.png)
Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
2024: Ranked #1 Law Podcast
Host: Tyler Owen and Clint McNear discussing topics, issues, and stories within the law enforcement community. TMPA is the voice of Texas Law Enforcement, focused on protecting those who serve. Since 1950, we have been defending the rights and interests of Texas Peace Officers by providing the best legal assistance in the country, effective lobbying at state and local levels, affordable training, and exemplary member support. As the largest law enforcement association in Texas, TMPA is proud to represent 33,000 local, county and state law enforcement officers.
Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
#088- "Contract Negotiations" with Adrian Selvera and David Kurylowicz
Dive into the dynamic world of Texas law enforcement as the Blue Grit Podcast welcomes Adrian Selvera, President of the Round Rock Police Association, and seasoned TMPA Field Representative David Kurylowicz. In this episode, David sheds light on the intricacies of contract negotiation, drawing from his extensive experience managing a vast region and working closely with local association leadership. Adrian and David explore strategies, challenges, and best practices that help secure fair and effective agreements for Texas officers. This episode is a must-listen for those interested in the behind-the-scenes work that keeps departments strong and officers supported.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
Everybody put in so much work over this year last year getting prepared for this right, because there's companies out there that will do the work for you and we looked into one and you're going to pay a pretty penny for it. But we sat back and said we can do the work ourselves. It's going to be a lot of work, but we're going to have to do it ourselves.
Speaker 2:Welcome back. Viewers, watchers, listeners, I'm your host. Tyler Owen Got a guest host on today the man, the myth, the legend, otherwise known as Curly, but his last name is Curly-a-low-ix right, David, Curly-a-low-ix yes, sir, that's how you spell it. But Philadelphia, in Central Texas, Clint McNair was unable to make it today, feeling a little under the weather, and if you're as much as he travels and blows and goes, you know, some days you just got to take a day off and sit back and watch a little Netflix. So we brought on Round Rock POA, which falls within David's territory. David, you've been a field rep with TNPA. How long?
Speaker 3:Four years.
Speaker 2:Four years.
Speaker 3:Four years actually this month.
Speaker 2:Is when the madness started.
Speaker 3:Yes, I like to think that's when the magic started.
Speaker 2:That's when the magic started. Hang on just one second. We've got a little microphone mishap. All right, oops, sorry, is that better? That's way better, yeah. So talk about man. Since you've come on board with TNPA, we'd like to highlight our field reps and talk about what you guys do day in, day out. You guys are really the backbone, kind of like the patrol right of TNPA, and talk about what's going on in your region. Talk about you know how things are going. You've recently had a central I don't want to call it just a Wilco meeting, but you kind of generated a centralized meeting place for all your POA presidents. And talk about what's going on with David.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that went out really well. What really was the focus was getting all of the POAs together to kind of network and work together when it comes to doing contract negotiations or just actually reaching out and helping each other out. One of the biggest benefits of that is getting the boards of all the POAs in one place so they can exchange ideas and talk to each other and kind of just network and out of that, out of that, we had my colleague here. My Round Rock president was one of the stars of that meeting.
Speaker 2:So we'll get far. You wouldn't go that far, you know. What's interesting to me is us being across the state, david. I mean you service from Waco down to, damn near well, hayes County, and then east and west is what's kind of your boundaries for your zone.
Speaker 3:All the way out from college kind of college station, all the way out to San Angelo.
Speaker 2:Okay, it used to be all the way to the Panhandle in El Paso, yeah, and sometimes I mean let's just call it what it is, Sometimes with different personalities. Look, let's just call it what it is. Also is that sometimes it's best if you handle a situation in certain regions but that's kind of your region and you're here in Central Texas. But what's cool to me is the way that TNPA operates and it seems like it's a common deal is that majority of the agencies have most common bitches and gripes. Right, it's going to deal. We just talked about this. It's going to deal with.
Speaker 2:You know, cops want to have better uniforms, they want to have better equipment and they want to have different schedules, and so it's it's kind of unique and it's it's. It's pretty cool to see it from a bird's eye view of kind of all the different facets that we've got going on. But anything going on with any contract negotiations going on right now in your, your region, or is there anything kind of popping off? You're also a part of the Peace Officer Memorial Board, yes, sir, and so you're a part of the planning of that, the execution of that. So on behalf of TNPA and all the cops in Texas, I want to say thank you, because it is a lot, lot of work.
Speaker 3:It's interesting and it's a labor of love.
Speaker 2:I like that. Never heard of that before.
Speaker 3:It's the least I could do to give back and try and help the families. But you mentioned contracts, so let me start with that. In our region we had four contracts going about the same time and that was one of the big reasons I wanted to get all of the POAs together to talk about that so they can kind of bounce ideas and help off uh, help each other off of that. Um. But contracts are a big deal um, knowing what to what to negotiate for, when to negotiate, when to push back. Um, we're going to get into it a little bit with uh, how, how things were going with round rock and some of the things that I see typical in the contracts.
