking up talking and I was calm and you know looking back on it now

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from from my perspective now as a Christian I know that it was God that kept my eyes closed

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because right at the top of my eye I don't know if you can see it but the scar comes like right

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down by the edge of my eye and if I would have opened my eyes for any reason I would have probably

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been blind in one eye which would have taken me to a higher level of my life and I would have

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a whole different career path or what you know who knows what would have happened at that point

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so I don't remember anything after that I remember at some point they did get me out

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and I was in an ambulance I remember being in the ambulance and all I can remember was you know like

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a sizzling like burning and what I the analogy I use is if you've ever cooked bacon and you hear

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that sizzling in the pop of the bacon grease popping that's what it felt like and that's what

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it reminded me of when I was driving and out in the EMT or the paramedic that was in the back of

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the ambulance I remember him spraying water or some kind of liquid in a bottle spraying it on

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my face I guess trying to cool it off so I don't remember anything after that point until

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probably several days later when I woke up in the hospital room with you know bandages and dressings

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and stuff like that to after they've already had done several surgeries I don't and so that probably

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would have been like maybe four or five days later and then I ended up spending probably about two

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months in a hospital started out at TGH and back then TGH wasn't as good as a hospital as they are

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right as they are today so my mom actually had me transferred to university community which is now

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Advent Health so I did that for two months going in and out of surgeries trying to basically I

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guess smooth the scar and get it as best under control as they could you know being that it was

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only seven didn't go to school I basically had tutoring and stuff like that while I was in the

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hospital and then I yeah I think it was about after two months I don't remember exactly how

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long I had been out of the hospital but I eventually went back to school and after that

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I went back to college and as you can you know and I don't know what what age group you're in but

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it's pretty much been the same as long as I can remember when kids you know how kids are and how

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ruthless they are when it comes to any type of ailment or something they see wrong with somebody

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how they immediately start picking on it or or use as an excuse to bully kids around so as a part

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of the surgery being out of the hospital and trying to prepare for later surgeries down the road the

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doctor told my mother that I was going to have to wear a mask so of course it wasn't a cool mask

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you know it's a flesh tone basically a mask that you would see I don't even know if they do it now

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it's still in the in the wrestling world the wwe I don't I don't watch it so I don't know if they

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do it but back in the day they used to do that and they would cover themselves up with a nice

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flashy mask so but unfortunately mine wasn't flashy so I had to wear this thing to try to

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smooth out the skin as best as possible so that it would make it easier for them to do surgeries

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down the road so I started out doing that and you can imagine what kids would say and and and just

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the bullying that started and just all kinds of different things like that as a second grader you

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know so my only recourse back then was I mean it hurt my feelings when you know you got called names

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or or picked on or anything like that so I became an angry kid I mean it was it was pretty bad

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short-tempered and just angry and ready to fight over any little thing that you that somebody would

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say or anything particular to my face or scars or anything like that so I don't remember exactly

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how long I wore the mask um but eventually I was like I just told my mom I said you know I'm taking

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too much at school with these kids and I said I just can't wear the mask anymore so I ended up

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taking it off and not wearing it but obviously that didn't do any good because now the scar is

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exposed so as a go back to school thinking everything's gonna be all right I'm the same kid

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but now you can see who I am um unfortunately it was not that way the bullying continued but now

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they've got a name to associate you know the mask was no big deal but now they can see that I have

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a scar so everybody started or not everybody but the kids that were the bully type kids were

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you know scar face was the name that I got called so that just made it even kind of worse and getting

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into trouble and I tried to do the best I could um unfortunately it didn't work out as well as I'd

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liked it had worked out but um so fast forward in and out of the you know the second third fourth grade

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when I finally made it to fifth grade my my aunt had a lady that lived across the street

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that she was really good friends with and she had known me since I you know since I was a baby so

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she was a teacher at the school and this is where it kind of turned around my uh my thinking about

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the whole having the scar I was on the lunch room got my food I was walking to my table and the the

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same it was usually one the one or two kids but it was the same kid that I had a problem with every

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since the second grade yelled out scar face so I kept walking to my table excuse me I walked put

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down my tray and I start heading back to back to his table because him and I are gonna fight well

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she saw me so she quickly like intervened and rushed over and like cut me off and pretty much

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embarrassed me in front of everybody because she grabbed me by my ear and she was like

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I'm gonna get you hurt and I'm gonna get you hurt and she was like I'm gonna get you hurt and like

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lifted me up on my tiptoes and walked me off to the side and she said where are you going I said

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well nowhere she's like well it didn't look like nowhere because you would have stayed at your

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table and ate your food she goes I know where you're going and you know where you're going and she

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goes I want to know why I want to know where you're hurt and where he hurt you to make you go back to

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your hurt and I said well I'm I mean I don't know what you mean I mean I'm not hurt he didn't hurt me

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she goes oh so you're going back over there because he called you a name

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said well yeah she goes listen

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you've got to make a choice right now if you keep living your life

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wanting to fight everybody that calls you a name you're either going to end up in prison

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or you're going to end up dead way before your time and I had never really thought about it

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like that I mean you know in fifth grade you're a 10 year old

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and you don't think about the rest of your life and how it's going to affect you you're living in

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that moment and you know that's all you care about is getting ready to fight for your life

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is getting revenge on the kid that called you a name so I started thinking about that and I was

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like wow that's you know that that really kind of does make some sense and it is going to get me

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nowhere because it hasn't gotten me anywhere yet so from about that fifth grade point I you know

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I'm not going to say I never got into any other trouble from it from fighting or name calling

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because the name the name calling continued pretty much I mean shoot even to I haven't heard it lately

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but it continued pretty much well into my adulthood adult life listening to you know just

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various people you know obviously either you know either ignorant people now this is the way I look

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at it but really never had any issues past fifth grade other than maybe a handful

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so it was never really a big deal they told me that I couldn't get any more surgeries to get it fixed

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until I stopped growing so by the time I stopped growing I was you know in high school probably

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close to you know probably a senior by then I and now I've had it for 10 years so it doesn't bother

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me it doesn't prevent me from doing anything so I was like yeah I'm not going to worry about it

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so kind of started you know living my life going to school and you know did a little bit of college

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time then you know really couldn't afford that because my mom was a single mom so I just kind of

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started in the workforce and a friend of mine that I went to high school with

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basically said um hey man I don't know I'm coming back from the military I need a place to live

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I was wondering if you wanted to you know be roommates so we did and somewhere during that

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that term in the middle of probably started in 94

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nine end of 91 maybe early 92

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he said hey I'm doing this thing that Tampa police department's doing a recruitment

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and they're trying to get new officers minority officers

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so I looked at him and he's a white guy and I'm like uh I don't know if you've looked in the mirror

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lately but you and I are both white guys we don't really fall in the minority category so he's like

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you know what I don't I don't care I'm gonna do it I'm just gonna go in and put in for it and

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you know see what happens so I had never thought about it and I'm not gonna do it I'm just gonna

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do it so I had never thought about being the police you know had a few interactions over you

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know my driving time with cops but really nothing nothing major never even thought about it but then

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I started thinking I'm like oh man that kind of sounds like an okay career so we both started it

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doing the process and I continued with it and he decided that it just wasn't enough money for him

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that he didn't follow through with it so what other minority job did he get in the end

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uh he didn't get one he ended up being um something to do with engineering or something with I know he

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worked worked for a different couple of different companies I know the last one or the one he worked

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for Zephyrhills water and then he started working with waste management so doing some kind of um

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executive position or something like that but he he's still working and I'm retired so

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we were both working for a cash and carry warehouse basically that was where your if you saw

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I ever went into a grocery store and you saw the all the boxes and stuff stacked up on pallets

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we were the ones that were actually we would pull those orders and uh so I we I did everything

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I did everything like real quick like six months I did several things and then I didn't hear from

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the police department for man about a year and a half

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and almost at a point where I had written them off you know like man yeah okay we didn't get it

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you know and then in the summer of 94 um out of the blue I got a call from um one of the recruiters

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at the police department and said you know this is so and so and um we were calling to see if you

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were still interested in being a Tampa police officer so I I said yeah I yeah I'm ready to go

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so they said okay well we got an academy coming up in two weeks we need to run you through a bunch

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of stuff to get you ready and prepared and are you willing to do that you just tell me the date and

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time and I'll be there so basically I started the academy in August of 94 um graduated January of 95

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and got hired on the police department February 26 of 1995

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Going back to the accident first um I had a real eye-opening discussion with a couple of my law

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enforcement friends I'm writing a second book now I'm actually starting to finally finish it but

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there is a scene where there's a traffic accident and I wanted to find out okay legally who would be

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at fault what would happen so I can make sure it's correct and I was blown away by the fact that they

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both told me here in Florida that unless you intentionally kill someone with a car like you

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are chasing someone down the road you know deliberately trying to murder them with your

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vehicle that's about it from the from the legal side everything else is lawsuits and I couldn't

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believe that my well no wonder there's no you know real punitive elements and no deterrent when it

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comes to poor driving because you know you can cause an accident you can maim or even kill people

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and ultimately if it's not proven that you did it on purpose you were just a bad driver or an

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erratic driver that on the law side of things you walk away scot-free and it's only the the

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litigation side so talk to me about please educate me on your perspective of that first

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yeah so that'll say that's not necessarily true if it's you know if you're proven to be at fault in

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the crash by either some type of negligence or something like that then you can be charged with

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something with DUI manslaughter or vehicular manslaughter not DUI DUI would obviously if

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you're impaired and you and you cause a crash no matter what um probably 99.9 times out of 100

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you're going to be charged with um DUI manslaughter at minimum so but if you don't if you don't kill

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someone and you haven't been drinking though right so that's why i'm driving and we're just

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gonna say it's at the other so i'm driving mind of my business i've got a green light

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you run the red light in front of me and i t bone you and kill you at that point you're you know

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i've got no negligence in in the crash even though you're the one who resulted in death

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i'm probably not facing any charges based on that because i've got nothing that shows that i was

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negligent in my driving now if i'm driving the same scenario you've got the green light and i'm

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driving not paying attention because i'm on my phone i'm speeding and i go through the red light

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and i kill you i'm probably looking at vehicular manslaughter what if you don't kill me what if you

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seriously injure me but i don't die now then serious injuries is just gonna that's gonna

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the only time you would get charges is if there's a death if there's just injuries that's all like

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your your other law enforcement that's just going to be civil litigation at that point

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i don't think most civilians know that so think about those dangerous drivers the guy and i had

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in in literally 24 hours two days ago i had a guy lay on his horn because i was waiting for a

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cyclist across the road when the cyclist had the pedestrian right here all the time and and then i

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had a old fucker ride my ass in a school zone when i was doing 20 in a 20 and then he ends up getting

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into into the school and it's like every ounce of my restraint to not walk over to his than you know

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have a word but that would again result in nothing just like your teacher said we have to carry that

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that lesson forward even in the world of driving however to think that those aggressive drivers

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because then plow a minivan full of kids into a wall because they were driving so close and they

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had to break for whatever but someone isn't killed that there is no punitive action no deterrent to

