March 24, 2025 • 41 mins
In the premiere episode of View from 100, Sheriff Jay Armbrister and Undersheriff Stacy Simmons offer an inside look at their careers and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.
With 26 years of service, Simmons shares her journey from deputy to undersheriff, offering an inside look at the challenges and successes of law enforcement leadership. From policies and staff training to tackling systemic biases and strengthening community ties, this candid conversation dives into the several key issues.
They also discuss the Sheriff's Office’s efforts to foster trust, including participation in the Pride Parade and the DGSO Citizen's Academy. Armbrister also addressed his hopes for the future of the podcast, including hearing from members of several community partners the Sheriff's Office works with closely.
Whether you're curious about law enforcement, passionate about community engagement, or just want to hear what happens behind the badge, this episode takes you behind the scenes.
NOTE: The DGSO Citizen's Academy 2025 applications closed before we released this episode, but we kept the information and story about the academy. Take a look in early 2026 for applications for next year's DGSO Citizen's Academy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jay Armbrister (00:01):
Ready whenever you are. Yeah, okay, all right.
Well, hey there, Douglas County.
This is Jay Armbruster. I'm yoursheriff for right now, and this
is kind of a foray into a newadventure for us. We're going to
start a podcast, becauseeverybody else makes them look
so cool and sound so awesome,but also it's kind of a good
chance for us to not only talk alittle bit more about the
Douglas County Sheriff. SoSheriff's Office, which which is
(00:22):
your Sheriff's Office, but alsowe want to spend some time
highlighting a lot of ourcommunity partners and the
people who do a lot of heavy,heavy lifting and hard work
behind the scenes. I firmlybelieve that the best work that
that this agency and ourpartners do goes unseen. And so
I think we're going to spendspend a few days in the upcoming
(00:43):
year to try to highlight some ofthose folks and talk about what
it is they do and why they doit. But we're going to kind of
ease into it today. This will beour very first podcast ever. And
so we're both, we're all nervousand a little bit freaked out, so
bear with us as we try to figurethis whole thing out as a the
name of the to the name of thispodcast. We really kind of
(01:06):
lamented over what we're goingto do, but we want this to maybe
have the possibility of movingon into the future with any
future sheriffs, if they shouldso choose. And so we chose the
term view from 100 because inthe Douglas County Sheriff's
Office, we have every deputy,every corrections officer has a
badge number, but we reassignand assign radio numbers, and
(01:26):
the sheriff is always 100 andthen they they change from
there. So the lieutenants are inthe 130s the sergeants are in
the 150s or something like that.
The detectives are in the 120sso you, as you progress through
your through your career, youcould have several different
numbers. And fortunately for me,I've ascended to the position of
(01:50):
100 and so we're going to, kindof, we're kind of going at this
from a view from from where Isit, but also giving me an
opportunity to, kind of toshowcase what, what I want you,
what I would hope you all willtake away from the sheriff's
office. But as we move intothis, today is our very first
day, and we're going to startwith somebody very special, of
course, to me, and somebody veryspecial to you that you may not
(02:12):
even know of, but her name isStacey Simmons, and she is the
UnderSheriff. So she is thenumber two. She's the vice
principal, the Vice President,whatever you want to call it.
She's always joked for yearsthat that I'm the microphone and
she is the clipboard, and wemake the perfect pair.
It's, I've said it 1000 times,is that you're either a leader
(02:34):
or a manager, and leaders leadpeople. Managers manage things,
and you need all you need bothof those things, especially to
run an agency. I myself am lessof a manager, but I am more of a
leader, whereas Stacy isexcellent at both, a rarity in
this world, so to speak. Sowe're just going to sit down.
(02:55):
We're going to have aconversation with your
UnderSheriff, learn, figure outwho she is, why she's here, why
she stays, and what she wants usto know about what she does in
the agency that she and I havededicated so much time to. So
Stacy, thank you for joining meon our podcast. Thank you. Good
morning. Yeah, Sheriff. Said, MyI'm your under sheriff. I am
(03:18):
appointed. The position is alittle bit different than than
any other position in thesheriff's office. The sheriff is
elected and appoints just likethe President would appoint a
vice president. So that is mythat is my role. So I am, you
know, I can come and go anytime,whether that's my choice or not,
but I think, I think, since wegot through the first term and
(03:39):
and he asked me to stay aroundfor the second, I think I'm
doing all right. So, so yeah,four years in, got that next,
next term that we're workingwith. I've worked for the
sheriff's office about 26 yearsnow. I started out as a deputy,
doing what deputies do, justlike what they do now, working
(03:59):
patrol, working courtroomsecurity. I've worked at jail,
worked lots of differentpositions in the sheriff's
office, and as a sheriff and Ikind of came up together. We did
take different roles. Him beingdetective, I was more jail. So
as we came up, we just kind of
Stacy Simmons (04:17):
got together, I guess, in a way that he did say
it's the clipboard, and he is.
He's the megaphone. So mycomfort level is not exactly
what his comfort level is.
Today.
I'm more making sure policiesand procedures are that we're
following those that we'rehaving the correct policies and
procedures for what we do,making sure all of our staff is
(04:40):
appropriately trained that havethe right equipment that they
need, they get the things thatthey need. So, you know, I'm I
take my orders from the sheriff,and so He leads me in the right
direction, and I'm hoping tolead the sheriff's office in the
right
Jay Armbrister (04:54):
direction.
Perfect. Well, I think one thingI think a lot of people know
about. Law enforcement is thatwe do have policies and
procedures, and while youmentioned it, we'll just cover
it here real quick. But what Idon't think a lot of people
understand is it's a bit likethe Constitution in the fact
that it is a living andbreathing document. We alter, we
change, we we see what what ourcommunity wants or demands, and
(05:15):
we try to make the changesappropriate that keep us,
obviously, well within, withinthe law, but also keeps us
within the, the ethic, ethicalconfines of our business, but
also we we just really try to dowhat's right by the people. So a
lot of people talk about, oh,they violated policy, this, that
(05:36):
and the other. And sometimesthat is the case, sometimes it's
not but policies are fluid. Theyvary from agency to agency. We
are very happy with where oursis, but we also know that ours
is continuing to improve andmove so Stacey is the one who
really is in charge of that aspart of her statutory duties as
(05:56):
UnderSheriff, she is the keeperof all records for the Sheriff's
Office. So that's not just, youknow, fingerprints and pictures
and reports. That's also all ofour internal records as well. So
that's a big part. And then shedidn't mention that she's, she's
basically in charge of ourbudget, she's, she's, yeah,
she's the checkbook, and I'm thepin. And so it's, it's, it's a
(06:20):
an annual duty that we have tothe two of us have to sit down
and decide how it is that we'regoing to spend the money, that
the that the commissioners allowa lot to us, and that that's
been unique over the last fouryears, but, but today I want to
talk more about, so you talkedabout coming up through the
sheriff's office as a deputy,but tell us more about, I mean,
(06:41):
where, where are you from? Whoare you? Why are you here?
Originally? I'm from Manhattan,Kansas. That's, there's a
university there, right? It's atechnical, yeah, ksac, Kansas,
Kansas, Agricultural College.
Stacy Simmons (06:56):
Even in my youth, I was a day Hawk fan. So
Jay Armbrister (07:01):
beautiful beautiful campus. Don't get me
wrong. Love aggieville
Stacy Simmons (07:04):
Absolutely. So yeah, I I knew early on that I
wanted to be in law enforcement.
We used to have a an officer sitin a parking lot by our house,
and all the kids would wouldride bikes to that officer and
get royals and chiefs cards,which is what they used to give
out a long time ago. And soyeah, we'd ride up there, and
that officer would get out, andhe would lay all the cards out
(07:27):
across the hood and let us pick,because we had some we didn't
have some. And so we'd swap andtrade. And it was just it, just
there was something that juststuck with me. And so now,
knowing that he was sittingthere, probably just trying to
get his reports done so we couldget home on time. But, yeah, I
mean, that had an effect on me,just that little, those little
instances.
Jay Armbrister (07:48):
I'll give you two Deron cherries for one
buddy, Bianca Lana and a Jimeisenwright. That's right,
Stacy Simmons (07:53):
that's right. And so yeah, and you know, who knows
where those cards are now. Imean, they were on my bike at
one point, right in that littleclicking. Yeah, he has a huge
impact on me. And so that's allI've ever wanted to do. And so
that that's what I did. I wentto college in hutch, got a two
year degree there for criminaljustice, played softball, played
(08:13):
softball, did some did somecollege softball, then decided I
wanted to get into theworkforce. So here I am. Douglas
County Sheriff's Office wasactually the first place I ever
applied. I didn't even get Ididn't even get a letter back
saying, No, thank you. But Iapplied again when the jail was
opening around 1998 it openedSeptember 99 but I was hired in
(08:36):
98 to work that jail, so I didthat. Came up to the ranks and,
Jay Armbrister (08:42):
yeah, yeah, here's it. So you hired
September of 98 I hired
Stacy Simmons (08:46):
January of 9899
Jay Armbrister (08:49):
99 Yeah, because I hired August of 98 so you were
just right behind
Stacy Simmons (08:53):
me. So I was actually december 28 gotcha of
98 Yeah, yeah. The sheriff forthat time, Lauren Anderson,
asked me when I wanted to start.