Speaker 3:Associations are focused on what's going on in their world, and what's nice about working with TMPA and having that exposure is I see patterns from city managers across the state and where a POA is going to think that, well, this is the last best final, we don't have any more wiggle room. Tmpa can bring that experience and say, ah, this is what worked in the past and if we hold firm here and move a little bit forward here, I think we can get some movement and in this case it worked out really well with a lot of the associations Georgetown, round Rock, cedar Park, to a smaller extent, and things are progressing with Leander and some of the other smaller locals are actually looking to them for guidance. Liberty Hill, for instance, is looking out to them, for instance, is looking out to them, and I've gotten a lot of I don't know requests, I guess, from allied agencies around the area to reach out and talk to you.
Speaker 2:Well, and you know the cool thing is is that, like me, being from East Texas, I wouldn't even know where to begin with a contract, honestly. And that's what's cool about it is I know that David's got he's got big experience with dealing with kind of contracts, contracts Other field reps JP Rodriguez is another one and some other guys there in the southeast portion of Texas. But that's what's cool about being a part of TMPA, not just with the field rep side, but even our board of directors. We can shoot an email out and it goes to 32 different people from across the state and you will get an answer. I promise you it may not be the answer you want, but you will get an answer.
Speaker 2:And that's what the cool thing is is that I will tell you right now contract negotiations not my forte, not my experience, never been a part of it. Not saying I don't want to, but I'm saying, if I'm forced to, of it at the beginning or at the end. But our neighbors to the south of us here, or actually right here in austin, yesterday was the official day of them signing their contract. So, yes, congratulations, apa on a much needed, deserved contract. Hopefully we uh the pendulum is swinging back to normal uh, here in the keep austin weird type situation. It is so, time will tell, but but anyway, man, welcome to Blue Grit. I appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, let's. Let's kick off with kind of how you got started in law enforcement, uh, how you picked Round Rock PD or have you had any other pre you know previous law enforcement experience and talk about how your career kind of has progressed with Round Rock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, um, you know, a lot of people always talk about they knew as a child like they wanted to be a police officer. That was not me, you know, um, but when I was 18, I did a ride along, uh, hooked Yep and got into a pursuit that night and after that it was just like that's, this is what I wanted.
Speaker 2:What agency was it with?
Speaker 1:That was with Elgin PD. I grew up out of Elgin.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:So, um 2004, put myself through the Academy, through Capco, um, the night Academy I worked in Austin, uh, seven to four, and then I'd go to class at night, six to 10.
Speaker 2:Um, I do still look for it because some people that listen to the podcast go they work at big ass agencies. They don't understand kind of the realization. Myself I put myself through it, explain that Cause you don't have. You didn't have to be sponsored back then in order to attend. So talk about that. Yeah, that's new for me as well. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's still an option. Now you pay your way through the academy. You sign up and you test through CapCog. You're accepted. They give you a list of items that you need to pay for through the academy. There is no support from anyone else.
Speaker 1:You pay for your test, your uniforms, your gun your ammo, your tests, your uniforms, your gun, your ammo. If you need a vehicle for the driving, you have to pay to rent a vehicle, whatever it is. So there's no sponsorship there. Everything is coming out of your own pocket. So did that, graduated the academy in June of 2005. And I got on with Bastrop County Sheriff's Office, worked out there 05 till 2013.
Speaker 2:And while out there I was on patrol for a a little while I did property crimes for two months beautiful area.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I love working out there I've worked. Uh, where I learned so much? Yeah, because at that time it's a smaller sheriff's office, so you kind of handled a lot of calls from your small criminal mischiefs. But if there a homicide you're working that scene with that detective that gets called out there. And at that time when I first started, we didn't have a crime scene.
Speaker 2:You didn't have no, no, no, no process and it's probably similar stuff out in East Texas, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:Um their property crimes, for a couple's office and for those that don't know if you've ever worked for a sheriff's office here in Texas, it is very political in the mindset of you walk in, you're working on a big case, and the sheriff walks in and throws a, and it just so happens that that person may be a donor to the campaign funds. You need to handle this. Sometimes it happens within police departments, but the realization of sheriff's office is that that's just reality and you've got to deal with it. So I can understand that.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. So then I had the opportunity to go to narcotics. So I moved over to narcotics and I did that the last two years I was at county. I knew ultimately I wanted to end up at Round Rock. And what years were these? This was 2013. Okay, so I applied actually actually 2012. I applied with round rock 2012, got hired on it march 2013, did patrol for four or five years and you know what's funny is when I first got there, you know I don't regret. I think this is the best career move for me was moving around rock, um, but that first day on patrol, putting that uniform back on after being narcotics, I was like what did?
Speaker 1:I oh my gosh yeah, um, but you know.
Speaker 2:Did you live in Bastrop County?
Speaker 1:I lived, yes, just outside of Elgin. Actually I was living in Travis County, but right outside of Bastrop County.
Speaker 2:The reason I'm getting at this is because it was cool for me to see. I worked in a very, very, very small town. Small town like 2,000 population, and then the county even had like 8,000. I mean, this was a very rural area and I lived and worked in the town that I lived in as a cop and it was a challenge because I wasn't from the area, I would never really fit in, my wife and I couldn't go drink a beer because everybody was kind of staring at you and you couldn't be yourself. And so when I transitioned over to Marshall PD, to the south of us, there it was like I was able to be a person again. I could flip that, switch off and go, you know, be the crazy Tyler that I am and everybody likes, but I couldn't in the town that I lived in. So was it the same with you, with Bastrop County, living there, the challenge for me was I grew up out there Right and so oh, everybody knew you.
