ATO: BRIDGING THE DIVIDE

"You were worth All the sacrifices....." This is a special message from Dallas Chief Eddie Garcia as he is retiring, after nearly 33 years, from the law enforcement profession. It is a sad time for the Dallas Police Department as we are losing a true innovator and a “Cop’s Cop” natural leader for the Department. Eddie Garcia started his law enforcement career, age 21, at the San Jose Police Depart...

Welcome back ATO Family  We wanted to take this opportunity to give an update on the show and tell you about the Dallas Police Department’s upcoming David Clark Superhero Health Fair. This will be the third Health Fair that was created to provide active first responders with access to key medical screenings and technology used to identify silent health conditions, as well as direct access to preve...

**** Trigger Warning Alert**** Episode 100 was always going to be a special episode for our show but when I got today’s guest to finally agree to tell his story I knew I wanted to make it extra special for the listener but also make it special for one of my best friends and one of the most impressive humans I have ever met. – Joe King.  We are honored to share this stage with Dallas SWAT Operator...

Today we sat with Dallas Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Morse to discuss the origins of the Dallas District Attorney’s Office new approach to caring for their own. Jennifer and a team at the DA’s office saw a need to create something to provide support for their staff in the world of mental wellness and to address, head on, the trauma that they are exposed to. Police and the District Attorne...

T.E.D: Tell, Explain, Describe. Today is our first episode of a training series that will be topic specific and will feature subject matter experts. Our goal is to help provide a form of training and education to other first responders as well as the community. This episode will cover the art of investigative interviews and will be presented by retired Dallas Police Homicide Detective John Palmer....

Today we sit down with the Dallas Firefighter Association President Jeff Patterson. After growing up in Plano Texas, Jeff answered the call to serve in 2008 when he applied for the Dallas Fire Department and once, he stepped into that role and into the firehouse he knew that he was where he needed to be. He then had a second family as he now was a firefighter in Dallas and was assigned to one of t...

We often hear the saying, "You are a product of your environment," and indeed, there is undeniable truth to this. Our upbringing, the values instilled in us by our families, and the communities we grow up in shape who we are and who we become. For many of us, we are born into families with long-standing traditions, passed down from generation to generation. These traditions can be cultural, religi...

Welcome back for our 15th Message From the Host! Today we will feature one of our great partners in the Carry the Load organization. This great organization started as a grass roots movement in Dallas to restore the true meaning of Memorial Day. It has since grown to a national movement as they have raised over 42 million dollars with a staggering 93% of the monies raised going to the programs for...

Today we sit down with another member of the Banes law enforcement family in Fort Worth PD’s very own Scott Banes. Scott has been a member of the FWPD since 2005 and has worked patrol, the Special Response Team, Crimes Against Children Unit, Major Case Unit, SRT, CIT, and is currently the Sgt. over the Fentanyl Overdose Team. Scott is married to a true bad in Karen as she is a six time BJJ World C...

Welcome back ATO Family Today we are sitting with one of the original members of the Dallas Police Fugitive Unit in Daniel Jamieson. Daniel hired on with the Dallas Police Department in February of 2008 and trained at the Southeast Patrol before moving to Northwest Patrol. In 2012 Dallas Police Chief David Brown created a brand-new unit called METRO that was designed to follow violent crime trends...

Welcome back for our latest message from the host with one of the Assist the Officer’s biggest supporters in the Mill Creek Ranch. We sat down with General Manager Norm Bissonnette who tells the listener about his background in serving the great state of Kansas as a law enforcement officer for thirty years before moving to Texas to serve a different way. Norm was fortunate enough to be welcomed in...

In Memory of Dallas Police Sgt. Anthony Allen #8098 Today we will tell the listener the story behind the creation of the Dallas Police Honor Guard Unit. Like all great ideas there is a unique story, and this one is no different. I knew this story would be important, so I sought out the person who had a vision that he turned, after years of planning and frustrations, into a reality for the Dallas P...

The ATO is proud and honored to welcome on the Founder of Breaking Barriers United and Chino PD Officer Ryan Tillman. This episode will cover Ryan’s journey as he hired on with the Chino Police Department in 2013 and quickly realized the need to improve relations with the police and the communities they serve. After years of working in Chino PD and being the school resource officer the Don Lugo Hi...

