Hey Chaplain: The Police Wellness Podcast

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail It's funny that I've published over 70 episodes and bonus episodes about life in law enforcement and I still haven't really done a SWAT episode.  Well, I can fix that.  Recently my friend Matt Domyancic, the Tactical Chaplain, flew in to Kansas City from California to speak at a SWAT conference.  So, I kidnapped him from the convention center and b...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail A chaplain is not exactly a morale officer but it's kinda close.  I'm deeply concerned about the hearts and minds of my officers and how beaten down they may feel.  After the last several years of relentless negativity about law enforcement, I find myself yearning for a voice that is not just positive but one that can be resolute and strong in the face...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail I don't want to neglect the countless thousands of small agencies in small rural towns across America.  So today we're talking to Sheriff Randy Henderson.  Sheriff Henderson is from the small city of Hutchinson, out in Reno County, Kansas.  The Sheriff has been in law enforcement for over 40 years, including time in narcotics before switching from the p...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail This is the second part of my interview with Jon Asher, who worked for 8 years on the U.S. Marshal's fugitive apprehension task force.  He talks how you can help your department while working full time at the task force.  And this is an interesting dynamic where, as a task force officer, you're balancing relationships among people at the the municipal,...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today we're covering a career topic of interest to some local cops: the opportunity to be assigned to a federal task force.  Whether it's for a single operation or it's a multi-year chunk of your career, task force work can be an opportunity to experience a different kind of law enforcement and make great relationships with folks outside of your ag...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Ward Jenkins is back with us again; he's a veteran LAPD cop and fellow police chaplain here in Kansas City, and he sat down with me recently to talk about what can be done after a line of duty death.  I didn't give him any other prep; I just told him that another chaplain had emailed me asking for advice and then Ward and I got together and recorded con...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm talking to Tony Lee.  Tony is retired from our department here in KCK and he spent a good chunk of his career working in the community policing unit.   Today he's going to walk me through some of the basics and explain why community policing meant so much to him.  He also has a few heartwarming stories about the kind of unusual work he and his...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail I've been looking for an interview, maybe a series of interviews, about the influence of our fathers on first responders and those who support first responders.  While searching for this I came across Tzvi Levin, a Federal Law Enforcement Chaplain in Chicago, who spoke beautifully about the impact his father had on him as a Jewish Navy Chaplain during the Vi...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm talking with Sgt Tobi Wolf.  She is a patrol sergeant here in Kansas City and has been the most requested interview among my local Kansas City listeners.  Sgt Wolf and I talk about injuries, how she became a cop, some advice for women going into law enforcement, and advice about dating and getting married to another cop.  Other topics include: humo...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail If we won't even track it, we don't really care about it.  That true of crime stats, pre-shift vehicles inspections, and our own family's finances. So today I'm bringing back Nick Daugherty from Financial Cop.  Nick is a former cop who teaches cops how to handle their money with wisdom.  Don't make excuses, get on a budget. Resources and...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm talking with Gary Jenkins; he is the host of the Gangland Wire Podcast and a former detective and sergeant in the Kansas City Missouri Police Department investigating the Mafia.  When I spoke to Gary last year about Mafia history in Kansas City, he offered to tell his story of dealing with alcoholism as a cop and overcoming it.  Listen as Gary perf...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail A special guest host interviews Chaplain Altic to recap the year!  Police Captain Joe Grasela joins Jared to give us a recap of their favorite moments from the 2022 Hey Chaplain episodes.  Listen in to find out what are Joe and the Chaplain's favorite episodes and hear them discover an unplanned theme for the year.  Also included are the top 10 listener coun...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm talking with Michael Sugrue.  Michael wrote a book called Relentless Courage to address the constant barrage of traumatic events experienced by first responders.  He's an advocate for more transparency in police culture and he speaks with experience as a California officer who was involved in a fatal shooting, years of investigations, depositi...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail In this episode I'm going to talk about my motivations and my Christian faith.  If that's not your cup of tea, that's ok, we'll resume next week with our regular programming and I'll see you there.  If you want to understand why this one particular chaplain hangs out with grumpy, foul-mouthed police officers, and loves every minute of it,...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Are we beginning to turn a corner in law enforcement wellness?  If we are, at least part of the credit should go to agencies that have begun wellness programs in their departments.  The people who run those programs are called wellness officers or wellness coordinators. My guest today, Wendy Hummel, is a retired police detective who came back to law enforcement t...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail A handful of years ago there was a time when police departments could be really funny on social media.  It was a more innocent time before everyone decided they were offended all the time at everything.  One of the leaders in the public display of cop humor was the Bangor Maine Police Department, whose Facebook page was run by my guest today, Tim Cotton. Tim was...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today we talk to Ward Jenkins, when he experiences the devastating loss of his partner being killed in the line of duty.  We talk about the the closeness of law enforcement partners, the abuse of alcohol, and Ward's physical and spiritual recovery from this.  We also talk about what leads a retired LAPD cop to move to the midwest to begin helping other cops....

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail This is an example of a great podcast topic emerging unexpectedly from an interview on a different topic.  Today you'll hear Part One of my conversation with Ward Jenkins.  Ward was a police officer in Los Angeles in the 1980's and 90's.  He worked in the 77th Street Division of the LAPD and was right in the middle of the 1992 LA Riots.  Don't...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail When we talk about traumatic experiences for first responders we usually talk about those rare events of extreme violence and harm that are seared into the memory.  But there are other categories of experiences which can haunt a police officer, like the near miss. What happens when an officer almost pulls the trigger, making a split second decision (correctly) no...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail As a football fan, nothing makes me more nervous that ball carrier who is hemmed in but you can tell by his body language that he's looking to lateral the ball to a teammate.  That lateral is high risk and can make or break the game.  Likewise in law enforcement, feeling hemmed in and trapped can lead to the decision to make a lateral transfer to another dep...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today we pick up with part two of my interview with Norm Wielsch.  We look at the results of Norm's downward spiral, caused by his PTSI, failing health, prescription med addiction, and a slippery slope of bad moral decisions; we'll discuss his crime and incarceration and we'll look at his remarkable journey from prison to what he's doing now....

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail The average age of an LEO suicide is in their early forties with almost 17 years of experience; so it's not always a young emotional cop who gets overwhelmed by stress and trauma.  It's sometimes the older cop, who was stressed out and traumatized years ago but now is unable to stay ahead of it because of age, illness, and life's complications.  Th...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Here are a handful of stories that are related to the sometimes unglamorous life of a patrol officer. In this episode you'll hear a variety of stories; some are funny and some are kind of embarrassing and a few of the guys just wanted to share with you some good, solid advice and wisdom.  I hope it's an encouragement to you. This episode is a compilatio...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today we're talking to Wendy Medina.  Wendy is the Program Supervisor of the Victim Services Unit in the Kansas City Kansas Police Department.  On the organization chart, the Chaplain's Association falls under the VSU, so technically, Wendy is my boss.  But I know her as a compassionate professional who reaches out to the victims of crime, explains to t...

Text the Show or Leave a Voicemail Today I'm talking to the Honorable Robert Serra, a retired District Court Judge from here in Kansas City.  You don't want to miss this judge's point of view on officers testifying in court and a few stories he shares from his time on the bench.  I ask what would be the worst mistake a cop could make when testifying and also what the judge's ad...