November 20, 2024 • 28 mins
Prepare to immerse yourself in the inspiring journey of Officer Mike Delio, a dedicated member of the Allen Police Department's Community Relations Unit in Texas. Officer Delio takes us through his passion for community engagement by sharing his experience with impactful programs like the Rape Aggression Defense courses, Condition Six workout sessions, and Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events training. From offering hands-on experiences in the Citizen Police Academy to encouraging graduates to volunteer in programs such as Citizens on Patrol, his commitment to fostering community ties is evident.
Explore the challenges and successes of fitness initiatives within the Allen Police Department as we discuss the innovative FitForce program. Officer Delio shares the importance of maintaining a consistent workout routine and how the department motivates officers with incentives for passing fitness tests. With anecdotes from his 12-year tenure, we learn how these programs not only enhance physical fitness but also contribute to emotional and spiritual well-being, creating a supportive environment for law enforcement officers who are dedicated to their health.
Officer Delio's career journey is nothing short of remarkable, transitioning from professional gaming to a fulfilling career in public safety. He's navigated roles in multiple police and fire departments, highlighting the significance of community service and medical benefits. This episode also brings exciting updates from the Allen Police Department, including a revamped website and new online services. Whether you're interested in community engagement, fitness, or the intriguing path from gaming to law enforcement, this episode offers a wealth of insights and inspiration.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (00:02):
Welcome to this week's episode of Behind
the Badge with the Allen PoliceDepartment.
We're your hosts, SamRippamonti and Alexus Birmingham
.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus (00:08):
And today we're in Allen, texas,
with Officer Mike Delio with theCommunity Relations Unit.
Officer Michael Delio (00:13):
Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (00:14):
Thank you, so tell us a little bit
about being in the CommunityRelations Unit.
Officer Michael Delio (00:19):
Yeah, so I've been in the Community
Relations Unit now for two and ahalf years, so it's close to my
12 year anniversary here nowfor Allen.
So we do all the communityoutreach, all the public
education.
Some of our, our biggestprograms are the rape aggression
defense courses that are forwomen only, as typically every
month all year round, a littlebit of breaks that runs for four
consecutive sessions on Tuesdaynights.
(00:41):
We have a condition six, whichare free community group workout
programs on Wednesdays andFridays.
That is at 6 am.
You got to get up a bit earlyto work out.
We do the craze, which is acivilian response to active
shooter events, active attack.
We do security surveys forregular, you know, housing,
residential apartment complexes.
Most of it is for businesses,and we're the first police
(01:02):
department in Texas that is acommunity education partner with
the National Center for Missingand Exploited Children.
So that replaces or ratherupdates some of like the
stranger danger and a lot of theinternet safety for all our
young kids.
So Citizens Police Academy aswell, but that is twice per year
.
So right now I'm closing thatup, right now I'm coordinating
that and we do a plethora of allsorts of other things.
(01:25):
Those are just the ones thatwe're kind of most well known
for, and you can see that on ourwebsite, you know, to the
community outreach section, youcan get all that information
plus way more than than what Ijust told you.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (01:38):
Gotcha, so Citizen Police Academy, if
somebody wanted to sign up forthat.
What kind of commitment is that?
Officer Michael Delio (01:49):
So it's a lot Typically and sometimes it
can fluctuate, but typicallyit's going to be about 11
sessions on Thursday nights, notall of them.
There'll be some exceptions,like maybe a Tuesday or
Wednesday, like one time, andthen maybe a Saturday driving,
but it'll be 11 of those.
They're three hours becausethey run from 6 pm all the way
till 9 o'clock at night.
We try to get you out by 9o'clock.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (02:07):
Okay.
Officer Michael Delio (02:08):
So there's definitely a huge time
involvement in that regard, butwe make it well worth your time
entertaining, hopefully, I think, and that you'll learn a lot
throughout your course about lawenforcement and how you can
better serve your community.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (02:21):
I got you.
So by entertaining, can youelaborate?
Like what are you talking about?
Are they getting to shoot guns?
Officer Michael Delio (02:27):
They do so, they get to shoot a handgun
or they get to shoot a pistoland they do get to shoot a rifle
, plus they get some demos.
So it's a free class forcitizens, free.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (02:35):
All our programs are free.
We give them a gun to shoot.
Officer Michael Delio (02:40):
We don't get to keep it, they don't get
to keep it Well shoot a gun,Drive a police car.
That's right.
They do get to drive.
They do get to drive or pursuea driving course.
What's some of the other stuffthey do during that class?
So canine is one of thehighlights.
So they'll go out to our caninetraining field, so our canine
partners will come out.
They'll get to seedemonstrations for that and
(03:00):
narcotic investigations.
That's always really peoplefind that interesting, like the
dark web, cell phone extractionobviously just a regular general
review of crime scene ingeneral which leads into CSI,
not like what you see on TV.
But they'll come in and they'llshow you some of the
technologies that you might notbe aware of to lift fingerprints
and there's just a lot ofmaterial that we go off.
(03:24):
Yeah, yeah, it's packed.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (03:26):
I know, when I've talked about the dark
web at different events thatI've been at, people are shocked
.
They're like that's real.
They think it's movies, butit's like the dark web exists.
Officer Michael Delio (03:36):
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Outreach Coordinator Ale (03:37):
Aren't they able to volunteer also
after completing the program orwhat all goes into that?
Officer Michael Delio (03:50):
So that is pretty much like the only way
to segue into volunteers inpolicing or citizens on patrol.
And what that means is if,after you've done the Citizens
Police Academy and you'veexpressed the interest that you
want to do more where you wouldlike to drive around I'm sure
you've seen, hopefully you'veseen those vehicles that are
marked, they look like policecars but they'll say citizen on
patrol and you can volunteeryour time further to just be
another set of eyes on thestreet.
But let's say you're like ah, Istill want to help, that's.
(04:11):
I don't really want to putmyself out there like that.
You can the VIP, the volunteersand policing like maybe work in
the front desk, maybe we canfind something clerical inside
the police department, becausethere's always.
They don't tell you that whenyou sign up for this job there's
a lot of paperwork involved.
Okay, so we can always use thehelp in other areas.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (04:30):
That's awesome.
Shift gears a little bit.
You talked about a 6 am workout.
I know that's early, but if I'mnot mistaken, that's your
workout program.
You created it right, yep so.
Officer Michael Delio (04:42):
I've been training that way for probably
like 15 plus years, so I knewthat I wanted to do something
with the community.
So that's what came natural tome.
One cause it's cost-effective.
Cause there's it's a freeprogram but we didn't spend any
money on equipment or like that.
It's all calisthenics, it's allbody weight, where I show
things that are more difficult,things that are easier, so it's
(05:04):
really accessible for for thepublic, as long as you're
willing to get up.
I tell people, the hardest partis the hardest part is getting
there.
The rest is easy.
I'll get you the rest of theway.
You just you got to show up.
You just you got to make it.
So those are on our eventbright, which we switch over to
that and hopefully we'll get achance to talk about that a
little bit later during thisepisode.
But that's how you wouldregister, just like you would
(05:26):
for RAD and all the otherclasses that we have.
That's how you would do it.
Gotcha, let's go year round.
I take very little breaks.
I take a very small break forThanksgiving and a very small
break for Christmas time, butpretty much it's every Wednesday
and Friday and I just do itnonstop.