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someone driving like a fucking asshole as long as they don't actually physically un-unalive someone

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as they say these days that's correct and it seems like it's you know it's almost like we've gotten

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worse as the years go by since i started driving until now how impatient drivers have become

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and how reliant on we'll just say google maps ways we're getting where people aren't they don't

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have common sense when it comes to driving you know and that's why you see a lot more wrong way

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drivers nowadays because i mean most of those are impaired but i have stopped wrong way drivers and

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the excuse i get is well the gps told me to turn here i'm pretty sure the gps didn't tell you to

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turn the wrong way but even if it did you've got three big signs that says one way and you turn the

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ray that it says not to go you you still bear some of the responsibility even though the gp you're

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following a gps and i can't i've you know i've been you know victim to this as well with a gps

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where you get somewhere and it tells you to turn somewhere you're like i can't turn there

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and then it wants to reroute you because you didn't go the way it told you to go

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but you know people just have to realize that you cannot rely on something like that 100%

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to do the driving for you you still have some responsibility for a operating that vehicle and

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to pay attention to your surroundings and i just find that people are way more distracted with

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you know the little ding on their phone that shows that a new tick tock came in a new instagram

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photo or a facebook or something like that and i've got to see it right now i've got to i've got to

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look at it right now now i'm not going to tell you that i'm not guilty of you know texting while i'm

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driving and but and not that it's an excuse but i almost say that i'm a professional at it because

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i've been dealing for you know over 20 20 years probably 25 years of driving in a police car where

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i have a laptop that were that we that were doing several things throughout the day driving where

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we're getting calls on it we have to look at directions in the maps we have you know you have

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messages and calls and different things that you do running tags and licenses and all those different

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things which doesn't you know make it better or excusable but you've come to adapt and i only do

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it now i like most of the time i don't type it i'll speak it if i have to answer it but for the

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most part i try not to or i wait till i get to a red light but we see a lot of now and to go just

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to expand on that a little bit about distracted driving and how it affects the next generation

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before i left the police department starting 2016 through even today they still do it is we have a

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program that we go to the high schools with a it's called sydney cart basically it's like a little go

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cart it runs off batteries it's electric and we can control the vehicle by a button that makes

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it on a delay so we once we put it in impaired mode we can it delays the steering the brake and

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the gas so we tell people we've done it with kids in high schools where we put them all right i want

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you to get on your phone and i want you to start you know texting or doing whatever you normally do

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look at your tic tocs whatever you would normally do and see how you drive and we basically have a

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course set up with cones and we have them drive this course and we explain ahead of time that each

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cone that you hit is like hitting a vehicle and killing a person and you would be surprised

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how many cones that these kids hit and but now the last i had heard they're coming around a lot

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better and they're like wow man that's what it that's what it's going to be like if you know if i

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drive impaired you know not being in control the vehicle like that and we're like yeah and you hit

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three cones and on average it's 12 to 15 years if you kill somebody while you're impaired

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so you do the math you're looking at you know what is that 45 years maybe six to 45 years you're

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looking at doing well two things to pull from what you said is firstly um when it comes to law

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enforcement when when we're in the fire service you know we're fortunate enough that was usually

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at the least two people in a vehicle and usually more so for example rescue ambulance you know the

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the same kind of thing that we have in the fire service one of us is driving usually the emt if

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it's a combined crew and then the other one's going to navigate you know if we know our first

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you really well you know you don't have to worry about it i know where i'm going we're good

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otherwise you know we're going to navigate one person's checking blind spots you know as we go

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um and so it's a very coordinated effort then you transfer over to law enforcement and what has

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always blown my mind and driving is just one portion of this the other part is officer safety

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you know the the force multiplier effect of having two officers come out of a vehicle

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to do a traffic stop for example versus one um the danger we put our police officers in when they're

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one to a car and this also applies to the driving i you know i think a lot most firefighters will

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agree we we're kind of blown away how you're even able to do it it's hard enough navigating

327
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we're not normally chasing someone we're just trying to get there quickly but that route isn't

328
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deviating if someone suddenly decides to you know pull a ui right in front of you so what are your

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thoughts on you know if if we really invested in our law enforcement officers properly having two

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to a car from the driver safety point of view as well well i i mean i think it's a good thing

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i mean i'm all i'm a proponent for two to a car um because it just it makes things more efficient

332
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and like you said like especially in a chase you know and i've been in in quite a few car chases

333
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by myself and i've had people in the car with me and it's much easier to navigate and do things

334
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when you have a second person because as an individual just by myself i've got to operate the radio

335
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i've got to make sure intersections are clear and do all that on my own as well as telling directions

336
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and updating i mean there's numerous things that you're doing and it it's it's hard you know so it

337
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takes a lot of practice to be good at that but on the other hand when you have a second person all

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i do at that point is i concentrate on driving and i'm watching the vehicle in front of me whereas

339
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the passenger now that officer is responsible for he does all the radio traffic he's looking to the

340
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right so i don't even have to look to my right he's going to tell me clear clear clear or he's

341
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going to tell me hold up hold up so you also have to have a partner that you trust in that car with

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you because you're you know you're basically putting your life and his life you know in in

343
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in his hands by telling you it's clear because you're watching your side and you have to make

344
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sure that he's watching his but it does make things go not only in that perspective more

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efficient but just in the job in general you know if you have to make an arrest everything goes so

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much quicker and smoother when you have two people if you have two people that need to arrest one big

347
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guy well he's now going to think about it because man i if i was just one i could probably get away

348
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with it but now i got two to fight you know i might you know and all one's got to do is hold me down

349
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and maybe they don't do it it's a deterrent whereas you know the one person you know they're

350
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more likely going to to give it a shot even with the uh you know the the officers at a shot and

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traffic stop and we had uh brandon coats here in orlando right in the area i used to work in that

352
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was murdered and they found it in this taser deployed and he was shot dead but i would imagine

353
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again i'm not in law enforcement but i would imagine if someone realized that if they shot

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one officer the other one was going to kill them you would then think that would reduce a number

355
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of single officers that were murdered on the streets too yeah i mean for the most part you're

356
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still going to have you know the people that are going to do whatever they're going to do no matter

357
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what and we actually had two officers at tampa killed um at the same time they were riding two

358
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men they did everything right i mean the the one guy worked for me and i knew what type of officer

359
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he was very safe um but a lot of the times when people are compliant compliant compliant compliant

360
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we get a little bit complacent we think everybody's going to be compliant and i'm and i'm guilty of

361
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that many times up until that point after that i didn't care who you were how you acted i handcuffed

362
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you the same way every time if you're sitting in a vehicle and basically that's what that was uh

363
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curtis and co-cab in in uh june 29th of 2010 they basically had a guy that all he had was a warrant

364
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for bad checks however he thought they knew that he had just he had already he was a suspect in

365
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three murders they didn't know that because that had not been um information that was provided to

366
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us that was just something the detectives were working on but two of the cases were in um

367
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hillsborough county's jurisdiction one was in our jurisdiction so when they went to arrest him on the

368
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bad checks he was compliant stepped out of the vehicle did exactly what they told him to do

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and as soon as they like went to move him from like the the the the a pillar of the car where the

370
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door the like the wedge of the door the where the where it opens he moved slightly they were

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slightly moving him back towards the b pillar and as they did that they just kind of let their guard

372
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down just slightly and he turned and shot so quickly that they didn't even have a clue what

373
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was going on and basically shot both of them in the face um so that's just you know one of those

374
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things that's going to happen no matter you know who you are but your odds are much better

375
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with two people compared to one absolutely well going back to the school initiatives i think is

376
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great the um what's it called the sydney cart it's a great great initiative i just shared a video

377
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recently and it was miami date i think that did this um and i've actually been a part of these in

378
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california and we did one in orange county as well but it was the mock um you know dui death at the

379
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high school right and you know we come in you know and we cut the car open and we extricate a body

380
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and then you know they handcuff the the person who was responsible and in this particular one

381
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i've never seen this before they even went as far as then conducting a funeral service in front of

382
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the school which is another addition coming from a country where our psa's are certainly were known

383
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to be so raw but they they work i mean they absolutely work um i'm a huge fan of the

384
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work i'm a huge fan of pulling this out into the front where it needs to be and these are you know

385
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:51,360
they're educational not meant to scare or trigger anyone you know over a point but they're just

386
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:56,320
supposed to show the reality of how dangerous these vehicles are if we're not paying attention

387
00:42:56,320 --> 00:43:04,800
so what is your perception of those um i think those are great and we actually um did something

388
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:13,840
similar to that um my first my first year as the dui sergeant maybe this um maybe it might have been

389
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:22,960
the second year those are great and we found that it was just such a hard time to get people to get

390
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:31,200
the cars there and and in the high schools i don't know it just seems like nowadays they're

391
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:35,600
they don't want to offend anybody they don't want to they don't want to scar anybody or get them

392
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:41,280
you know make them feel uncomfortable or anything like that so i don't think we've that we've done

393
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:48,160
anything like that in a long time but i do think it's a powerful message um and and one time that

394
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:54,320
what we actually did is they conducted a um they didn't do the funeral service but they did like a

395
00:43:54,320 --> 00:44:03,440
trial and you know it's powerful i mean there's there's nothing better than for you to see a crash

396
00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:11,600
see somebody get taken out go to a funeral and then go to a trial and watch somebody on trial

397
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:20,160
for their life you know no better message i wish we could get more into that but just the way

398
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:25,280
society's going they don't want to hurt anybody's feelings they don't want to you know now you got

399
00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:30,640
people identifying as other people and different things like that so they just don't want anything

400
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:38,800
like that to you know to educate people i think the root of the problem that we're seeing to be

401
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:46,080
extremely fair on our younger people is a lot of the the figures that have found themselves with a

402
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:53,120
microphone in the hand are divisive and cancerous and don't walk the walk themselves so we've got a

403
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:57,120
you know a youth that's kind of bumbling around trying to find well who the hell am i supposed

404
00:44:57,120 --> 00:45:02,320
to look up to then the last two presidents have been horrible fucking people you know some of these

405
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:07,440
sports stars are doing horrendous things like who you know my my pastor just got caught doing this

406
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:11,200
you know who who are the good people of the world who are the people i should be looking up to

407
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:15,760
who are the good people of the world who are the people i should be looking up to and so i think

408
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:21,200
it goes back to walking the walk ourselves being mentors in our own communities i mean even one

409
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:26,240
thing that nauseates me of what call them out is the police officers that drive around my town

410
00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:31,280
that speed that ride the ass of cars in front that don't use their blinker i mean you're supposed to

411
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:35,280
be the prime example so how the hell are we expecting our people to drive well when you're

412
00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:41,680
driving like a fucking asshole yourself so it all goes back to education and setting that bar now

413
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:45,200
we're going to get into the other roles that you've you've played in law enforcement especially when

414
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:51,040
it comes to you know safety on the roads but i was amazed when when i kind of dug into the stats

415
00:45:52,240 --> 00:46:00,880
we have six million car accidents a year in america six million of which 40 000 people die