Speaker 1:Everybody, you know, and and you run into people and, um, I ended up at one point arresting one of my close friends from high school at the time. Um, this was years later, you know, and it was never. There was no animosity, you know. I can remember him in the backseat, you know, saying I never thought I'd see this day and I was like, yeah, neither did I, you know, but those were some of the challenges. Um, so, moving around rock, it was like man, nobody knew me here.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I didn't know anybody and then we ended up moving up to this area. So I was on patrol for a little while in Round Rock, moved to training in December of 18. Been in training since then. First year. Year and a half kind of helped with everything in the training division, dabbled in stuff going to get certifications and then kind of signed over our academies. Um got assigned over our academies. So I've done our academies. You know the last five.
Speaker 2:I did Um and then that's a full band, that is a. That's a lot. It's a lot. I mean you mentioned a while ago y'all have a big moment, just like a rodeo, which we're going to dive into, but taking on the responsibility of running an academy it's a lot of responsibility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I didn't realize it was that much you know, and it was kind of like, hey, you're going to jump into your partner's hip pocket, take over that position, and it's a lot just the backside, the admin work and making sure you have all your instructors and your lesson plans and everything ready for TECL that has to be submitted Right, All the entry paperwork that you know. As a new hire, you got to have all your exams and your L2s and your L3s, everything for TECOL. But it's been fun.
Speaker 1:I like watching seeing these new cadets come in green and then where they're at at graduation and then making it onto our advanced academy and then to FTO.
Speaker 2:It's good to hear that, because our profession really is dying in the sense that the interest is lost. I mean, you yourself weren't really interested in law enforcement, david. I think you had some family in law enforcement is what kind of perked your interest back in the day?
Speaker 3:We all joined roughly around the same time, within a few years of each other.
Speaker 2:But did you have like? Like you knew as a kid, you wanted to be a cop.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'll say this too the show Cops, it was a double edged sword and you being in Wilco, I'm going to leave it at that, because you understand the realization of real-time TV and law enforcement. But it perked the interest of people that necessarily we wouldn't be touching or reaching out to, and so for you to be over the academy and to have that mindset and that passion for it, man, kudos to you and thank you, because it means a lot for the next generation of law enforcement officers coming through.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's been fun. This year I kind of transitioned to our basic academy. I finished up with a basic academy in they graduated February and I had the opportunity to stay with them to their advanced academy, cause usually pass them off to another trainer and they're over our advanced academy. I had the opportunity to stay with them through the whole thing, which was cool. And then I have actually done we've done four additional advanced academies this year, which has probably been our busiest year that we've ever done.
Speaker 2:Well, and for those that don't know round rock, if you live in DFT Metroplex, houston, even East Texas, or in the panhandle or even West Texas round rock, I would consider round rock probably a premier agency within the central Texas area, because you guys do so much. It's not just your police academy, you guys have continuing education at your guys' house from different agencies that come in, and so the reason I'm going into this is because it's not like you just teach a police academy and then you take two months off. You guys have continuing education throughout the department with the I'm trying to think of the accreditation through the Texas Police Chiefs Association. Y'all have got all these different training aspects that you have to comply with in order to maintain that, and so all that's going on in addition to you running a full-time academy. So, and a full talk about your training facility that you guys just got through what two years ago or a year ago?
Speaker 1:We actually opened in August of 2018, which is crazy to think it's been open for that long.
Speaker 3:It looks phenomenal, it looks brand new.
Speaker 1:Our training facility is we can do everything in-house other than driving. We've got an indoor range. We have our own TAC village with different style houses two-story, single-story, different style fences. In the back, inside of the TAC village, the houses, we can change the floor plans, change the layout. Crazy Fire it's a shared facility with the fire department. There's a fire tower there. It's almost like an apartment building which we can use for active shooters because you have hallways, we have a driving pad and then we just had a new bond passed and we will be adding a standalone academy building. So we've kind of outgrown already the facility. So they will expand our main classroom.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And then build us another standalone academy building for PD and fire academies, just to be in that building and then a driving track.
Speaker 2:Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:That's amazing so once the driving track's done. We won't, because right now we drive to Teeks for our academy class.
Speaker 2:In San Marcos.
Speaker 1:In Collar Station.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's right, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:And then when we do in-service for driving we have to drive down there. But once the track's done here, everything can be done on site.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, not that you weren't a busy man before all this, but when did you get thrown into the POA leadership aspect and asked if you wanted to be on the board?
Speaker 1:In addition to all of that yeah, you know, what's funny is I was walking through the hallway and I saw there's a plaque on the wall for BASE for Bash Up Association of Sheriff's Employees. And before I left county I was vice president out there of the association but it wasn't involved as much as they probably are now. So when I came here I didn't even have interest in it and I don't know. One year my name got thrown in for vice president and I don't know who it was and I got elected and that was probably three, four years ago.
Speaker 2:Opposed, or was it nobody?
Speaker 1:That's probably why I got it.
Speaker 3:Did you know what you were doing?
