Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: I'm Alex Stone, former military service member and law enforcement officer, now CEO of Echelon Protected Services, one of the fastest growing private security firms on the west coast. And this is ride along, where our guests and I witness firsthand the issues affecting our community.
I believe our proven method of enacting meaningful change through compassion and understanding is the best way to make our streets a safer place and truly achieve security through the community.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Hey, guys, I'm Charles Joe, former LAPD SWAT, currently CEO for Trisell USA. I'm here with Alex today to check out his podcast, ride along and hit the streets.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: So we're in the sprinter. Charles Joe's riding shot down here. We're just looking around different areas. Old town going by Union Station. As you can see, everything's still boarded up. I mean, that kind of happened during the riots and they just never came down.
Broken window here.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: There's a lot of businesses that left that haven't come back.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: And is that a mixture of COVID and riots or COVID and riots.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: And people just got used to working from home.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: So anyway, this looks like downtown La.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: This is really nice. When we moved in here, there were 450 tenths in Old Town. This is old town Chinatown, and it was historically japanese. And then when they were forced into internment camps by the Roosevelt administration.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: The Chinese came and bought up everything for pennies on the dollar. Then became Chinatown during World War Two.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: How did you guys get all the tents, cabinets clearing out?
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Well, we don't. We can't move tents.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: Right.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: So we had to enter into civil compromise. But we. We convince about 150 people a month to go into a shelter, and then we facilitate that sheltering process. We call our nonprofit. So let's say if guard's out of control, he's making his contacts. They're like, man, I want to get into a shot shelter today.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: I'm just done.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: They'll call a non profit, love it one another, love it one another will come and then spend that next two to three or 4 hours with them. We can't get a shelter that day. We'll bridge them in a hotel, then get them in a shelter the next day. So we're constantly trying to get people into detox, back with family, back with a faith group, into some type of sheltering position. Emergency care, unity. We have facilities like unity, which does mental health. We have a 24 hours detox in Vancouver, Washington, and we just use radio cab. As long as they're stabilized and they're not showing any signs of harm or self harm.
We get radio cab accounts each neighborhood we patrol. So we're running probably in eight different districts with more than 80 blocks per district. Sometimes it's more than 100 city blocks. We're running 24 hours day. Seven day leak patrols.
[00:03:16] Speaker C: Right.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: Security's not security lessons 24/7 right. So we're always constantly doing that. So during the day, we hit it really hard. Get good intelligence. Trying to get people out to shelter.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: Right.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Get them into detox facilities.
That's kind of how we work it.
So we just arrived near echelon hq, the place we do the studio, completely different site.
We own a commercial building right across the street, and that's our headquarters for the entire company, all of America, corporate hq.
You getting into trouble?
[00:03:57] Speaker C: Oh, nice.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Is it neuropathy? What's that from?
Oh, God, I'm sorry. I didn't know that.
[00:04:08] Speaker D: Trying to walk in and stuff.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
That's good.
You need anything?
[00:04:16] Speaker A: You need a walker or anything?
[00:04:18] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: All right. I bet, right? I bet. You doing okay today? Other than that.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: All right.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: It's good to see you. Tell your sister I said hi.
It's always making community contacts. Yeah, you always got to know everybody. They're my main source of intelligence for this whole block right here.
We're always like, hey, we got these crackheads. It's all dope.
[00:04:42] Speaker C: Hey, hey.
[00:04:43] Speaker E: Michael.
[00:04:43] Speaker C: Mike.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: Charles. Pleasure to meet you.
[00:04:45] Speaker E: Nice to meet you, Charles.
[00:04:46] Speaker C: Right on.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Hey, sub bro. We call. His name's beat Master Bach because he knows what's going on on the street.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: I don't know about beat, but we'll see, right?
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll see.
[00:04:54] Speaker E: Good to meet you.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: Same here.
[00:04:56] Speaker E: Yeah, I've got some supplies.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah, let's gear up, bro.
[00:04:58] Speaker C: Yeah, let's roll.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: So everything. He's grabbing this tote. Every officer, when they go to patrol, they grab a tote, hygiene kit, sanitizer, food.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: That will last the shift.
[00:05:07] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: We have a resource center up here for the company, and then we have a full. Our nonprofit has a full resource center that's. We got donated us to a commercial space that we run that out of.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Awesome.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: So Boc just jumped in. Boc kind of introduced himself to Charles. You know, we want to let everyone out there knows that today it's a heat advisory day in Portland. It's going to be about 105 degrees. We're going to be rolling around, seeing, making sure everyone has water, doing a lot of medical. So this could be a very heavy medical show. You just never know what's going to happen. You never know. Your cooling towels, water, bottles of water. Right.
So we're here in old town, right? Second in Flanders Gleason area. Got a guy, he looks like his lung capacity might be compromised. He's probably passed out, right? Could be overdosing.