So I say a healthy community isgoing to be a happy community,
(05:46):
so that's our rule.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (05:47):
You just started another fitness
initiative here in Allen.
I think it was brought by ChiefDye.
Officer Michael Delio (05:54):
So I didn't start it but I was
brought in early to the meetingsso I've had a lot of input for
one looking at what our new hiretesting would be.
But right now I think whatyou're talking about is for our
current officers, our incumbents, and that is a fitness test
that does have a compensation.
So the goal is to incentivizeand promote just a healthier,
(06:19):
you know workforce.
Right that can.
That's huge benefits because itcan reduce injuries, work or
comp claims, get you faster backin action if you were to get
injured, and it just helps toother aspects of our job.
As you can imagine, right Withall the things that we got to do
, that's physical.
So I had assistance, obviouslyfrom other people in the
apartment and we just finishedproctoring all the tests for the
(06:43):
whole department.
So that was a lot of work butwe got through it and got
everyone through it, but it wasa lot of fun doing it.
Outreach Coordinator Alexu (06:49):
Well , aside from, I guess, the
fitness part of it isn't therealso it stands for FitForce or
what all goes into that.
Officer Michael Delio (06:58):
So one of the things that Chief Dye
brought over was the FitForce,which everybody, when they hear
that, they automatically justthink of the physical component,
but there's so much more thanthat.
There's the financial, there'sthe spiritual and the emotional
side of it.
So it's a more holisticapproach to that right to make
sure that some areas that lawenforcement tends to kind of
(07:20):
neglect right Like, for instance, like emotional support,
especially like when you seedifferent things about your
career that we weren't alwaysthe best at doing.
Right, that's making sure thatwe improve those things.
So like, for instance, you knowwe had it before, but he's big
on making sure that we keepbuilding our peer support team,
which we have.
So we have a lot of greatthings here at the Allen Police
Department that we're veryfortunate for.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (07:41):
You said something about there's
compensation or there's goals orincentives if you hit certain
reps.
Officer Michael Delio (07:50):
Yes, every extra rep you got once you
hit a certain threshold, you'rein the game and you got your
six hours.
And then after that, everyrepetition after that, which,
for those, you're like well,what's the test?
Well, it's, you run 75 yards,and hopefully I don't get in
trouble for saying this 're likewell, what's the test?
Well, it's, you run 75 yardsand hopefully I don't get in
trouble for saying this.
You run 75 yards, you do yourthree push-ups like chest to
(08:11):
ground make sure it's fair,right.
You run back 75 yards, you dotwo burpees, you run back 75
yards, you do your threepush-ups and it just keeps going
for 15 minutes.
So every rep that you can do,which like the completion of
every calisthenic portion, likethe completion of the pushups
after that run, that's a rep.
The completion of the burpeesafter that run, it's a rep.
So as many reps as you get,each rep is an extra hour.
(08:33):
So he wanted to make sure thateven the people that were
getting after it and they weretraining that they still had
something to aspire to try tokind of push it further.
And that's why it's kind ofleft in that fashion where every
rep counts.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (08:46):
Yeah, so if you're thinking about
transferring from your policedepartment or wanting to be a
police officer, you get time offwith pay here in Allen.
That's right.
As long as you're fit, youperform on the fitness test.
So that's pretty awesomeincentive.
And you get fitness barsI always said you'd be surprised
what people do for a t-shirt.
Well, we got t-shirts, allright, we're going to have
quarter zips or hoodies.
(09:07):
We're going to have the fitnessbar, like I was saying, which
that'd be hard to get becausethat'd be, you know, your top
10%.
So, and then a challenge coin.
That's even higher, that's evenmore difficult, so we'll have a
special challenge coin.
So we got a lot of cool stuffcoming for the officers.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus (09:20):
Oh , yeah, so.
So you said you were with Allenfor almost 12 years.
Do you have any great storiesthat you can share with us?
Officer Michael Delio (09:26):
I got a lot of funny stories, but a lot
of officers do, but they're notalways appropriate where we can
share which is out there.
But one thing I think I canthat I always tell this story is
and this was in frill training,so for people that are
listening, you typically forAllen, texas at least, we're by
ourselves in a squad car.
That's how we can get morepresence everywhere.
(09:47):
So it was infiltrating.
That's why I had someonesitting in my passenger seat.
So a pursuit came out and itwasn't too late, but it was
around 6 or 7 PM, so the trafficwas still somewhat dense and so
a pursuit had initiated, goingnorthbound on the US 75.
So I was quickly became thesecond unit and we're weaving in
(10:07):
and out.
At some point they got it andyou said, well, why are we
chasing them?
The story for that is there wasloss prevention, was following
an organized retail theft ringfrom all the way, multiple
different cities down south,like dallas and like arlington,
like all over, right, and theyand they came to allen, right,
because we have the allenpremium outlet mall.
(10:28):
So it's that's pretty dense,right, it's a rich opportunity
if that's what you're lookingfor.
So they came up, they werefollowed and then officers
coordinated with loss prevention, located the, the thieves with
the vehicle and that's how thatkicked off, right, yeah, so
sorry about that.
We're picking back up.
We're now we're chasing them onthe I-75 and I start to lose,
(10:49):
lose ground a little bit.
So the first officer is kind ofgetting ahead because the
traffic is dense, they take anexit and the timing is off where
it's like oh, I don't know ifI'm gonna be gonna make that
exit in time, and so I'm used torunning code.
It's not a deal.
I used to run code all the timewhen I was working in Dallas,
right as a, as a firefighter,run code to everything.
But my field training officer,he grabbed the top.
(11:12):
You know handle and you knowhe's just yelling like cause.
He's like we're going to die,cause I'm just I'm driving fast
and he's like you missed theexit and I'm calling.
Told him I was like I got this.
It's fine, like I got this, I'mnot really worried about it.
He's a little, a littlestressed and I know that he
looks like I missed the exit,but I already know that I'm
gonna take like the grass median, probably going about 80 miles,
(11:35):
so mile, you know, or so.
Like I know that I'm, I'm gonnatake an unconventional route to
get off this highway.
Uh, so I don't know what itlooks like now, because that was
like 12 plus years.
That was like not 12.
I'm sorry, that was like 10 or11 years ago.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (11:46):
It's been a while Crown Vic days.
Officer Michael Delio (11:47):
So no, so I must've been in a Tahoe.
Yeah, I must've been in a Tahoe.
So I get it right.
It's a little bumpy.
He's like boom, boom, boom,boom.
We saw the suspect car takethis huge dip and it got some
air as we were going into ahotel parking lot and then the
(12:08):
other squad car in front of ustook some air and, yeah, we took
some air.
So my head smacked into theroof of the squad car.
That's right.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (12:18):
The first two cars weren't.
Officer Michael Delio (12:19):
Oh yeah, it was just ridiculous looking.
Slow y'all down.
Nah, we were in it and thatended well, right.
Yeah, nobody got hurt,Everything worked out fine.
That's awesome.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus (12:30):
Did you start your career with
Allen or are you originally fromAllen, texas?
Did you start your career withAllen or?
Officer Michael Delio (12:37):
No, so I don't think I have much of an
accent, but sometimes it justdepends on who I talk to.
I'm actually from Queens, fromOzen Park, new York.
That's where my family's from.
That's where I met my wife,which I've been with my wife
since 1998.
So it's been a pretty long time.