Speaker 1:I didn't. You know, and you know the president at the time, she kind of handled everything and me, being the VP, was just like if she was gone I would kind of help out or fill in. Or she'd kind of, hey, I'm not going to be here, can you take care of this? But she handled everything. And then when I went to become president which was last year was my first year as president is a non contract year. So it's like okay, learning new stuff, going in and then jumping into this year being a contract year. It's a lot of work, it's a full-time job on top of your duties already that you have. But we don't get paid for this. But I will say I want to. I just got to highlight Curly, because Curly and TMPA, you know just the help that y'all provided us throughout this year. Um, just questions after question after question that I had, and anytime I needed something from Curly he's right there. Or, like you said, um, if we don't know, we can send a text and then we have an answer.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter what time of day he will answer it. I'm getting to the point now where it's like he knows I live down here now, not saying that I didn't know how busy he was, but he sends me all these invites that come up. I didn't make the Round Rock thing the other day. We had something going on down south. But it's like curly, if you want me to show up to shoot me a text, I don't need to. His calendar is booked from the first of the month all the way down to the end. Weekends, it doesn't make a shit. There's no weekends or days off for this dude.
Speaker 1:So I'm sure he appreciates it for you recognizing him Every time I call him. He's either at the north part of the state he's down in the valley. Yeah, you never know where he's going to end up in Hawaii on vacation. I was like this doesn't like we can talk when we get back. He's like no, I'll handle it now Let me know what you need and I'm like, no, clearly we can wait. So, yeah, just see what I got on that.
Speaker 3:I don't mind taking care of you guys. I mean I that we can take the passion and the preparedness that his board has put into work and we can clone that or train that with other POAs, because you and your team are phenomenal. I and the way that you guys have actually accepted some help and gone out and done the preparation. You can't just do contracts 30 days before and getting people.
Speaker 3:No, not at all and getting people to understand, getting the other associations to understand. You know you can take like a month off after it's signed, but now you're in contract prep for the next one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's. You know that's three years away, but we've we've talked about that, you know, like currently even said hey, take 30, 60 days off, relax. For me it's hard, right, because I know things that I want to do in the next contract and I may not be on the board, but we have to get this ball rolling now to start doing our homework.
Speaker 2:Well, and it goes back to the preparation.
Speaker 2:Right, you can't build like political capital or I don't want to say elite association, but you can't build that association within months, weeks, days. It's taking time. It's taken past presidents, past board of directors to develop the standard and I think the standard is what you are living up to. But you also want to leave it in a better place 100%, and I think that oftentimes we don't have associations across the state that have been active, and so then you get passionate people to be involved and you're like, hey, they want it done right now, this week, and that just the reality is it doesn't, you can't and it sucks because we have to guide some of these people through, and then over time you see some change in leadership within the local association which is out of our control, and then we're kind of left back at square one. So, yeah, kudos to you guys for continuing that, that drive and that mission and that passion and really being the example of what a local association should be and will be, and continue to be in the success based on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I, I, I can't. I gotta, you know, highlight. You know our whole board. You know Ashley, our vice president, and Kami is our treasurer and Blake is our um Sergeant arms and Sam, our secretary. Everybody put in so much work, um, over this year, last year, getting prepared for this right, because there's companies out there that will do the work for you and we looked into one that you're going to pay a pretty penny for it, um, but we sat back and said we can do the work ourselves. You know it's going to be a lot of work, but we're going to have to do it ourselves. And when I'm saying like open records, requests on all this stuff for a market study, and I mean we broke down everything from the cities that we had in our market study to from their population, their tax revenue, the number of officers, their calls for service, starting salary, you know top out salary, everything in between the averages, and showed where we were at and where we need to be, and those were done in conjunction with TMBA, or was it was?
Speaker 1:Curly's provided one. You provided one, you know, during the last contract, and then again, and this one you know, we just kind of jumped in and did it ourselves as well. They expanded.
Speaker 2:I got you Crazy, I got you hey, and I think this is a great point to bring up. We get called when was that done? When was that?
Speaker 1:salary survey done. We actually started, I would say. We got our cities for the survey from city management in March, maybe yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:And we're just now finalizing the new.
Speaker 1:New contracts finalized right.
Speaker 2:Perfect. We started meeting March, april, so we're in eight months, seven months, seven months ago.
Speaker 2:But I want to say we even but there's foundation built before that yeah, oh, for sure so my point is is that back to what I said earlier, and I don't. We don't mind taking the phone calls, but oftentimes we get calls january 1st, febru, january 1st, february 1st about needing the contracts right then to get passed. I'm sorry, let me back up. We get calls like October 1st, august 16th and the new year starting in October. This shit's been going on for eight months.
Speaker 2:So, driving back to the point that have the mindset that this is a chess game and this is not a sprint, this is a long-distance run, and so you guys have that mindset going into it. And so for any local association out there that needs a salary survey, needs the information to move forward, to get your pay raises where they need to be at, we need to be involved very early on January. February is when we need to start kind of thinking about it, and then we can execute it on down to August, september, october to get that game plan in place. So if you haven't already reached out to your local field rep or give us a call 1-800-848-2088, and we can kind of get that set up. But it's a great point that you made about having the mindset that this is a chess game and go ahead and get it done now, versus wait until it's too late.