[00:05:59] Speaker C: So we're gonna go check on him.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: And then this is the general area where we're supposed to meet up with Sonny.
So let's just roll, see what's going on.
Well, he just moved and got up. I'm gonna grab some water.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Oh, he's up.
How you doing?
[00:06:36] Speaker C: This?
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah, you got a good spot here in the shade.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: Yeah, man.
[00:06:46] Speaker E: A coat is what you don't need right now, man. I'm worried about you over here.
[00:06:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:52] Speaker E: Like a Coca Cola. I do not have that. I just have water right now.
Hey, are you doing all right, though?
[00:07:01] Speaker D: Yeah, as far as shelter goes, there was.
[00:07:22] Speaker E: Yeah.
You got kicked out of do good, huh?
[00:07:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:31] Speaker E: Ah.
Are you interested in finding another shelter?
[00:07:34] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:35] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: What.
[00:07:37] Speaker E: What's your name, buddy? I'll see if I can get one for you.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: My name is Mel.
[00:07:42] Speaker E: Okay, hang on a second here.
All right? I'm gonna need your date of birth, too, because this. This city needs that. Me. L. Okay, let me make a phone call.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: Okay, bud?
[00:07:51] Speaker E: I'm gonna see if I can get you what. Yeah, you're welcome to sit down. You're not in trouble, bud. Yeah, get some water in. You and the heat, man. I'm worried about your coat, Bud. Hey, I got it. I got a gentleman here who was recently in the do good shelter.
He unfortunately was unsuccessful staying there. He had too many write ups.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: So anytime someone says they're interested in sheltering, we always turn into a shelter he wants.
[00:08:16] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: And it's not easy to do. There's no central tracking system.
You just got to call each one.
[00:08:23] Speaker C: So we have.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: We have a reservation for a restaurant, right? You guys buy it?
[00:08:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: And so we have a lady who's a registered nurse who works on the back end for us. And that's all she does if the paperwork and trying to get those places. Are you okay?
[00:08:38] Speaker C: Everything okay?
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Is this your tent? No, it's not cold, homie.
[00:08:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
You doing okay today?
[00:08:49] Speaker A: You wait for blanche a blanche a meal.
Don't know how you.
[00:08:55] Speaker E: I can't hardly do the sweatshirts in the heat.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: I know, right?
[00:08:58] Speaker E: I know he's in the coat.
So I got a hold of Loa, give him the information, and now he's just going to check and follow through and see if we can dispenser yeah, it's been full.
[00:09:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:12] Speaker E: We've had bad success sheltering people lately because they're. They're full.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Yeah, they had a COVID outbreak as well.
[00:09:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:18] Speaker E: So it's reduced the number they've.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: So they're all. That one's, like, 50% capacity.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Now, if one pops up within the next hour or so, who transports him?
[00:09:25] Speaker E: We can call a cab.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Radio cab.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: Good. All right.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Hopefully he'll be here hanging out until.
[00:09:30] Speaker E: Well, what we can do, because it's right about lunchtime, is we can just say, hey, look, if you're hungry, go eat. We've got one of our guards that are already there, and then they can follow up with us. We can communicate with them on the radio.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: So they do three meals a day here across the street.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: Okay. Right here.
[00:09:43] Speaker E: It's basically a soup kitchen for the holistic.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Do they know?
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
Everyone knows.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Hey, go eat.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah, they've been there, like, they've been around for 50 years, I think.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: And we do the security there during the meetings.
[00:09:59] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:09:59] Speaker E: So are you hungry?
Why don't you grab some, blanche a lunch, okay. Check in with the officer who's there. They'll be dressed like me, and then we'll find. We'll see if we can't find you a spot. But I don't want to, like, you know, kill time and then have you not be able to eat lunch. But I just need to be able to find you. Okay?
[00:10:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:18] Speaker E: Okay. So go eat some lunch, and I'll see what we can do.
[00:10:20] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:20] Speaker E: In the meantime. All right. I don't want you to miss lunch.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: You want some water?
[00:10:25] Speaker C: You good?
Okay.
There you go.
Cool.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: So, bach, you know, we just jumped out. We thought the guy might be overdosing. His lung capacity was shrunk because he was over like this. Tell us what happened.
[00:10:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:46] Speaker E: Essentially, when you find people that are down, you're looking for things that are out of place. The rule of thumb that I have is position of comfort. Right. They teach you that in EMT school, put them in a position of comfort. If they're not in a position of comfort, then they likely fell that way. And if they fell that way, they likely are unconscious. If they're likely unconscious, then we got to go through these steps to make sure that they're good to go and breathing. So he was in a position that didn't look comfortable, but turns out he was a. He was alert and was breathing. Okay. He's still wearing a coat. It's super hot. Said he had just been kicked out of a shelter because of bad behavior, but was interested in getting in another one. So I reached out to Loa. Maybe we can get him another shelter. But in the meantime, he's having lunch.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Over a bunch of loa's, our nGo. They have a whole street crew. So they'll check in with him. They'll come over here, and they're usually over here once or twice a day.