I told him, You know, today, fora couple reasons. One, I wanted
to get started into my servingsense badge. I didn't want it to
say, you know, 99 for the entireyear. If it said 98 then it
wouldn't look like the the newperson all year long. So
Jay Armbrister (09:13):
it's safe to say the two of us have been serving
since the late 1900s Yes. Okay,perfect. A lot of knowledge
there. Yeah. So, so as yourcareer moved through the
sheriff's office, you mentionedit that that you had worked
patrol, but then kind of endedup more in the corrections side.
How? How did that come about?
Was it welcome? Was itunwelcome? You know, how did
(09:35):
that work out for you?
Stacy Simmons (09:38):
You know, it went really well. I guess looking
back at the time, I went kickingand screaming on both sides.
Actually, I wanted to be onpatrol, but I knew I was hired
for the jail, and so I workedabout a year and a half on
patrol, and then once that jailgot got kicking, then then they
sent me. And I thought even tothe day that I woke up, that
they they were going to call meand tell me, just kidding, that
I was going to stay on patrol,but that didn't happen. So yeah,
(10:00):
I spent some years in the jail.
You know, that's where you learnto actually handle situations
and de escalate and all thosethings, because you didn't
really have any tools on yourbuild other other than some Bill
keepers and a radio. And inactuality, when we started, we
didn't even have radios. So, soyeah, I mean, I did that, went
back to patrol, got promoted,went back to the jail, spent
(10:22):
some some time over the bookingarea. I spent time in training,
which was my passion, and Iloved it. Spent time back as a
lieutenant, as a shiftsupervisor, and then they were
going to kick me back out topatrol again. And then I went
kicking and screaming. I didn'twant to go to patrol again. So
yeah, I went to patrol and so,yeah, I've spent about half my
(10:42):
career on each side. I will sayI think my passion is more the
correction side than theoperation side, although they're
equally just as important. But,but, yeah, I think what the what
the jail does is one of those,one of those areas that it's
even less known than the actuallaw enforcement side. People
don't even know where the jailis, which is a good thing. Yeah,
(11:04):
it's a good thing. It means, youknow, we're doing the right
things, staying out of the news,you know, not getting sued all
the things. So that's good forthe taxpayers, but it is very
expensive. It's more than halfof our budget. It takes a lot to
run. It takes a lot of knowledgeto run it. We've got some great
folks in there right now. Butyeah, and we get sued all the
time. We get sued and, and Idon't think that the I don't
(11:28):
think the public understandswhat we get sued for. Sometimes,
yeah, we get grievances, often,so much as even a cold biscuit.
They didn't get a warm biscuit,they got a cold biscuit. Or that
person's cake was bigger thanthan mine. They will, they will
literally file grievances awhole bunch of
Jay Armbrister (11:50):
hoops. That's a that was one of the things I
didn't realize as becoming thesheriff, was that I was going to
get my proverbial pants suedoff. And it didn't take long for
it to happen. But luckily,there's a lot of things in
place. Unfortunately, you know,we can't talk about them because
there are a lot of more ongoingand active but, but it happens.
I mean, that's all there is toit. It's just, it's a fact of
(12:11):
life. You're going to get suedfor something or another. But so
far, there have been nosuccessful lawsuits against us
because our folks just really doa good job. Just really, really
do a good job. But again, likeyou said earlier, the the very
best work that our jail staffdoes is at best never seen
because it wasn't bad. And soit's a, it's kind of a, it's a,
(12:34):
it's kind of a sticky situationwhere we wanted, we want to be
to talk about all the greatthings that they do in there.
But also, on the other side, wejust don't want don't want to
bring any attention to it, or,you know, draw any, any ire so
it's a it. We've got, we've gotsome amazing people working out
there, and they've dedicatedtheir careers to law enforcement
through the correctionsdivision,
Stacy Simmons (12:55):
right? It's, um, it's a great, it's a great jail.
It really is. Really is
Jay Armbrister (13:01):
it's, which is kind of an oxymoron, but if you
have to be in jail, you want tobe in ours, right?
Stacy Simmons (13:06):
We know we treat you with respect. We are the
only, I believe we're the onlyprogram in the state of Kansas
that actually has a correctionsAcademy. It's not required by by
law, but it's a eight weekclassroom and then a six week
with a child training officer.
So the days of just handingsomebody your keys and saying,
you know, walk over here withwith Jim Bob, which is what we
(13:27):
got, what we got right? Andthose days are gone. It's a
profession now, and it's treatedlike
Jay Armbrister (13:34):
that, absolutely, absolutely, and our
jail operates on those folks,especially who have who've
certified, who've gone to theacademy and become a deputy, but
don't want to actually go outinto the public and do the law
enforcement on the streets thatyou see their their heart and
their passion is inside thatjail. And so we absolutely
(13:55):
strive to find people who areready to do that, because we
need them. Because we needpeople who can do transports. We
need people who can servewarrants. We need people
warrants. We need people who canwrite reports, file arrest
affidavits, and that kind ofstuff that a certified law
enforcement officer has to do.
But it also takes the burden offof our patrol folks or
Operations Division to have todo that within our jail. So it
has become kind of a selfsubsisting ecosystem within
(14:17):
there for our staffing. But we,I mean, of course, anytime you
talk about jail, I would ratherour jail population be zero, and
that's something that that wewill probably never get to, but
I will say that our our jailpopulation is at a manageable
maximum rate right now, and it'sstayed there because of the hard
work of, you know, our thedistrict attorney's office as
(14:39):
well as our courts. As far askeeping we we can, and we can
talk about this in futureepisodes about the pandemic and
how it affected our jailespecially jail population, and
our criminal justice system as awhole, but we were kind of
right, stuck right there in themiddle with all of that. So
we'll cover that in a future.
(15:00):
One if you want to hear moreabout it. Yeah, just let us
know. But so, so Stacy, tell mewhen. Tell me what's the biggest
difference for you from whereyou are today, as to where you
were on december 28 1998 orwhatever? What? What is the
biggest, A, the biggest changeyou've seen. But also, what if
(15:22):
you could go back? What wouldyou tell her?
Stacy Simmons (15:25):
I would say, Keep fighting. So when I started the
academy that I went to, it hadbooks and it said things like,
make sure you eat what your wifepacks for you for lunch and not
eat out with the boys, becauseshe works really hard to do that
and then not to gossip, or notto come home and tell your wife
(15:46):
what happens while you'reworking, because she will gossip
with the with the rest of theneighbor ladies. Yeah, I'm a
little shy in some ways, butyeah, but in some ways, you say
something like that to me, andyou're gonna know about it. And
so, you know, it was difficult.
And when I started at the jail,the It wasn't much different, in
a way, because women weren'tallowed to work in other housing
(16:11):
units other than the women'shousing unit, and we have one
women's housing unit andmultiple male housing units. And
so it was difficult, you know,how am I supposed to promote?
How if my supervisor supposed tosee me as something more than
just working in this one areafor my career, if I'm not able
to be exposed to those otherareas and to show what I can do?
(16:32):
So there were several of us thatthat I got hired in that area or
that era, and we were veryoutspoken. So there's only a few
of us around now. Some of themjust were like, I can't do this
anymore. But there were some ofus that stuck it out. And so I
would say, Yeah, I keepfighting. That was a big change.
Now it's, it's the issue isn'tso much where they can work and
(16:54):
who can work, where it's just amatter of staffing, yeah, but
it, it doesn't matter if you'remale or female. Now you can work
anywhere, and you're expected towork anywhere, and that's just
how it should be, absolutely
Jay Armbrister (17:07):
and I don't want to say that. I wouldn't say that
we that our agency was rife withtoxic male masculinity. That
wasn't the case, but it was. Itwas a systemic bias against
females in the in the line ofwork that absolutely existed.