Speaker 1:Right, and you know I'm all about the networking. You know, through TMPA, you know the conference for us and I'm going to keep highlighting Curly. You know, when I first met Curly, he was just open arms with everything, right, hey, have you all done this, done this, done this? What about the conference? And when we went that first year that networking and you're meeting people, done this, done this? What about the conference? And when we went that first year that networking and you're meeting people, and that helped us later on during these um, the preparation for the negotiations, because we needed salaries from different agencies from the DFW area and we've already met those people, right. So now I have no issues with someone who reaches out and they need information. Here it is. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. I don't mind sharing information with people because that's how we got a lot of it. Now we did a lot of open records requests ourselves, but on the other stuff, hey, there's, I know somebody at this agency, I know somebody here and we get that information pretty easy.
Speaker 3:yeah, and kudos to adrian too, that the the openness that you've shown to these, to the other presidents out there, the other association leaders um, we have, you know, new associations changing leadership all the time, but when they reached out to you and they're asking, that's all I hear is how great you were. And oh yeah, I've, I've. You know, I've talked to Adrian. Georgetown was just telling me uh, I talked to Adrian and he hooked me up with these, these documents, and gave me another contact for this person. So it's that type of local network that is going to strengthen the entire region and just pay dividends throughout.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's another reason why you had the meeting a couple weeks ago and we're seeing the benefits of it now, but we also had created it what six months before that?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we're going to continue those, hopefully kind of branch those out. I know North Texas have had some in the past. I wasn't involved with those or attended them. We're obviously seeing the success of it here in Central Texas. So you know, communication it's key and so it works.
Speaker 1:And I would say, for those meetings that we've had, if there's any associations out there that hadn't attended or you know they've thought about going but couldn't make it show up, because that's where those connections are made, and then the advice, you know, just learning from other agencies, other associations, you know, and for us the big thing last time was we each got up to talk about how we got to that point in the contract negotiations and what the relationships were like for us, building the like you said earlier that a political capital right with your people and it can't happen two months before when we first became a board a year, two years ago, and I'm not saying this association started, but the current people on the board.
Speaker 1:We need to go to these chamber events. We need to buy tables, we need to sponsor them because we need to start meeting people out here your council members, your mayor, everyone else. You build those relationships because in the end it's going to pay off for you.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. Yeah, I couldn't say it any better, you guys. It's funny. It's funny that this just happened. Our adept executive director, Mitch Landry, you and him were talking and Mitch was asking about hey, what's the difference in y'all's foundation and charity? Speaking of different facets that Round Rock POA's got, they've got charities and they've got a foundation. Talk about the difference between the two and the need of why Round Rock POA has those available to its members and what the benefits of them are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll touch on our. I'll start with our foundation first, right. So the foundation Round Rock Police Foundation is not I don't want to say it's not part of the police department, it's an outside entity. But you have members on the board from the police department. Business owners in the city are on the board and the idea behind that came years ago when Chief wanted the foundation, created to help raise funds for our different events throughout the year that the PD puts on from Operation Blue Santa, to Step Into Success.
Speaker 2:Great, great program.
Speaker 1:That has grown every year. I think we gave out 400 and something pairs of shoes this year, right before school. Our BPOD graduations we have at Kalahari and our award ceremonies we have at Kalahari. The foundation raises funds for that and that's how that's paid for, right? It doesn't come out. The city doesn't pay for that. That comes from the foundation, and there's a bunch of other things that they pay for throughout the year.
Speaker 3:And that's kind of a reflection of the support you're getting from the community.
Speaker 2:Oh 100 uh community around you know loves uh police departments well, I think it's a great time to talk about step into success and and how it was created, because the story behind it's just phenomenal yeah, chief richards uh came up with the idea.
Speaker 1:Uh years he had someone at church who needed some shoes and this idea popped into his head and started what if we can give back right before school starts? Because we used to have an event. It was a back-to-school program and we would give out backpacks full of supplies and haircuts for kids. All that was going on, covid kind of died down and then this kind of transitioned into step, into success. So we're able to provide that to. You know, shoes to 400 kids plus, and that's an event at Kalahari. Kalahari jumps in. They give out free wristbands for the water park to families that are there that they can use throughout the year. So a lot of good stuff for them. That's cool. And for those that don't know, kal year.
Speaker 2:So a lot of good stuff for them, that's cool, and for those that don't know, kalahari is a phenomenal place. What would you compare it to? What's the place in Grapevine?
Speaker 1:Great Wolf, great Wolf, yeah, but like on steroids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's massive, it's clean and I'm not saying the Great Wolf's not, but it's just an awesome place, very friendly environment.
Speaker 1:Yep, and they've been great to us yeah they have been Especially helping out with Step Into Success.
Speaker 1:So association is different from that. We have our association for our members. Round Rock's probably sitting at where a lot of 209 officers right now we probably need. We have to fill some positions, but we have 165 members right now out of about 185 positions that are filled. Um, so not bad, you know. Yeah, we always want to grow that um. And then we have our charities account. Uh, so our charities account is, you know that money is separate and we donate to different charities in the city, whether that's um team brock, which is a a cure for cancer charity. Cp Thrivers is another one within our city that we donate to.