Call 1-800-COPLINE to access this service. YOU ARE NOT ALONE The ATO is proud to present the story of such a landmark and crucial piece of law enforcement as we tell the story of COPLINE. To tell this story is the founder, Stephanie Samuels. She is a psychotherapist that works exclusively with police officers. Ms. Samuels has lectured all over the country on PTSD and vicarious trauma, including un...

“Child Abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime”               -Herbert Ward  Today’s episode will hold the listeners hand as we walk you through a child abuse investigation from someone that has walked this tragic path nearly twenty years with the Dallas Police Department. Detective Corey Foreman hired on with Dallas in 1993 and graduated in Class #238 and then quickly headed to the Northeas...

Episode 90 Dallas Fire and Rescue Firefighter and Peer Support Coordinator Casey Ellsworth  Welcome back ATO family and welcome one of Dallas Fire and Rescues finest in Casey Ellsworth. Casey started in 2009 in Dallas and hit the ground running at Station 19, one of the Department’s Urban Search and Rescue stations in Dallas. He is trained in High Angle Rescue, Low angle Rescue, Trench Rescues, St...

ATO today’s episode features one of the true leaders of the Dallas Police Department and one of the most influential people in Dallas Police over the last three decades. This is a story of how a young kid from Houston came to Dallas Texas to serve the City in 1994 and end his career as the President over the Department’s largest Association. Mike started in God’s country, the Southeast Division, a...

Stop Minding Your Own Business  ***Trigger Warning: Death by Suicide conversation***  We want to ring in the New Year and welcome on the great Dallas Attorney Terry Bentley Hill to our ATO Family. Terry turned her personal tragedy into a new mission in speaking on the very uncomfortable topic of a person taking their own life. She can speak from the unique perspective of being someone left behind...

Merry Christmas ATO Family  This message is from Kent, Joe, and two special guest cohosts in Sasha Kim and Omar Figueroa. We are extremely grateful for our loyal listeners. We want to say thank you to some of our day one listeners and we want to give special mentions to some of the many folks that have reached out with inspiring messages. This message we will talk about upcoming episodes and proje...

In Remembrance of James Lynn Baker II, A.K.A “Mr. Jackson” ”The Dallas SWAT saved my life” This show takes pride in providing a variety of topics and guests and although we are all different, we are still human beings. We are flawed, we are complex, we are unique, and we all have the potential to serve at the highest levels.  However, some of us take very different paths….dark paths, before we fin...

Welcome back ATO Family! This episode has been a project since this show began as we finally tell the story of the attack on Dallas Police Headquarters on June 13th, 2015. At approximately 12:30 am a suspect, driving an armored van, drove to police headquarters in Dallas Texas and planted bags containing pipe bombs and opened fire on the front of the building with an assault rifle. Several officer...

Today’s episode details a collaboration between two countries, The United States and Australia, that have the same goal in combating the flow of illicit drugs into their countries. The Drug Enforcement Administration was formed in 1973, by the Nixon administration, for the war on drugs and over the years this administration has grown, evolved and they have been the countries leading experts on ill...

"Check in on each other." Today’s episode will welcome on two true Texas servants in Gretchen and Aaron Grigsby as they will detail their lives of service and how they found each other to form this true partnership. Both are homegrown true Texans and both, albeit via different routes, traveled a path that led them to the Lone Star State’s Capitol, Austin Texas. Gretchen worked for the Governor’s O...

“You can’t do this” Today’s guest is an artist with the Dallas Police Department. He’s not an artist that uses an easel, paint brush, or canvas, instead he uses his personality, drive and natural adaptability as his tools to present his own form of artwork. He treats undercover work as a form of artwork…. he uses his tools to gain to win the target’s admiration and trust, then betray them for the...

Welcome back ATO Family…..today we bring you a special Message from the Host. And we want to introduce the Blue Goes Pink Initiative.  Backing the Blue or showing the Thin Blue Line is a way of letting the community and police officers know that they have your admiration and respect. With that in mind, "Blue Goes Pink" is a way of showing that same admiration and respect to the individuals that ha...