And even as a male deputy andcorrections officer, I found
myself being overprotective ofmy female colleagues when I
(17:31):
didn't need to be. They wereperfectly fine. They don't need
me. And in fact, if anything, Ineeded them a whole lot more
than they needed me. And so it'sbeen, you know, and you talk
about the way things are writtenin that, in that patriarchal
speak, so to speak. But itwasn't until this past year that
we've we got a huge change tothe Kansas jail bill, the big
(17:54):
statute that covers jails. Andin that jail bill, up until this
past year, it had a couple ofjust unbelievably archaic
things. But one of them, a is,it only referred to the sheriff
as him or he, but it also hadthings in there that would say,
like, if you had a male andfemale prisoner in your jail who
were legally married, you hadto, you must. You shall house
(18:18):
them together. We hadn't beendoing that for a century. I
mean, I don't know that we'veever done that in the history of
Douglas County, but so it hadsome very nuts and bolts. Needed
changes, but also it gave us theopportunity to finally rewrite
it in the way it should haveoriginally been to where the
sheriff can be anybody as it asit really should be. So so I'm
(18:39):
sorry you had to live throughthat, but thank you for being a
part of that change. I
Stacy Simmons (18:43):
think that in my younger days, too, I saw that as
just, you know, the males notwanting the females in those
areas. But and like you said, ittook me a while to kind of
realize that it was more of aprotective situation for some
even when I was on patrol, someof my, my best friends on
patrol, we would come up to acall and you know there was it
(19:06):
was going to cause some traumalater. And they were even like,
Hey, stay here. Like, I don'tknow what you're talking about,
stay here, but they were justtrying to protect me. And
sometimes it's not always justabout that aspect. It's just
about just wanting to protect
Jay Armbrister (19:19):
Absolutely. No, I I get it so well. So now as as
the UnderSheriff, so how have,how have things, I mean, what's,
what's the view for you?
Stacy Simmons (19:29):
You know, it's a, it's a whole different view from
this level, even as a captain,which is what I was before,
before the Sheriff asked me tobe, to be as UnderSheriff, it
was more of, you know, you'rethinking about running your own
house, and you know everythingabout your house and inside and
outside of your house, but nowit's more about my neighborhood
(19:52):
and what's happening in my wholeneighborhood, and how my house
affects other people's houses,and, you know, that kind of
thing. So I get a. A I get abigger view now, and I realize
that the sheriff's office isn'tin this alone, in just what we
do. There's so many factors andso many stakeholders and so many
other entities that have adirect impact on what we do
(20:14):
every day. And we have to havethose conversations with those
folks, and we have to have wehave to build a bridge, build a
bridge, build a bridge withthose folks, and work with those
folks and be all on the samepage, or, or nothing is going to
get done.
Jay Armbrister (20:26):
Yeah, yeah. No.
I and the way we're built as anagency, I think, to use your
reference of houses, we'rereally two houses, because we
have, we have two very separate,but very distinct divisions in
our Operations Division, whichis like patrol and our
investigations, our courtroomsecurity, our warrants, and then
we have our correctionsdivision, which is the jail. And
they we were split. We werebroken in half in 1999 when they
(20:51):
opened that jail that you and Iboth started in. And since then,
we've been fractured agency likeour our jail staff doesn't know
our patrol staff, our, our, our,if we want to have a meeting
with everybody, we all have totravel to one place. At least
half the people have to make it,make a move. And so, you know,
obviously we're, as thenewspapers probably talked a
(21:14):
little bit about where we're inthe beginning stages of trying
to rectify that with a newbuilding that will be right
nestled right up next to ourjail, which will put make us
basically whole again. But it's,it's really that to kind of
latch on to what you're saying.
It's really hard to know notonly what's going on on the day
to day in a building that's thatyou're not in, but also all the
(21:37):
time. But also, it's hard toknow the people and what they're
see the good. Becauseunfortunately, at times for me,
I only see the bad. I only hearabout the bad when somebody's
made a mistake. But it will be,it'll be really, really nice to
to become a team and a familyagain once we get that finished
up. But we can, that's for alater date. So, so, so as we
(22:00):
move into the future, what doyou kind of, I mean, first off,
can we just kind of assume, youknow, maybe I'm kind of
projecting here, but the firstfour years was kind of a tire
fire that we mostly put out. Itwas, it was really more of us
learning what it was that wasgoing on. But I feel like, I
(22:21):
feel like we came to a goodplace where we understood at
least what we were up against.
We weren't able to tame it, butwe were able to get there. But
as we look into the next fouryears, you know, what's where?
Where are you thinking? Whereare you hoping to get what do
you want
Stacy Simmons (22:34):
to see? Yeah, I think within the last few years,
because we got a pay package,increase, raise for for our
staff. It's actually allowed usto, it's been amazing. Yeah, it
has. Thank you to the countycommissioners for that. It was,
it was it was needed. So, yeah,we're coming up full staff now,
which has been, it hasn't beenfor four years, because we
(22:55):
couldn't, you know, we'recompeting with everybody around
us, yeah, and so we were gettingfull staff, and now I'd like to
see the sheriff's office be ableto do more things in the
community. That's always been apriority, but it's always been
what do we have for staffing?
And so now we're going to begetting we're going to get to
the point where we're going tobe able to do more things, not
only just out in the community,but actually going out maybe,
(23:16):
and trying to work on thisfentanyl problem, putting some
more people in some differentareas to combat some some
serious things that are going onin our community. And so, yeah,
I think that with what'shappening in our our community
as a whole, there's a lot ofactivism, there's a lot of
nonprofits. And, you know, we,we are tied in with those quite
a bit, with different differentagencies asking us to do, not
(23:38):
the
Jay Armbrister (23:40):
activism so much as,
Stacy Simmons (23:42):
yeah, let me, let me. So yeah, I think having that
opportunity to be more impactfulin our community, I know I'll
just, I'll just throw this outat the Pride Parade last year,
we actually weren't welcome.
Yeah, we weren't. I got flippedoff, yeah, and they didn't want
us in the parade at all, andthey didn't want us wearing
certain things, and they and so,you know, just like that, it's
(24:04):
we need to, we need to go outand have more conversations,
yeah, and what we're about andwhat we're willing to do, and
how people are, just people,
Jay Armbrister (24:13):
yeah. And I think that's a perfect example
where at first it was, it washurtful. It really hurt. Because
I know you and I's heart when itcomes to especially initiatives
with our LGBTQ community, butthey didn't know us and and to
your point is like, Well, wehaven't really done a lot of
engagement. They didn't reallyhave a reason to know who we
are, what our heart is allabout. And so I was able to
(24:37):
eventually get over myself,because they weren't mad at me,
they were mad at my uniform. Andit was I looked at it as an
opportunity for us to to earnthat trust back, to build that
relationship. And and thisyear's, that was the first year
in this, this most recent PrideParade, we were welcomed. And it
was just fantastic. You know,great. Everything was great.
(24:58):
And, and. So we, we want tocontinue that partnership, not
only with them, with with thatcommunity, with everybody. And
so Lawrence is an absoluteanomaly, I guess is the right
word. It's unique. You know,it's, you know, like, when
somebody's somebody's child is ais not the best behavior. You
(25:20):
say, Oh, they're reallyspirited. You know, Lawrence can
be pretty spirited sometimes,and but it is where I was born
and raised, and it there'soutside of my family. It's
probably my deepest love is forthis community and for for LFK,
but, but at times, we can't getout of our own way, and so we're
trying to, as an agency, try tobridge that gap, to bring us
(25:42):
back into the conversationsabout, what can we do to make
things better locally. Actlocally. Think, look, think
globally. And I feel like we'restarting to really move the
needle on a lot of those things.
Not that, not that we were doinga bad job previous to our our
administration. I just thinkthat we weren't, we weren't
active, we were just, we alsoweren't defensive. And so we're
(26:04):
trying to get out there and domore. We've got an extremely
strong and and deep and wideNative American population, this
community that I've I've feltfor years, that I personally and
us as the sheriff's office, havefailed to engage with and try to
re establish those lines ofcommunication that were broken
by generations ahead of us,rightfully so. And so it's, it's
(26:27):
really part it's kind of on usto get out there and do that
work. So I'm looking forward toit in the next four years,
because at least now we're goinginto it without our hair being
on fire to start with. And alittle bit more of a clear
vision and goal, so to speak.
