Blue Canary: For Cops By a Cop

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Blue Canary we talk to Jason Harney, retired LVMPD Sergeant and documentary film maker about his upcoming documentary "Wrist Lock: The Martial Arts Influence on Police Use of Force." A documentary film featuring interviews with high level martial artists from around the country, who have also served their communities as Law Enforcement Officers, as wel...

Send us Fan Mail I thought we would have a little bit of fun this episode and break down the five best cop movies for you night owls. Back in the day you had to buy these on VHS, yes, I am that old, or DVD. But, today with streaming services you can probably find this without too much difficulty. Before we get into the list here are a few caveats. First these are based on my personal opinion, just...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Brown retired as a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency after 32 years of service. His experience in the DEA not only involved interdiction and enforcement within the United States, but he spent a significant amount of time working in foreign countries attempting to stem the tide of drugs to the US. He is currently the Counter-Narcotics Interdiction Business Deve...

Send us Fan Mail On May 24th, 2022, a gunman entered the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County Texas and murdered 19 children and 2 adult teachers. The police stood by for over an hour while the active killer was on the loose in the school and did nothing. That’s hard for me to believe. But it’s true, and as we learn more about the police response or lack thereof, I personally become more disgus...

Send us Fan Mail What is an FTO? Well, you should already know by now because you should have gone through an FTO program when you hired on the job. You mean you didn’t have an FTO program? You mean they just handed you the keys to the car, a map, and said call me if you have any problems? Unfortunately, this is all too familiar. Now what do we mean by Field Training Officer Program? It is simply...

Send us Fan Mail Training, you are going to hear a lot about training in this season’s episodes. It’s the cornerstone of good police work and unfortunately, we don’t get it when we need it. There are lots of reasons why and we are going to explore those and other training topics on this episode with our interview of Lt. Jim Glennon. Jim started with the Lombard Illinois Police Department in 1980 a...

Send us Fan Mail Training. We have talked about it several times on this show. And we are going to talk more about it today. Police reform is a hot button topic today with legislatures all over the US passing law enforcement bills and police reform bills in an effort to improve the professionalism of policing. But they are missing the mark. The bills are focusing on specific topics like choke hold...

Send us Fan Mail Season Three is almost here.  The Blue Canary Podcast team has been hard at work creating new episodes for all of our subscribers and casual listeners. In just two short weeks we will start dropping brand new episodes. And we have some great interviews for you. Here are a few teasers for what’s coming on this season of Blue Canary. If you are finding us for the first time, check o...

Send us Fan Mail In this final episode of season two, I sit down and have some coffee with Matt Molter the owner of Agency360 and sponsor of Blue Canary to talk about the state of law enforcement and what the future might bring. https://www.agency360.com/

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Blue Canary we will discuss the FBI LEOKA project and the issues regarding officers killed in the line of duty.

Send us Fan Mail What's the spookiest thing you've ever had to deal with? This is one of those questions that can catch you off guard. Sometimes it will take you a few minutes to come up with an answer, but if you've been in this job for more than a minute you have had something weird, creepy, scary or spooky happen to you. It makes for a perfect true Halloween story.  This years tr...

Send us Fan Mail Throughout most of the United States police salaries are pretty low. That means cops have to figure out ways to make ends meet through side jobs. Some cops are landscapers on the side, some are locksmiths, some work as much overtime as they can get. Robert Garland really did something special when he founded "Fund the First" are crowdsourcing platform for first responder...

Send us Fan Mail All the small things we tend to take for granted. People look at the uniforms police wear and just assume that the department purchased everything for them. Uniform shirts and pants, gun belt, handcuffs, gun, magazines, ammunition, radio, badge, the list goes on and on. All those small things add up. In this episode of Blue Canary we are going to look at all of the little things t...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of Blue Canary we speak to Jim Bontrager, Chaplain and President-Elect of the International Conference of Police Chaplains about the role of police chaplains and their affect on officers and agencies. Jim Bontrager is the Senior Chaplain with the Elkhart, IN Police Department and founder of Warrior on the Wall Ministries.  Jim speaks at Law Enforcement conferences,...

Send us Fan Mail “What the hell do I do with these Millennials?” That has to be one of the most common questions I get in my classes. Trainers and supervisors across the country are struggling to relate and deal with the millennial police officer. Well, I’ve got bad news for you. The millennials have been here for awhile and they’re not going away. Generational Studies have been one of the go-to a...

Send us Fan Mail George Floyd should not have died in police custody. The actions taken by Derek Chauvin were reprehensible and universally condemned by law enforcement. George Floyd was a victim of police misconduct. But he was not a hero.  In this episode we will discuss the Robin Hood Effect, where criminals are labeled heroes. From the 1300's to today society has a penchant for proclaimin...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Blue Canary we speak to jail expert Jeff Carter about the challenges of housing mentally ill prisoners. Jeff retired December 2018 as the Deputy Director of the Fayette County Detention Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Over his 20-year career, he has worked all levels of custody inside a 1,300-bed correctional facility located in the horse racing capitol of the wo...

Send us Fan Mail "Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine." That quote by Lord Byron explains why cops love comedy. We love to laugh, and to play pranks, sometimes at the most inappropriate times. Mostly because it helps us heal. Vinnie Montez comes on this episode of Blue Canary to discuss his journey into comedy and why we should all take a few minutes everyday and laugh. You c...

Send us Fan Mail Police officers are frequently described as "Highly Trained", but that couldn't be further from the truth. Police are often expected to handle extremely confusing, difficult, and dangerous situations with little or no training. The true miracle is that the police manage to get it right a vast majority of the time. In this episode of Blue Canary we are going to take...

Send us Fan Mail In the season two premier of Blue Canary, Steve Kellams interviews a police applicant and gets an idea of what the next generation of police officer candidates are looking for in  a career. They talk about everything from reasons to becoming a police officer to the current defund the police movements and how these things affect the applicants thought process. Are you interested in...

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Send us Fan Mail It’s the 21st century, so why is technology in law enforcement practically stuck in the Dark Ages? Even if departments are starting to adopt new technologies, the mindset behind it is often just a digitized version of an analog process, with no automation or innovation to make the job more efficient. If cops are going to do their jobs and serve their communities better, they need...

Send us Fan Mail As officers, we love our families, and they’re a big part of why we do the job. Yet, we often forget how our profession impacts the lives of our family members. We go to great lengths to help cops cope with the long hours and high-stress environment, but how do the spouses manage? In this episode, Steve Kellams is joined by three cop wives who have agreed to discuss their experien...

Send us Fan Mail In this bonus episode, Steve Kellams is joined by Stephanie Samuels to discuss CopLine, a national hotline for police officers. CopLine is a completely confidential resource staffed with vetted and trained retired police officers. If you’re a law enforcement officer looking for someone to talk to about the pressures of the job, visit https://www.copline.org/ or call 1-800-COPLINE....

Send us Fan Mail We spend a lot of time training officers on how to handle “things”–the concrete skills needed to do the job every day: physical tactics, firearms use, traffic stops, and domestic violence response.  What we don’t do well is prepare them for the mental and emotional impact a career in law enforcement brings.  In this episode, Steve Kellams is joined by Stephanie Samuels, a psychoth...