416
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:07,440
and i would imagine a large percentage of those are teens and younger and then of those six million

417
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:13,600
there's 2.5 million injuries now again some of them are going to be oh my neck my back you know

418
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:17,440
call your lawyer type injuries but then there's going to be a lot of people with truly life

419
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:24,640
altering injuries coming from a country where the bar truly is held extremely high when it comes to

420
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:28,880
this issue you know we have you know old country lanes and we don't have dividers and medians in

421
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:34,880
most roads it's extremely hard to pass the british driving test you know and most people take about

422
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:39,680
two or three attempts to even pass it and that's with you know 10 plus lessons with a professional

423
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:44,560
driving instructor and you know having to truly prepare but what i think it does in the end

424
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:51,200
is you have a huge respect for the responsibility and you have a huge understanding because of this

425
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:56,720
depth of knowledge that you need to get of why you use your indicator your blinker you know why you

426
00:46:56,720 --> 00:47:01,680
have certain spaces between the vehicles in front of you obviously why you don't start screwing

427
00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:07,280
around with your phone contrary to that when i came to america and took my florida driving test

428
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:12,320
i genuinely thought the portion that i did was kind of like a little warm-up let's get used to

429
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:17,200
the streets before we start and i got back to the center and he's like congratulations you passed

430
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:23,120
okay yeah congratulations and i just watched my son do the exact same thing you know 22 years later

431
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:30,800
as a 16 year old boy and so this is just you know every country does certain things really well and

432
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:37,920
other things really poorly and this is my opinion is our standards are set so low how could we not

433
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:43,680
have chaos on the road we set expectations so poorly they have no real understanding of the why

434
00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:49,280
behind the rules that you guys enforce so what's your perspective okay i'm going to kind of break

435
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:55,520
down all these different levels but at the driving test standard level and age what is your perspective

436
00:47:55,520 --> 00:48:02,880
with all the the horrible things that you've had to witness in uniform um well i personally think

437
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:08,880
that the driving age should be a little bit higher than 16 i think it's 16 just with a little bit

438
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:15,920
because they only require you to have your permit for a year and with the parents being so busy

439
00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:20,480
not many people are going to hire a driving instructor to teach their kids to drive they're

440
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:26,480
going to do it themselves however they're only going to do it you know in little phases and

441
00:48:27,040 --> 00:48:32,960
you know you just don't have enough experience behind the wheel as to be a 16 year old a year

442
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:37,280
later going and now getting a license to where you can drive on your own

443
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:43,360
because they all think they know it you know everything on the road they know what to do they

444
00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:50,720
know how to react and i'm here to tell you they don't they do not they cannot react and that's

445
00:48:50,720 --> 00:48:56,080
you know a lot of the accidents are because kids don't pay attention and they just don't realize

446
00:48:56,080 --> 00:49:03,040
they just think it's their right that they've been given because i'm 16 now i'm i'm able to have a

447
00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:10,880
license and i should you know and i find now too that when i was 16 and 15 getting my license i did

448
00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:18,080
it right away however we don't have as many teens nowadays wanting to get their license

449
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:23,600
which i'm okay with you know if you want to wait till you're 18 19 20 years old

450
00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:28,400
um then you know you're not that you're going to have more experience but at least you're a

451
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:32,720
little bit older and you're a little bit you know you're wiser and you've just you've had more

452
00:49:32,720 --> 00:49:41,280
life experience watching other people and watching what people are doing whereas 16 you know up until

453
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:45,440
you're you know when you really think you're going to start learning about driving maybe 14

454
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:53,360
how much do they really pay attention when you're driving to the vehicles outside the patterns

455
00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:58,320
how people are doing how do you go through it you know the turn signal the people running red lights

456
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:02,640
you know the turn signal the people running red lights how long do you wait at a red light before

457
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:07,360
you proceed making sure that somebody's not coming the other direction deciding they're going to run

458
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:16,400
a red light just today on the way home i was um coming up to a red light clearly clearly red

459
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:25,680
probably 250 feet from the stop bar there was a car that was just in front of me maybe two car

460
00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:33,760
links so that one's roughly 200 feet from the stop bar the light is completely red and she drove

461
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:40,240
right through it thank goodness the other people that were going to go north and south saw what

462
00:50:40,240 --> 00:50:44,880
that you know that they were coming and they didn't go but it's that kind of thing it just

463
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:53,360
people don't pay attention and that's you know she was an adult she was probably mid-40s so you know

464
00:50:53,360 --> 00:51:00,160
we got somebody that's like 16 we've said oh you've taken a written test so you know some of the laws

465
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:06,720
that we want that we think that are important and you've gotten a little bit of experience driving

466
00:51:06,720 --> 00:51:12,320
with your parents and we're going to go do this little easy test that mainly takes place in a

467
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:18,160
business park you know not really a whole lot of driving on the road you might have a little bit

468
00:51:18,160 --> 00:51:22,800
but for the majority it's on roadways that are in this business park so you don't have any

469
00:51:22,800 --> 00:51:29,920
interaction on doing a red light stopping and having other cars around you in three lanes and

470
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:36,800
different things like that and we just expect our kids to know you know i think it should be

471
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:42,320
you know maybe not quite 21 you know because it becomes more of an inconvenience you know but it

472
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:47,360
should be at least 18 or graduated from high school because now you're going to be going to college

473
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:54,240
you know some kids go to colleges where you're going to have to drive but it just needs to be or

474
00:51:54,240 --> 00:52:01,920
like like like you said over in in um your country they just they take it more serious

475
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:06,960
you know i just don't think the united states takes that kind of thing serious they just think

476
00:52:06,960 --> 00:52:13,280
it's oh it's my right yeah just let them do it it's convenient but you know kind of parents don't

477
00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:19,600
want to have to shuffle their kids back and forth everywhere yeah well i think i mean i i train my

478
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:24,080
son diligently and would like to think i'm a decent driver obviously coming from the uk and

479
00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:28,080
then having to drive you know fire engines and ambulances and all kinds of things you know you

480
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:32,080
have to now you know you have to be a better driver how can you not after you know going

481
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:38,800
license sirens and all that kind of thing but then it was also fear base having cut dead people out

482
00:52:38,800 --> 00:52:44,640
of cars for a living it really motivates you to make sure that your child is as safe as possible

483
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:49,200
so i mean i was talking to him when he was 14 and walking him through it and then when he came 15 we

484
00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:54,160
were constantly going to you know any area and kind of incrementally loading you know as he got

485
00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:59,520
more and more confident getting into bigger and bigger roads so that when he took his 16th test on

486
00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:05,040
his 16th birthday he did pass but again it was so disappointing what he was being asked to do

487
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:09,840
but i think we just set our people up for failure whether they're 16 year old kids or 60 year old

488
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:16,560
immigrants that have come from wherever that you basically have to have this base level of skills

489
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:22,880
and then you know you look at the the the results i think if i got this right the uk is is 10 percent

490
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:27,840
of the deaths that we have per capita so the proof is in the pudding the higher the standard is the

491
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:32,800
better driver you're gonna have which is gonna carry on but if you and if you drive in the uk

492
00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:37,600
you'll see there's a sharing of the road this is very very kind of gracious you know people

493
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:41,760
emerging on the freeway people will kind of go over a latency people do here as well and this

494
00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:46,560
isn't you know tarring everyone with the same brush whereas here though it's kind of like a race

495
00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:51,440
and it's almost like people's egos get hurt oh you passed me and so you know what what is the

496
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:56,480
difference between the do and how can we change that at the testing and and education step

497
00:53:56,480 --> 00:54:02,080
i don't think you're ever going to change that i mean i i think that is just the fast pace

498
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:10,000
of our society everybody's in a rush you know and nobody wants to wait they're impatient

499
00:54:10,720 --> 00:54:17,920
you know so you know i'm gonna i'm gonna keep in that middle lane and i'll just um give you an

500
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:24,800
example on 275 going through like getting close to the tampa downtown area and you know you know

501
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:35,360
to the tampa downtown area where you can merge on to i-4 that is a constant backup and people will

502
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:43,200
go in that the the they'll be in the lane to go to i-4 and then the two lanes next to it will back

503
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:49,680
up and slow because people are driving till the last minute and then try to cut in and then you

504
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:53,440
know you got people like me that are like hey wait a minute i've waited in this line you're not cutting

505
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:57,600
in front of me and then that's how you have accidents i had we were on the way to a lightning

506
00:54:57,600 --> 00:55:06,960
game um it was me my daughter and her boyfriend and there was a car that basically was doing that

507
00:55:07,680 --> 00:55:14,400
and ended up like swerving because you weren't paying attention that the car had stopped trying

508
00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:21,680
to get over into the i-4 lane so now she had to swerve around that didn't even look in my lane

509
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:27,280
so thank goodness i was paying attention because she was right even with me and my daughter wasn't

510
00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:31,680
paying attention it was like one of these you know she pays attention when she drives she actually

511
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:39,040
did well when i taught her but they have no concept she wasn't even all of a sudden you know she feels

512
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:44,320
the truck jerk over to the left and say oh what you know what's going on what's going on and her

513
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:49,520
boyfriend was actually paying attention he was just like froze there because he didn't he was

514
00:55:49,520 --> 00:55:56,080
like i can't believe like you i said yeah well i pay attention i pay attention i'm on constantly

515
00:55:56,080 --> 00:56:02,880
looking around me and looking at the habits of other drivers you know because if you don't pay

516
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:07,040
attention you're going to be a victim you're going to be in the you're going to be in the wall

517
00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:10,800
because they're going to hit you and and then you're not going to you're going to get pushed

518
00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:14,480
into another car and now we got a free car accident and somebody's getting injured

519
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:20,320
just from the little slight not paying attention i touch wood i'm going to bang on my desk now i've

520
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:25,280
never had an accident on the road but i am an absolute shit magnet and i've you know when i

521
00:56:25,280 --> 00:56:29,360
first started dating my my wife now i told her and she's like yeah yeah whatever and she got in the

522
00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:34,000
car and she's like holy shit you really are and then my son you know had that a little bit too

523
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:38,080
but again at first you're like okay is it me but it's not it's just the people pulling in front and

524
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:41,680
you know like you said cutting over and things that are nothing to do with the way you're driving

525
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:47,440
it's that entitlement yeah you know and that's the thing that irritates me i can't even tell you how

526
00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:53,840
many people i've stopped over my career where i'm in a police car some of them were marked and then

527
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:59,440
later down the road i mean i guess you wouldn't know that it's a police car other than i mean it's

528
00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:09,920
a white dodge charger so chances are it's probably a police car but they think because i've turned my

529
00:57:09,920 --> 00:57:18,640
blinker on that everything else around them has to stop and let them over and i've been cut off so

530
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:25,280
many times in my personal vehicle and in the police car but the good part about being in the

531
00:57:25,280 --> 00:57:30,480
police car is i just put the little lever off to the right and and the lights come on and

532
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:37,440
now we can adjust that that driving habit because um and the one guy basically when i stopped him

533
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:44,320
after he cut me off and i'd slam on i mean slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him and once i