So, so, if, if you could, if youcould tell it, what is the one
(26:53):
thing you would want thecommunity it Lawrence and
Douglas County to know about thesheriff's office that you think
that they just don't know. Whatwould that? What's that? One
thing you wish everybody in thiscommunity knew about us. We
Stacy Simmons (27:07):
are not the national narrative. Absolutely
not the national narrative. Itpisses us off just as much
that's cussing, okay? Yes, wesee until we see it's other law
enforcement agencies, other lawenforcement officers, doing
things that are just absolutelynot acceptable, because every
(27:27):
time somebody does somethinglike that, it just brings shame
onto us, 100% of the time. Andwe are. We are. We're not that
national narrative. We areprofessionally trained. And I'm
telling you we we hold eachother accountable. If we were to
somebody, were to step out ofline before we would even know
it at this level, the other theother officers, other deputies,
(27:48):
would already put a stop to thevery hand and basically told
them, You can't work hereanymore, right? I mean, that's
just the way we are. And I wishthat that, you know, there's
800,000 law enforcement officersacross the United States, you
know, so when people say thingsabout the police, please, you
know, please, that's Which one,which police department, which
(28:12):
Sheriff's Office, which officer,which deputy, please, don't lump
us all in together with those800,000 100%
Jay Armbrister (28:19):
I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a
form of prejudice, you know, andI don't it's, it's not the
perfect analogy, and it'll getused to get into me. But people
see us at times, and the uniformwe wear, and they they have a
perceived notion this person isracist, this person is
aggressive, this person failedout of high school. You know,
(28:42):
was bullied. He was bullied.
Yeah, yes, yes. And I'm notsaying I graduated with great
grades out of high school, but Idid not fail. But, you know, and
they, they, they can even upinto the point of they can hate
that person because of the workthey do, and it's really no
different than seeing somebodywearing a yarmulke and assuming
that they are a certain way,seeing somebody wearing, you
(29:04):
know, Native Americanaccouterments and and believing
them to be something that theyare not based solely on that,
but it's also the same as seeingsomebody's color of their skin
and assuming that they are acertain way that is, it's just
pure prejudice. And so again,it's on us to rebuild that in
(29:25):
and and to take it a stepfurther is that, you know, with
the with the murder, and I saymurder, of George Floyd, it
created not only a verydifficult working environment
for law enforcement, but it alsocreated it, and I don't want to
say that anything good came outof the the murder of that of
that poor man, but it created avacuum where law enforcement had
(29:47):
to finally stop and reckon withthe with their past and reckon
with their future. And is thiswho we are? And is this the Is
this what we want to be knownas? And so I. Like in the post
George Floyd era, which happenedto also be the time where you
and I were running for foroffice, the officers, the
specialty administrators wereget, were granted an opportunity
(30:10):
to change and say, You're right.
We have to be better. We have tohold each other accountable. We
have to put measures in place towhere bad cops cannot just move
from agency to agency. And whilethat work has not been done
completely or perfectly, it hasbeen done to some degree. And I
for one, applaud it, and Iwelcome it, and I've been doing
(30:34):
we've been doing our part tomake sure that that happens, but
we still have a long ways to go,and and racism absolutely still
exists in this community that welive, love and work in. But I
feel like as we begin to shinethe light in the dark little
corners and expose those things,I feel like we are creating not
(30:55):
only a culture for lawenforcement in our own little
community, but nationally. Ithink it's beginning to move to
where the good cops are startingto speak up the bad cops realize
they have nowhere to hide. Andthat is exactly that's the best
case scenario. We may not beable to force them out, but they
may, they may take themselvesout. And so that's something
(31:16):
that I feel like. I actuallyfeel like I've seen a tangible
change in the last four yearstowards but us, specifically as
an agency, you know, we've hadsome incidents with with staff
where they have made severemistakes, not only ethically and
with their judgment, butlegally, and we've taken a
strong stance against that. Andso now in somebody be like,
(31:39):
well, you know, people areafraid to work for you because
you're just going to fire them.
Nobody's afraid to nobody'safraid to work for us. People
that work for us right now areglad to be there, but they are
also. They also know that ifthey put, if they if they put us
in the position where we have tomake a decision, we're going to
make the decision based on thefacts and what it is that we
believe is right on what thecommunity tells us they want and
(31:59):
what we believe is right for thefuture of this agency. And if
that means removing somebodyfrom the agency, we do it, and
we've had to do it. It's, it'sthe personnel part of being the
sheriff is the worst part. But Ifeel like we've taken, we've
used these bad situations tocreate change within a culture.
And so sorry, that's, that's megoing on a bit of a diatribe
(32:22):
there. So, and
Stacy Simmons (32:25):
if I could just, I could just say this one thing,
which is just for me, whenever Imeet parents, and, you know,
they come up and with littlekids and they're like, Oh, you
better be good, or they're gonnatake you to jail. Please stop
Jay Armbrister (32:36):
telling your kids I'm gonna kick that parent
right in the shin if they saythat,
Stacy Simmons (32:40):
because you've already said for law
enforcement. I mean, you knowit's, I know you're gonna come
and take you away. Stop sayingthat, please, right off the bat,
and then it grows,
Jay Armbrister (32:52):
yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they're not going
to get their buddy Bianca on acard
Stacy Simmons (32:58):
patrol car.
Jay Armbrister (33:00):
Okay, well, I think we've covered quite a bit
here today. Of course, I'mgonna, I'm gonna end it with a
question that I always askeverybody, and I'm gonna ask all
of my guests this, but what wasyour first concert? What was
your favorite concert, and whatwas your last concert? All
right? And they can't oneconcert can be all three things,
but I will be disappointed.
Stacy Simmons (33:20):
So I'm gonna date myself here. Richard Marx was my
first concert.
Jay Armbrister (33:27):
You're not dating me, because I totally
know who that is.
Stacy Simmons (33:31):
I think pink was probably my favorite, and was
most recent, most recent
Jay Armbrister (33:42):
pink, yeah, say that was just last year within
the last year. Yeah. Okay,Richard marks, Richard Marshall,
Was that your first concert thatyou chose to go to? Or is that
where you drug there? Nope,
Stacy Simmons (33:53):
I chose. I got a brand new pair of Z cavarici
jeans that, you know, buttonedup past your belly button and
with
Jay Armbrister (34:00):
42 belt loops, 15 buttons. Off I went and
George shirts. Well, that's it.
So I spent I grew up in a homewith people who loved music,
they couldn't play music, whichthey passed that on to me. I
love music and I cannot play it,but I got drugged to a lot of
concerts as a child. In fact,looking back now, I saw some
(34:22):
great shows. I got to see likeRoy Orbison and Leslie gore and
the Four Tops and that kind ofstuff. But, but nobody's ever
going to ask me this question,so I'm just going to get my
answers. Now, the very firstconcert that I ever I saved up
my mowing money and went to wasin like, probably 1987 it was
poison, and Brittany Fox openedfor him at sandstone. I still
(34:45):
call it sandstone. And one ofour we had to three, me and
three buddies put our moneytogether, and we had to buy four
tickets because we had to takesomebody's dad to drive us. So
my ticket was like 19. Dollar,but I had to pay like 28 or
whatever it was, and it took memost of the summer to do it, see
my most recent show, man, Iwent, Oh, I know I went and saw
(35:09):
sturdy Simpson or Johnny blueskies, probably sick five months
ago down in out in St Louis. Andso that was amazing. If you ever
get chance to see a show at theFox Theater in St Louis, it's
amazing, favorite concert.
Summer of 94 I summer after mysenior year, graduated high
(35:29):
school playing baseball and hadan opportunity to go see a it
was a it was a big show atsandstone. Again, it was white.
Zombie opened up for Pantera,the original lineup with Dimebag
Daryl, and then they opened upfor Megadeth. And so we, mean,
two buddies hijacked a mom's carand we rolled up there. It was a
(35:53):
long night, and we had a greattime, but that was the greatest
show I've ever seen, for sure,especially being a young man. So
that's it. Anything else youwant to tell the good the seven
people who are mostly related tous that are going to be
listening to
Stacy Simmons (36:08):
this, come talk to us. Yes, come up to any
deputy anywhere, anytime. Yeah,you're going to see exactly what
kind of folks we hire and whatkind of personalities they have.
You'll be surprised. And moreavailable. Yeah,
Jay Armbrister (36:22):
and as well. And come take a tour if you want. I
say we open that to anybody, butthat's a lie. There are certain
people who cannot come. But I'llalso add in a shameless plug for
our Citizens Academy, which isthe application is going on
right now, and it will close onMarch 12 or something, yeah,
(36:44):
something like, I don't knowit's on, but dgso, dot O, R, G
is our website, if you want to,if you want to learn more about
us and what we do. Why we do it?
Come and do this CitizensAcademy, because we're going to
fling the doors open. You'regoing to come in. You're going
to eat jail food with us. You'regoing to learn defensive
tactics. You're going to driveour cars, you're going to you're
going to go out. We're going tohave a day at the range. You'll
(37:04):
get to see the drones and thedogs and the in the get to shoot
our guns and everything. We'regoing to give you an all
inclusive experience into whatit what it takes to be a member
of the Douglas County Sheriff'sOffice. And I tell this story
all the time, but I had a goodfriend that I grew up with,
played baseball with all the wayup through high school. And it
was, it was, I don't it wasn'tGeorge Floyd, but it was one of
(37:27):
the horrible ones of thePhilando castiles or Freddie
Grays, whichever one at Michael.