Speaker 1:Senior Access is a company they kind of help the Round Rock Pflugerville area and that's when seniors get to a point where maybe they can't drive anymore or their license gets taken away but they still have to go get groceries, to go get their hair done or whatever it is, um, and people volunteer to drive them, so we donate to them. Um, there's so many. You know we help out with blue Santa. Um, um hope Alliance in Georgetown. Um, there's so many different charities scholarships. We have the Charles whites? Um foundation scholarship and then we give scholarships to every high school. There's so many different charity scholarships. We have the Charles White Foundation scholarship and then we give scholarships to every high school in the city of Round Rock up to $1,000.
Speaker 2:Which is how many now?
Speaker 1:We have three in the city. There's five total three of them are in the city of.
Speaker 2:Round Rock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's two of them outside the city, which is McNeil and Westwood, or I don't know if that McNeil is considered the city of Austin, but it's a round rock school, wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know if I can dovetail on that. The one of the last times that we were meeting round rock the association because of how successful they've been, they're talking about actually upping some of their scholarships for the, for the kids.
Speaker 2:That's cool.
Speaker 3:And in this day and age, with the lack of people wanting to get into law enforcement, I mean, what better way to try and reach out to the community and nurture those that are looking to have careers in law enforcement? And you know, like yourself in particular, you talked about how you got into this because of a ride-along. There's kids out there that are undecided and who knows, man that scholarship may be, you may be grooming the next chief of Round Rock.
Speaker 1:Police Department. Those investments that we start now within the community go a long way. You know we started two summers ago an AC ac program where we buy. We partnered. We wanted to partner with the local business in the city so we partnered I'll give them a shout out roosters, ace hardware and round rock and went and bought window units so that we could give to families in the city during the summer who may not have central air. You know, know.
Speaker 1:and rooster said you know what will match what y'all are buying. So we were been able to give out air conditioning units to different families in the city and they asked you know, do we need to give it back? No, this is yours, keep it, you know. So that's been helpful for us doing that.
Speaker 2:What's interesting is that any POA can make such an impact on making those kind of donations and having a positive impact on families. But what some people don't know is that you know, round Rock may be what it is right now, with all the growth and the new, but it's also got some I don't want to say hood, but it's got some older parts in it that is economically challenged and so that's it's kind of hidden right and so people don't see that parts in it that is economically challenged it's kind of hidden. People don't see that. They're like man, it's still got some rough spots. It's still got some spots that need some help. That needs that big-time community policing. You guys are able to go in there and help out those areas and make a positive influence.
Speaker 1:For sure. I think a lot of the community policing that Chief Banks brought in when he got here has helped tremendously and make a positive influence. Yeah, for sure, um, and I think a lot of the community policing that you know um, chief banks brought in when he got here, um has helped tremendously with this Um and the association just kind of fed off of that as well, just doing different events.
Speaker 2:Well, and speaking to chief banks, uh, I was overwhelmed with how supportive. You guys have an event coming up next year. I don't have the specific dates, I can probably pull them up on my phone, but, like the Motorcycle Rodeo man, I've never in my life seen a city, not just at the department, the administrative level, but the city hall. The whole police department, fire department was helping out, and it's cool to see a city that embraces that, because in all reality, the city is the one that reaps the benefits from it. And you guys are having the motorcycle rodeo coming up. We're going to be involved in that too. But, man, what a cool thing to see that a chief is okay with setting his ego aside and being well a part of something that benefits his community that he serves. So talk about the Motorcycle Rodeo if you've got the dates, and talk about where we can find more information out and when that will be available.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so last year was the first year for the Motorcycle Rodeo. It's held at the Dale Diamond in the parking lot there. Last year we had a little over 100 submissions I think there was close to 120, but people had to drop out for whatever reason, and that's throughout the state. There was actually some from out of state as well that were there. Tmpa was a big help with us and Curly and and Tim coming in and bringing the smoker to help us cook. But chief is, you know, fully supportive on that, and not only chief, the council members, the mayor and it chief of council members, the mayor and it's not just that event, you'll see them at every event in the city all the time and it's great to have that support from them. This year's event is going to be February 26th through March 1st and you can go to the website, scotmercom, and they'll have registration on there and all the information on if you want to sign up or a team wants to sign up for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, curly called me the other day and he's like hey, man, get off your ass and get some of these video shot. We got to get this thing up and going and so, uh, I'm looking forward to come up there and meeting Taylor and meeting some of those motor guys and putting some cameras on those guys. Me and Curly are going to work with them and success and see the different departments, not just within Texas but across the country, that have really come and flocked in the Round Rock and the location For those that don't know, dale Diamond right there, the Round Rock Express, that whole, all the facilities up there. Man, it's beautiful it is. It's just it's cool to see, you know, all that stuff kind of come together and benefit our local law enforcement here in central Texas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. And not only you know you have the Dale Diamond, but then across the street is Kalahari, yeah, so if families want to travel, you can go to the water park there.
Speaker 2:I may or may not try to stay at Kalahari.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:For the weekend.
Speaker 3:Don't tell anybody. I know a guy.