534
00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:52,320
stopped him he he was like confused you know what what did i what did i do officer um i don't know

535
00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:59,040
maybe you cut me off to the point where i had to slam on brakes his answer was why i had my blinker

536
00:57:59,040 --> 00:58:06,960
on i said so what you're telling me is you're driving along and no matter what anybody else

537
00:58:06,960 --> 00:58:13,760
is doing as long as you turn your blinker on that's pretty much permission and saying hey

538
00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:19,440
i'm coming over you need to stop and let me in i said unfortunately it doesn't work that way

539
00:58:20,560 --> 00:58:25,600
even though you put your blinker on you still have the responsibility to make sure that that lane

540
00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:27,440
that you're trying to go into is clear

541
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:34,480
so of course i wrote him a ticket he took it to court and he tried he tried that same

542
00:58:34,480 --> 00:58:40,640
uh reasoning i guess with the judge and the judge is like yeah that's not gonna work you know and

543
00:58:40,640 --> 00:58:46,400
he had to pay the fine in court but but that's how people think that i've turned my blinker on you

544
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:52,640
have to stop and let me in and because you know that's i put it on i put the blinker on that's

545
00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:57,600
what it's there for you're supposed to let me over yeah yeah and i've got a you know a heartbreaking

546
00:58:57,600 --> 00:59:05,200
story for every every you know infringement of a safety element of driving from motors as a

547
00:59:05,200 --> 00:59:10,720
motorcyclist once in california and this woman again was impatient she was about the hov lanes

548
00:59:10,720 --> 00:59:15,600
over there and they have the chevrons you're not supposed to drive through she got impatient the

549
00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:20,880
traffic decides she's going to cut over to the hov lane knocks this this motorcyclist off his bike

550
00:59:20,880 --> 00:59:26,960
knocks this this motorcyclist off his bike under the between the front and the rear wheels of a

551
00:59:26,960 --> 00:59:32,800
tractor trailer wheels he's seen trying to crawl out traffic eases off in front of the tractor

552
00:59:32,800 --> 00:59:37,200
trailer because they're stopped and just before he can clear it the the trailer runs him over and

553
00:59:37,200 --> 00:59:41,920
kills him you know what i mean so for each of these things like the the person that's riding

554
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:47,680
the ass and then the the car stops for a child and they would have stopped in time but that car

555
00:59:47,680 --> 00:59:52,080
behind them crams in behind them and they go over the child you know what i mean every single one of

556
00:59:52,080 --> 00:59:58,320
these safety reasons has it not just one thousands of death stories attached to them but if you don't

557
00:59:58,320 --> 01:00:02,800
understand the why like one thing that drives me crazy people will stand on their brakes go into a

558
01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:07,200
turn lane and then when they're in the fucking lane with a big arrow then they'll put their blinker on

559
01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:13,360
like the blinker is letting people know i'm gonna slow down and turn if you're already in the lane

560
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:18,880
having slowed down a turn then you clearly don't why are you putting it on now exactly and it goes

561
01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:24,480
back again rather than just you know emptily talking shit is is about how do we fix this

562
01:00:24,480 --> 01:00:30,000
and what really disgusts me is i've been in america for 22 years now i've never heard anyone talk

563
01:00:30,000 --> 01:00:35,360
about traffic safety every single year it's about 40 000 lives lost never seen a little

564
01:00:35,360 --> 01:00:40,800
counter on cnn on fox for that and you think about the money lost every time there's a wreck

565
01:00:40,800 --> 01:00:46,560
on a freeway or a main line you know an archery road in a city it's probably billions of dollars

566
01:00:46,560 --> 01:00:52,960
in commerce left lost from all the people stuck in those traffic jams so i don't understand why there

567
01:00:52,960 --> 01:01:00,640
isn't a conversation of addressing the issues on our roads it's just never a big topic you know i

568
01:01:00,640 --> 01:01:07,920
know um we work hand in hand with fdot especially being you know with i do volunteering with mothers

569
01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:15,760
against drunk driving once i got involved with them back in 2016 but we also go as when i was

570
01:01:15,760 --> 01:01:22,560
a sergeant on the department we would go to these fdot meetings so i mean fdot they do a lot of

571
01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:29,040
education in high schools and and stuff like that trying to get to these new drivers

572
01:01:29,040 --> 01:01:40,960
um but everything's everything's money driven to be honest and um people want it's just like in the

573
01:01:40,960 --> 01:01:47,200
school system the more that you show your school has issues the less money you get because your

574
01:01:47,200 --> 01:01:54,640
ratings gone down so i feel like you know you're not going to see a lot of this stuff or any type

575
01:01:54,640 --> 01:02:01,760
or any type of remedies for it because if we show that we have an issue in tampa or texas

576
01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:09,040
or anywhere they're afraid that they're going to lose funding because they're not doing something

577
01:02:09,040 --> 01:02:14,240
to fix it so we're just not going to report it correctly or we're going to report it but

578
01:02:14,960 --> 01:02:19,680
we're going to leave it to them if they want to show it or do anything like that to the public

579
01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:25,840
then we'll do that the only thing we're going to highlight is serious like wrong way drivers

580
01:02:27,440 --> 01:02:34,560
um dui crashes anything with negligence high speeds they're going to say that kind of stuff

581
01:02:34,800 --> 01:02:41,920
but that's easily fixable you know with high speed and impairment you would think don't drink

582
01:02:42,400 --> 01:02:46,800
and then get behind the wheel it's real simple you know when you get in there that's why they

583
01:02:46,800 --> 01:02:55,920
have those little signs on the side of the road that say 45 55 35 if you go that speed and you

584
01:02:55,920 --> 01:03:03,280
have a crash at that speed it's less likely for you to have serious injury or death not that it

585
01:03:03,280 --> 01:03:10,480
can't because it there are there are exceptions however that's why they base those speeds like

586
01:03:10,480 --> 01:03:17,280
that because they're basing it on two vehicles hitting at that speed so if i have one that's

587
01:03:17,280 --> 01:03:25,120
going 45 and i hit you at 45 now we've got a 90 mile an hour impact with the safety features of

588
01:03:25,120 --> 01:03:32,080
most vehicles those those are survivable you know because of the airbags but if i'm going 100

589
01:03:33,040 --> 01:03:39,760
and you're doing the speed limit now we have 145 mile an hour crash definitely going to be some

590
01:03:39,760 --> 01:03:47,120
injuries possibly death out of that you know but that's you know i think that that's a big issue i

591
01:03:47,120 --> 01:03:55,600
just think everything in this country is driven by how much money and funding and and how much i can

592
01:03:55,600 --> 01:04:03,120
line my pocket before i get out of this profession absolutely i think that's the the corrupt nature

593
01:04:03,120 --> 01:04:08,400
that you know we need to address all the way down you know from top down to bottom and if you even

594
01:04:08,400 --> 01:04:13,760
look at the way that we select people to be president you have to already be a millionaire

595
01:04:13,760 --> 01:04:19,680
to even afford the campaigns and you have to be willing to accept money from lobbyists so that you

596
01:04:20,240 --> 01:04:23,920
promote whatever it is that does you know that's going to really help the country like Oxycontin

597
01:04:23,920 --> 01:04:28,800
and cigarettes and fast food and other things that are killing millions of people so you know

598
01:04:28,800 --> 01:04:35,600
that whole ethos has to be changed and you know if our country was full of svelte healthy people and

599
01:04:35,600 --> 01:04:40,400
roads were safe and everything would be like all right it's working let's keep doing this model but

600
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:46,320
if it's you know a country that has 70 percent overweight and obesity and 40 000 people dying

601
01:04:46,320 --> 01:04:51,680
on the roads every year and you know god knows how many dying of cancer maybe just maybe the way

602
01:04:51,680 --> 01:04:57,680
we're doing it isn't working and we need to change it up right but see but if you do it the right way

603
01:04:57,680 --> 01:05:05,040
and well you know it's it's about it's about convenience to be honest you know a lot of the

604
01:05:05,600 --> 01:05:10,800
the products that they're doing as far as our food and why everybody seems to be getting cancer

605
01:05:10,800 --> 01:05:17,120
nowadays on you know all the little things that they do it's they're doing it to make it convenient

606
01:05:18,000 --> 01:05:24,720
and you know us as a society here you know i don't have time to cook the healthy healthy meal all the

607
01:05:24,720 --> 01:05:30,640
time so what do i do i i do something quick i go to fast food and that's how you end up doing that

608
01:05:30,640 --> 01:05:36,560
it's just and it costs more to eat healthy you know it costs less to go to the fast food and

609
01:05:37,120 --> 01:05:44,160
and all the preservatives and and all that kind of stuff you know those already packaged meals and

610
01:05:44,160 --> 01:05:50,800
stuff like that so i think it's that's a big part of it as well is it's just a convenient and as a

611
01:05:50,800 --> 01:05:57,200
society i think we've just become impatient with everything everything once we we just want it now

612
01:05:57,200 --> 01:06:04,720
and fast and and easy an issue i talked about a lot especially in the fire service because most

613
01:06:04,720 --> 01:06:09,360
of our firefighters work 56 hours a week um you know some might have an extra day thrown in here

614
01:06:09,360 --> 01:06:12,640
or there but then now you add in the hiring crisis now a lot of them are working eight

615
01:06:12,640 --> 01:06:17,600
hour weeks when they're forced to stay for another 24 and so in this profession it is

616
01:06:17,600 --> 01:06:23,600
extremely clear to me that sleep deprivation is extremely detrimental long term for all diseases

617
01:06:23,600 --> 01:06:29,120
that we get in the mental health problems but also short term the acuity and i wonder how many you

618
01:06:29,120 --> 01:06:33,440
know things that we've classed as a line of duty death like intersection wrecks and getting lost

619
01:06:33,440 --> 01:06:39,360
in fires or actually it was sleep deprivation at the genesis of that what have you witnessed as far

620
01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:43,840
as in your profession but also in the civilians how many are attributed to that because as you

621
01:06:43,840 --> 01:06:50,240
said even in the general population we have a a mal you know a population that's overworked

622
01:06:50,240 --> 01:07:00,640
understaffed and malnourished um i've seen it quite a bit um especially in you know not as much in the

623
01:07:00,640 --> 01:07:08,640
fire profession just because that's going to be dependent on like in tampa on like what station

624
01:07:08,640 --> 01:07:14,880
you're at um i can just tell you my best friend's a firefighter and the station he's at he might get

625
01:07:15,520 --> 01:07:24,320
one or two calls every two or three shifts so he's definitely sleeping through the night so there's

626
01:07:24,320 --> 01:07:30,560
should be no issue with uh sleep deprivation but in my profession with law enforcement um

627
01:07:31,280 --> 01:07:37,840
you probably don't see it a whole lot on day shifts it just kind of depends on you know what

628
01:07:37,840 --> 01:07:42,080
you have going on in your lifestyle if you're working extra duty and stuff like that where

629
01:07:42,720 --> 01:07:48,720
you know you're living above your means so now i've got to go work extra you know and that's