And so he was very openly vocalon on the Facebook about law
enforcement and the need forchange. And so I just reached
out to him and said, Man, Iwould love for you to come
through this, because A, youwould bring a great perspective
(37:49):
for us, but also B, we I want, Iwant you to see and have the
opportunity to ask questions,the hard questions about why we
do things the way we do them.
And even after that, what sevenweeks, I think, is the at the
end of that, you may not havewalked out change, but at least
you'll know what you're angryabout. And he took me up on it.
(38:09):
He came in and did it, had anamazing time. And when it when
he left, he he basically said,I've learned a lot, but I still
think there needs to be changes.
And I said, Okay, well, what arethey? And he says, You guys have
got to be better about takingcare of your officers mental
health, because you could besending somebody on the streets
who is not well and and Iabsolutely agreed with him on
(38:33):
that, so that that that was oneof that's a success story for me
personally, because he and Istill to this day, are very good
friends, and if I have aquestion or a concern, I would
never hesitate to reach out tohim, but I feel now that he
would do the same for me. And sojust, I just want to tell you
how open and open ended this,this will be for the for the
(38:56):
Citizens Academy, and also, ifyou're afraid to do some of
those things, but you want to bea part of it. You don't have to
participate in everything. Youcan just sit and watch it is a
play at your own speed kind ofprogram. So I think that wraps
it up for us here today, I can'tthink of anything else silly to
talk about. We're going to becoming back. We're going to try
to do these once a month. Thenext one, I'm going to hope to
(39:19):
get one of our communitypartners, maybe Katie
Fitzgerald, who is the in chargeof our criminal justice
coordinating and coordinatingcouncil, get her on here to talk
a little bit more about it, butalso, I hope to have a little
bit of fun, bring some folks inwho can explain some things, but
maybe, maybe have a laugh inbetween. So that does it for us.
Today, I want to thank Stacy forcoming in. You know, she was
(39:41):
only 10 minutes late because shewas in the wrong spot, but it
worked out perfectly. And I justwant to thank all of you for for
tuning in. If you did, hopefullythis will, this will be
something you've, you've, you'velistened to and enjoyed and are
looking forward to the next one.
So signing off for now. I'm JayArmbruster. I. Your Sheriff here
in Douglas County. Thanks a lotfor listening, folks. You.
Ready whenever you are. Yeah, okay, all right.
Well, hey there, Douglas County.
This is Jay Armbruster. I'm yoursheriff for right now, and this
is kind of a foray into a newadventure for us. We're going to
start a podcast, becauseeverybody else makes them look
so cool and sound so awesome,but also it's kind of a good
chance for us to not only talk alittle bit more about the
Douglas County Sheriff. SoSheriff's Office, which which is
(00:22):
your Sheriff's Office, but alsowe want to spend some time
highlighting a lot of ourcommunity partners and the
people who do a lot of heavy,heavy lifting and hard work
behind the scenes. I firmlybelieve that the best work that
that this agency and ourpartners do goes unseen. And so
I think we're going to spendspend a few days in the upcoming
(00:43):
year to try to highlight some ofthose folks and talk about what
it is they do and why they doit. But we're going to kind of
ease into it today. This will beour very first podcast ever. And
so we're both, we're all nervousand a little bit freaked out, so
bear with us as we try to figurethis whole thing out as a the
name of the to the name of thispodcast. We really kind of
(01:06):
lamented over what we're goingto do, but we want this to maybe
have the possibility of movingon into the future with any
future sheriffs, if they shouldso choose. And so we chose the
term view from 100 because inthe Douglas County Sheriff's
Office, we have every deputy,every corrections officer has a
badge number, but we reassignand assign radio numbers, and
(01:26):
the sheriff is always 100 andthen they they change from
there. So the lieutenants are inthe 130s the sergeants are in
the 150s or something like that.
The detectives are in the 120sso you, as you progress through
your through your career, youcould have several different
numbers. And fortunately for me,I've ascended to the position of
(01:50):
100 and so we're going to, kindof, we're kind of going at this
from a view from from where Isit, but also giving me an
opportunity to, kind of toshowcase what, what I want you,
what I would hope you all willtake away from the sheriff's
office. But as we move intothis, today is our very first
day, and we're going to startwith somebody very special, of
course, to me, and somebody veryspecial to you that you may not
(02:12):
even know of, but her name isStacey Simmons, and she is the
UnderSheriff. So she is thenumber two. She's the vice
principal, the Vice President,whatever you want to call it.
She's always joked for yearsthat that I'm the microphone and
she is the clipboard, and wemake the perfect pair.
It's, I've said it 1000 times,is that you're either a leader
(02:34):
or a manager, and leaders leadpeople. Managers manage things,
and you need all you need bothof those things, especially to
run an agency. I myself am lessof a manager, but I am more of a
leader, whereas Stacy isexcellent at both, a rarity in
this world, so to speak. Sowe're just going to sit down.
(02:55):
We're going to have aconversation with your
UnderSheriff, learn, figure outwho she is, why she's here, why
she stays, and what she wants usto know about what she does in
the agency that she and I havededicated so much time to. So
Stacy, thank you for joining meon our podcast. Thank you. Good
morning. Yeah, Sheriff. Said, MyI'm your under sheriff. I am
(03:18):
appointed. The position is alittle bit different than than
any other position in thesheriff's office. The sheriff is
elected and appoints just likethe President would appoint a
vice president. So that is mythat is my role. So I am, you
know, I can come and go anytime,whether that's my choice or not,
but I think, I think, since wegot through the first term and
(03:39):
and he asked me to stay aroundfor the second, I think I'm
doing all right. So, so yeah,four years in, got that next,
next term that we're workingwith. I've worked for the
sheriff's office about 26 yearsnow. I started out as a deputy,
doing what deputies do, justlike what they do now, working
(03:59):
patrol, working courtroomsecurity. I've worked at jail,
worked lots of differentpositions in the sheriff's
office, and as a sheriff and Ikind of came up together. We did
take different roles. Him beingdetective, I was more jail. So
as we came up, we just kind of
Stacy Simmons (04:17):
got together, I guess, in a way that he did say
it's the clipboard, and he is.
He's the megaphone. So mycomfort level is not exactly
what his comfort level is.
Today.
I'm more making sure policiesand procedures are that we're
following those that we'rehaving the correct policies and
procedures for what we do,making sure all of our staff is
(04:40):
appropriately trained that havethe right equipment that they
need, they get the things thatthey need. So, you know, I'm I
take my orders from the sheriff,and so He leads me in the right
direction, and I'm hoping tolead the sheriff's office in the
right
Jay Armbrister (04:54):
direction.
Perfect. Well, I think one thingI think a lot of people know
about. Law enforcement is thatwe do have policies and
procedures, and while youmentioned it, we'll just cover
it here real quick. But what Idon't think a lot of people
understand is it's a bit likethe Constitution in the fact
that it is a living andbreathing document. We alter, we
change, we we see what what ourcommunity wants or demands, and
(05:15):
we try to make the changesappropriate that keep us,
obviously, well within, withinthe law, but also keeps us
within the, the ethic, ethicalconfines of our business, but
also we we just really try to dowhat's right by the people. So a
lot of people talk about, oh,they violated policy, this, that
(05:36):
and the other. And sometimesthat is the case, sometimes it's
not but policies are fluid. Theyvary from agency to agency. We
are very happy with where oursis, but we also know that ours
is continuing to improve andmove so Stacey is the one who
really is in charge of that aspart of her statutory duties as
(05:56):
UnderSheriff, she is the keeperof all records for the Sheriff's
Office. So that's not just, youknow, fingerprints and pictures
and reports. That's also all ofour internal records as well. So
that's a big part. And then shedidn't mention that she's, she's
basically in charge of ourbudget, she's, she's, yeah,
she's the checkbook, and I'm thepin. And so it's, it's, it's a
(06:20):
an annual duty that we have tothe two of us have to sit down
and decide how it is that we'regoing to spend the money, that
the that the commissioners allowa lot to us, and that that's
been unique over the last fouryears, but, but today I want to
talk more about, so you talkedabout coming up through the
sheriff's office as a deputy,but tell us more about, I mean,
(06:41):
where, where are you from? Whoare you? Why are you here?
Originally? I'm from Manhattan,Kansas. That's, there's a
university there, right? It's atechnical, yeah, ksac, Kansas,
Kansas, Agricultural College.
Stacy Simmons (06:56):
Even in my youth, I was a day Hawk fan. So
Jay Armbrister (07:01):
beautiful beautiful campus. Don't get me
wrong. Love aggieville
Stacy Simmons (07:04):
Absolutely. So yeah, I I knew early on that I
wanted to be in law enforcement.