I got four kids.
So I mean I lived in Allen nowfor over well, about 15 plus
(12:59):
years, cause that's how itstarted.
So I was just going to join,cause I have family, that's NYPD
and FDNY.
I was just going to join NYPD,got to the point cause it's a
long story.
But I had started in with AustinPD very briefly, like in 06.
And then I my oldest has a veryrare, severe genetic disorder,
so we didn't have any familydown in Texas.
So we went back, uh, kind ofgot re-acclimated and then I was
(13:23):
trying to get back to Texas.
Wasn't working out.
But then Dallas was justrandomly.
I didn't think I was gonna gethired by Dallas Fire and I was
ready, like in the final stages,for like NYPD to to go on there
and I was flying back and forthfor Dallas while I was being a
warehouse manager.
I was ready, like in the finalstages, for like NYPD to go on
there.
And I was flying back and forthfor Dallas while I was being a
warehouse manager I was managinglike an entire city block in
(13:43):
Brooklyn, like in a really badplace.
That's like right next to PinkProjects Because the leasing
office used to be Pink and myemployees would get robbed at
gunpoint like getting off thebus.
So it was a rough neighborhood.
I'd have like employees likeI'd see line supervisors.
I was imagining they'd be likerunning, getting chased by
employees.
Anyways, I digress so I'mflying and then they give me a
(14:04):
conditional offer, right.
So I'm like, oh okay, so wemoved to Texas, right.
So I did my research for Allen.
I saw that it was one of thesafest cities in the country,
would rank top 10, sometimesrank one based on population.
So I mean they're doing awesome, believe it or not, because
everything is super expensive.
But when I looked at theschools comparatively to Allen,
(14:29):
it was the best deal that Icould see as far as trying to
live somewhere that would haveaccess to good schools, at least
back when I initially came downhere.
So when did that started?
And I took it for granted,thinking that it would be good
medical benefits, because I waslike, okay, I need medical
benefits for my daughter and I'mused to.
I'm like, okay, you get inpublic safety to serve, but it's
(14:51):
traditionally, you know thatyou're going to have good
benefits to take care of yourfamily.
No-transcript social securitydisability.
(15:20):
If I stayed and I did a shiftto overtime she would lose it.
So I knew like this wasn'tgoing to work, like I had to
find something else.
Well, now I'm in Texas, I'mback again, right, so everything
is here.
So, living in Allen, right, Ilooked at Allen Fire and Allen
Police because I wasn't adverseto doing police.
I just wanted to have anopportunity to serve my
community, right, and be part ofthe community, because I've
(15:41):
been in Allen this whole time aswell, so it's fantastic place.
So I was for both and I justhappened to get hired by the
Allen Police Department.
So it has worked out prettygood for me.
Where I've been reallyfortunate in my career here,
where you know I've got to do alot of different things pretty
quickly, like so, if you look atfield training and patrol and
(16:01):
all that, that was about fouryears.
And then I went upstairs to gobe a training coordinator, which
I know a lot of people will sayoh, that's boring.
That's like the Texascommission on law enforcement
that has to do with like ourbadge right and making sure that
we're doing all the trainingsor everything that we need right
to have in order to do this job.
So making sure that we're incompliance.
Helping out with accreditationin reference to training,
(16:25):
getting to train a lot myself soI'm a combatives instructor did
that for a long time here atTactical Emergency Medical
Services, like all thetourniquets, human static agents
, all that stuff.
Done that for a long time.
Plus, I've taught a bunch ofstuff and I was fortunate that
the Plano Richardson PoliceAcademy has started.
While I was as a trainingcoordinator and now in police
department was asked fiveagencies so it's Plano and
(16:47):
Richardson and then McKinneyAllen and Frisco were asked to
help participate.
So they sent me down there tohelp like on the backend,
getting everything started withlike the back end, getting
everything started with like thetesting procedures being in
compliance with TECOL.
And then they just they likedme so much that they were like,
hey, we want this guy to be here.
And I was staying there fulltime, like working day, like
(17:07):
seven days straight like keepingthe department with everything
I needed to do and then actuallycoordinating recruits.
Like I had BPOC three.
I had that one.
It was, was still, I think Ihold the record the biggest
class down there playing policeacademy.
Got them all 100 graduated and Iwas just training a lot, a lot,
a lot so and then from there Iwent on.
After about five years total, Iwent on the community right,
(17:29):
community relations, which nowit's.
It's been about over two and ahalf years for sure.
So I've been really fortunatewith all the different things
that I've been able to do, likeSWAT.
I got off SWAT this year.
I've done that cumulatively fora little over five years as
their tactical medic.
So I've had my hand in a lot ofdifferent things.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (17:47):
You wore a lot of hats.
I got to ask you somethingthough.
Yeah, so I heard this rumor.
So you've been a fireman, youknow, police officer for a long
time.
I heard a rumor that you were aprofessional video gamer back
in the day.
Yes, so Is that true?
Officer Michael Delio (18:04):
So remember I told you Austin in 06
?
So the history with all that is.
So I'm 41 now, so when I wasprobably about 16, that's when I
picked up quote, professionalgaming, which they say like.
Well, to do that that has to bethe majority of your income,
which, for a while, like it wasthe majority of my income was
from competing at internationaltournaments which, oddly enough,
(18:27):
were here in Dallas, texas, themost.
They were not always in Dallas,but every time I was coming
down here they were like at theHilton Anatole in downtown
Dallas, if I'm saying thatcorrectly.
And then it's been at otherplaces in this Metroplex over
the years and I did that intolike my early 20s, even like
throughout college Even.
I think I even competed in atournament when I was working
(18:49):
for Dallas Fire, even when I wasa firefighter paramedic.
I think that was the lasttournament I ever went to, was
that?
And then I just I didn't make aton of money.
It's probably like less than$10,000 over the course of it.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (19:04):
I don't feel like that's a career you
grow old in.
Well, yeah, you age out of it.
Your reflexes go like yeah,these young kids it's just wild.
I've tried to play with my kids and
it's like I've tried to playwith my kids and it's like I
last about five minutes and I'mdone.
Officer Michael Delio (19:17):
That's the only reason why I knew
anything about this area.
The only reason I put in forAustin, like for one of the work
at Austin, is I transferredwith FedEx and I wanted to go to
Phoenix, arizona because theywere hiring a ton of police
officers, and I got denied thetransfer and I got accepted an
Austin transfer.
So I transferred FedEx andthat's how then I you got on
with Austin.
Yeah, I got on with Austin PD.
(19:38):
That's how it was all connectedand the only reason I knew I
didn't know that worked out?
Yeah, I only knew about itbecause I went to Lanning.
Which people listening?
Probably what is Lanning whenyou have to put your computers
together, right, instead ofgoing online tournament would be
at with zero ping and it was inplano like the land centers
(19:59):
were in plano.
That's the only reason I knewabout this area at all.
Outreach Coordinator Alexu (20:00):
What games did you play?
Officer Michael Delio (20:01):
So I started off with unreal
tournament and like quake.
Those were the big ones, likeold school first person shooters
.
And then when they ported, likehalo so people, the young
people, might still rememberhalo when they ported out with a
pc then enemy territory, likeake Wars it was mostly just
first-person shooter games, allwith a mouse and keyboard, by
the way, because I know theykeep doing these tournaments at
(20:22):
the event center and I'm like,yeah, well, that's like with
controllers, it's not the same.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (20:25):
It's a lot different.