[00:11:29] Speaker C: Right. Very cool. Yeah.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Now, we got an issue over here on that perimeter.
I don't even think that's their trash can. It got dragged there, but I don't want that to attract anybody, all the trash. So I'm gonna notify what the client about.
[00:11:42] Speaker E: That looks like he may be on it.
[00:11:44] Speaker C: Oh, good.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Clean and safe.
[00:11:46] Speaker E: Clean and safe. Yeah, they were contracting Portland.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Look at that.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:11:51] Speaker E: Appreciate it, boss.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: Okay, cool. Done deal.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: We love our community partners, clean and safe.
Appreciate y'all. Okay, so we're rolling around. We saw a U Haul van. U hauls are stolen all the time for illegal activity. So we're gonna roll up, gonna knock on it. It looks like it's cracked. Shades are up, so people are looking for privacy. It's obviously very hot today. Someone falls asleep in there, they could easily die because it can get up to 120 degrees in there today.
So we're just gonna make contact, and then we're gonna get a license plate.
Typically, in this type of environment, you could call not an emergency, see if there is any interest in the plate. We can't really do that because it would take 45 minutes for us to get an operator at 911 today. So at least it's not really plausible to do that. But that's typically what you would want to do in this situation. Hey, anybody home?
[00:12:42] Speaker C: Anybody home?
[00:12:44] Speaker A: You need a cigarette?
Yeah, we're just handing out some water today.
This u Haul has been here for a while.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: This u Haul truck? Yeah.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: No, you don't know who they are.
[00:12:58] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: Needle.
Anybody home?
[00:13:04] Speaker C: Here you go, homey.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Take some water, too, man. It's gonna be like, 105 degrees today.
[00:13:10] Speaker D: Yeah, I heard it's gonna be, like 105.
[00:13:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: You doing okay? Other than that, cereal, milk. You know, Blanche's handing out meals right now.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: Okay, awesome.
[00:13:27] Speaker E: Sounds good, boss.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: Cool.
He seems young.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: What really worried me is those two little kids.
[00:13:33] Speaker C: You saw him?
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, man, those kids were young, bro.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: It was with that, apparently. I'm assuming it's a dad.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: We're a non profit with water and cigarettes.
We're concerned that y'all might get too hot in that u Haul today. Thought we'd stop by.
Here's a couple cigarettes. Anybody home? So no one's answering.
[00:14:08] Speaker C: Good call.
[00:14:15] Speaker E: That one there.
[00:14:16] Speaker C: It's empty.
Yeah, it's empty.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: Okay, good.
[00:14:20] Speaker E: So we can take our water.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: I will.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: I would leave those.
[00:14:25] Speaker E: Leave them.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Let them know someone came here.
[00:14:27] Speaker E: All right, sounds good.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Make them know that someone's watching them.
[00:14:30] Speaker E: All right.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: License plates out of Arizona. So the U Haul is empty.
It's likely stolen, beat up pretty bad. Someone's obviously living inside.
[00:14:40] Speaker C: We.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: It was opened already so we were take a photo. It's definitely being lived in. Very dangerous situation. People die in situations like this all the time.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Curious the story of that u Haul.
[00:14:48] Speaker E: Now, you know, right in the back. It doesn't make any sense.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Cracked open with.
[00:14:52] Speaker E: Right.
[00:14:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:54] Speaker E: And the front looks like it's unshaved.
[00:14:56] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: So we're driving around on patrol. One of the community members that we've been interested in and concerned about is her name's. Her street name is Pax. And her mom kind of left is a long haul truck driver. She left her Honda pilot here because she wanted her to have a car to live in rather than a tent. Pax has been on the streets for a while now. Bach, you had an interaction with her that involved the possible kidnapping or attempted kidnapping. You want to take your time. Yeah, that's right.
[00:15:24] Speaker E: Yeah. You know, when apparently she's done this behavior before, but attempted to kidnap a little child. Some history here is that she may go into a mental psychosis and believe that the child belongs to her.
So in the event that we did, we were able to stop that from happening.
But the follow up with her care is to see her get into treatment, to see her get into to a sober living situation so that not only she's safe for herself, but safe for others. So today we're going to go check on her and see how she's doing and hopefully she'll be ready to make some of those changes.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: So we stopped. There's a guy completely hunched over again. Capacity. His lung capacity is compromised. So we're going to do a little medical check with him. We're still out looking for packs, looking for that green Honda pilot campfinder.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: We're going to jump out and make.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Sure this guys okay.
[00:16:24] Speaker E: Hi, honey. You're not in trouble, honey. I just want to check on your partner here.