We used to have a an officer sitin a parking lot by our house,
and all the kids would wouldride bikes to that officer and
get royals and chiefs cards,which is what they used to give
out a long time ago. And soyeah, we'd ride up there, and
that officer would get out, andhe would lay all the cards out
(07:27):
across the hood and let us pick,because we had some we didn't
have some. And so we'd swap andtrade. And it was just it, just
there was something that juststuck with me. And so now,
knowing that he was sittingthere, probably just trying to
get his reports done so we couldget home on time. But, yeah, I
mean, that had an effect on me,just that little, those little
instances.
Jay Armbrister (07:48):
I'll give you two Deron cherries for one
buddy, Bianca Lana and a Jimeisenwright. That's right,
Stacy Simmons (07:53):
that's right. And so yeah, and you know, who knows
where those cards are now. Imean, they were on my bike at
one point, right in that littleclicking. Yeah, he has a huge
impact on me. And so that's allI've ever wanted to do. And so
that that's what I did. I wentto college in hutch, got a two
year degree there for criminaljustice, played softball, played
(08:13):
softball, did some did somecollege softball, then decided I
wanted to get into theworkforce. So here I am. Douglas
County Sheriff's Office wasactually the first place I ever
applied. I didn't even get Ididn't even get a letter back
saying, No, thank you. But Iapplied again when the jail was
opening around 1998 it openedSeptember 99 but I was hired in
(08:36):
98 to work that jail, so I didthat. Came up to the ranks and,
Jay Armbrister (08:42):
yeah, yeah, here's it. So you hired
September of 98 I hired
Stacy Simmons (08:46):
January of 9899
Jay Armbrister (08:49):
99 Yeah, because I hired August of 98 so you were
just right behind
Stacy Simmons (08:53):
me. So I was actually december 28 gotcha of
98 Yeah, yeah. The sheriff forthat time, Lauren Anderson,
asked me when I wanted to start.
I told him, You know, today, fora couple reasons. One, I wanted
to get started into my servingsense badge. I didn't want it to
say, you know, 99 for the entireyear. If it said 98 then it
wouldn't look like the the newperson all year long. So
Jay Armbrister (09:13):
it's safe to say the two of us have been serving
since the late 1900s Yes. Okay,perfect. A lot of knowledge
there. Yeah. So, so as yourcareer moved through the
sheriff's office, you mentionedit that that you had worked
patrol, but then kind of endedup more in the corrections side.
How? How did that come about?
Was it welcome? Was itunwelcome? You know, how did
(09:35):
that work out for you?
Stacy Simmons (09:38):
You know, it went really well. I guess looking
back at the time, I went kickingand screaming on both sides.
Actually, I wanted to be onpatrol, but I knew I was hired
for the jail, and so I workedabout a year and a half on
patrol, and then once that jailgot got kicking, then then they
sent me. And I thought even tothe day that I woke up, that
they they were going to call meand tell me, just kidding, that
I was going to stay on patrol,but that didn't happen. So yeah,
(10:00):
I spent some years in the jail.
You know, that's where you learnto actually handle situations
and de escalate and all thosethings, because you didn't
really have any tools on yourbuild other other than some Bill
keepers and a radio. And inactuality, when we started, we
didn't even have radios. So, soyeah, I mean, I did that, went
back to patrol, got promoted,went back to the jail, spent
(10:22):
some some time over the bookingarea. I spent time in training,
which was my passion, and Iloved it. Spent time back as a
lieutenant, as a shiftsupervisor, and then they were
going to kick me back out topatrol again. And then I went
kicking and screaming. I didn'twant to go to patrol again. So
yeah, I went to patrol and so,yeah, I've spent about half my
(10:42):
career on each side. I will sayI think my passion is more the
correction side than theoperation side, although they're
equally just as important. But,but, yeah, I think what the what
the jail does is one of those,one of those areas that it's
even less known than the actuallaw enforcement side. People
don't even know where the jailis, which is a good thing. Yeah,
(11:04):
it's a good thing. It means, youknow, we're doing the right
things, staying out of the news,you know, not getting sued all
the things. So that's good forthe taxpayers, but it is very
expensive. It's more than halfof our budget. It takes a lot to
run. It takes a lot of knowledgeto run it. We've got some great
folks in there right now. Butyeah, and we get sued all the
time. We get sued and, and Idon't think that the I don't
(11:28):
think the public understandswhat we get sued for. Sometimes,
yeah, we get grievances, often,so much as even a cold biscuit.
They didn't get a warm biscuit,they got a cold biscuit. Or that
person's cake was bigger thanthan mine. They will, they will
literally file grievances awhole bunch of
Jay Armbrister (11:50):
hoops. That's a that was one of the things I
didn't realize as becoming thesheriff, was that I was going to
get my proverbial pants suedoff. And it didn't take long for
it to happen. But luckily,there's a lot of things in
place. Unfortunately, you know,we can't talk about them because
there are a lot of more ongoingand active but, but it happens.
I mean, that's all there is toit. It's just, it's a fact of
(12:11):
life. You're going to get suedfor something or another. But so
far, there have been nosuccessful lawsuits against us
because our folks just really doa good job. Just really, really
do a good job. But again, likeyou said earlier, the the very
best work that our jail staffdoes is at best never seen
because it wasn't bad. And soit's a, it's kind of a, it's a,
(12:34):
it's kind of a sticky situationwhere we wanted, we want to be
to talk about all the greatthings that they do in there.
But also, on the other side, wejust don't want don't want to
bring any attention to it, or,you know, draw any, any ire so
it's a it. We've got, we've gotsome amazing people working out
there, and they've dedicatedtheir careers to law enforcement
through the correctionsdivision,
Stacy Simmons (12:55):
right? It's, um, it's a great, it's a great jail.
It really is. Really is
Jay Armbrister (13:01):
it's, which is kind of an oxymoron, but if you
have to be in jail, you want tobe in ours, right?
Stacy Simmons (13:06):
We know we treat you with respect. We are the
only, I believe we're the onlyprogram in the state of Kansas
that actually has a correctionsAcademy. It's not required by by
law, but it's a eight weekclassroom and then a six week
with a child training officer.
So the days of just handingsomebody your keys and saying,
you know, walk over here withwith Jim Bob, which is what we
(13:27):
got, what we got right? Andthose days are gone. It's a
profession now, and it's treatedlike
Jay Armbrister (13:34):
that, absolutely, absolutely, and our
jail operates on those folks,especially who have who've
certified, who've gone to theacademy and become a deputy, but
don't want to actually go outinto the public and do the law
enforcement on the streets thatyou see their their heart and
their passion is inside thatjail. And so we absolutely
(13:55):
strive to find people who areready to do that, because we
need them. Because we needpeople who can do transports. We
need people who can servewarrants. We need people
warrants. We need people who canwrite reports, file arrest
affidavits, and that kind ofstuff that a certified law
enforcement officer has to do.
But it also takes the burden offof our patrol folks or
Operations Division to have todo that within our jail. So it
has become kind of a selfsubsisting ecosystem within
(14:17):
there for our staffing. But we,I mean, of course, anytime you
talk about jail, I would ratherour jail population be zero, and
that's something that that wewill probably never get to, but
I will say that our our jailpopulation is at a manageable
maximum rate right now, and it'sstayed there because of the hard
work of, you know, our thedistrict attorney's office as
(14:39):
well as our courts. As far askeeping we we can, and we can
talk about this in futureepisodes about the pandemic and
how it affected our jailespecially jail population, and
our criminal justice system as awhole, but we were kind of
right, stuck right there in themiddle with all of that. So
we'll cover that in a future.
(15:00):
One if you want to hear moreabout it. Yeah, just let us
know. But so, so Stacy, tell mewhen. Tell me what's the biggest
difference for you from whereyou are today, as to where you
were on december 28 1998 orwhatever? What? What is the
biggest, A, the biggest changeyou've seen. But also, what if
(15:22):
you could go back? What wouldyou tell her?
Stacy Simmons (15:25):
I would say, Keep fighting. So when I started the
academy that I went to, it hadbooks and it said things like,
make sure you eat what your wifepacks for you for lunch and not
eat out with the boys, becauseshe works really hard to do that
and then not to gossip, or notto come home and tell your wife
(15:46):
what happens while you'reworking, because she will gossip
with the with the rest of theneighbor ladies. Yeah, I'm a
little shy in some ways, butyeah, but in some ways, you say
something like that to me, andyou're gonna know about it. And
so, you know, it was difficult.
