Hey Chaplain: The Police Wellness Podcast

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today we return to the subject of developing leadership skills through reading great books.  I'm a big believer in the idea that we should "think before we speak and we should read before we think."  Reading good books is critical to building up good leaders.  In an age where many people don't read books hardly at all anymore, let me encourage...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm talking to Matt Domyancic.  Matt was a linebacker and competitive power lifter at the Air Force Academy and Colgate University and was a police officer in Connecticut and the Washington DC area.   He was also a Division 1 strength coach at Yale and Georgetown and for the NFL Combine.  In law enforcement, he worked patrol, SWAT, and as a full-time p...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail A special guest host interviews Chaplain Altic to end the year!  Police Captain Joe Grasela joins Jared to give us a recap of their favorite moments of the Hey Chaplain episodes of 2021.  Listen in to find out what are Joe and the Chaplain's favorite episodes or most surprising episodes.  Which episodes were difficult to get through recording and which one h...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm talking to Jim Higgins and Detective Rodney Ashley who play the bagpipes in the Kansas City Kansas Police Department Pipe Band.  Jim is not a police officer, but he has taught bagpipes to police officers and played for them and with them for several years.  Rodney, or RJ, who is a detective in the department, has been playing the bagpipes for five...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail One of the negatives about working in law enforcement is being forced to work holidays; somebody has to be at work to respond to emergencies and keep the community safe.  This means that just about every cop has missed important family time, including and especially holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  As I've been recording my interviews with cops, I&...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm talking to Special Agent David Renfro, a federal agent for the Treasury Department.  David's diverse career took him from being a Federal Air Marshal right after 9/11 to working on joint terrorism task forces and eventually as an investigator with the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, a job he calls the best kept secret in Fed...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail So, Today I am talking to Ron Miller.  Ron was the police chief in both Kansas City and Topeka, Kansas before being appointed by then president Barrack Obama as the U.S. Marshal for the district court in the state of Kansas.  Ron has an encyclopedic knowledge of law enforcement and has been a great resource for me learning how law enforcement really works.  Today...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I am talking to Ginger Howell.  Ginger was a police chaplain with the Harris County, TX Sheriff's Office and experienced the line of duty deaths of multiple co-workers, which led to her involvement with Concerns Of Police Survivors.  Concerns of Police Survivors, or C.O.P.S., is an organization that provides crucial support to family members of those k...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I am talking to Paul Bowman who was the department range master in the 1980's when the Kansas City Police Department transitioned from revolvers to semi-automatic handguns.  This transition from over 100 years of one type of gun to a completely different type, is actually one of the biggest changes in law enforcement history.  In less than one generati...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I am talking to Sheriff Don Ash.  Don is retiring after getting elected three times as Sheriff of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and that came after a 35 year career in the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department.  Don is a well respected leader and man of faith; he's approaching 50 years in law enforcement. If you have aspirations to be a leader of an organi...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I am talking to Jonathon Westbrook, a police officer in Kansas City, Kansas, who was selected to be a White House Fellow.  The White House Fellows program is one of the most prestigious programs for leadership and public service in the country, where young people, usually in the early 30's, are selected to work for one year alongside White House staff,...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail In this episode we talk about police cars!  I ask these officers to describe the worst car they have ever driven and, look out, the venerable Crown Victoria makes the list more than once.  We also find out that half a dozen patrol cars are no match for an Isuzu Rodeo and I ask, "have you ever totaled a police car?"  Finally, hang on to the end to hear a...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I get to talk to Ginger Passarelli. Ginger is the executive director and founder of the Soup Ladies, a nonprofit that feeds first responders during crisis situations in the Pacific Northwest and around the country.  She is also a trained chaplain with two police departments and two fire departments in the Seattle area. In my conversation with her today, Gin...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I have with me Teresa Gallegos and Dustin Dierenfeldt, the vice-president and president (respectively) of the Kansas chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors.  Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) is an organization that provides both short term and long term support to the surviving family members of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. ...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail In the television show "The Rookie," actor Nathan Fillion plays a man in his 40's who dramatically changes his life by joining the LAPD, becoming a rookie cop who is twenty years older than his fellow rookies.  The television show is based on a true story and is also representative of many other officers across the country who decided to join the p...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm asking Jim & Deanna Sutterby about the experience parents have when their children go into Law Enforcement.  They talk about law enforcement culture, ways to manage stress in the home, myths and misunderstandings that parents have about cops, and they give good, reassuring advice about how to communicate with and support your child in law enfor...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail It's been said that we should "think before we speak and we should read before we think."  Reading good books is critical to building up good leaders.  And while there are countless business leadership books out there filled with pop psychology, surprising statistics, celebrity name-dropping, and tear-jerking illustrations, I think the best leaders...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Defund the Police?! There is a significant number of people in the world today who think that police forces are problematic and need to be defunded. What does this mean and what would be the consequences of this drastic action? My guest today is Paul Vander Klay. Paul is a pastor of a church in California and a cultural commentator on YouTube, with thousands of f...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail What is a police chaplain?  In simplest terms, a chaplain is a like a priest or a pastor who is attached to an organization like a hospital or the military.  In my case, I volunteer with the local police department. A chaplain gets called out to unattended deaths, which means homicides, suicides, accidents, and natural deaths where there was no doctor or hospice...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today you'll hear Master Sergeant Gregg Dorsett describing his path that led from riding in the ambulance as a paramedic to training with the SWAT team to being a patrol sergeant with the police department.  Listen for what he has to say about having a calling to serve people in their hour of need and also the advice he gives, both to new officers and vetera...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail What is the best argument for the existence of a first responders chaplain program?  Today you'll hear Kevin Hardy, a chaplain and trainer of other chaplains, talk about why cops and fire fighters need a chaplain to turn to and also how chaplains help citizens at the time of an unexpected death.  Listen for what a chaplain provides that isn't completely...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Lots of officers have had various work and sports related injuries and some have been in serious car accidents.  But that question led to the discovery of the extensive list of injuries and traumatic experiences in the line of duty belonging to my guest today, Captain Michael Howell.   Michael is a retired Captain from the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department an...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today you're going to hear an interview with Major Dewey Bond.  Dewey is retired from the Wyandotte County Kansas Sheriff's Department and he's going to share about how he got started in law enforcement and how he advanced up to warden of the county jail and the rank of major.  Listen for how he dealt with conflict and especially to how he managed...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail In each episode of the Hey Chaplain podcast we'll explore another aspect of the law enforcement experience, gleaning wisdom from experienced officers and chaplains.  My desire is that this podcast will be useful to both officers and their loved ones, as well as to other first responder chaplains who minister to those who serve.  I'm here to talk about s...