Yeah, he doesn't look like he's breathing all that good. Hey, buddy, I'm Michael. You okay there?
Would you like some water?
[00:16:37] Speaker A: I thought you already got out.
[00:16:38] Speaker E: No, okay. Do you need any help with anything?
No.
[00:16:43] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:16:43] Speaker E: It looks like you were slumped over a little bit. Want to make sure you're breathing okay.
All right. You don't need any water?
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that's how you want some water, sweetie?
[00:16:55] Speaker E: He doesn't want anything.
[00:16:56] Speaker C: You want some water? Thank you. Okay.
[00:16:59] Speaker E: All right, well, I'm glad you're doing all right.
[00:17:01] Speaker C: I got him, guys. Good.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Keep an eye on him. You're doing good job.
[00:17:06] Speaker C: Hey, Bob. Come here.
[00:17:10] Speaker E: Hey, kiddo. You doing all right?
Hey, sweetie.
Hey, sweetheart. Hey there.
Hey there. Hi.
[00:17:18] Speaker C: You okay?
[00:17:19] Speaker E: Hey, how are you? How you been? It's been a while since I've seen you.
You doing okay out here?
[00:17:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:33] Speaker E: All right.
Okay, sounds good.
What you got?
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Just looking for that green Honda pilot.
[00:17:42] Speaker C: Yeah? Yeah. Everything good? Yeah.
[00:17:45] Speaker E: All right, let's roll.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: So both people have been using. Definitely passed out, not overdosing, still able to breathe. Female's not communicative, so she's still definitely under the influence. But both of them seem outside of that red zone for overdose.
[00:18:05] Speaker C: Sounds good. Okay. Sounds good.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: All right, well. Well, crisis averted.
[00:18:11] Speaker E: Now we got a dog somewhere.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Who do you belong to, bud? I saw the. I guess it wasn't them that were.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Is this y'all's dog?
[00:18:20] Speaker E: Hey, bud, come on over here in the shade.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Let's get the dog some water.
[00:18:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: So rolled up lady contacted us, I guess because we look like we're in authority or something, but it's this whole idea of perceived authority. She said, hey, there's a dog. There's a pit bull running around loose. So we were able to get the dog. Boc actually was able to get the dog. Now we're getting him water. So we're probably gonna have to call animal controller city to get someone to come take care of the dog. Charles, what do you think?
[00:18:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: You taking this dog, man? Taking this dog back to LA? If I can get him on the.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: On the plane, sure.
[00:18:57] Speaker E: Here, pup.
[00:19:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:01] Speaker E: All right. I'm gonna call the animal control.
[00:19:03] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:19:12] Speaker E: Howdy, buddy.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: I don't.
[00:19:13] Speaker E: I don't think the dog's mean.
[00:19:14] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: The dog, though, got a harness? You got leash?
[00:19:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was probably at a camp and they probably passed out on fentanyl and they got out of the tent and it wandered out because that is a good harness. But, I mean, this leash.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a homemade.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: Homemade, street made leash. Yeah, street leash.
So isn't that your prison name? Actually, street leash?
There's a short leash, but, um.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:45] Speaker E: Hi, my name is Michael. I work for a security company in Portland. I'm down at the North park blocks right now, and I've got a dog that clearly has an owner. It's got a harness and a lease on it, but. Well, the dog ain't missing. The owner is.
Yeah, I can transport to dub Lewis. Sure. I've got the capability.
[00:20:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:08] Speaker E: Dove Lewis? You mean in northwest 19th and Petty Grove?
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Easy, easy.
[00:20:12] Speaker E: Yeah, we can make that happen.
[00:20:14] Speaker C: That's what.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: We're headed that way anyways for lunch.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:20:18] Speaker E: Bye bye.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: There's a plunger right there for a needle.
[00:20:21] Speaker E: Yeah, this is the partially of the memorial here. This was also graffiti back of the wall over here, but the owner keeps cleaning it up. Yeah, exactly.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: This might be why the actual bathrooms are locked, but. So this is where the first individual died about a week or two ago. And now this person was a member of a gang. Street gang. And the memorials, they have some memorial across the street over here, and it says rip. And so ever since then, this gang essentially has been trying to own this entire park blocks area. And there were several shootouts in the last two days.
[00:20:58] Speaker C: Two.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: One woman we saved, same location right here. Tourniquet, stop the bleed, all that, right? And then last night, someone was shot and killed. She actually ended up getting murdered a block away.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: So.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: So we initially came out here today to kind of discuss gang violence and just as a security company, what we have to do to. How do we work with law enforcement? Those private partnerships and public partnerships and what all that looks like. And then we got a lost dog call, right?
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Unscripted.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Yeah, unscripted. Lost dog call. So we got a dog that was roaming around scaring people at the park. We're gonna take the dog to just, like, 20 blocks away. Ten blocks away to a safe location. A lot of movement around this, right?