Yeah, Speaking of that deal, atthe event center I worked that
competition oh my goodness, Likepeople wear jerseys, oh yeah,
For their team and it it was asellout every day and people
were in there going crazycheering for their team when
they would show up.
I was like this is insane.
And that's small.
Like this market here is smallin comparison to Europe and
(20:48):
elsewhere.
L ike Asian markets.
Officer Sam Rippamont (20:51):
Switching back to the Allen Police
Department.
So is there anything new goingon?
Officer Michael Delio (20:55):
So, uh, we were talking about Eventbrite
, but to segue into that, thewebsite not just the Allen
Police Department website, butall the city pages have just
gotten a complete refresh,hopefully more user friendly,
right, so you can get to quickaccess to the things that you
need very fast.
Hopefully a better experienceon your phone as well.
So Allen Police Department, ofcourse, is part of that refresh,
(21:18):
where you can also then go tothe community outreach section
and all the different things youcan see.
And before I talk to Eventbrite, because I don't want to forget
, the community crime mappingtool is on there.
You can quickly access that soyou can look at crime trends or
just look at the general crime.
We're very transparent.
We'll show you all that datathat's happening in Allen.
(21:40):
We'll show you all that we alsohave for Class C.
So for those that are like whatis a Class C misdemeanor, let's
say, something that'sequivalent to a speeding ticket
or a Class C theft, somethingthat's that Class C misdemeanor
you can go online and file it.
You can file your own charge,you can still call us, right, we
can still come out and stilladdress it, but you're not going
(22:01):
to be able to do that for andit's meant also for if you need
to do anything with crashes orlike a hit and run, but like, if
there's anything above that,you still need to call us so we
can come out and we can file thereport, we can investigate and
all that.
So all that information isthere, the Eventbrite.
We'll be adding that also to oursocial media pages, which is
also important, that you followus on Facebook and Instagram.
(22:22):
We still have X, but Facebookand Instagram are our biggest
ones that we use.
Facebook is going to be thebiggest as far as like
information for us, so you'll beable to.
We'll be adding that withEventbrite.
His link is on there, butyou'll also find that on the
city page as well.
Eventbrite.
The reason why that's importantis because if you follow it, it
will automatically notify youwhen the next RAC class is, the
(22:45):
next condition 6 class is or anysort of event that I haven't
talked about, because sometimeswe do one-offs, like just events
that are maybe once a year,something like that Citizen
Police Academy that I mentionedtwice a year.
It'll be on Eventbrite, justlike how the fire department
they do that as well Shout outto the fire department.
So if you didn't know this.
Now you do.
You can check out the firedepartment's Eventbrite that way
as well, okay.
Outreach Coordinator Alexu (23:07):
Yeah , if there's one thing you could
tell the community, what wouldit be?
Officer Michael Delio (23:10):
So we're getting pretty close now to
holiday shopping right, shoppingseason, all right, and money so
, and gifts everywhere.
So I remember when I wasgrowing up.
You know it was a couple ofdifferent ways parents can hide
their presents.
You know you either hide thepresents all in the closet and
hope the kids don't find it.
I don't think mine did it, butI've heard stories of people
(23:31):
keeping them like in theirtrunks.
That's not a great idea to bestowing your stuff in your
trunks, but like a morepractical sense, we'll see where
people will go and they'rehitting a bunch of different
stores and maybe they have ahatchback and they're in between
shopping.
They're putting presents insideplaces inside the vehicle that
you can see and then they'regoing to make other purchases.
(23:52):
We want to avoid that as muchas possible.
We also want to try to not bedoing things like late at night,
making sure we're doing it inwell lit areas, make sure that
people aren't following us backto our cars, that we don't have
very suspicious cars that arenow parked right next to our car
that were not parked therebefore we went to the store
right.
Especially if there's like abunch of parking everywhere, why
is this random van parked nextto my car, right, and always
(24:15):
having your keys ready when yougo into your car, not fiddling
looking for your keys, makingsure that you're locking your
car as soon as you get into yourcar.
That can be a lot of problemsright there If you just lock
your car immediately when youget inside your car.
And what do people like to doduring the holidays?
They like to get with family.
You like to go out and go onvacation?
Right, go, go out of town.
Well, let's put that onFacebook when you get back in
(24:40):
your home.
We don't want to advertise thatto everybody, that, hey, no
one's at our house.
You can come by and check itout while we're gone.
So we don't want to advertisethat.
One thing that you can dothat's hey, that's what we're
here for.
We don't mind.
If you want to call up theAllen Police Department and put
a special watch where an officerwill go by and they'll
(25:01):
periodically check to see ifsomething's been damaged in
their house, if there's been abreak-in, and they just go look
and make sure everything is okay, we're more than happy to do
that.
Don't hesitate to call ifyou're going to be away for an
extended period of time and Ithink that's the majority of the
ones.
Hopefully I didn't miss any,hopefully you can help me out if
I missed some of the ones.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (25:23):
Sounds like just overall awareness.
Correct?
Officer Michael Delio (25:25):
Yes, keep your eyes out of your phone
when we're walking through theparking lot.
Thank you, eyes out of yourphone.
That's not the time to do it.
Do it afterwards.
Outreach Coordinator Alex (25:32):
We're going to take a moment to
answer some questions from ourviewers.
One of our questions is aboutour new boxing gym.
Would you like to share a littlebit about our new boxing gym?
Officer Michael Delio (25:47):
Sure, so Allen IC has been great, where
they helped us out withRoundtree Elementary, which was
to me.
It's still called RoundtreeElementary.
It's pretty close to my housebut it's a youth boxing gym.
It's free for the people thathave access to it and it's going
to be for age 10 to 18.
It's not just for Allenresidents, it's for North Texas
and it's just going to be agreat opportunity for law
enforcement to be involved withthe Utes in a non-enforcement
(26:10):
capacity.
And I know y'all have been veryheavily involved with the setup
, so I'm going to pass it backto y'all to kind of fill in the
gaps and let them know what ourmotto is.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus (26:21):
So our motto is Mentoring Future
Leaders and we just want apresence with our officers and
our youth and a good mentorshipbetween them and involvement in
their health and differentresources that we provide.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (26:36):
So one thing about it we'll open up
early 2025.
There will always be an officeron site when the gym's open and
it's all volunteer-based.
Most of us officers, like Idon't know anything about boxing
, but you know, if they need meto come in and sweep the floors,
I'll sweep the floors if that'swhat they need me to do to help
(26:56):
out.
But this is all going to bevolunteer-driven, where we have
actual boxing coaches that aregoing to come in and they're
going to teach our youth andteach some of our officers how
to box and, like Alexa said,it's mentoring our future
leaders.
This is a place for them to goto be part of a group, be part
of a team, so to speak, wherethey can learn discipline, learn
(27:20):
the skills of boxing, andthere's just a lot that goes
into the sport, that goes deeperthan just the athletic side of
it.
So it's going to be a greatprogram that we're really,
really excited about.
Outreach Coordinator Alexu (27:34):
Yeah , and our gym's not just limited
to our Allen residents, it'sfor all North Texas kids that
would love to join our gym.
They're all welcome.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (27:43):
Well, Mike, we really appreciate you
coming on today and talking tous.
Absolutely.
Is there anything else you'd like to add
before we leave today?