630
01:07:48,720 --> 01:07:53,280
where you're going to get that sleep deprivation from the day shift but like if if nobody's ever

631
01:07:53,280 --> 01:08:00,000
worked midnights and had to stay up all night long that is just it's rough on your body you know and

632
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:07,760
i i know i can just tell you from experience because i was on midnights for probably 14 out of the

633
01:08:07,760 --> 01:08:16,320
27 years and driving home driving to work when the sun's up and then coming back home

634
01:08:17,360 --> 01:08:24,320
when the sun's up is it's it's pretty rough you know it's just it takes a totally different toll

635
01:08:24,320 --> 01:08:32,480
on your body and i can tell you that i can't i've been on the way home and go i don't remember this

636
01:08:32,480 --> 01:08:37,600
getting from this stretch you know like at this point of the road and now i'm like three miles

637
01:08:37,600 --> 01:08:42,880
down the road and don't know how i got there i'm like uh you know i must have fallen asleep at that

638
01:08:42,880 --> 01:08:50,480
point you know and at one point i hit a curb and busted two tires up you know it's it's it's a

639
01:08:50,480 --> 01:08:58,240
rough deal and then just imagine as a society everybody's burning candles at both ends trying

640
01:08:58,240 --> 01:09:04,880
to get as much in a day as they can so along that along with no common sense and not paying

641
01:09:04,880 --> 01:09:12,320
attention and then your social media i'm surprised we don't have more car crashes than what we have

642
01:09:13,440 --> 01:09:19,040
i know there's been some horrific um wrecks with with semis i know one of them barreled into a

643
01:09:19,040 --> 01:09:23,920
school bus here in north north of us in o'calla um killed a little girl and she was trapped while

644
01:09:23,920 --> 01:09:28,960
the bus was burning and again i don't know if that was uh the same kind of thing because i know a

645
01:09:28,960 --> 01:09:33,760
lot of our truck drivers they have safety parameters but are they actually you know sticking to them

646
01:09:33,760 --> 01:09:38,080
right but do they abide by exactly so you have these micro sleeps that they don't realize they're

647
01:09:38,080 --> 01:09:44,240
asleep and i've seen this recently more so than than often you know and part of it is is cell

648
01:09:44,240 --> 01:09:48,560
phones but other times you're like that person looks like they're barely you know barely awake

649
01:09:48,560 --> 01:09:52,480
and i'll call it in if it's someone who's clearly doing that but you know you see a lot of cars just

650
01:09:52,480 --> 01:09:57,520
not even staying in the lane anymore so again like you said the distraction of a device coupled with

651
01:09:58,240 --> 01:10:04,880
you know extreme fatigue already is is a pretty dangerous combination well you know and and and

652
01:10:04,880 --> 01:10:11,680
nowadays what's going to even make that a little bit worse and make it happen more often is they've

653
01:10:11,680 --> 01:10:18,160
got these new vehicles that come out that kind of drive themselves the lane departure i mean i was

654
01:10:18,160 --> 01:10:24,400
in a rental car and i was like no there's no way that this is going to do this and i hit the button

655
01:10:24,400 --> 01:10:35,120
and i mean it drove it stayed in the lane i mean going around curves i mean i was shocked so when

656
01:10:35,120 --> 01:10:42,800
you have a vehicle that can do that 100 you're going to have more people pushing the envelope

657
01:10:42,800 --> 01:10:47,680
and going oh well i mean the car pretty much stays in the lane as long as we're going straight slight

658
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:53,680
curves you know i can catch a you know a three minute little snooze as you know it's they're

659
01:10:53,680 --> 01:11:00,320
going to push the envelope guaranteed i mean i i i have a motor home and i heard of a story

660
01:11:00,880 --> 01:11:10,480
where somebody was told that they have cruise control on the motor home and they're like oh

661
01:11:10,480 --> 01:11:15,520
that's great i'm just going to put it on cruise control i'm going to go to the back i'm going to

662
01:11:15,520 --> 01:11:23,760
make myself a sandwich and they get up and they go make a sandwich while they're nobody is driving

663
01:11:23,760 --> 01:11:29,120
this motor home and then wonders why it goes off the road and crashes you know on the interstate

664
01:11:29,920 --> 01:11:36,000
that's the type of people that we have in this society that i mean really you think that the

665
01:11:36,000 --> 01:11:42,160
car is driving itself but eventually you're going to have that something they've already got some of

666
01:11:42,160 --> 01:11:48,880
them that that do it i mean what about the total other side of the spectrum i live in you know the

667
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:54,320
o'cala area we've got the villages we've got on top of the world i have definitely witnessed some

668
01:11:54,320 --> 01:11:59,600
people behind the wheel who are definitely very advanced in their years that have done some very

669
01:11:59,600 --> 01:12:04,240
dangerous things we do get you know pedestrians walking out that i just think they again their

670
01:12:04,240 --> 01:12:10,960
their perception of how far away cars are and they get creamed um so there's a there's a there's a

671
01:12:10,960 --> 01:12:15,680
kind of tug of war though because we all know that when you take away someone's independence

672
01:12:15,680 --> 01:12:20,400
then you know their their longevity their will to live can be shifted from that so it can be

673
01:12:20,400 --> 01:12:24,640
detrimental to someone who's older when they're having their license revoked what is your

674
01:12:24,640 --> 01:12:32,000
philosophy on the older driver and retesting or you know ways that we can make it i'm all for that

675
01:12:33,360 --> 01:12:40,240
and matter of fact that's funny that you bring that up because i my mother-in-law is 77 and we

676
01:12:40,240 --> 01:12:49,120
were on the way to an appointment the other day now she hasn't driven in uh we'll say six or seven

677
01:12:49,120 --> 01:12:56,160
years we pretty much take her wherever she needs to go um but we were talking about that because

678
01:12:56,160 --> 01:13:03,360
she could not believe on our way to the doctor's office that there was two or three cars that kind

679
01:13:03,360 --> 01:13:11,120
of just cut us off for no reason and then when i was able to get up alongside was an older person

680
01:13:12,320 --> 01:13:17,760
and she was like oh they probably need to go and i'm like you're exactly right i know where you're

681
01:13:17,760 --> 01:13:23,680
going with that they need to be retested and i think that should be a mandatory thing that

682
01:13:23,680 --> 01:13:29,120
you don't just go in and have your eyes checked and and things like that you need to go in and

683
01:13:29,120 --> 01:13:36,000
they need once you reach a certain age and they need to do basically redo your driving just like

684
01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:41,520
you would do it at 16 you need to come in you're at this age now we need to see how your reactions

685
01:13:41,520 --> 01:13:48,240
are and how you're doing on the road and because i mean you have a lot of crashes where older people

686
01:13:48,240 --> 01:13:52,160
are hitting the gas instead of the brake and they're driving through you know the front of

687
01:13:52,160 --> 01:13:59,920
restaurants that should never happen unless there's a malfunction with your car that should never

688
01:13:59,920 --> 01:14:05,840
happen and that's just all not paying attention or you don't remember or you know little things

689
01:14:05,840 --> 01:14:11,040
like that that start going wrong when you're older you know and and and god forbid you get any type

690
01:14:11,040 --> 01:14:18,160
of you know the start the onsets of dementia or alzheimer's or something like that and you know

691
01:14:18,160 --> 01:14:21,440
obviously you don't want anybody to know that because then they're definitely taking your

692
01:14:21,440 --> 01:14:27,920
driving privileges away so you hide it and then you just you push the envelope and then now you're

693
01:14:27,920 --> 01:14:34,160
hurting somebody i definitely think that needs to be something that needs to be addressed well it's

694
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:37,840
protecting them as well and it's the same conversation as you know fitness in first

695
01:14:37,840 --> 01:14:42,320
responder professions and fitness standards it's you know people get oh you're trying to take jobs

696
01:14:42,320 --> 01:14:47,680
like well firstly no because we do a very physical job you should be in great shape but secondly

697
01:14:47,680 --> 01:14:52,000
that then in turn is going to make you healthier and hopefully have a long retirement so there's

698
01:14:52,000 --> 01:14:56,880
no downside at all and it's the same with this if you can prove that you are still competent behind

699
01:14:56,880 --> 01:15:02,560
the wheel then beautiful off you go again and if you can't there's no better time than now with uber

700
01:15:02,560 --> 01:15:08,080
and lift and all these other great services that have really evolved where you know you you hand

701
01:15:08,080 --> 01:15:15,040
in your license and allow someone who's younger and more apt to be able to get you safely from a to b

702
01:15:15,040 --> 01:15:19,760
because we yeah yes older people can kill other people but we're also protecting them they more

703
01:15:19,760 --> 01:15:24,400
often not going to get killed and i've been we had a post office anaheim someone drove through an

704
01:15:24,400 --> 01:15:30,960
older person no sooner had they repaired the front another person drove through the exact same window

705
01:15:30,960 --> 01:15:36,560
so like twice twice in about seven or eight days so it does happen um and i you know and again so

706
01:15:36,560 --> 01:15:43,200
it's not about overreach in that particular example if someone is danger to themselves or others then

707
01:15:43,200 --> 01:15:51,040
that's that's where the line has to be you know put it in the sand right i agree 100 well i want

708
01:15:51,040 --> 01:15:55,600
to hit one more topic and then go to alcohol you know when i was you know early in my career that

709
01:15:55,600 --> 01:15:59,840
was kind of it that you know again i'm sure some of it was sleep deprivation that we now would

710
01:15:59,840 --> 01:16:04,800
understand but more often than not when you went to you know a bad wreck one of the people was

711
01:16:04,800 --> 01:16:08,960
drunk and i can think of a you're talking about dying at a slower speed i remember someone

712
01:16:08,960 --> 01:16:13,520
blowing through a stop sign and killing this this poor woman who was just you know she had the right

713
01:16:13,520 --> 01:16:19,280
away she pulled out and just got t-boned and it didn't even look that bad on the outside and she

714
01:16:19,280 --> 01:16:26,320
was dead on the inside of the car so but before we get to the alcohol side it's funny i've seen so

715
01:16:26,320 --> 01:16:32,080
many people where i live our community is like 30 mile an hour on the main outside 25 through the

716
01:16:32,080 --> 01:16:38,240
streets and most people do adhere to that it's very good but when i'm seeing people driving by

717
01:16:38,240 --> 01:16:45,360
i'm talking not school-aged kids you know 30s 40s 50s everyone has their phone in their hand

718
01:16:45,360 --> 01:16:50,160
and these are new vehicles where you have you know cradles and bluetooth and all the things

719
01:16:50,160 --> 01:16:53,840
we don't even need to hold a device even if you do want to make a phone call or whatever it is

720
01:16:54,560 --> 01:16:59,440
so what have you seen because your career spans a lot more than mine does you know what were you

721
01:16:59,440 --> 01:17:03,840
seeing as the causes of a lot of these crashes early in your career and what has been your

722
01:17:03,840 --> 01:17:13,120
observation with the smartphone being put in the car um well early on in the career it was