[00:21:45] Speaker C: So, homie.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Good to see you, brother.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:53] Speaker E: You need some water?
[00:21:54] Speaker D: I'm doing good. Careful. Just in a few days, when I.
[00:21:57] Speaker E: First hit my fucking camera, what happened?
[00:22:00] Speaker D: Straight nine millimeter. Nine millimeter 38. Fucking walking down the street, ran a few, uh. One thing I got, honestly tell you.
[00:22:07] Speaker E: The only thing I can say is.
[00:22:08] Speaker D: I ran a few people that wear stuff similar to you and joke around, and he said, uh, you know, uh, similar to.
[00:22:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:17] Speaker D: He said, here, I'll let you try.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: My best on that.
[00:22:19] Speaker D: I was like, one security chip.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:22:29] Speaker D: She starts walking back in the car.
Make sure I put the vest on. You know, how you pull it up?
Make sure it's from here to here. I put the vest on, it's straight. Bullet hits right there, knocks me on my ass.
[00:22:44] Speaker E: From who?
Where were you?
[00:22:52] Speaker D: I wasn't where I was, but, you know, close to target.
[00:23:06] Speaker E: You doing okay, though?
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Are you currently still on the streets right now?
So when you were in second grade and your teacher asked you, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Because I grew up in Texas, too, so I know that they asked us that. I know they asked us that. Right.
What would have been your answer? What you would have been? I want to be homeless in Portland.
When you were in second grade, what was your answer?
You want to be free? Do you feel like you're free right now?
And so is there anything about the lifestyle you're living in that would want you to. That would make you or make you feel like you'd want to get into a shelter?
[00:23:50] Speaker C: No.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Even though you were just recently shot?
I'm only asking because I was homeless as a kid. I lived in my car, a car with my mom, and I know what it's like to feel that sense of insecurity.
[00:24:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree with you.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: And so we're concerned about your well being. We don't want you to get shot out here. You know what I mean?
Is there anything that would make you want to go into a shelter today?
[00:24:24] Speaker C: No. Okay.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: We like to ask, bro, because we're interested, you know, help you.
[00:24:28] Speaker E: Texas?
[00:24:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: Appreciate you, bro.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:31] Speaker E: Good to see you.
Come here, man.
You hang in there, man. You need cigarettes.
Shut up. I have no idea. We're gonna take him over to dove. Lewis here's a couple for the road.
[00:24:46] Speaker D: You look very familiar.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah, Dudley, I know I've seen this dog before. I guarantee you.
[00:24:53] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah.
[00:24:54] Speaker E: All right, sounds good.
[00:24:56] Speaker C: Nice to meet you, Tex. Nice to meet you.
[00:24:57] Speaker E: Texas.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: All right, well, you can talk.
So we just talked to a guy. Been recently been shot, and he had the bullet wounded his chest. Apparently, another security company, he was joking around, and they let him wear the protective vest and the ballistic vest, and he happened to get shot while he had the vest on.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: Do you need to.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Do you know Spencer? Big spencer.
[00:25:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Loving one another.
[00:25:50] Speaker C: Okay. All right.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: We're gonna hook you up with him. He's the one who's doing all of our outreach today.
[00:26:02] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Awesome, bro.
Where are you gonna set up at? Do you know.
[00:26:15] Speaker C: Where?
Okay, well, if we have.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: We want to have Spencer contact you. Where would he contact you today?
Okay.
[00:26:24] Speaker D: What.
[00:26:25] Speaker E: What's your name?
[00:26:25] Speaker C: Chris.
[00:26:26] Speaker E: Okay. He's gonna need more dad talk.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: I'm gonna say tall Chris.
[00:26:30] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:26:31] Speaker E: We're at loving up loving one another.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Yeah, perfect. They'll be there.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: So that way we can get it lined up for you. Now get to lunch.
[00:26:38] Speaker D: No, he's been greatly. Man, he's giving me some clothes already.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: Awesome, bro.
[00:26:45] Speaker D: This is the only town I've come to that you can search a stackpile of nine trash bins. Sit your bag on your first one, feed it like the 7th one, and.
[00:26:54] Speaker C: When you look up your fucking bag. Stone.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Yeah, bro.
No, bro. That's fucked up, bro.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:04] Speaker D: Not the way it should work.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: If you got to survive, that's one thing. But stealing from someone else, that's trying to survive, it's a death sentence, man.
[00:27:12] Speaker D: How can people realize.
Okay, it's not COVID. At least target sales.
[00:27:18] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not COVID.
[00:27:20] Speaker D: Friday.
You see these shelves are empty.
If, you know, retail works and automatic stocking works or change like that, logistics and you get nothing coming. One warehouse.
[00:27:31] Speaker C: Fucking joke.
[00:27:31] Speaker D: Should be cool.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:34] Speaker D: The homeless have a serious problem.