Officer Michael Delio (27:53):
No, just make sure you keep checking out
our social media.
There's always just a lot ofinformation that's on there.
We like to put everythingthat's happening right, even if
it's just a lot of informationthat's on there.
We like to put everythingthat's happening right, even if
it's traffic related and youjust don't know unless you
follow right.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (28:07):
So make sure you're following on all our
pages.
If you're interested in any ofthese programs, there's more
information on our city websiteat AllenPolice.
org.
Outreach Coordinator Alex (28:13):
Thank you everyone for tuning in and
make sure to like and subscribeand if you have any questions,
leave them down in the commentsbelow.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (28:20):
See you next time.
Welcome to this week's episode of Behind
the Badge with the Allen PoliceDepartment.
We're your hosts, SamRippamonti and Alexus Birmingham
.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus (00:08):
And today we're in Allen, texas,
with Officer Mike Delio with theCommunity Relations Unit.
Officer Michael Delio (00:13):
Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (00:14):
Thank you, so tell us a little bit
about being in the CommunityRelations Unit.
Officer Michael Delio (00:19):
Yeah, so I've been in the Community
Relations Unit now for two and ahalf years, so it's close to my
12 year anniversary here nowfor Allen.
So we do all the communityoutreach, all the public
education.
Some of our, our biggestprograms are the rape aggression
defense courses that are forwomen only, as typically every
month all year round, a littlebit of breaks that runs for four
consecutive sessions on Tuesdaynights.
(00:41):
We have a condition six, whichare free community group workout
programs on Wednesdays andFridays.
That is at 6 am.
You got to get up a bit earlyto work out.
We do the craze, which is acivilian response to active
shooter events, active attack.
We do security surveys forregular, you know, housing,
residential apartment complexes.
Most of it is for businesses,and we're the first police
(01:02):
department in Texas that is acommunity education partner with
the National Center for Missingand Exploited Children.
So that replaces or ratherupdates some of like the
stranger danger and a lot of theinternet safety for all our
young kids.
So Citizens Police Academy aswell, but that is twice per year
.
So right now I'm closing thatup, right now I'm coordinating
that and we do a plethora of allsorts of other things.
(01:25):
Those are just the ones thatwe're kind of most well known
for, and you can see that on ourwebsite, you know, to the
community outreach section, youcan get all that information
plus way more than than what Ijust told you.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (01:38):
Gotcha, so Citizen Police Academy, if
somebody wanted to sign up forthat.
What kind of commitment is that?
Officer Michael Delio (01:49):
So it's a lot Typically and sometimes it
can fluctuate, but typicallyit's going to be about 11
sessions on Thursday nights, notall of them.
There'll be some exceptions,like maybe a Tuesday or
Wednesday, like one time, andthen maybe a Saturday driving,
but it'll be 11 of those.
They're three hours becausethey run from 6 pm all the way
till 9 o'clock at night.
We try to get you out by 9o'clock.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (02:07):
Okay.
Officer Michael Delio (02:08):
So there's definitely a huge time
involvement in that regard, butwe make it well worth your time
entertaining, hopefully, I think, and that you'll learn a lot
throughout your course about lawenforcement and how you can
better serve your community.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (02:21):
I got you.
So by entertaining, can youelaborate?
Like what are you talking about?
Are they getting to shoot guns?
Officer Michael Delio (02:27):
They do so, they get to shoot a handgun
or they get to shoot a pistoland they do get to shoot a rifle
, plus they get some demos.
So it's a free class forcitizens, free.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (02:35):
All our programs are free.
We give them a gun to shoot.
Officer Michael Delio (02:40):
We don't get to keep it, they don't get
to keep it Well shoot a gun,Drive a police car.
That's right.
They do get to drive.
They do get to drive or pursuea driving course.
What's some of the other stuffthey do during that class?
So canine is one of thehighlights.
So they'll go out to our caninetraining field, so our canine
partners will come out.
They'll get to seedemonstrations for that and
(03:00):
narcotic investigations.
That's always really peoplefind that interesting, like the
dark web, cell phone extractionobviously just a regular general
review of crime scene ingeneral which leads into CSI,
not like what you see on TV.
But they'll come in and they'llshow you some of the
technologies that you might notbe aware of to lift fingerprints
and there's just a lot ofmaterial that we go off.
(03:24):
Yeah, yeah, it's packed.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (03:26):
I know, when I've talked about the dark
web at different events thatI've been at, people are shocked
.
They're like that's real.
They think it's movies, butit's like the dark web exists.
Officer Michael Delio (03:36):
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Outreach Coordinator Ale (03:37):
Aren't they able to volunteer also
after completing the program orwhat all goes into that?
Officer Michael Delio (03:50):
So that is pretty much like the only way
to segue into volunteers inpolicing or citizens on patrol.
And what that means is if,after you've done the Citizens
Police Academy and you'veexpressed the interest that you
want to do more where you wouldlike to drive around I'm sure
you've seen, hopefully you'veseen those vehicles that are
marked, they look like policecars but they'll say citizen on
patrol and you can volunteeryour time further to just be
another set of eyes on thestreet.
But let's say you're like ah, Istill want to help, that's.
(04:11):
I don't really want to putmyself out there like that.
You can the VIP, the volunteersand policing like maybe work in
the front desk, maybe we canfind something clerical inside
the police department, becausethere's always.
They don't tell you that whenyou sign up for this job there's
a lot of paperwork involved.
Okay, so we can always use thehelp in other areas.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (04:30):
That's awesome.
Shift gears a little bit.
You talked about a 6 am workout.
I know that's early, but if I'mnot mistaken, that's your
workout program.
You created it right, yep so.
Officer Michael Delio (04:42):
I've been training that way for probably
like 15 plus years, so I knewthat I wanted to do something
with the community.
So that's what came natural tome.
One cause it's cost-effective.
Cause there's it's a freeprogram but we didn't spend any
money on equipment or like that.
It's all calisthenics, it's allbody weight, where I show
things that are more difficult,things that are easier, so it's
(05:04):
really accessible for for thepublic, as long as you're
willing to get up.
I tell people, the hardest partis the hardest part is getting
there.
The rest is easy.
I'll get you the rest of theway.
You just you got to show up.
You just you got to make it.
So those are on our eventbright, which we switch over to
that and hopefully we'll get achance to talk about that a
little bit later during thisepisode.
But that's how you wouldregister, just like you would
(05:26):
for RAD and all the otherclasses that we have.
That's how you would do it.
Gotcha, let's go year round.
I take very little breaks.
I take a very small break forThanksgiving and a very small
break for Christmas time, butpretty much it's every Wednesday
and Friday and I just do itnonstop.
So I say a healthy community isgoing to be a happy community,
(05:46):
so that's our rule.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (05:47):
You just started another fitness
initiative here in Allen.
I think it was brought by ChiefDye.
Officer Michael Delio (05:54):
So I didn't start it but I was
brought in early to the meetingsso I've had a lot of input for
one looking at what our new hiretesting would be.
But right now I think whatyou're talking about is for our
current officers, our incumbents, and that is a fitness test
that does have a compensation.
So the goal is to incentivizeand promote just a healthier,
(06:19):
you know workforce.
Right that can.
That's huge benefits because itcan reduce injuries, work or
comp claims, get you faster backin action if you were to get
injured, and it just helps toother aspects of our job.