723
01:17:13,920 --> 01:17:21,520
you know just not paying attention that you know or over driving yourself you know

724
01:17:22,080 --> 01:17:28,160
but most of it was just not paying attention just distracted by something eating it's always been

725
01:17:28,160 --> 01:17:36,800
some sort of distraction but nothing is more i and then as my career has gone on definitely with the

726
01:17:36,800 --> 01:17:48,720
smartphone is it increased a little bit when we first got just a regular smartphone but where i

727
01:17:48,720 --> 01:17:58,000
saw the big increase is when we started these social media platforms and it's all about i need

728
01:17:58,000 --> 01:18:04,160
followers i need likes i need this and that and when you hear the ding you want to see who's

729
01:18:04,160 --> 01:18:11,280
commented on your picture to see if they say that oh you're so cute it all that looks oh my gosh

730
01:18:11,280 --> 01:18:21,920
that's great um and and now you can just see from everything that we have you know influencers on

731
01:18:21,920 --> 01:18:28,720
tik tok only fans and all this kind of stuff all they're looking to do is get as many people on

732
01:18:28,720 --> 01:18:36,960
their following and doing that and subscribing because it all goes back to the root of money

733
01:18:36,960 --> 01:18:44,240
everybody wants to live a lavish lifestyle and the more i have following me subscribing to me

734
01:18:45,040 --> 01:18:51,120
and all that the more money i'm gonna make so if i can hear the ding and i'm just driving you know to

735
01:18:51,120 --> 01:18:56,960
to the the grocery store i'm gonna pick it up i'm gonna look and all it takes is that little split

736
01:18:56,960 --> 01:19:04,560
second you know looking away or you know you go to pick your phone up and it drops to the passenger

737
01:19:04,560 --> 01:19:09,920
side you're gonna leave you think somebody that's an influencer or anything like that that's big

738
01:19:09,920 --> 01:19:13,520
into the social media especially when they're making money it's gonna leave their phone on the

739
01:19:13,520 --> 01:19:18,880
ground until they get to the grocery store they're leaning over they're trying to pick it up and what

740
01:19:18,880 --> 01:19:23,680
they don't realize is their hand still on the wheel they might be driving straight until they reach

741
01:19:24,160 --> 01:19:30,320
and once you reach your hand's going exactly the same way you're gonna go so if you're going over

742
01:19:30,320 --> 01:19:35,440
to the right your car is going to the right but they don't they don't think about that beforehand

743
01:19:36,240 --> 01:19:41,840
and i think that's you know the a lot of the big problem that we have is it's just you know the

744
01:19:41,840 --> 01:19:50,240
you know the common sense to realize that any little thing that you distract yourself from

745
01:19:50,880 --> 01:19:57,280
paying attention on that road it it could it could be detrimental it could be you know it could be

746
01:19:57,280 --> 01:20:05,280
fatal absolutely well let's go to alcohol then so circling around to the beginning of this conversation

747
01:20:05,280 --> 01:20:11,760
seven years old you're rejected after a dui crash with your mom's boyfriend driving walk me through

748
01:20:11,760 --> 01:20:17,760
how you found yourself in the very unit that deals with that in your agency and then let's talk about

749
01:20:17,760 --> 01:20:25,040
the the alcohol element of driving so you know once i became a police officer i mean obviously

750
01:20:25,040 --> 01:20:33,760
all the part of it is you know you you enforce all types of crimes and in in traffic some of it and

751
01:20:33,760 --> 01:20:39,200
and then dui is also throughout my career i've always you know i've done duis here and there

752
01:20:39,200 --> 01:20:48,080
but we actually had a specialized unit from 1996 and and it's current today we still have it

753
01:20:48,640 --> 01:20:56,320
so a lot of the time once they made that segregated unit they wanted people calling them to come do the

754
01:20:56,320 --> 01:21:05,280
duis because they specialized in it and for me as a patrol officer if you you know you don't do them

755
01:21:05,280 --> 01:21:11,200
all the time but you know how to do them you're typically for a dui from start to finish you're

756
01:21:11,200 --> 01:21:17,200
about three hours off of the road so you still have to do all your field sobriety then you got

757
01:21:17,200 --> 01:21:23,200
to go to the jail go to cbt do all the observations do all the stuff and by the time you get back

758
01:21:23,200 --> 01:21:30,400
you're off the road three hours whereas you got two or three guys on your squad that are doing that

759
01:21:30,400 --> 01:21:37,200
then you have the majority of the others that are taking the calls and being just run over from all

760
01:21:37,200 --> 01:21:43,280
the other calls that are coming in so that's why they created this unit so that that's all they did

761
01:21:43,280 --> 01:21:54,560
was that so um fast forward throughout the years i become the dui sergeant so um and over the years

762
01:21:54,560 --> 01:21:59,040
and i'm going to tell you that i'm guilty of driving impaired myself as you know my early 20s

763
01:21:59,040 --> 01:22:04,720
um and even when i got on the department a little bit until i started seeing these crashes and the

764
01:22:04,720 --> 01:22:15,040
results oh my goodness i mean and people just do not realize and and still to this day i don't

765
01:22:15,040 --> 01:22:26,960
understand how you cannot see the tv paper articles on social media where you haven't seen the results

766
01:22:26,960 --> 01:22:36,320
of a dui or an impaired crash you've got you at some point you've had to see it and knowing that

767
01:22:36,320 --> 01:22:43,920
and you still take the chance is just it's mind-blowing that you know i don't even drink

768
01:22:43,920 --> 01:22:49,840
anymore now just because it's you know it just i lost the taste for it and had a kind of some

769
01:22:49,840 --> 01:22:53,600
health issues with my liver where the doctors say you probably shouldn't you know just knock it off

770
01:22:53,600 --> 01:23:00,560
so but just the crash part of it and seeing all the alcohol things which that's kind of what so when

771
01:23:01,440 --> 01:23:06,160
sparked me with got me into this the whole thing that i do with mad and volunteering

772
01:23:06,960 --> 01:23:12,560
even realizing that i'm a dui victim because growing up i never considered myself a victim

773
01:23:12,560 --> 01:23:20,400
i kind of still i know i am but i don't feel i am because i don't i'm not prevented from doing

774
01:23:20,400 --> 01:23:26,800
anything in life this little scars i mean it doesn't prevent me from doing anything so but

775
01:23:26,800 --> 01:23:31,840
when you see some of the people that go to these walks that i'm going to be doing here in march

776
01:23:31,840 --> 01:23:37,280
and some of the people that talk on the victim impact panels and just some of the people that mad

777
01:23:38,240 --> 01:23:42,560
helps through their journey of being you know a victim slash survivor

778
01:23:42,560 --> 01:23:50,800
um it's just it it opens your mind and you go you know you just feel bad for some of these people

779
01:23:50,800 --> 01:23:56,720
that you know they were doing absolutely nothing wrong they were abiding by the law just driving

780
01:23:57,440 --> 01:24:03,840
coming home from the grocery store or out to eat and the one guy or the or the girl that says

781
01:24:03,840 --> 01:24:10,160
oh you know i'm okay and they take that chance and their reactions are slow and they're like

782
01:24:10,160 --> 01:24:16,560
that's the big thing that they just most people don't realize

783
01:24:18,960 --> 01:24:25,520
that they're impaired that's you know they don't think they're as bad as they they really are and

784
01:24:25,520 --> 01:24:31,520
i see it on the end where guys you know though coming across and just dealing with it more so

785
01:24:31,520 --> 01:24:41,440
from 2016 on till about mid 2018 we're just guys are macho they just don't want to have anybody

786
01:24:41,440 --> 01:24:46,000
know that they're out of control of their faculties and and they'll take the chance

787
01:24:46,720 --> 01:24:54,720
um you know a lot more than than i've seen women but however um right near the end

788
01:24:54,720 --> 01:25:02,560
i was actually seeing an increase of more women um probably the ages of

789
01:25:04,560 --> 01:25:13,040
probably 22 to to 35 is our you know the the main offenders you're gonna have some other ages but

790
01:25:13,040 --> 01:25:21,200
that 22 to 35 range um i would probably have to say that the the the men are just barely

791
01:25:21,200 --> 01:25:31,280
squeaking by of of being in the lead of of who's getting the most duis it seemed to be in my career

792
01:25:31,280 --> 01:25:37,680
that the the drunk driver always emerged somewhat unscathed and everyone else would die was that

793
01:25:37,680 --> 01:25:44,160
something that you witnessed a lot yourself i did witness um and you're absolutely correct seems a

794
01:25:44,160 --> 01:25:50,160
little unfair you know that you know the the person is driving along doing nothing paying their

795
01:25:50,160 --> 01:25:58,560
you know minding their own business doing nothing wrong and the the impaired person is the one who

796
01:25:58,560 --> 01:26:06,880
basically survives it seems a you know way unfair um we've had actually law enforcement officers

797
01:26:07,440 --> 01:26:12,800
that have put themselves in harm's way um and we just had one um from our agency

798
01:26:12,800 --> 01:26:20,160
that did that he was on his way home and basically heard the call say

799
01:26:22,160 --> 01:26:29,520
that there was a a wrong way driver going southbound in the northbound lanes of 275

800
01:26:30,720 --> 01:26:36,480
and you know the car was doing easily i think i think they'd said it ended up being

801
01:26:36,480 --> 01:26:43,680
like 107 something like that and you know you don't want them to kill somebody else so

802
01:26:44,240 --> 01:26:49,360
we're thinking you know we're better than the average driver and being in the in the police

803
01:26:49,360 --> 01:26:55,520
world because you're trained to drive at pursuits we do driving courses and you pretty much drive

804
01:26:55,520 --> 01:27:01,840
11.4 hours a day four days a week and that's not if you if you're working off duty it's even more

805
01:27:01,840 --> 01:27:07,680
but we feel that we're better drivers and that we could you know take somebody out per se

806
01:27:08,800 --> 01:27:14,480
by just hitting their you know timing it and hitting their car right which you know

807
01:27:15,760 --> 01:27:23,200
it's hard to do um we've had some successes i think fhp did it once a lady was able to stop the car

808
01:27:23,200 --> 01:27:29,120
a lady trooper and she didn't get killed but she was injured unfortunately we've had some htso

809
01:27:29,120 --> 01:27:33,600
deputies that have been killed doing the same thing trying to stop these impaired one-way

810
01:27:33,600 --> 01:27:42,480
drivers but just as civilians and in the majority of the crashes i have seen that the impaired driver

811
01:27:44,320 --> 01:28:00,160
accident compared to the injuries from the the civilians what is the penalty of one-way driving

812
01:28:00,160 --> 01:28:04,720
the reason i asked that i remember years ago i lived in california i think was nicole richie

813
01:28:04,720 --> 01:28:11,360
lino richie's daughter was going the wrong way on 101 and if my memory serves me right i might be

814
01:28:11,360 --> 01:28:18,240
completely wrong but she got off pretty much scott free and again oh yeah there's there's no

815
01:28:20,560 --> 01:28:26,480
unless you're impaired with it that would be the only type of penalty that you would do so like

