The Squad Room: Police Health | Development | Leadership

Dr. Diego Hernandez is a clinical psychologist and trauma expert who focuses on wellness, human performance and and health. He frequently works with Army Special Operations and their training cadre to address the trauma rehabilitation of elite warriors. He regularly treats veterans and first responders. Dr. Hernandez is also the Clinical Director of the Accelerated Resolution Therapy Center at the...

We need leaders. Leaders at every level and in every organization. The absolute truth is that no one else is coming, and it's up to us to step forward and fulfill our obligations. But before you lead others, you need to be able to lead yourself. In this episode, I introduce the concept of BADGES, a way of managing your self-development that I created and have been using for some time. I spent much...

When Brad Thomas' music career didn't take off out of high school he choose the next most obvious career path. He enlisted in the Army with a Ranger contract with the goal of making it into the elite and secretive special operations force known as Delta Force. Brad spent several years in the Rangers and was heavily involved in the Battle of Moghadishu, a battle so massive and significant in modern...

Aussie cop Shaun O'Gorman returns with some strategic actions you can take to identify, manage, and most importantly,  use  the traumatic experiences we all deal with. Shaun was a K9 officer who never let off the gas pedal for his entire career. It wasn't until he stood on the ledge of a 26th floor balcony trying to build up the courage to jump that he realized what has happened. Listen to  episod...

Last week, Nike managed to piss off approximately 50% of the country with their new ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick. In this Briefing Topic episode, I share my opinion on the whole event and explain why you should not care about this, or waste one second of your time upset about it.

JP Dinnell is a veteran of three combat deployments in the Global War on Terror. Most notably, he served with Seal Team 3 Task Unit Bruiser in the Battle of Ramadi as a sniper, working right next to the world's most famous sniper, Chris Kyle. Kyle was in Charlie Platoon, and JP was in Delta Platoon. JP has been featured on the Jocko Podcast and he now works with Jocko Willink as the Director of Ta...

Sgt. Larry Hahn has done many things throughout his career with one of the largest sheriff's department's in the country. But it was what he did off-duty on the night of Sunday October 1, 2017 that will show you how he is the kind of leader I talk about when I ask you to be the one. Larry was enjoying the Route 91 country music festival with friends and partners, and was on the floor when the shoo...

Eric Hodgdon is a resilience coach, author, and speaker. I first met Eric in October 2017 at a workshop and was immediately drawn to how him. He just exudes being a good guy. In March of 2018 I got to spend a few days with him a a leadership retreat in Florida and it was there that I learned his whole story. It's quite a story. As first responders, we live in this bizarre world where we are voyeur...

James Capra is the retired Chief of Global Operations for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Before his retirement, James testified to congress as he had done before, but this time he went off-script and spoke from the heart. It ended up on YouTube as  "DEA Official Freaks Out at Senate Hearing. " But to hear James explain it, you understand that this is a patriotic man who is committed to leading...

Chuck Rylant is a veteran  SWAT cop from Santa Maria, CA. After being forced into a medical retirement, Chuck began looking for ways to continue in service to others. As a result, he wrote a book called  "Shots Fired: The Psychology Behind Officer Involved Shootings."  Chuck interviews 12 cops who had been involved in shootings and he details the experience in terrific detail. Each cop had a diffe...

Traver is back with more insights and strategies about how to live your best life. In this episode, we talk about Traver's new project, Man Uncivilized, and what inspired him to launch a movement that is quickly gaining attention. Traver is a regular contributor to the show and a man I refer to as my "personal Buddha." In the environment of #metoo and other stories, masculinity is such a highly ch...

Rob Shaul is the founder of Mountain Tactical Institute. Rob trains first responders, military athletes, and tier 1 operators. He got his start in Wyoming, training mountain athletes. When members of the military got wind of his success, they started seeking him out to help them climb the mountains of Afghanistan. When first responders learned about his success with the military, they came calling...

Kelly is a physiotherapist, speaker, coach, author and the founder of  MobilityWOD . Kelly's mission is to improve the mechanics and movement of every human to optimize physical performance and overall health. A few years ago he picked up a camera with a commitment to record one video a day for a year demonstrating important stretching and rehabilitation routines. That led to his first (he has thr...