As you can imagine, right Withall the things that we got to do
, that's physical.
So I had assistance, obviouslyfrom other people in the
apartment and we just finishedproctoring all the tests for the
(06:43):
whole department.
So that was a lot of work butwe got through it and got
everyone through it, but it wasa lot of fun doing it.
Outreach Coordinator Alexu (06:49):
Well , aside from, I guess, the
fitness part of it isn't therealso it stands for FitForce or
what all goes into that.
Officer Michael Delio (06:58):
So one of the things that Chief Dye
brought over was the FitForce,which everybody, when they hear
that, they automatically justthink of the physical component,
but there's so much more thanthat.
There's the financial, there'sthe spiritual and the emotional
side of it.
So it's a more holisticapproach to that right to make
sure that some areas that lawenforcement tends to kind of
(07:20):
neglect right Like, for instance, like emotional support,
especially like when you seedifferent things about your
career that we weren't alwaysthe best at doing.
Right, that's making sure thatwe improve those things.
So like, for instance, you knowwe had it before, but he's big
on making sure that we keepbuilding our peer support team,
which we have.
So we have a lot of greatthings here at the Allen Police
Department that we're veryfortunate for.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (07:41):
You said something about there's
compensation or there's goals orincentives if you hit certain
reps.
Officer Michael Delio (07:50):
Yes, every extra rep you got once you
hit a certain threshold, you'rein the game and you got your
six hours.
And then after that, everyrepetition after that, which,
for those, you're like well,what's the test?
Well, it's, you run 75 yards,and hopefully I don't get in
trouble for saying this 're likewell, what's the test?
Well, it's, you run 75 yardsand hopefully I don't get in
trouble for saying this.
You run 75 yards, you do yourthree push-ups like chest to
(08:11):
ground make sure it's fair,right.
You run back 75 yards, you dotwo burpees, you run back 75
yards, you do your threepush-ups and it just keeps going
for 15 minutes.
So every rep that you can do,which like the completion of
every calisthenic portion, likethe completion of the pushups
after that run, that's a rep.
The completion of the burpeesafter that run, it's a rep.
So as many reps as you get,each rep is an extra hour.
(08:33):
So he wanted to make sure thateven the people that were
getting after it and they weretraining that they still had
something to aspire to try tokind of push it further.
And that's why it's kind ofleft in that fashion where every
rep counts.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (08:46):
Yeah, so if you're thinking about
transferring from your policedepartment or wanting to be a
police officer, you get time offwith pay here in Allen.
That's right.
As long as you're fit, youperform on the fitness test.
So that's pretty awesomeincentive.
And you get fitness barsI always said you'd be surprised
what people do for a t-shirt.
Well, we got t-shirts, allright, we're going to have
quarter zips or hoodies.
(09:07):
We're going to have the fitnessbar, like I was saying, which
that'd be hard to get becausethat'd be, you know, your top
10%.
So, and then a challenge coin.
That's even higher, that's evenmore difficult, so we'll have a
special challenge coin.
So we got a lot of cool stuffcoming for the officers.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus (09:20):
Oh , yeah, so.
So you said you were with Allenfor almost 12 years.
Do you have any great storiesthat you can share with us?
Officer Michael Delio (09:26):
I got a lot of funny stories, but a lot
of officers do, but they're notalways appropriate where we can
share which is out there.
But one thing I think I canthat I always tell this story is
and this was in frill training,so for people that are
listening, you typically forAllen, texas at least, we're by
ourselves in a squad car.
That's how we can get morepresence everywhere.
(09:47):
So it was infiltrating.
That's why I had someonesitting in my passenger seat.
So a pursuit came out and itwasn't too late, but it was
around 6 or 7 PM, so the trafficwas still somewhat dense and so
a pursuit had initiated, goingnorthbound on the US 75.
So I was quickly became thesecond unit and we're weaving in
(10:07):
and out.
At some point they got it andyou said, well, why are we
chasing them?
The story for that is there wasloss prevention, was following
an organized retail theft ringfrom all the way, multiple
different cities down south,like dallas and like arlington,
like all over, right, and theyand they came to allen, right,
because we have the allenpremium outlet mall.
(10:28):
So it's that's pretty dense,right, it's a rich opportunity
if that's what you're lookingfor.
So they came up, they werefollowed and then officers
coordinated with loss prevention, located the, the thieves with
the vehicle and that's how thatkicked off, right, yeah, so
sorry about that.
We're picking back up.
We're now we're chasing them onthe I-75 and I start to lose,
(10:49):
lose ground a little bit.
So the first officer is kind ofgetting ahead because the
traffic is dense, they take anexit and the timing is off where
it's like oh, I don't know ifI'm gonna be gonna make that
exit in time, and so I'm used torunning code.
It's not a deal.
I used to run code all the timewhen I was working in Dallas,
right as a, as a firefighter,run code to everything.
But my field training officer,he grabbed the top.
(11:12):
You know handle and you knowhe's just yelling like cause.
He's like we're going to die,cause I'm just I'm driving fast
and he's like you missed theexit and I'm calling.
Told him I was like I got this.
It's fine, like I got this, I'mnot really worried about it.
He's a little, a littlestressed and I know that he
looks like I missed the exit,but I already know that I'm
gonna take like the grass median, probably going about 80 miles,
(11:35):
so mile, you know, or so.
Like I know that I'm, I'm gonnatake an unconventional route to
get off this highway.
Uh, so I don't know what itlooks like now, because that was
like 12 plus years.
That was like not 12.
I'm sorry, that was like 10 or11 years ago.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (11:46):
It's been a while Crown Vic days.
Officer Michael Delio (11:47):
So no, so I must've been in a Tahoe.
Yeah, I must've been in a Tahoe.
So I get it right.
It's a little bumpy.
He's like boom, boom, boom,boom.
We saw the suspect car takethis huge dip and it got some
air as we were going into ahotel parking lot and then the
(12:08):
other squad car in front of ustook some air and, yeah, we took
some air.
So my head smacked into theroof of the squad car.
That's right.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (12:18):
The first two cars weren't.
Officer Michael Delio (12:19):
Oh yeah, it was just ridiculous looking.
Slow y'all down.
Nah, we were in it and thatended well, right.
Yeah, nobody got hurt,Everything worked out fine.
That's awesome.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus (12:30):
Did you start your career with
Allen or are you originally fromAllen, texas?
Did you start your career withAllen or?
Officer Michael Delio (12:37):
No, so I don't think I have much of an
accent, but sometimes it justdepends on who I talk to.
I'm actually from Queens, fromOzen Park, new York.
That's where my family's from.
That's where I met my wife,which I've been with my wife
since 1998.
So it's been a pretty long time.
I got four kids.
So I mean I lived in Allen nowfor over well, about 15 plus
(12:59):
years, cause that's how itstarted.
So I was just going to join,cause I have family, that's NYPD
and FDNY.
I was just going to join NYPD,got to the point cause it's a
long story.
But I had started in with AustinPD very briefly, like in 06.
And then I my oldest has a veryrare, severe genetic disorder,
so we didn't have any familydown in Texas.
So we went back, uh, kind ofgot re-acclimated and then I was
(13:23):
trying to get back to Texas.
Wasn't working out.
But then Dallas was justrandomly.
I didn't think I was gonna gethired by Dallas Fire and I was
ready, like in the final stages,for like NYPD to to go on there
and I was flying back and forthfor Dallas while I was being a
warehouse manager.