816
01:28:26,480 --> 01:28:33,360
say you're the they're the typical out of town tourist and you make a wrong way and we're just

817
01:28:33,360 --> 01:28:38,880
going to say like downtown it's easy to do in downtown because you're going and you go oh

818
01:28:38,880 --> 01:28:45,200
oh the gps said and you turn the next thing you know you find yourself in a 20 mile an hour 25

819
01:28:45,200 --> 01:28:51,920
mile an hour zone going the wrong way that i can understand so if you get caught doing that

820
01:28:52,800 --> 01:28:58,000
all that if the officer wants to write you a citation all it is is a hundred and fifty three

821
01:28:58,000 --> 01:29:06,560
dollar fine that's it so the only type of penalty that you would have for wrong way driving is if

822
01:29:06,560 --> 01:29:10,880
you're impaired along with it and obviously that's going to create a dui that's going to

823
01:29:11,440 --> 01:29:19,120
you know typically cost you in the neighborhood anywhere from depending on your history 7500

824
01:29:20,080 --> 01:29:28,400
to about 15 000 and that's if you're just caught for dui now if that's your second

825
01:29:28,400 --> 01:29:33,600
third whatever then it you know obviously the penalties go up your you know your first dui

826
01:29:33,600 --> 01:29:39,280
you're you're not doing any time in in jail other than the time that you're booked which is usually

827
01:29:39,280 --> 01:29:46,480
you have to stay there at least eight hours depending on at least eight if you're if you

828
01:29:46,480 --> 01:29:51,680
blow and and if you don't no matter how impaired you are you're there at least eight hours

829
01:29:53,120 --> 01:30:00,160
whereas if you on your second third your third if you have a third conviction of dui now you're

830
01:30:00,160 --> 01:30:06,320
into the felony so now you're looking at you can do prison time just on dui but if you're that's

831
01:30:06,320 --> 01:30:11,840
the only penalty that you're going to get from a wrong being driving the wrong way is if you're

832
01:30:11,840 --> 01:30:20,400
associated with an impairment other than that's a civil fine now flipping it around a little bit

833
01:30:20,400 --> 01:30:25,280
um because as you were alluding to earlier in your life i think a lot of us listening if we

834
01:30:25,280 --> 01:30:29,840
look you know ourselves in a mirror we can think of times where had we blown that day we would have

835
01:30:29,840 --> 01:30:37,520
been over and we would be subject to a dui um a lot of the people that i've seen on on rex though

836
01:30:37,520 --> 01:30:41,280
you know you have people that are a little bit over but usually you know they're they're extremely

837
01:30:41,280 --> 01:30:46,720
intoxicated and when you talk about the mental health crisis in this country you know some people

838
01:30:46,720 --> 01:30:53,760
lean into crack or meth or opiates but alcohol is the most readily you know available coping mechanism

839
01:30:53,760 --> 01:30:59,840
for people both in and out of uniform so what have you witnessed as far as alcoholism through

840
01:30:59,840 --> 01:31:13,200
this dui lens that you've got um you know to be honest i don't it's it's hard to say with alcoholism

841
01:31:14,160 --> 01:31:22,720
i don't think that i've i guess you'd have to be around a person i mean on numerous occasions to

842
01:31:22,720 --> 01:31:28,320
see that because just from my interactions with you on a traffic stop or the little bit i mean you

843
01:31:28,320 --> 01:31:33,920
can't really tell from that type of thing just from but just like knowing some people i've i

844
01:31:33,920 --> 01:31:42,640
mean i don't recall um very many of my friends like even like growing up and through high school

845
01:31:42,640 --> 01:31:52,000
that have been alcoholics i mean where they have to have it um usually it's a it's more of a binge

846
01:31:52,000 --> 01:31:57,920
drinking type thing you know where you'll see that people don't drink during the week

847
01:31:59,360 --> 01:32:04,960
but on that saturday or sunday boy they're going to tie one on um so i see a lot of that and that's

848
01:32:04,960 --> 01:32:11,760
typically what you see in in my world which is basically the college is you see a lot of that

849
01:32:11,760 --> 01:32:20,560
and i think that plays a big a big part with uh you know the impaired driving and people aren't

850
01:32:20,560 --> 01:32:26,480
just they're just i mean it's i think it's slowed down a little but clearly not enough because we're

851
01:32:26,480 --> 01:32:34,720
still having people that are being killed by impaired drivers but once the the lift and

852
01:32:34,720 --> 01:32:43,680
and the uber started it did go down a little um but i don't think it's gone down enough for us to

853
01:32:43,680 --> 01:32:50,960
go oh it's you know these that the rideshare stuff is working um it's improved but i don't it

854
01:32:50,960 --> 01:32:57,680
definitely has room for for better improvement but i but the ultimate thing is we're never going to

855
01:32:57,680 --> 01:33:08,320
we're never going to cure it until people realize and that they're man i could take somebody's life

856
01:33:08,320 --> 01:33:13,120
or i can spend the rest of my life in prison i just don't think the penalties are stiff enough

857
01:33:13,120 --> 01:33:22,320
right now you know where it it's a fear thing man if i get caught drinking and driving my first time

858
01:33:22,320 --> 01:33:28,960
i've got to do 10 years in prison wow man i don't know if i want to take that chance whereas

859
01:33:30,640 --> 01:33:37,200
i lose my license for you know a year or six months yeah i can take uber you know it's not

860
01:33:37,200 --> 01:33:44,640
that big of a deal where is if you're looking at 10 years in prison or something substantial where

861
01:33:44,640 --> 01:33:48,880
it's going to take your freedom that's when people are going to start taking notice and go

862
01:33:48,880 --> 01:33:56,720
you know and and i just use this as an example um i got insurance from a guy that i don't know

863
01:33:56,720 --> 01:34:05,120
10 years ago no it would have probably been 15 years ago now he was actually a bobby over there

864
01:34:05,120 --> 01:34:15,280
in in england and he was telling me some of the um penalties and stuff from singapore and he goes

865
01:34:15,280 --> 01:34:19,600
and he goes have you ever been over there or know anything about singapore i was like no i don't have

866
01:34:19,600 --> 01:34:29,760
any idea he goes singapore has one of the lowest crime rates that you'll find and they don't have

867
01:34:29,760 --> 01:34:36,720
very many re-offenders and i think this is a big issue with any of it he said there is no probation

868
01:34:37,600 --> 01:34:44,000
there is nothing like that every crime has a certain penalty associated with it whether it be

869
01:34:44,000 --> 01:34:50,080
dui driving on a suspended license burglary robbery it doesn't matter so we're just going to

870
01:34:50,080 --> 01:34:59,280
he used burglary he said so if you do burglary and you get caught you go to trial if you get

871
01:34:59,280 --> 01:35:08,400
found guilty you get 10 years in prison 10 years is only if you're a model prisoner so he said you

872
01:35:08,400 --> 01:35:18,000
could go 364 days have a fight that year you just did you didn't make it to 365 but you're almost

873
01:35:18,000 --> 01:35:26,160
there starts over so your 10 years starts over so now you basically have 11 years so he says that

874
01:35:26,160 --> 01:35:30,080
first of all that tends people to you know stay on the straight and narrow and not get in trouble

875
01:35:30,640 --> 01:35:36,960
and he goes another thing they do he says why do people re-offend dui you know whatever it is

876
01:35:36,960 --> 01:35:44,000
whatever crime why do people re-offend he says well because that's all they know he said they do

877
01:35:44,000 --> 01:35:51,200
not know any trades their education is not there so they're going to go back to what i know i know

878
01:35:51,200 --> 01:35:56,160
how to do crime even though i got caught i'm still not bad at it so i'm going to go back to doing that

879
01:35:58,240 --> 01:36:03,680
he goes this is why they don't have re-offenders over there he goes what they do is they make you

880
01:36:03,680 --> 01:36:13,520
work 14 hours a day six days a week they pay you a dollar an hour all of that money goes into a fund

881
01:36:13,520 --> 01:36:20,800
for your time in prison while you're there they teach you a trade of some sort plumbing electrical

882
01:36:22,240 --> 01:36:25,760
something they're going to teach you some type of trade so when you get out

883
01:36:25,760 --> 01:36:33,600
you now have a trade that you know and now you have a bank account that has 25 30 000 in it

884
01:36:35,840 --> 01:36:39,360
he goes and you don't so you don't see a lot of re-offenders he goes if you do

885
01:36:40,400 --> 01:36:45,440
it doesn't matter what crime you do no matter what your first crime so if your first one was

886
01:36:45,440 --> 01:36:52,880
burglary your second one is a dw a driving with suspended license your term now doubles

887
01:36:52,880 --> 01:37:00,400
doubles so your first year your first one was 10 driving with suspended license 20 years

888
01:37:01,920 --> 01:37:09,200
he goes in you don't have re-offenders so i think before we see a big dramatic change

889
01:37:09,840 --> 01:37:15,120
we're going to have to have some stiffer penalties on certain crimes especially dui

890
01:37:15,760 --> 01:37:22,640
it's got to get stiffer where people are afraid to do it because you're just not going to make it

891
01:37:22,640 --> 01:37:28,160
decision if you go somewhere and you start drinking and you didn't make the decision ahead of time

892
01:37:29,040 --> 01:37:34,320
how you're getting home if you get too impaired you're not going to do it you're going to drive

893
01:37:35,200 --> 01:37:40,240
probably 95 percent of the time five percent you might get it where they're going to go hey i can't

894
01:37:40,240 --> 01:37:44,560
do it and i'll leave my car here but that's you know people don't want to leave their cars

895
01:37:44,560 --> 01:37:49,440
because they're going to they're they're afraid that a it's either going to get towed it's going

896
01:37:49,440 --> 01:37:55,600
to get stolen or somebody's going to damage it so man i'm just going to take the chance

897
01:37:57,200 --> 01:38:01,680
yeah and the answer like you said if you've been drinking is uber or if you know what i do a lot

898
01:38:01,680 --> 01:38:06,480
now with my wife is if you're planning to even go out i mean ubers are so inexpensive now especially

899
01:38:06,480 --> 01:38:11,600
if you're fortunate enough to live in a in a city or a suburban area i get it with the rural side

900
01:38:11,600 --> 01:38:16,640
that's another challenge but most of us i mean you can get to your local you know bar of a 10

901
01:38:16,640 --> 01:38:22,560
15 bucks each way which you know okay is that a little bit money yeah but again when you count it

902
01:38:22,560 --> 01:38:27,600
when you compare it to what the the alternative would be even just the parking ticket for your car

903
01:38:27,600 --> 01:38:34,400
alone is going to be a lot more so so yeah well i want to like my daughter you know we live in

904
01:38:34,400 --> 01:38:41,920
land o'lakes she likes to go down to um this place called hide park they call it the soho area so for

905
01:38:41,920 --> 01:38:52,960
her to her and her friends you know to drive from here to there roughly costs 40 or 50 dollars each

906
01:38:52,960 --> 01:38:57,920
way something like that i think it's cheaper to go and then later in the night it sometimes it's a

