Blue Canary: For Cops By a Cop Steve Kellams

That's a Wrap.

In 2020 at the height of the COVID pandemic I decided to start this podcast. I had just retired and started full time teaching and consulting when the world came to a grinding halt. The podcast was a way to fill that void. To scratch my teaching itch and to share what I had learned in 30 years of working as a cop.
 
 I couldn’t be more happy with the results.
 
 Over the last four years I have had the pleasure of reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, and sharing information about this amazing profession.
 
 I want to thank all of you that came along with me for the ride. Thank you for listening, sharing, and subscribing.
 
 This wraps up Season 4 of Blue Canary, a season where I focused on the War on Cops. But, this podcast experiment is far from over. I will be taking a few months off to get everything ready to go for next season, and I think it’s going to be a good one.
 
 Season 5 of Blue Canary is going to focus on leadership. You see, we don’t have a cop problem in the US, we have a cop leadership problem, one that seems to get worse every day. And it’s not just the big bosses, no, it’s a problem that starts with the frontline sergeants. I am going to interview all levels of police leaders and talk about the issues and problems facing police leadership. I am going to talk to researchers and experts in leadership, and I am going to share my own experiences as a formal police leader for 17 years. I think you will find next season fascinating.
 
 Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Look for the new season in the spring of 2024.
 
 Until then, everybody be careful out there. 

In 2022 Rafael Mangual a senior fellow and head of research for policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research published his book Criminal (In)Justice. If your profession revolves around the criminal justice system then this is a must-read book. Using extensive studies and documentation Mangual takes the fight to the decarceration and depolicing narrative. He quickly and succinctly destroys the concept of defunding the police.
Criminal (In)Justice points out that the defund police movement fundamentally does not understand the causes of crime. They believe that by transferring funds away from the police and putting those funds into non law enforcement services such as social work the cycle of crime will be broken and crime will decline. However, the facts and studies prove the opposite. In 2020 the United States saw more than 21,000 murders which accounted for a 30 percent increase over 2019 and the biggest year-over-year increase on record. His book goes on to state:
The year 2020 was preceded by a decade-long trend of
Increasingly vitriolic expressions of anti-police rhetoric in the media and academia.
Decarceration (between 2009 and 2019, the country’s imprisonment rate declined 17 percent)
De-policing (during the same period, arrest declined by more than 25 percent, going from more than 13.6 million to just over 10 million, while the number of full-time police officers working American cities went from about 452,000 in 2009 down to 443,000 in 2019.
He hits you with these numbers in the first 22 pages of the book. It only gets better from there. 

https://manhattan.institute/book/criminal-injustice
https://manhattan.institute/article/hardening-the-system-three-commonsense-measures-to-help-keep-crime-at-bay
https://www.wthr.com/article/news/crime/impd-arrests-suspect-ramming-police-car-same-man-police-shot-february-george-leachman-indianapolis-indiana-trial-bond/531-3e8ab206-de34-45ae-9e4c-41cd43ccc305
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-23/washington-dc-mayor-wants-to-reverse-police-reforms-amid-violent-crime-spike

Rick Snyder started in law enforcement over 27 years ago and continues to serve on a major metropolitan police department. Rick is the president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 86 and also serves as the National FOP Chaplain.
Rick has been vocal about the issues involving police reform for many years and I was pleased to have an opportunity to talk to Rick about the state of policing and the war on cops.

Rick had so much more to say, but do to technical difficulties and schedule conflicts we had to postpone the second part of the interview. Don’t worry though, Rick will be back on and we will dig deeper into the issues at a later date because that’s the story we have to tell.

This is our fourth annual Halloween Special and it's a doozy. Ever had one of those creepy encounters that just set the hair on the back of your neck straight up. Usually we just move on and forget about them, but sometimes they can really spook you.

In this episode we hear the real true story of a creepy conversation that took a dark turn quickly. Dim the lights and settle in for another true Halloween story.

Jeff Schemmer is a longtime friend and colleague of mine. He is also an expert on the 911 system. Jeff began working in the 911 community thirty-five years ago as a dispatcher with the Bloomington Indiana Police Department. After the 1998 consolidation of dispatch services with BPD and Monroe County Sheriff's Office, he continued to serve as a dispatcher, training coordinator and Communications Manager until 2019, when he accepted the position of Executive Director with Hamilton County Public Safety Communications. In 2022 Jeff was selected to be the Executive Director of the Indiana Statewide 911 Board.
I had the pleasure of talking with Jeff about 911 telecommunicators and the challenges dispatchers face everyday.

There isn’t an easy answer to the origin of the black mourning band. The use of black clothing to show that the wearer is in mourning for the loss of a loved one, can be traced all the way back to ancient Rome, where the traditional white toga would be replaced with a black toga pulla. Over the centuries and in various cultures white and black have battled it out for dominance as the prevailing color for mourning however in the 14th century, Christian Churches had made the wearing of black at funerals a common custom. the 19th-century artist and professor F. Edward Hulme, explained the color black at funerals showed “the spiritual darkness of the soul unillumined by the Sun of righteousness.” By the 14th century, it was widely associated with death.
What arguably set the color black aside for funerals was its expense. To get the deep dark color of black required multiple rounds of dyeing. Black clothing simply cost more than other colors and funerals; specifically important funerals were theater in the day. It was an opportunity to show off, make a political statement, and impress your peers and commoners alike. As Katie Thornton of the Atlantic put it; Funerals were the red carpets of the early modern era.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth the First in 1603 solidified black as the color of mourning. While black has become a more common color over the years and much less expensive it still has a historical connection with death and to this day is the most common color associated with mourning.
While the wealthy and political were trying to one-up each other in the black clothing department the military found itself with a conundrum. Early military uniforms were colorful. The bright clothing helped differentiate the fighters on the battlefield. It helped build cohesion and recognition on the smoke-filled landscape. Uniforms were at their most glorious during the Napoleonic era in Europe. Bright colors, gold buttons and ribbons, silver braids and polished leather. The uniforms were intended to display authority, power, status, and glamor.
They were everything but black.
To allow for proper mourning while still wearing the uniform of the day the black armband as adopted. By adding a black armband to the uniform, the wearer was able to convey the appropriate honor and respect for the deceased while still being gloriously appointed in the dress uniform of the day. The black armband was quickly adopted by anyone who had a specific uniform to wear during the funeral rights. We still see the black armband worn today by sports teams wishing to show their respect of a lost member or important person.
For law enforcement the practice of wearing a black armband quickly morphed into wearing a black band over the officer’s badge. Today it is common practice for law enforcement officers to wear a black band over the badge to pay respects to fellow officers who died in the line of duty.