Andy Stumpf is many things. Boring is not one of them. He's a retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant who served in the Navy SEALs He served in the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) better known as SEAL Team 6 He was a BUD/s instructor. He holds two world records for jumps in the wingsuit. He has one of the most popular new podcasts called " Cleared Hot ." There's plenty more. Andy is very pro...

Nearly 2500 years ago, Heraclitus, a famous philosopher and one of the first Stoics, uttered a quote that changed my life here in today's modern world. It was a quote I first heard recited by the powerful Greg Amundson, a previous guest on this show when I saw him give a presentation. Here it is: "Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there. Eighty are just targets. Nine are the real...

The most frequent question I get is from people who want to enter law enforcement and they've hit a roadblock. Either they just don't know where to begin, or they've stumbled during part of the hiring process. I get the question so often that I thought I'd delve into some of my tips and tricks that helped me get hired quickly. Disclaimer: I'm not a background investigator so this is just from expe...

Sgt. Kevin Briggs of the California Highway Patrol is the subject of one of the most famous photos in law enforcement. He's leaning over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge talking to a suicidal man who is ready to jump. The dramatic photo only tells a small portion of Kevin's story, a story in which Kevin has saved over 200 people from jumping. When a photographer snapped that photo, it led to...

Lt. Richard Goerling is the creator of mindfulbadge.com. Richard is an active lieutenant with the Hillsboro Police Department, a suburb of Portland, OR. A decade ago, Richard was like most of us, muddling through is career but feeling a sense of unease he couldn't quite put a finger on. It was then that he began doing yoga to prevent some of the physical problems we experience. Slowly, Richard bec...

Jay Dobyns is the author of one of my favorite cop books:  "No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels."  He didn't just write the book, he lived the story. Jay was the primary undercover agent for the ATF during Operation Black Bisquit. Many of us remember the 2002 shotout between the Hells Angels and Mongols OMG clubs in Laughlin, Nevada. Such a brazen gun...

Traver Boehm returns to the show with a deeply personal story about his recent divorce. Traver has talked about aspects of it before during previous episodes, but he was still very much grieving the loss of his marriage and a miscarriage. Having spent 2016 exploring that grief – living in it, stewing in it – Traver returns to The Squad Room for an honest discussion about the worst year of his life...

In 45 years of policing, Bernard Melekian has done it all. Seriously. From being the first K9 handler in California, Melekian rose through the ranks at the Santa Monica Police Department to Assistant Chief, and then spent 13 years as Chief of the Pasadena Police Department. During that time he also served as Interim City Manager for a stint, and of all things, Acting Fire Chief. While in Pasadena,...

In 45 years of policing, Bernard Melekian has done it all. Seriously. From being the first K9 handler in California, Melekian rose through the ranks at the Santa Monica Police Department to Assistant Chief, and then spent 13 years as Chief of the Pasadena Police Department. During that time he also served as Interim City Manager for a stint, and of all things, Acting Fire Chief. While in Pasadena,...

U.S. Army Major (ret.) Josh Mantz, author of the new book, The Beauty of a Darker Soul: Overcoming Trauma Through the Power of Human Connection is our guest on this episode. A 2005 graduate of West Point, Josh was commissioned as an infantry officer and soon found himself fighting insurgents in Baghdad during "The Surge." During a relatively routine patrol, Josh was shot and killed. That's not a t...

On December 17, 2016, Alabama police officer Shelby Luttrell was shot twice off-duty at his wife's surprise birthday party while struggling for a suspect's gun.  Shelby almost died en route to the hospital but he had the will to survive. Only 7 months later, he comes on The Squad Room to talk about that night, his recovery, and how he was motivated to start teaching others about the importance of...

Adam La Reau is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer. Adam spent 11 years in the teams before transitioning out, eventually earning a Master's in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Adam wanted to scratch his entrepreneurial itch and along with other military veterans, he launched O2X, a human performance company devoted specifically to the needs of tacti...