I was ready, like in the finalstages, for like NYPD to go on
there.
And I was flying back and forthfor Dallas while I was being a
warehouse manager I was managinglike an entire city block in
(13:43):
Brooklyn, like in a really badplace.
That's like right next to PinkProjects Because the leasing
office used to be Pink and myemployees would get robbed at
gunpoint like getting off thebus.
So it was a rough neighborhood.
I'd have like employees likeI'd see line supervisors.
I was imagining they'd be likerunning, getting chased by
employees.
Anyways, I digress so I'mflying and then they give me a
(14:04):
conditional offer, right.
So I'm like, oh okay, so wemoved to Texas, right.
So I did my research for Allen.
I saw that it was one of thesafest cities in the country,
would rank top 10, sometimesrank one based on population.
So I mean they're doing awesome, believe it or not, because
everything is super expensive.
But when I looked at theschools comparatively to Allen,
(14:29):
it was the best deal that Icould see as far as trying to
live somewhere that would haveaccess to good schools, at least
back when I initially came downhere.
So when did that started?
And I took it for granted,thinking that it would be good
medical benefits, because I waslike, okay, I need medical
benefits for my daughter and I'mused to.
I'm like, okay, you get inpublic safety to serve, but it's
(14:51):
traditionally, you know thatyou're going to have good
benefits to take care of yourfamily.
No-transcript social securitydisability.
(15:20):
If I stayed and I did a shiftto overtime she would lose it.
So I knew like this wasn'tgoing to work, like I had to
find something else.
Well, now I'm in Texas, I'mback again, right, so everything
is here.
So, living in Allen, right, Ilooked at Allen Fire and Allen
Police because I wasn't adverseto doing police.
I just wanted to have anopportunity to serve my
community, right, and be part ofthe community, because I've
(15:41):
been in Allen this whole time aswell, so it's fantastic place.
So I was for both and I justhappened to get hired by the
Allen Police Department.
So it has worked out prettygood for me.
Where I've been reallyfortunate in my career here,
where you know I've got to do alot of different things pretty
quickly, like so, if you look atfield training and patrol and
(16:01):
all that, that was about fouryears.
And then I went upstairs to gobe a training coordinator, which
I know a lot of people will sayoh, that's boring.
That's like the Texascommission on law enforcement
that has to do with like ourbadge right and making sure that
we're doing all the trainingsor everything that we need right
to have in order to do this job.
So making sure that we're incompliance.
Helping out with accreditationin reference to training,
(16:25):
getting to train a lot myself soI'm a combatives instructor did
that for a long time here atTactical Emergency Medical
Services, like all thetourniquets, human static agents
, all that stuff.
Done that for a long time.
Plus, I've taught a bunch ofstuff and I was fortunate that
the Plano Richardson PoliceAcademy has started.
While I was as a trainingcoordinator and now in police
department was asked fiveagencies so it's Plano and
(16:47):
Richardson and then McKinneyAllen and Frisco were asked to
help participate.
So they sent me down there tohelp like on the backend,
getting everything started withlike the back end, getting
everything started with like thetesting procedures being in
compliance with TECOL.
And then they just they likedme so much that they were like,
hey, we want this guy to be here.
And I was staying there fulltime, like working day, like
(17:07):
seven days straight like keepingthe department with everything
I needed to do and then actuallycoordinating recruits.
Like I had BPOC three.
I had that one.
It was, was still, I think Ihold the record the biggest
class down there playing policeacademy.
Got them all 100 graduated and Iwas just training a lot, a lot,
a lot so and then from there Iwent on.
After about five years total, Iwent on the community right,
(17:29):
community relations, which nowit's.
It's been about over two and ahalf years for sure.
So I've been really fortunatewith all the different things
that I've been able to do, likeSWAT.
I got off SWAT this year.
I've done that cumulatively fora little over five years as
their tactical medic.
So I've had my hand in a lot ofdifferent things.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (17:47):
You wore a lot of hats.
I got to ask you somethingthough.
Yeah, so I heard this rumor.
So you've been a fireman, youknow, police officer for a long
time.
I heard a rumor that you were aprofessional video gamer back
in the day.
Yes, so Is that true?
Officer Michael Delio (18:04):
So remember I told you Austin in 06
?
So the history with all that is.
So I'm 41 now, so when I wasprobably about 16, that's when I
picked up quote, professionalgaming, which they say like.
Well, to do that that has to bethe majority of your income,
which, for a while, like it wasthe majority of my income was
from competing at internationaltournaments which, oddly enough,
(18:27):
were here in Dallas, texas, themost.
They were not always in Dallas,but every time I was coming
down here they were like at theHilton Anatole in downtown
Dallas, if I'm saying thatcorrectly.
And then it's been at otherplaces in this Metroplex over
the years and I did that intolike my early 20s, even like
throughout college Even.
I think I even competed in atournament when I was working
(18:49):
for Dallas Fire, even when I wasa firefighter paramedic.
I think that was the lasttournament I ever went to, was
that?
And then I just I didn't make aton of money.
It's probably like less than$10,000 over the course of it.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (19:04):
I don't feel like that's a career you
grow old in.
Well, yeah, you age out of it.
Your reflexes go like yeah,these young kids it's just wild.
I've tried to play with my kids and
it's like I've tried to playwith my kids and it's like I
last about five minutes and I'mdone.
Officer Michael Delio (19:17):
That's the only reason why I knew
anything about this area.
The only reason I put in forAustin, like for one of the work
at Austin, is I transferredwith FedEx and I wanted to go to
Phoenix, arizona because theywere hiring a ton of police
officers, and I got denied thetransfer and I got accepted an
Austin transfer.
So I transferred FedEx andthat's how then I you got on
with Austin.
Yeah, I got on with Austin PD.
(19:38):
That's how it was all connectedand the only reason I knew I
didn't know that worked out?
Yeah, I only knew about itbecause I went to Lanning.
Which people listening?
Probably what is Lanning whenyou have to put your computers
together, right, instead ofgoing online tournament would be
at with zero ping and it was inplano like the land centers
(19:59):
were in plano.
That's the only reason I knewabout this area at all.
Outreach Coordinator Alexu (20:00):
What games did you play?
Officer Michael Delio (20:01):
So I started off with unreal
tournament and like quake.
Those were the big ones, likeold school first person shooters
.
And then when they ported, likehalo so people, the young
people, might still rememberhalo when they ported out with a
pc then enemy territory, likeake Wars it was mostly just
first-person shooter games, allwith a mouse and keyboard, by
the way, because I know theykeep doing these tournaments at
(20:22):
the event center and I'm like,yeah, well, that's like with
controllers, it's not the same.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (20:25):
It's a lot different.
Yeah, Speaking of that deal, atthe event center I worked that
competition oh my goodness, Likepeople wear jerseys, oh yeah,
For their team and it it was asellout every day and people
were in there going crazycheering for their team when
they would show up.
I was like this is insane.
And that's small.
Like this market here is smallin comparison to Europe and
(20:48):
elsewhere.
L ike Asian markets.
Officer Sam Rippamont (20:51):
Switching back to the Allen Police
Department.
So is there anything new goingon?
Officer Michael Delio (20:55):
So, uh, we were talking about Eventbrite
, but to segue into that, thewebsite not just the Allen
Police Department website, butall the city pages have just
gotten a complete refresh,hopefully more user friendly,
right, so you can get to quickaccess to the things that you
need very fast.
