Reasons We Serve: Police Careers & Officer Experience

During part 2 of Episode 47, Bill discusses his career with the Drug Enforcement Administration as an Investigative Specialist/Tech Agent. During his career with DEA from 1993-2021, Bill worked in the field supporting DEA Special Agents with technical operations including enhancing the car-to-car radio systems as well as the installation of covert camera systems. During the interview, Bill discuss...

1975-1992 Crips vs United States Army Rangers Interview with former United States Army Ranger William "Bill" Foulk. Bill began his career with the United States Army in 1975. Bill eventually became a U.S. Army Ranger where he was stationed in Tacoma, Washington. In 1989, Bill had a crackhouse open up in his neighborhood that was being run by the Crips gang. After reporting the illegal activity sev...

Years of Service: 1993-2023 Autumn attended the University of Washington where she earned her law degree before deciding she didn’t want to sit behind a desk her entire career. In 1993, Autumn began working as a patrol officer for the Lynnwood Police Department which is located just north of Seattle. Autumn worked there for 3 years before transferring to the Bellevue Police Department. During her...

Years of Service: 1989-2015 John began his career in 1989 with the Washington DC Metro Police Department. John started on patrol but was quickly promoted to Detective in the Narcotics Unit. After 5 years with the DC Metro Police, John transferred to the Bellevue Police Department in Bellevue, Washington. During his time with the Bellevue P.D., he was a Patrol Officer, Narcotics Detective, Hostage...

Years of Service: 1990-2020 Bo began his law enforcement career in 1990 with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Washington State. During his time with Douglas County, Bo served as a patrol deputy as well as a detective where he investigated drug cases, property crimes and homicide. Bo served on the SRT team and was a Firearms instructor and EVOC instructor. Bo retired at the rank of sergeant i...

Years of Service: 2006-2020 Matt began his career in law enforcement in 2006 with the Nampa Police Department. After two years Matt was promoted to a Detective in the Narcotics Unit and worked both street level and high-level drug investigations. During this time Matt served as a Task Force Officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration where he worked complex drug conspiracies and was the affia...

Years of Service: 1991-Present In 1991, Colonel Wills began his law enforcement career at 18 years old as a reserve deputy for a small Idaho town. In 1996, Colonel Wills was hired by the Idaho State Police where he started his career working in rural counties in the State of Idaho. In 1997, Colonel Wills was awarded the second highest medal for ISP the Silver Star. Colonel Wills began rising throu...

Years of Service: 2002-Present Bryan began his career in law enforcement in 2002 as a biologist with the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2004, Bryan became a Special Agent with the EPA’s Office of Inspector General where he investigated internal matters and EPA contracts relating to waste, fraud, and abuse both civil and criminal in nature. In 2005, Bryan began working on EPA cases in Washingt...

Years of Service: 1994-Present John began his career in law enforcement in 1994 as an Import Specialist. In 1997, John became a Special Agent with the U.S. Customs Service where he was stationed in Seattle, Washington, and New York City. During his time in New York, HSI, or Homeland Security Investigations was created and John soon had a new agency to work for. John spent time in Bogota Colombia a...

Years of Service: 1983-2010 Born in Michigan during a snowstorm, Letha moved to Wisconsin and then to Duluth Minnesota where her dad was a JC Penny Store Manager. Letha fell in love and married a Marine and moved to Hawaii. The marriage did not work out and while trying to decide if she should go back to Duluth, she applied to be a Honolulu Police Department Officer on a bet. In 1983, Letha began...

Years of Service: 1976-2021 John began his career in 1976 walking patrol in downtown Honolulu. Working in downtown Honolulu meant dealing with prostitutes and working cases involving domestic violence, battery, and burglary as well as working on Waikiki where he came in contact with tourists visiting Hawaii who would have too much to drink and sometimes would be the victims of theft. As John rose...

Years of Service: 1980-Present Vickie began her law enforcement career in 1980 and worked for several different law enforcement agencies. Like many new officers, Vickie worked on patrol handling calls ranging from traffic stops, vehicle accidents where passengers and drivers died to burglary and domestic violence calls. In 1988, Vickie began working for what is now the Idaho State Police as a dete...

