Albuquerque Police Department; APD Tape 36

seeing the second hand, Bragg, you know, I mean to like, you know, I mean to like, you know, to like your fever pitch, you know, activity where, you know, the officer's life is on the line and he is to react like that in order to, you know, to live. So let's talk about, you know, like, you know, what happens out on, you know, in the field, you know, I still like that dramatic depression of it. I've never heard, uh, Lawn, the law enforcement profession actually described as being manic, impressive. I could see where the parallels could be drawn. I always see it more of a rollercoaster ride, you know, it begins with that, uh, kind of boredom that waiting and then it slowly climaxes into anticipation. And when you hit the top of that hill and then take that initial dive, the adrenaline just flows through your body and your body reacts naturally. And when you come out of it and stuff, you can take a deep breath and look back at it and here comes the next one. And that's basically the way it is. It's up and down, up and down constantly. Um, people describe, uh, you know, not only police officers, but firemen and, and emergency medical technicians as adrenaline junkies. Sure. That's a, that actually is a benefit to the job. We learned how to use that

adrenaline rush to our advantage. Whether it be in a physical confrontation or whether it would be just speaking with someone. We learned how to control that and back to your discipline question earlier and stuff. That's part of the self -discipline that we teach us in these individuals here at the Academy. I mean, you know, like, um, you know, you've been on the department 14 years, you know, like, and I would assume, you know, that, you know, through your, you know, through your watch, you know, you've seen a lot of, you know, the best of, the best of man, the worst of man. And, um, why, you know, and, you know, like, you know, when, can you offer a commentary on, you know, on, you know, the nature of man that you've seen through your eyes, sir. Well, again, like you have described, I have seen it all from the best to the worst and back again on that rollercoaster law enforcement. Um, I think the majority of people, and this is the only time I'll ever stereotype people. It's that

the majority of people are good. They're supportive. They want to live their lives in peace. We all share very common values and things, uh, between the community and even as being a law enforcement officer. We're basically the same. Um, we want to grow up. We want to grow up in a safe environment. We want to grow up and teach our children how to have fun and enjoy life. And that's what we want to do. And I think the majority of people do. But again, there's that small bit of the population that has a different concept as, as to where can come. Those are the people that we most often deal with. Those are the people that you see us taking to jail. Those are the people you see in the back of our patrol cars. Uh, those are the people that were kicking down doors to go and arrest and so on. But a small population. But for the majority of us, I think we're all the same. And, uh, we are just part of that community, just a cog in, in that machine that helps us function in a state of organization and in peace. Okay. Sir, you know, why? Oh, no, no,

I said I was curious, you know, why, you know, um, why would you want to put your life on the line for this community? Well, it's something that, uh, we try not to think about. Um, and I explained to you earlier that, uh, I've been a martial artist for many years. And the way I look at it, the way I envision the whole concept is, is that police officers truly are the modern day samurai. We serve now, not just a warlord or some king or something, we serve actually the community in itself. Um, that is our obligation. That is our responsibility. I think if you pulled law enforcement officers anywhere, 99 .9 percent of them would say the reason why they, they wanted to be a police officer is because they wanted to serve the community. They wanted to make the community that they live in better. This community here in Albuquerque has provided me and my family with quite a bit. It's just beautiful, beautiful surroundings, the cultural diversity, the area, um, the people itself. And I wanted to give something back. And that's, that's originally when I went in a law enforcement, that's what I've been doing for the past 14 years, is giving something back to the community. I hope with the community

sees they like. Now I'm in the, in the point of training, they're, they're seeing that not so much from me, but they're seeing it through the people I train. And that's in itself very, very satisfying. Okay, let me go for it. Oh, no, I was thinking about the cadets, we just graduated from all the things you've seen all year, years of law enforcement. Do you have anything maybe you would like to say, like a tip or words of vice? Great. Yeah, like words of vice, you know, to the youngsters out on the street? Sure. My advice to them first is to treat people as you would wish to be treated or perhaps a member of your family. Always respect people. Respect is a big issue. It always has been. To give people their dignity, the dignity if they deserve. Beyond that, my, my second point of advice to the cadets would be to stay safe. Nothing would trouble me more and upset me more to know that a law enforcement officer that I assisted in training did something with it without the bounds of their training and was injured in the line of duty and so on because really our primary function is to go to our job and then come home safely and repeat the process throughout our lifetime

and hopefully in our career as such. That, that would be my second concern. My third concern to those individuals is to have fun, maintain the relationships that they had prior to becoming a law enforcement officer. We have a tendency sometimes to be a very close society. To have that code of blue, for example, and you find that after a year or two on the job, most of your friends are law enforcement officers. As a matter of fact, all your friends probably become law enforcement officers and you've kind of estranged yourself from those other relationships and I would encourage those individuals to maintain their relationships because they should always remember where they came from. Some of them were grocery clerks before, some of them were pumping gas. That's what they need to be again and those are the people that they're dealing with now. Okay and we come to the favorite question of all interviews once more. The last question, sir, is there anything you wish to add? Well there is today. I'd like to say that I hope that the people who watch this get to know us better.

It always helps to walk in our shoes and now you're doing it through a television camera. I would encourage people to participate in programs that our department and our city provides to get to know us a little better. For example, we have programs in the high schools to encourage high school students again to learn about our jobs. We have the citizens police academy which I always encourage people. We have neighborhood watch organizations and such and they have a lot of contact with law enforcement officer because without those partnerships we can't be successful. For a long time officers, we're trying to do it all by themselves. It was our responsibility to solve crime, to take away drugs out of our community but now we found we can't do it without partnerships of the community and the more people we can encourage to join with us in that fight, the more successful we're going to be and be able to achieve what everybody wants. That's a peaceful

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