And when I started at the jail,the It wasn't much different, in
a way, because women weren'tallowed to work in other housing
(16:11):
units other than the women'shousing unit, and we have one
women's housing unit andmultiple male housing units. And
so it was difficult, you know,how am I supposed to promote?
How if my supervisor supposed tosee me as something more than
just working in this one areafor my career, if I'm not able
to be exposed to those otherareas and to show what I can do?
(16:32):
So there were several of us thatthat I got hired in that area or
that era, and we were veryoutspoken. So there's only a few
of us around now. Some of themjust were like, I can't do this
anymore. But there were some ofus that stuck it out. And so I
would say, Yeah, I keepfighting. That was a big change.
Now it's, it's the issue isn'tso much where they can work and
(16:54):
who can work, where it's just amatter of staffing, yeah, but
it, it doesn't matter if you'remale or female. Now you can work
anywhere, and you're expected towork anywhere, and that's just
how it should be, absolutely
Jay Armbrister (17:07):
and I don't want to say that. I wouldn't say that
we that our agency was rife withtoxic male masculinity. That
wasn't the case, but it was. Itwas a systemic bias against
females in the in the line ofwork that absolutely existed.
And even as a male deputy andcorrections officer, I found
myself being overprotective ofmy female colleagues when I
(17:31):
didn't need to be. They wereperfectly fine. They don't need
me. And in fact, if anything, Ineeded them a whole lot more
than they needed me. And so it'sbeen, you know, and you talk
about the way things are writtenin that, in that patriarchal
speak, so to speak. But itwasn't until this past year that
we've we got a huge change tothe Kansas jail bill, the big
(17:54):
statute that covers jails. Andin that jail bill, up until this
past year, it had a couple ofjust unbelievably archaic
things. But one of them, a is,it only referred to the sheriff
as him or he, but it also hadthings in there that would say,
like, if you had a male andfemale prisoner in your jail who
were legally married, you hadto, you must. You shall house
(18:18):
them together. We hadn't beendoing that for a century. I
mean, I don't know that we'veever done that in the history of
Douglas County, but so it hadsome very nuts and bolts. Needed
changes, but also it gave us theopportunity to finally rewrite
it in the way it should haveoriginally been to where the
sheriff can be anybody as it asit really should be. So so I'm
(18:39):
sorry you had to live throughthat, but thank you for being a
part of that change. I
Stacy Simmons (18:43):
think that in my younger days, too, I saw that as
just, you know, the males notwanting the females in those
areas. But and like you said, ittook me a while to kind of
realize that it was more of aprotective situation for some
even when I was on patrol, someof my, my best friends on
patrol, we would come up to acall and you know there was it
(19:06):
was going to cause some traumalater. And they were even like,
Hey, stay here. Like, I don'tknow what you're talking about,
stay here, but they were justtrying to protect me. And
sometimes it's not always justabout that aspect. It's just
about just wanting to protect
Jay Armbrister (19:19):
Absolutely. No, I I get it so well. So now as as
the UnderSheriff, so how have,how have things, I mean, what's,
what's the view for you?
Stacy Simmons (19:29):
You know, it's a, it's a whole different view from
this level, even as a captain,which is what I was before,
before the Sheriff asked me tobe, to be as UnderSheriff, it
was more of, you know, you'rethinking about running your own
house, and you know everythingabout your house and inside and
outside of your house, but nowit's more about my neighborhood
(19:52):
and what's happening in my wholeneighborhood, and how my house
affects other people's houses,and, you know, that kind of
thing. So I get a. A I get abigger view now, and I realize
that the sheriff's office isn'tin this alone, in just what we
do. There's so many factors andso many stakeholders and so many
other entities that have adirect impact on what we do
(20:14):
every day. And we have to havethose conversations with those
folks, and we have to have wehave to build a bridge, build a
bridge, build a bridge withthose folks, and work with those
folks and be all on the samepage, or, or nothing is going to
get done.
Jay Armbrister (20:26):
Yeah, yeah. No.
I and the way we're built as anagency, I think, to use your
reference of houses, we'rereally two houses, because we
have, we have two very separate,but very distinct divisions in
our Operations Division, whichis like patrol and our
investigations, our courtroomsecurity, our warrants, and then
we have our correctionsdivision, which is the jail. And
they we were split. We werebroken in half in 1999 when they
(20:51):
opened that jail that you and Iboth started in. And since then,
we've been fractured agency likeour our jail staff doesn't know
our patrol staff, our, our, our,if we want to have a meeting
with everybody, we all have totravel to one place. At least
half the people have to make it,make a move. And so, you know,
obviously we're, as thenewspapers probably talked a
(21:14):
little bit about where we're inthe beginning stages of trying
to rectify that with a newbuilding that will be right
nestled right up next to ourjail, which will put make us
basically whole again. But it's,it's really that to kind of
latch on to what you're saying.
It's really hard to know notonly what's going on on the day
to day in a building that's thatyou're not in, but also all the
(21:37):
time. But also, it's hard toknow the people and what they're
see the good. Becauseunfortunately, at times for me,
I only see the bad. I only hearabout the bad when somebody's
made a mistake. But it will be,it'll be really, really nice to
to become a team and a familyagain once we get that finished
up. But we can, that's for alater date. So, so, so as we
(22:00):
move into the future, what doyou kind of, I mean, first off,
can we just kind of assume, youknow, maybe I'm kind of
projecting here, but the firstfour years was kind of a tire
fire that we mostly put out. Itwas, it was really more of us
learning what it was that wasgoing on. But I feel like, I
(22:21):
feel like we came to a goodplace where we understood at
least what we were up against.
We weren't able to tame it, butwe were able to get there. But
as we look into the next fouryears, you know, what's where?
Where are you thinking? Whereare you hoping to get what do
you want
Stacy Simmons (22:34):
to see? Yeah, I think within the last few years,
because we got a pay package,increase, raise for for our
staff. It's actually allowed usto, it's been amazing. Yeah, it
has. Thank you to the countycommissioners for that. It was,
it was it was needed. So, yeah,we're coming up full staff now,
which has been, it hasn't beenfor four years, because we
(22:55):
couldn't, you know, we'recompeting with everybody around
us, yeah, and so we were gettingfull staff, and now I'd like to
see the sheriff's office be ableto do more things in the
community. That's always been apriority, but it's always been
what do we have for staffing?
And so now we're going to begetting we're going to get to
the point where we're going tobe able to do more things, not
only just out in the community,but actually going out maybe,
(23:16):
and trying to work on thisfentanyl problem, putting some
more people in some differentareas to combat some some
serious things that are going onin our community. And so, yeah,
I think that with what'shappening in our our community
as a whole, there's a lot ofactivism, there's a lot of
nonprofits. And, you know, we,we are tied in with those quite
a bit, with different differentagencies asking us to do, not
(23:38):
the
Jay Armbrister (23:40):
activism so much as,
Stacy Simmons (23:42):
yeah, let me, let me. So yeah, I think having that
opportunity to be more impactfulin our community, I know I'll
just, I'll just throw this outat the Pride Parade last year,
we actually weren't welcome.
Yeah, we weren't. I got flippedoff, yeah, and they didn't want
us in the parade at all, andthey didn't want us wearing
certain things, and they and so,you know, just like that, it's
(24:04):
we need to, we need to go outand have more conversations,
yeah, and what we're about andwhat we're willing to do, and
how people are, just people,
Jay Armbrister (24:13):
yeah. And I think that's a perfect example
where at first it was, it washurtful. It really hurt. Because
I know you and I's heart when itcomes to especially initiatives
with our LGBTQ community, butthey didn't know us and and to
your point is like, Well, wehaven't really done a lot of
engagement. They didn't reallyhave a reason to know who we
are, what our heart is allabout. And so I was able to
(24:37):
eventually get over myself,because they weren't mad at me,
they were mad at my uniform. Andit was I looked at it as an
opportunity for us to to earnthat trust back, to build that
relationship. And and thisyear's, that was the first year
in this, this most recent PrideParade, we were welcomed. And it
was just fantastic. You know,great. Everything was great.
(24:58):
And, and. So we, we want tocontinue that partnership, not
only with them, with with thatcommunity, with everybody. And
so Lawrence is an absoluteanomaly, I guess is the right
word. It's unique. You know,it's, you know, like, when
somebody's somebody's child is ais not the best behavior. You
(25:20):
say, Oh, they're reallyspirited. You know, Lawrence can
be pretty spirited sometimes,and but it is where I was born
and raised, and it there'soutside of my family. It's
probably my deepest love is forthis community and for for LFK,
but, but at times, we can't getout of our own way, and so we're
trying to, as an agency, try tobridge that gap, to bring us
(25:42):
back into the conversationsabout, what can we do to make
things better locally. Actlocally. Think, look, think
globally. And I feel like we'restarting to really move the
needle on a lot of those things.