[00:27:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah.
[00:27:46] Speaker E: Hey. Hey, Chris. I'll let Spencer know. He'll be there at three.
[00:27:49] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Loving one. Another resource center, 333 30.
[00:27:54] Speaker C: All right.
[00:27:54] Speaker E: Good to meet you, man. I'm Michael.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Tall white boy Chris.
[00:27:57] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: I'm shorter white boy Alex. Nice to meet you, bro. I know.
[00:28:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:06] Speaker E: Come on, pup.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Appreciate you, Chris.
Awesome.
So we're gonna take this dog. We're gonna take the dog to 19th of Pettigrew. We got a good picture of kind of what's going on down here. You know. Unfortunately, too much gang violence is going on. And what do you think about that? Little wrap up on that?
[00:28:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:30] Speaker B: You know, I've got a saying.
[00:28:32] Speaker C: You can't.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: We can't all be elephant hunters.
[00:28:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: You know, you gotta work on the daily qualities of life that reveals a bigger plan. And this is exactly the day to day. You can't sit around a corner waiting for the big elephant to shoot. You gotta do the daily grind to build a trust and to just open up little doors to the community. So, yeah, I'm all about that.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: Awesome. I love it. All right, we're gonna get this dog back to eat something. Appreciate y'all.
[00:28:59] Speaker E: Come on, pup.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: We just dropped off the dog at the animal hospital. We're rolling back through. It's extremely hot. It's 105 today.
We're hot. We're rolling with the windows down because that's the only way you can. Can patrol.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Right.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: You gotta hear the streets, not just see them. A lot of people are hunkered down. They're in shade, they're in cooling shelters. They're trying to get inside. So not a lot of activity today. We're gonna meet up with Spencer and the Loa street team, see what's going on with them.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Here they are.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Beautiful.
Looks like they're just closing up for the day.
What's up, bro?
[00:30:10] Speaker C: What'd you meet?
[00:30:11] Speaker A: Charles, Charles, Spencer. Spencer, Charles.
[00:30:13] Speaker E: Hey.
Doing great.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Hey, Charles, Terrence.
[00:30:19] Speaker C: Terrence, Charles.
[00:30:19] Speaker B: Hey, Charles.
[00:30:21] Speaker C: What's up, dude?
[00:30:22] Speaker A: You want to check it out?
[00:30:23] Speaker C: See inside. Okay.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Hey, did Chris come by? Tall boy. Boy, Chris.
He said he's gonna beer at 330. He said he wanted to shelter, so. He said he already had a meeting with you for 330 today. Well, there was a guy that came.
[00:30:37] Speaker F: In, but he wasn't Chris. I got a guy that's getting a bus to get home.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Really tall, thin. No, go ahead.
[00:30:44] Speaker F: But we've been servicing. Yesterday we serviced.
[00:30:46] Speaker D: Well, two days ago I serviced 45.
[00:30:48] Speaker F: People, and he did 25 yesterday in an hour.
[00:30:51] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: So we use this place. This is like a relationship building area. We give out resources, we meet people, we build those relationships.
[00:30:57] Speaker F: We're going through all the old stuff right now, getting rid of some of the stuff.
[00:31:00] Speaker C: Nice stuff.
[00:31:01] Speaker F: We're all going to redonate.
[00:31:02] Speaker C: Cool.
[00:31:05] Speaker F: You guys want some water?
[00:31:06] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: So Charles is a former LAPD Swat. He's kind of a tactical guy of tactical guys. He's part owner of a shoot house complex. Hundred acres down in San Bernardino. He's training teams and countries, their special forces, tier one operators and law enforcement, military internationally. And so he's on the ride along today. We thought we'd bring him through so you can meet y'all.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: He's gonna be what I did before.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: I came on the job, though.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: He was a circus clown.
[00:31:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: Social worker. He was also a counselor in school.
[00:31:43] Speaker F: Before you went to law enforcement.
[00:31:44] Speaker C: 740.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: And that helps a lot.
[00:31:48] Speaker F: Health therapist.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: So you know exactly what it is.
[00:31:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: You slip right in.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: There's no.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: So you're a social worker with a badge.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: That's it. Good.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: That's come down to it.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: Same thing.
[00:31:59] Speaker E: It helps understand people.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: And what our evolution looks like is maybe someone from security forces makes contact. Right. They have multiple calls, just like law enforcement. You want to help, you want to stay there and help that person, but you can't because you got all that call volume. Well, Terrence and Spencer can show up and spend two or 3 hours with that person. They can bridge them with a hotel. They can make them comfortable, get them somewhere, get them a meal. Get them housing, come in here, get food.
The whole day. They're working solutions patrol.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: What do they have right now?
[00:32:30] Speaker E: Currently?
[00:32:30] Speaker B: They have pamphlets.
[00:32:31] Speaker C: Yeah, that's it. Yeah.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: That's how we started out.