907
01:38:57,920 --> 01:39:01,920
little more but they're splitting it three two to three ways most of the time but even if you're

908
01:39:01,920 --> 01:39:13,920
not say you pay for it yourself 100 30 years in prison or 15 000 for a dui i'm taking 100

909
01:39:13,920 --> 01:39:21,280
dollars every time you know what i'm saying i'm paying the 100 it's just it's too convenient

910
01:39:22,240 --> 01:39:29,840
you know to not do it absolutely well you know we talked about obviously the victims of some of these

911
01:39:29,840 --> 01:39:36,000
accidents so educate us all on who mothers against drink driving are and then let's talk about the

912
01:39:36,000 --> 01:39:42,480
walk that you're doing in march okay so i'll just kind of give like a little bit of a background on

913
01:39:42,480 --> 01:39:52,240
how i got started with with uh with mad so 2016 when i became the dui sergeant as the dui sergeant

914
01:39:52,240 --> 01:39:59,920
in the dui squad we always participated in the walk and doing stuff that's just because the

915
01:39:59,920 --> 01:40:10,160
departments around the area are partners with mad and support them so as a sergeant i was basically

916
01:40:10,160 --> 01:40:15,520
got told hey listen um these are one of your responsibilities that you have to do they do this

917
01:40:15,520 --> 01:40:21,600
walk every year we go participate we go there we try to educate people with some materials that

918
01:40:21,600 --> 01:40:25,760
we have and we just put some stuff together and and go out there and just participate with the

919
01:40:25,760 --> 01:40:32,640
community so that's kind of how i got started um knowing that i just i was the sergeant and i just

920
01:40:32,640 --> 01:40:40,480
you have to go do it well a corporal that i had at the time said hey you know it's funny i've known

921
01:40:40,480 --> 01:40:48,720
you for many years now but i've really known i don't know how you got your scar so me explaining

922
01:40:48,720 --> 01:40:58,880
the story just like i explained earlier to you he's like uh dude you're a dui victim he goes man mad

923
01:40:58,880 --> 01:41:03,600
is gonna they're gonna eat this up they're gonna love this they're gonna love you being the sergeant

924
01:41:03,600 --> 01:41:10,480
because you're gonna be you know you're a walking billboard for them so that's kind of what kind of

925
01:41:10,480 --> 01:41:18,720
sparked me getting into the walk and realizing that the money that's raised and what it goes for

926
01:41:18,720 --> 01:41:26,320
because they're constantly fighting for new legislation on um stiffer penalties for dui

927
01:41:26,320 --> 01:41:31,280
they're always looking for something in the automobile industry which um they just recently

928
01:41:31,280 --> 01:41:38,080
got passed um and they're and i think it's going up for some type of appeal because some people

929
01:41:38,080 --> 01:41:45,200
don't want it but they are they actually got it approved where the automobile industry within five

930
01:41:45,200 --> 01:41:55,040
years will have to have every vehicle that has some sort of technology that combats or realizes

931
01:41:55,040 --> 01:42:03,040
or detects um distracted and impaired driving of some of some capacity so and the one that they

932
01:42:03,040 --> 01:42:10,240
kind of explained was it'll be something with the technology either in the the glass the the windshield

933
01:42:10,240 --> 01:42:17,600
or the mirrors or something but it's going to be able to detect your facial expressions

934
01:42:18,720 --> 01:42:24,880
like we're just going to say like we were talking with sleepiness sleep deprivation you know where

935
01:42:24,880 --> 01:42:29,200
we try to push the envelope and now all of a sudden we're driving and i've even seen it in cars now

936
01:42:29,200 --> 01:42:35,280
where if you like not paying attention and you hit the little side markers a few times all of a

937
01:42:35,280 --> 01:42:40,640
sudden the car will like beep and it puts a little coffee thing up and says hey maybe you should stop

938
01:42:40,640 --> 01:42:47,680
for some coffee you know but eventually within five years supposedly that there's going to be

939
01:42:47,680 --> 01:42:53,680
this technology in there which will be nice because if it detects that you're sleepy or your your eyes

940
01:42:53,680 --> 01:42:59,920
are shut or you're not paying attention to the roadway it's going to pull you over to the side

941
01:43:00,320 --> 01:43:05,760
there's been no other talk with like oh you know like an interlock device where you have to blow

942
01:43:05,760 --> 01:43:09,760
into the machine before you get into the car i don't think it's going to be that extreme

943
01:43:10,480 --> 01:43:16,640
unless you're an offender that may be coming down the line where you know your first time offense

944
01:43:16,640 --> 01:43:21,600
usually right now they don't do it as a first time offense unless you're you you blow excess

945
01:43:21,600 --> 01:43:28,480
you know like two or above a 0.15 i think you're you could be subject to the interlock device

946
01:43:28,480 --> 01:43:36,080
which is double the limit um so that's kind of how i got started with just telling the story

947
01:43:36,080 --> 01:43:42,960
and doing all that and then and what kept me going is just over the years seeing the different cases

948
01:43:42,960 --> 01:43:51,840
that we've had um from people just being you know killed or injured and seeing the results and and

949
01:43:51,840 --> 01:44:00,240
how mad basically right from the beginning if you contact mad because your family member or you were

950
01:44:00,240 --> 01:44:09,520
involved in a crash they now assign somebody to you and they walk with you the entire way through

951
01:44:09,520 --> 01:44:16,480
the court process and even afterwards on any type of things that you need um and then now they also

952
01:44:16,480 --> 01:44:24,560
do which i participate in is education in the high schools so i work along with one of the other

953
01:44:25,520 --> 01:44:33,840
ladies that does that part of the program and she has her little uh program that she does which talks

954
01:44:33,840 --> 01:44:38,960
about distracted and impaired driving and you know marijuana and stuff like that because people

955
01:44:38,960 --> 01:44:44,480
don't really think that that's a drug you know and that you can't drive while you're on it

956
01:44:45,760 --> 01:44:50,800
so i go into the classes and i basically kind of just tell my story you know as a victim and

957
01:44:50,800 --> 01:44:58,320
and you know they get to see firsthand the result of a dui crash so that's what kind of got me

958
01:44:58,320 --> 01:45:05,120
started with that and then i've kind of just kept it going and and you know made it my goal to try

959
01:45:05,120 --> 01:45:11,200
to raise as much money as i can for the walk that i do in march and then i also do a bike challenge

960
01:45:12,560 --> 01:45:18,000
that we do in may they're just looking outside the bite or outside the box on trying to get more

961
01:45:18,000 --> 01:45:27,200
people involved um with the awareness of impaired driving um and just looking for different avenues

962
01:45:27,200 --> 01:45:33,520
to raise money to continue their fight with legislation stiffer penalties in the courts

963
01:45:33,520 --> 01:45:39,200
and the education with the high school students brilliant and when is the walk this year

964
01:45:40,240 --> 01:45:46,800
so the walk is going to be march 22nd um it's it's held at usf every year at least for the last

965
01:45:49,200 --> 01:45:55,120
since 2016 that i've been doing it's been at usf and basically what that is is people sign up

966
01:45:56,320 --> 01:46:01,440
they they fundraise and we all come there as victims and you just get to they walk around we

967
01:46:01,440 --> 01:46:06,080
have vendors out there the law enforcement that have different type of things that they do

968
01:46:07,360 --> 01:46:13,840
as well as we have some volunteers that cook and do that kind of thing and just a place to gather

969
01:46:13,840 --> 01:46:18,960
and show that you you know victims you're not the only one out there other people do care about you

970
01:46:18,960 --> 01:46:25,760
and care about your loss and it's just you know it's it's a it's an interesting event to attend

971
01:46:25,760 --> 01:46:30,960
to attend and where can people find their website and then how can they don't know

972
01:46:30,960 --> 01:46:36,560
donate to your team specifically um well there's several ways that you can do it

973
01:46:37,360 --> 01:46:44,160
if you're just looking and you say hey i just want to find it you can go to mad.org and you can

974
01:46:44,160 --> 01:46:50,960
hit up events and it's going to give you a list of an event there's several of them but you would

975
01:46:50,960 --> 01:46:57,520
obviously look for the date march 22nd it's going to say um tampa bay area i believe it says

976
01:46:58,480 --> 01:47:05,440
or um and then you can and then you'd have to that's a harder way to do it um me as a participant

977
01:47:06,080 --> 01:47:12,880
um and a captain of a team i actually have my own link so i can you know i can share that link

978
01:47:12,880 --> 01:47:18,480
to anybody and it just makes it convenient and easier to get to but other than that because if

979
01:47:18,480 --> 01:47:24,080
typically if you just go to mad.org and you hit support it's just going to throw it into a general

980
01:47:24,080 --> 01:47:31,120
fund and not specifically to the walk which the walk is specific to tampa in the tampa bay area

981
01:47:31,120 --> 01:47:39,920
which the funds at that point stay with that chapter which gives them more um more money to

982
01:47:39,920 --> 01:47:46,640
do what they want to do in this and locally here in tampa well i will put your your specific link

983
01:47:46,640 --> 01:47:52,000
on the web page for this episode as well so people can go straight to that oh that would be great

984
01:47:52,800 --> 01:47:57,360
well i'm sure people you know would love to to learn more about you reach out to you where are

985
01:47:57,360 --> 01:48:05,200
the best places online or social media to do that um unfortunately i do not have any social media

986
01:48:05,200 --> 01:48:11,200
anymore um i kind of do it through my wife's um but i can i can have an email address

987
01:48:11,200 --> 01:48:18,560
um or even a phone number if somebody wanted to you know just inquire more about it yeah what's

988
01:48:18,560 --> 01:48:21,760
your email address let's put that out there just so you don't get any crank calls

989
01:48:22,960 --> 01:48:32,160
jjcm so john john charlie mike nine four six at gmail.com

990
01:48:32,160 --> 01:48:37,840
and the purpose is if we're a i could do a phone number too i have an alternative phone number if

991
01:48:37,840 --> 01:48:44,160
people wanted to call but email is probably the better way to do it absolutely well john i want

992
01:48:44,160 --> 01:48:48,160
to thank you it's been such an interesting conversation obviously being kind of laser focused

993
01:48:48,160 --> 01:48:55,520
on you know driver safety in this particular chat but with your you know small child lived experience

994
01:48:55,520 --> 01:49:00,240
and then how that's carried you to where you are now is a very very powerful tool to help you

995
01:49:00,240 --> 01:49:04,960
where you are now it's a very very powerful conversation so i want to thank you so much for

996
01:49:04,960 --> 01:49:10,640
being so generous with your time and coming on the behind the shield podcast today well i appreciate

997
01:49:10,640 --> 01:49:17,200
you even wanting to hear my story i like i said it's been a challenge over the years and you know

998
01:49:17,200 --> 01:49:22,880
if i you know any way i can get messages out to where we can eventually stop the impaired driving

999
01:49:24,080 --> 01:49:29,040
that that's my end result is my end goal is trying to do that so any way we can do that i

1000
01:49:29,040 --> 01:49:45,600
i'm just grateful that you wanted to take the time and even have me on the on the on the show