Speaker 2:You do. Okay, yeah, there too. And we had robert mccabe. Shout out to robert mccabe for doing the. Uh, he hosted. He hosted like a hospitality night. Uh, it's great to see for the. You know, sadly they have typically the only time that our, our members see, you know, the attorneys is like on their worst day. And so, uh, david had kind of the mindset of like, hey, he ordered at robert and said, hey, why don't you come out and do this, this hospital? Of course robert was all all about that. Uh, and so robert did a hospitality night and got to meet members of Round Rock POA as well as other members that were traveling in for the motorcycle rodeo. And so shout out to Robert McKay for doing that.
Speaker 2:Don't know if he's going to do it this year, I'm sure he will. Yeah, I'm sure he will. So also provided some notepads and some cool shit, some cool swag. I think you got one. So, yeah, it's just a cool event. It's almost like a, you know, back to conference. It's almost like a family reunion. You show up to conference and you see faces like you and I two years ago I saw the face when he walked in. I was like I know that guy. You and I recognize each other, but it's good to have those secondary follow-ups.
Speaker 3:It's almost like a Thanksgiving lunch, you know. So it's good to see those and the camaraderie is amazing. These cops come in from they're they're in far reaches areas across the state and they all come together and it's just like a reunion and to see that and the the networking that happens there. If so, if you know motor cops and they're interested, have them reach out and come join the fun well, you know, what's funny is that in law enforcement you get all these different.
Speaker 2:You know you were a narcotics cop. Uh, there's motor cops, there's SWAT guys, and they all have different personality traits that kind of just fit.
Speaker 2:And the motor cops are, they're not, they're they're exactly the same I was a motor cop, yeah, and so it's just being around those guys and seeing them. They could talk for hours about bikes, they could talk about the new age of harleys, what's better, what's not, and so it's cool to see. It's cool to sit back and, now that I'm out of law enforcement, sit back and you can immediately identify who's in what you know clique. Right, but it's cool for them to sit back and listen to the conversations that go on between motor cops and talk about the different aspects. Were you a motor cop?
Speaker 3:No, you can cop. No, you know our. You can be a part of the club our. Our giveaway that we did, um, our best giveaway that we did was microfiber cleaning cloths, because they were all out there shining their bikes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, it was spit shine everybody was like that's all this year we gotta, we're gonna make spray bottles in addition to the towels yeah, so if you know anybody that wants to donate some quick shine, give us a shout, give me a David a shout and we're going to. We're going to make that happen. So anything today that you wanted to talk about that we didn't cover.
Speaker 1:I want to touch just real quick about on the motorcycle rodeo. So if people don't want to stay at Kalahari or whatever, la Quinta is the host hotel, which is. The parking lots are attached to the Dell diamond walking distance. Yeah, so registration open October 1st. Wilco D is going to be a big sponsor again. We'll be out there to help out, like we did last year, cooking for the riders, our members and even our staff. There was so much staff that went out there and helped out because so much goes into it and TMPA was great to help us with that last year.
Speaker 2:So I think, well, tmpa does we follow. I think your vice president, ashley, y'all were at a gala last weekend or two weekends ago.
Speaker 1:She was at the Lakeway, okay.
Speaker 2:Again the networking aspect and benefiting each other and talk about the social media stuff. You guys are pretty out there with social media. You guys put stuff out there, talk about the benefits of having a social media presence and the benefits of networking with each other and promoting each other in such a way, because it's our message. And I will tell you right now, for those that don't know, if you're in law enforcement, whether it be a police department, association, whatever social media platforms Facebook I'm calling you out, mark Zuckerberg they decrease our algorithm and so if we don't come, we don't, if we don't connect together and stand together and unite, then our shit's going to be pushed to the bottom of the and we can't push our message out there. So talk about the benefits of social media, just real quick, and talk about the network aspect of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, for us it's been great and I think any association that can push out on social media it's great. Social media is great and the connections that you make for me and for us it's just also getting ideas. What do you see other associations do? And then same for us. If somebody says, hey, how did you go about doing this for the community, whatever it was?
Speaker 1:I don't mind sharing, because we're all in this together, right? But that's been tremendous for us to put that out there on social media and to use the different platforms. We've always had Facebook and Instagram, and then I call it the bird app, twitter, right, it's called X now, but for us even to do, you know, to hop on there to have that presence on Twitter, because some people use Twitter, they may not use Instagram or Facebook. Some people use just Instagram, they don't use Facebook, right? So I think that you need to spread out on all different platforms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. I agree and for those that don't know, I wrote an article the other day that you need to have that little blue checkmark next to your stuff on Twitter.
Speaker 2:Otherwise your stuff will be verified because your stuff will get dwindled down. It goes back to Elon Musk and his credibility with trying to get people, not to get the you know the scam accounts and that kind of stuff. So, if you haven't already your local POA president leadership role, go ahead and get your X account, not Twitter. Get your account set up. It's, it's crucial because I think that we're transitioning to Facebook. Let's just, for all intents and purposes, is for your older crowd in law enforcement, and so now Instagram is becoming more of the thing and so is X, and so those two right now are kind of going neck and neck.