[00:32:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Handed out pamphlets. And Spencer, actually, this is kind of his idea. He said, hey, bro, we need to go big or go home. He's like, this is my vision. What do you think I was.
[00:32:44] Speaker C: I was doing?
[00:32:44] Speaker F: I mean, the bottom line is, when you're down dealing with people on the street, man, you have to get to.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Know the people that you're working with.
[00:32:49] Speaker E: Right.
[00:32:50] Speaker F: You have to understand what their needs are, what their wants are, what their background is. 85% of the people down here have been abused.
[00:32:57] Speaker C: Yeah. Right.
[00:32:59] Speaker F: And so that's when I came down here, I was like, I took my. I took my vest off, my gun off. I can still carry. I'm like, we got to do that reach, man.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: You gotta build relationships with these people.
[00:33:07] Speaker F: So you know exactly what they're.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: What they need.
[00:33:10] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: And they're so used to all these Ngo's and people coming in. Just lip service.
[00:33:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Come in once a month, talk.
[00:33:17] Speaker C: Is she.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I think they recognize. They appreciate you're the real deal.
[00:33:22] Speaker C: So, yeah, I use Pitzer's name.
[00:33:24] Speaker A: I'm like, yeah, you know, Spencer. Yeah, that's my. That's my cousin. That's my cousin.
And so everyone loves Spencer and Terrence down here, you know, I mean, their. Their name is like gold on the street, so.
[00:33:38] Speaker F: They know we care about them. So, yeah, it works out well because we get information for the officers and.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: You know, that's what I hear, definitely.
[00:33:45] Speaker F: So it's, you know, not to much.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: But it's about relationships.
[00:33:50] Speaker F: Absolutely.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: But if we hear something that's important, you know, obviously we want people to be safe, so. So y'all got things to do.
[00:33:57] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: We're gonna roll.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: We're. We're just gonna.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Gonna walk down and patrol a little bit on NATO. I think box is gonna roll out. He has some contacts he needs to make.
[00:34:03] Speaker E: Yeah, I got a couple things I have to finish up.
[00:34:05] Speaker C: Right. Awesome. All right. All right. Thanks, guys.
[00:34:06] Speaker F: Hey, it's nice to meet you.
[00:34:07] Speaker C: Pleasure, though.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: Mike.
[00:34:09] Speaker E: No, man. Yeah, I'm great right now.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Anyway.
[00:34:12] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: This first area, there's a bridge here.
Before we moved in, this was a high crime area.
I mean, the former owner of this coffee shop got into a shootout with a gang across the street here.
[00:34:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: When we first came into old town, like, three years ago.
And typically, this was this is what used to be all, just all tents is giant tent village. This is actually University of Portland or University of Oregon downtown.
[00:34:37] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: These are their buildings. Right.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: And cleaned up a lot. It's cleaned up.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Cleaned up a lot. Yeah, cleaned up a lot. And all these little buildings, they're all our clients. Everything you see.
So visiting the resource center, kind of seeing the impact of what the nonprofit does, the kind of PI work, the type of information we're gathering.
[00:34:59] Speaker C: Right.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: And then the security work that we're doing and then also being able to link that with hand in working hand in hand with law enforcement.
I mean, do you think that this type of model could be effective for law enforcement moving forward into the future? Because that's what I'm trying to show.
[00:35:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: You know what I think most definitely. But the key element that you're interjecting is the model here. You have either you have former law enforcement or law enforcement like minded individuals are bridging that gap because without that.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a hard bridge. You got to have those liaisons in place.
[00:35:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: If you have. There's a lot of NGO's, a lot of organizations that are just coming from that site without. They want to avoid as much as law enforcement, you know, influence.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: They don't think that law enforcement is ever going to be part of a holistic solution.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: I think you're showing that. No, no, you have. And it just goes, once again reimagine or dispels the myth that law enforcement people don't care.
[00:35:59] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Yes.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: So by showing that there is that key component of empathy where law enforcement do have that, more stories like that, they do show empathy is kind of like the key. And you're displaying everywhere that all the people that you service out there, they see it and then just a relationship.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that, and to be honest, I think that this has to be the new dynamic moving forward, especially with the increase of mental health crisis due to the level of drugs on the streets, law enforcement officers show up with people completely out of their mind and they don't have the time to wait for that person to come down to even. They don't have the time to even to determine if it's mental health or is this drug induced.
[00:36:45] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: They have not, they don't have the time.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: I think an NGO have to have that same language. They need to speak the same language.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: They do. And they need to be training together.
[00:36:56] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: They can't just be like. So with our team, these are former security guys. They're former law enforcement guys.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: And we trained it together. We do training scenarios together. We have. Everything we do is we train together always.
[00:37:10] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: And so those NGO's, the firefighters, right. You got to have multidisciplinary teams, multi agency teams training and working together and working out those kinks and the protocols. You know, if you're going to triage a call, it starts. It starts with 911, it starts with BOAC.