Hopefully a better experienceon your phone as well.
So Allen Police Department, ofcourse, is part of that refresh,
(21:18):
where you can also then go tothe community outreach section
and all the different things youcan see.
And before I talk to Eventbrite, because I don't want to forget
, the community crime mappingtool is on there.
You can quickly access that soyou can look at crime trends or
just look at the general crime.
We're very transparent.
We'll show you all that datathat's happening in Allen.
(21:40):
We'll show you all that we alsohave for Class C.
So for those that are like whatis a Class C misdemeanor, let's
say, something that'sequivalent to a speeding ticket
or a Class C theft, somethingthat's that Class C misdemeanor
you can go online and file it.
You can file your own charge,you can still call us, right, we
can still come out and stilladdress it, but you're not going
(22:01):
to be able to do that for andit's meant also for if you need
to do anything with crashes orlike a hit and run, but like, if
there's anything above that,you still need to call us so we
can come out and we can file thereport, we can investigate and
all that.
So all that information isthere, the Eventbrite.
We'll be adding that also to oursocial media pages, which is
also important, that you followus on Facebook and Instagram.
(22:22):
We still have X, but Facebookand Instagram are our biggest
ones that we use.
Facebook is going to be thebiggest as far as like
information for us, so you'll beable to.
We'll be adding that withEventbrite.
His link is on there, butyou'll also find that on the
city page as well.
Eventbrite.
The reason why that's importantis because if you follow it, it
will automatically notify youwhen the next RAC class is, the
(22:45):
next condition 6 class is or anysort of event that I haven't
talked about, because sometimeswe do one-offs, like just events
that are maybe once a year,something like that Citizen
Police Academy that I mentionedtwice a year.
It'll be on Eventbrite, justlike how the fire department
they do that as well Shout outto the fire department.
So if you didn't know this.
Now you do.
You can check out the firedepartment's Eventbrite that way
as well, okay.
Outreach Coordinator Alexu (23:07):
Yeah , if there's one thing you could
tell the community, what wouldit be?
Officer Michael Delio (23:10):
So we're getting pretty close now to
holiday shopping right, shoppingseason, all right, and money so
, and gifts everywhere.
So I remember when I wasgrowing up.
You know it was a couple ofdifferent ways parents can hide
their presents.
You know you either hide thepresents all in the closet and
hope the kids don't find it.
I don't think mine did it, butI've heard stories of people
(23:31):
keeping them like in theirtrunks.
That's not a great idea to bestowing your stuff in your
trunks, but like a morepractical sense, we'll see where
people will go and they'rehitting a bunch of different
stores and maybe they have ahatchback and they're in between
shopping.
They're putting presents insideplaces inside the vehicle that
you can see and then they'regoing to make other purchases.
(23:52):
We want to avoid that as muchas possible.
We also want to try to not bedoing things like late at night,
making sure we're doing it inwell lit areas, make sure that
people aren't following us backto our cars, that we don't have
very suspicious cars that arenow parked right next to our car
that were not parked therebefore we went to the store
right.
Especially if there's like abunch of parking everywhere, why
is this random van parked nextto my car, right, and always
(24:15):
having your keys ready when yougo into your car, not fiddling
looking for your keys, makingsure that you're locking your
car as soon as you get into yourcar.
That can be a lot of problemsright there If you just lock
your car immediately when youget inside your car.
And what do people like to doduring the holidays?
They like to get with family.
You like to go out and go onvacation?
Right, go, go out of town.
Well, let's put that onFacebook when you get back in
(24:40):
your home.
We don't want to advertise thatto everybody, that, hey, no
one's at our house.
You can come by and check itout while we're gone.
So we don't want to advertisethat.
One thing that you can dothat's hey, that's what we're
here for.
We don't mind.
If you want to call up theAllen Police Department and put
a special watch where an officerwill go by and they'll
(25:01):
periodically check to see ifsomething's been damaged in
their house, if there's been abreak-in, and they just go look
and make sure everything is okay, we're more than happy to do
that.
Don't hesitate to call ifyou're going to be away for an
extended period of time and Ithink that's the majority of the
ones.
Hopefully I didn't miss any,hopefully you can help me out if
I missed some of the ones.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (25:23):
Sounds like just overall awareness.
Correct?
Officer Michael Delio (25:25):
Yes, keep your eyes out of your phone
when we're walking through theparking lot.
Thank you, eyes out of yourphone.
That's not the time to do it.
Do it afterwards.
Outreach Coordinator Alex (25:32):
We're going to take a moment to
answer some questions from ourviewers.
One of our questions is aboutour new boxing gym.
Would you like to share a littlebit about our new boxing gym?
Officer Michael Delio (25:47):
Sure, so Allen IC has been great, where
they helped us out withRoundtree Elementary, which was
to me.
It's still called RoundtreeElementary.
It's pretty close to my housebut it's a youth boxing gym.
It's free for the people thathave access to it and it's going
to be for age 10 to 18.
It's not just for Allenresidents, it's for North Texas
and it's just going to be agreat opportunity for law
enforcement to be involved withthe Utes in a non-enforcement
(26:10):
capacity.
And I know y'all have been veryheavily involved with the setup
, so I'm going to pass it backto y'all to kind of fill in the
gaps and let them know what ourmotto is.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus (26:21):
So our motto is Mentoring Future
Leaders and we just want apresence with our officers and
our youth and a good mentorshipbetween them and involvement in
their health and differentresources that we provide.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (26:36):
So one thing about it we'll open up
early 2025.
There will always be an officeron site when the gym's open and
it's all volunteer-based.
Most of us officers, like Idon't know anything about boxing
, but you know, if they need meto come in and sweep the floors,
I'll sweep the floors if that'swhat they need me to do to help
(26:56):
out.
But this is all going to bevolunteer-driven, where we have
actual boxing coaches that aregoing to come in and they're
going to teach our youth andteach some of our officers how
to box and, like Alexa said,it's mentoring our future
leaders.
This is a place for them to goto be part of a group, be part
of a team, so to speak, wherethey can learn discipline, learn
(27:20):
the skills of boxing, andthere's just a lot that goes
into the sport, that goes deeperthan just the athletic side of
it.
So it's going to be a greatprogram that we're really,
really excited about.
Outreach Coordinator Alexu (27:34):
Yeah , and our gym's not just limited
to our Allen residents, it'sfor all North Texas kids that
would love to join our gym.
They're all welcome.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (27:43):
Well, Mike, we really appreciate you
coming on today and talking tous.
Absolutely.
Is there anything else you'd like to add
before we leave today?
Officer Michael Delio (27:53):
No, just make sure you keep checking out
our social media.
There's always just a lot ofinformation that's on there.
We like to put everythingthat's happening right, even if
it's just a lot of informationthat's on there.
We like to put everythingthat's happening right, even if
it's traffic related and youjust don't know unless you
follow right.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (28:07):
So make sure you're following on all our
pages.
If you're interested in any ofthese programs, there's more
information on our city websiteat AllenPolice.
org.
Outreach Coordinator Alex (28:13):
Thank you everyone for tuning in and
make sure to like and subscribeand if you have any questions,
leave them down in the commentsbelow.
Officer Sam Rippamonti (28:20):
See you next time.
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