Speaker 2:YouTube as well. So of course we're touching on all those platforms. But, man, it's been a pleasure having you on Kudos to you guys. Hats off for what you guys do on a daily basis. It really is the example of kind of what local association leadership should be and looks like. And so I know David just talks, he talks, he praises y'all all the time when we have, you know, department meetings and and field reps, field rep meetings and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So congratulations, I appreciate it and I appreciate that and I've told Curly and the help that y'all provide, and they've said that over and over and over.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So thank y'all for everything. Absolutely, curly. You got anything else. You probably got some POA or probably late for one of your other POA leadership meetings or something going on Probably driving to the pit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, it's good to have y'all, man. It's good to have y'all. It's great to have y'all. We need to have y'all more often. So if you've watched our podcast, you understand cop car and your favorite drink of choice when you are relaxing.
Speaker 1:So so many good. I think there's a lot of good cop movies.
Speaker 2:There are.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to throw a single line out there, but Training Day is probably at the top of the list, Yep, and also not so much cop movie, but there is a cop in them. I mean Russell Crowe and American gangster.
Speaker 2:That's a great movie. Uh, the departed, I mean.
Speaker 1:I could just go with the departed. The departed's up there. There's just so many good ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Um cop car. Obviously, I started in a crown Vic, you know the workhorse but I wouldn't say that's my favorite. I like the way the new Explorers handle I'm a driving instructor so I know that but the EcoBoost ones that they have the Explorer models.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm just going to say I'm not upset with you, I'm just disappointed Crownvig man.
Speaker 1:I liked it, I did like it, I liked it. That's what I had. But the handling on those Explorers Now it needs to be the EcoBoost. If it's not eco boost and same thing with the Tahoe is whenever you hit the gas, you're not moving anywhere- no, they're so heavy, yeah, yeah, so heavy.
Speaker 2:Favorite drink choice.
Speaker 1:You're talking alcoholic.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, alcoholic baby all day.
Speaker 1:Um, I love beer, but I also like Tequila. Just a sip of tequila, really Extra Anejo. There's one, there's several that I like, but like Extra Anejo just on a rock, wow.
Speaker 2:That'll put hair in your chest right there.
Speaker 1:They're so good, Like the ones that are really good they're nice Are meant for sipping. Yeah, and they're almost like. Some of them are like a dessert. There's one out there called Adictivo. That's not a shout out to them, but if they want to sponsor you.
Speaker 2:We're open to it.
Speaker 1:It's so good. You know, the first time I had it it was almost like having it's like a dessert.
Speaker 2:Wow, I'm about to try that out. Yeah, I'm going to hit the liquor store after this and go go get some.
Speaker 3:Tyler is going to roll his choice Diet Coke.
Speaker 2:No, curly's not a drinker, and when he does, we have to tape him down to a chair because he is a dancing machine. So for those out there that hang out with Curly on the side, you buy him one drink. You better be ready, because he is going to dance the night away.
Speaker 3:On my cheap date.
Speaker 2:Hey, appreciate you coming on. Man, you too Curly on man, you too, carly. Uh, it's great to have you guys on, great to highlight the work that we do across the state, but right here in central texas you guys do a great job, carly got anything else.
Speaker 1:Thank you for coming, man.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you all for having me down here when can people that are watching this podcast um get some information about the peace officer memorial and what the dates are going to be that's going to be coming up and our kind of responsibility on that?
Speaker 3:um. So just to round out, the peace officer memorial is going to be coming up and all kind of responsibility on that. So just to round out, the Peace Officer Memorial is going to be held on the last Saturday or last Sunday of April I believe it's going to be the 27th and they can always go to the website Texas Peace Officer Memorial and find the information up there. We are well in the swing of things.
Speaker 2:We're having our next meeting in a couple days to finalize some of the memorialized names and more information will be pushed out this coming January and for those who have never gone, man, I strongly, strongly encourage you to go this year. We're going to try to do a little things different with live streaming it, so that way people who can attend, uh, or that have never attended there, they'll be able to watch that, and so we're going to work with other organizations that are part of the planning of that and so trying to make that happen. That way, people can see live what's going on.
Speaker 2:So yes looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just touching on that, peace do and I know we're trying to wrap up here, but if other associations you know to just throw an idea out there, we send two of our members to Police Officer Week every year. We cover their airfare, their hotel, the time that they're out there.
Speaker 2:The association covers it. Association does.
Speaker 1:That's awesome it doesn't come from the city or anything like that. We do that for our members, so that's you know.
Speaker 2:To D, you know, to dc as well, to dc yeah, that's what this is.
Speaker 3:Wow, yeah, that's huge. Please, if you're an association out there, please look into doing that and can they reach out to you?
Speaker 2:for sure it matters for them, for the attendees, and it's it's a cool way to give back and to kind of have that good feeling about yourself. But I'll tell you who. It matters to the fallen families that are sitting there watching and seeing everybody around here and seeing the, the hundreds and hundreds of people on that lawn as their loved ones names are read across. That's what it matters and that's where it matters and that's truly where the heart and soul goes into these types of moral services. And so kudos to you guys for doing that again on a local level, for you guys to have the mindset of doing that. It's phenomenal and it's it's praiseworthy, so we appreciate it so well. This about wraps up this one. You guys, take care, stay safe. God bless you and, as always, may God bless Texas. We're out, thank you, thank you. I'll see you next time.