[00:37:25] Speaker C: Did you.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: These BOEC centers, right. And triaging these calls, it can't hurt.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: To replicate this model that you've been doing. And what's the worst that can happen?
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Yeah, the worst that could happen that it doesn't happen. That's the worst thing that could possibly happen. Because with the recruiting where it is right now, there's no way that we're ever going to be able to meet the numbers that we need for the future. Portland right now is only staffed according to the FBI.
[00:37:52] Speaker C: There's.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: They're only a third staffed.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: So they need.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: They roughly need like 200 more police officers, and they can only send in four or five for class at the academy. So where are these 200 gonna come from?
[00:38:05] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: They gotta steal them from Alabama. Well, now Alabama is lacking law enforcement. Right. We're still. Everyone's moving around looking for a better salary, but we're not fixing the problem. Everyone's trying to fix their problem. Yes, but we're not fixing the problem. In lompos, all the agencies are kind.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: Of tapping into the same small pool of officers, and it's not really solving the big problem. Like with LAPD, we're at our lowest deployed officers in over 30 years. Yet we're up to highest crime rate and population.
We're doing the opposite.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: So your per capita amounts going up and your crimes going up, and what are we doing about it? We're trying to recruit other people's police officers.
[00:38:49] Speaker C: All right, man.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: Well, let's go check the water out. Very cool. It's a hot day here.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: They're still out and moving around, moving about.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Charles, I appreciate you coming out today. I know that you're a busy guy, you're always traveling internationally, and I appreciate you took the time to show up today and do the ride along.
You know, out of all the guys, you know that people that have rode with those. I really appreciate your background. I know that your background, it's in kind of our. In that law enforcement realm, it's kind of a sacred background. That swap background, it's like the holy Grail, you know, of law enforcement and your perspective on what we're doing here. It's very meaningful. I think that a lot of police officers, a lot of people in this industry that are going to watch this episode, they're really going to look at this and say, you know what?
We need to get back to community policing. We need to get back to knowing the neighborhoods we serve in. And we really need to get deeply connected to the nonprofits that are inside those neighborhoods, that are already invested in those neighborhoods, that want to transform those neighborhoods. And we need to do this now. And so I'm glad that you were able to listen to that message today. I love your feedback, man. I think that you're, you know, everything you're saying is right on.
Any final words for our audience?
[00:40:07] Speaker B: You know, this is not an overnight fix. We all know that. And I think this is one of the fronts of the war against just, you know, what we've been battling for decades, just one front that I think has to be focused, addressed on many fronts. But this is one of those, you might have some, you might have, you know, caught on to something that is worth investing, worth putting some real value into it. Because a lot of times, from what I see with down south in LA is you just see a lot of people kind of, you know, the, what's the definition of insanity?
[00:40:45] Speaker A: Just keep on repeating things over and over again.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: You see, every year, new mayor, new government knew this. They just repeat the same boilerplate, same thing.
[00:40:57] Speaker A: Law enforcement has not really changed in almost 60, 70 years. I mean, we have better technology, we become innovative.
But at the end of the day, what we're doing on the street, it hasn't became, it hasn't branched out in a multidisciplinary approach. We're still just saying, hey, I'm a cop, I have a criminal mandate. That's not my matter. That's a civil matter.
But at the end of the day, if you can get that person into a shelter and they're not going to be high, that's less property crime that's going to occur.
A third of all property crimes in New York City were the people responsible for that 3rd. 327 suspects.
327 people are responsible for a third of all property crime in New York City. And if we were actually actively working with the, those 327 people every day, if we could get maybe half of them, just half to choose a different lifestyle because, you know, majority of property crime is because of drugs. They're addicted to drugs.
[00:41:58] Speaker C: Right. Right.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: If we could get half those people into detox or shelters, you could reduce property crime. By 15, 16%, right?
[00:42:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: I mean, that's a lot.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Exponentially. That's huge.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: It's huge.
[00:42:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:12] Speaker A: Billions of dollars of savings, billions of dollars of resources.
Your call volume literally drops by a 6th of your call volume. All the bike theft and all that, you don't have to worry about all anymore. You actually could worry about real crime. And so these are the steps towards transformation that I think we need to take as a society.
[00:42:34] Speaker C: Right on. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, man.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Well, this is the ride along, bro. This is the view. It's a hot Portland day. Everyone's passed out.
I appreciate you coming along, bro.
[00:42:45] Speaker C: My pleasure, brother. Appreciate it.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: I recognized immediately that I needed to.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: Be here with a couple of the cool little nuggets of information you gave me. I gotta get myself up there. I gotta see and check it out. So it's good. Definitely had a good time.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Awesome, man. Well, let's go ahead and head back.
[00:43:02] Speaker C: All right.