Years of Service: 1977-Present Deb began her nursing career in 1977, and for 42 years delivered babies and worked in nursing leadership roles in the maternal-child area. After her husband passed away, Deb was trying to decide what the next chapter of her life would look like and learned about a new program with the Idaho State Police. ISP was looking for a nurse to develop a state-wide role to tea...

Years of Service: 1997 to Present Alan began his career in firefighting with the US Forest Service in 1997. While employed by the USFS he worked as a firefighter and EMT in wildland fire suppression operations in Northern California. Alan then left the USFS and worked for other agencies including Ventura County Fire Department, Idaho State Fire Marshal Office, and Caldwell Fire Department. Alan wo...

Years of Service: 1997-2022 Darin began his law enforcement career in 1997 with the Border Patrol. After 4 years of enforcing United States Immigration law, Darin was hired by the United States Postal Inspector Service. Darin began his career as a Postal Inspector in Puerto Rico and was later transferred to Washington DC. While in DC, Darin was assigned to a task force working on anthrax attacks w...

Years of Service: 1987-2018 Joe started his law enforcement career at the age of 24 with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1987. He worked with INS for 3 ½ years in the Washington DC Metro area where he worked hand in hand with state, local, and federal agencies combatting the crack cocaine epidemic that was plaguing the DC area. In 1990, Joe was hired by the DEA and worked for a brief...

Years of Service: 2008-2022 With no thought of being a police officer, Kristen had initially applied to be a dispatcher with the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office. During the application process, Kristen was asked if she had ever considered becoming a police officer instead of becoming a dispatcher and was soon working as a deputy in the jail. After working in the jail for three years, Kristen transf...

Years of Service 1981-2005 Charlie began his career with the Chicago Police Department in 1981. After a year on the job, Charlie was transferred to the Chicago Public Housing Unit where he worked for the remainder of his career. While there, Charlie investigated crimes such as rape, robbery, homicide, drug dealing, gang violence and gun trafficking. As Charlie explains during this episode, he went...

Years of Service: 1967-2001 Skip became a Boise Police Department officer in 1967 when Boise had a population of about 67,000 people and when nights consisted of 4 patrol cars. As the population grew, Skip stopped working patrol and began working in one of the first-ever narcotics units in the area. Skip eventually began working as a detective in the major crimes unit where he handled cases involv...

Years of Service: 1989-2012 Part two of the episode focuses on Larry with the Drug Enforcement Administration. From 1989 until 1997, Larry worked in the San Ysidro and San Diego California offices often working cases inside Mexico. From 1997 until 2001, Larry was assigned to the Tijuana Resident Office, and from 2004 until 2009 Larry was the Resident Agent in Charge in the Ciudad Juarez Resident O...

Years of Service: 1984-1989 Episode 29 is a two-part episode with Larry Roberts. To say that Larry has had a storied career does not do him justice. Part one of this episode focuses on Larry’s time with the United States Border Patrol. From 1984 until 1989, Larry worked the border between Mexico and California. During this time Larry became part of a specialized border patrol unit called the Borde...

Years of Service: 1997-2021 Ron began his law enforcement career in 1997 with the Sioux Falls South Dakota Police Department where he worked for about 4 years. He credits this time with the police department in helping him to later become an effective street agent. In 2001, he was hired by the ATF in Boise, Idaho. As Ron will tell you his primary focus throughout his career was gangs, guns, and dr...

Years of Service: 2003 to Present Brian began his law enforcement career in 2003 with the Ellensburg Police Department where he worked for 3 years. In 2006, he was hired by the Wenatchee Police Department which is located in Central Washington about 2 ½ hours from Seattle. Throughout his career, Brian worked in different positions such as a SWAT Officer and a detective in persons crime where he of...

Years of Service: 1996-2018 Ernie began his career with the FBI in 1996, where he was assigned to Pierre South Dakota. Unbeknownst to Ernie he would begin working investigations on Indian reservations and by the end of his career would be considered one of the foremost experts on law enforcement on reservations in the United States. Some of the crimes Ernie investigated were murder, terrorism, pub...

Years of Service: 2001-2023 Mynde began her career with the Twin Falls Police Department in 2001. Mynde started on patrol and then worked as a School Resource Officer, a Field Training Officer, and then as a detective in the Narcotics Unit. Mynde also worked as a detective in the ICAC unit which is the Internet Crimes Against Children program. In 2018, Mynde was hired by the Bellevue Marshal’s Off...