Not that, not that we were doinga bad job previous to our our
administration. I just thinkthat we weren't, we weren't
active, we were just, we alsoweren't defensive. And so we're
(26:04):
trying to get out there and domore. We've got an extremely
strong and and deep and wideNative American population, this
community that I've I've feltfor years, that I personally and
us as the sheriff's office, havefailed to engage with and try to
re establish those lines ofcommunication that were broken
by generations ahead of us,rightfully so. And so it's, it's
(26:27):
really part it's kind of on usto get out there and do that
work. So I'm looking forward toit in the next four years,
because at least now we're goinginto it without our hair being
on fire to start with. And alittle bit more of a clear
vision and goal, so to speak.
So, so, if, if you could, if youcould tell it, what is the one
(26:53):
thing you would want thecommunity it Lawrence and
Douglas County to know about thesheriff's office that you think
that they just don't know. Whatwould that? What's that? One
thing you wish everybody in thiscommunity knew about us. We
Stacy Simmons (27:07):
are not the national narrative. Absolutely
not the national narrative. Itpisses us off just as much
that's cussing, okay? Yes, wesee until we see it's other law
enforcement agencies, other lawenforcement officers, doing
things that are just absolutelynot acceptable, because every
(27:27):
time somebody does somethinglike that, it just brings shame
onto us, 100% of the time. Andwe are. We are. We're not that
national narrative. We areprofessionally trained. And I'm
telling you we we hold eachother accountable. If we were to
somebody, were to step out ofline before we would even know
it at this level, the other theother officers, other deputies,
(27:48):
would already put a stop to thevery hand and basically told
them, You can't work hereanymore, right? I mean, that's
just the way we are. And I wishthat that, you know, there's
800,000 law enforcement officersacross the United States, you
know, so when people say thingsabout the police, please, you
know, please, that's Which one,which police department, which
(28:12):
Sheriff's Office, which officer,which deputy, please, don't lump
us all in together with those800,000 100%
Jay Armbrister (28:19):
I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a
form of prejudice, you know, andI don't it's, it's not the
perfect analogy, and it'll getused to get into me. But people
see us at times, and the uniformwe wear, and they they have a
perceived notion this person isracist, this person is
aggressive, this person failedout of high school. You know,
(28:42):
was bullied. He was bullied.
Yeah, yes, yes. And I'm notsaying I graduated with great
grades out of high school, but Idid not fail. But, you know, and
they, they, they can even upinto the point of they can hate
that person because of the workthey do, and it's really no
different than seeing somebodywearing a yarmulke and assuming
that they are a certain way,seeing somebody wearing, you
(29:04):
know, Native Americanaccouterments and and believing
them to be something that theyare not based solely on that,
but it's also the same as seeingsomebody's color of their skin
and assuming that they are acertain way that is, it's just
pure prejudice. And so again,it's on us to rebuild that in
(29:25):
and and to take it a stepfurther is that, you know, with
the with the murder, and I saymurder, of George Floyd, it
created not only a verydifficult working environment
for law enforcement, but it alsocreated it, and I don't want to
say that anything good came outof the the murder of that of
that poor man, but it created avacuum where law enforcement had
(29:47):
to finally stop and reckon withthe with their past and reckon
with their future. And is thiswho we are? And is this the Is
this what we want to be knownas? And so I. Like in the post
George Floyd era, which happenedto also be the time where you
and I were running for foroffice, the officers, the
specialty administrators wereget, were granted an opportunity
(30:10):
to change and say, You're right.
We have to be better. We have tohold each other accountable. We
have to put measures in place towhere bad cops cannot just move
from agency to agency. And whilethat work has not been done
completely or perfectly, it hasbeen done to some degree. And I
for one, applaud it, and Iwelcome it, and I've been doing
(30:34):
we've been doing our part tomake sure that that happens, but
we still have a long ways to go,and and racism absolutely still
exists in this community that welive, love and work in. But I
feel like as we begin to shinethe light in the dark little
corners and expose those things,I feel like we are creating not
(30:55):
only a culture for lawenforcement in our own little
community, but nationally. Ithink it's beginning to move to
where the good cops are startingto speak up the bad cops realize
they have nowhere to hide. Andthat is exactly that's the best
case scenario. We may not beable to force them out, but they
may, they may take themselvesout. And so that's something
(31:16):
that I feel like. I actuallyfeel like I've seen a tangible
change in the last four yearstowards but us, specifically as
an agency, you know, we've hadsome incidents with with staff
where they have made severemistakes, not only ethically and
with their judgment, butlegally, and we've taken a
strong stance against that. Andso now in somebody be like,
(31:39):
well, you know, people areafraid to work for you because
you're just going to fire them.
Nobody's afraid to nobody'safraid to work for us. People
that work for us right now areglad to be there, but they are
also. They also know that ifthey put, if they if they put us
in the position where we have tomake a decision, we're going to
make the decision based on thefacts and what it is that we
believe is right on what thecommunity tells us they want and
(31:59):
what we believe is right for thefuture of this agency. And if
that means removing somebodyfrom the agency, we do it, and
we've had to do it. It's, it'sthe personnel part of being the
sheriff is the worst part. But Ifeel like we've taken, we've
used these bad situations tocreate change within a culture.
And so sorry, that's, that's megoing on a bit of a diatribe
(32:22):
there. So, and
Stacy Simmons (32:25):
if I could just, I could just say this one thing,
which is just for me, whenever Imeet parents, and, you know,
they come up and with littlekids and they're like, Oh, you
better be good, or they're gonnatake you to jail. Please stop
Jay Armbrister (32:36):
telling your kids I'm gonna kick that parent
right in the shin if they saythat,
Stacy Simmons (32:40):
because you've already said for law
enforcement. I mean, you knowit's, I know you're gonna come
and take you away. Stop sayingthat, please, right off the bat,
and then it grows,
Jay Armbrister (32:52):
yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they're not going
to get their buddy Bianca on acard
Stacy Simmons (32:58):
patrol car.
Jay Armbrister (33:00):
Okay, well, I think we've covered quite a bit
here today. Of course, I'mgonna, I'm gonna end it with a
question that I always askeverybody, and I'm gonna ask all
of my guests this, but what wasyour first concert? What was
your favorite concert, and whatwas your last concert? All
right? And they can't oneconcert can be all three things,
but I will be disappointed.
Stacy Simmons (33:20):
So I'm gonna date myself here. Richard Marx was my
first concert.
Jay Armbrister (33:27):
You're not dating me, because I totally
know who that is.
Stacy Simmons (33:31):
I think pink was probably my favorite, and was
most recent, most recent
Jay Armbrister (33:42):
pink, yeah, say that was just last year within
the last year. Yeah. Okay,Richard marks, Richard Marshall,
Was that your first concert thatyou chose to go to? Or is that
where you drug there? Nope,
Stacy Simmons (33:53):
I chose. I got a brand new pair of Z cavarici
jeans that, you know, buttonedup past your belly button and
with
Jay Armbrister (34:00):
42 belt loops, 15 buttons. Off I went and
George shirts. Well, that's it.
So I spent I grew up in a homewith people who loved music,
they couldn't play music, whichthey passed that on to me. I
love music and I cannot play it,but I got drugged to a lot of
concerts as a child. In fact,looking back now, I saw some
(34:22):
great shows. I got to see likeRoy Orbison and Leslie gore and
the Four Tops and that kind ofstuff. But, but nobody's ever
going to ask me this question,so I'm just going to get my
answers. Now, the very firstconcert that I ever I saved up
my mowing money and went to wasin like, probably 1987 it was
poison, and Brittany Fox openedfor him at sandstone. I still
(34:45):
call it sandstone. And one ofour we had to three, me and
three buddies put our moneytogether, and we had to buy four
tickets because we had to takesomebody's dad to drive us. So
my ticket was like 19. Dollar,but I had to pay like 28 or
whatever it was, and it took memost of the summer to do it, see
my most recent show, man, Iwent, Oh, I know I went and saw
(35:09):
sturdy Simpson or Johnny blueskies, probably sick five months
ago down in out in St Louis. Andso that was amazing. If you ever
get chance to see a show at theFox Theater in St Louis, it's
amazing, favorite concert.
Summer of 94 I summer after mysenior year, graduated high
(35:29):
school playing baseball and hadan opportunity to go see a it
was a it was a big show atsandstone. Again, it was white.
Zombie opened up for Pantera,the original lineup with Dimebag
Daryl, and then they opened upfor Megadeth. And so we, mean,
two buddies hijacked a mom's carand we rolled up there. It was a
(35:53):
long night, and we had a greattime, but that was the greatest
show I've ever seen, for sure,especially being a young man. So
that's it. Anything else youwant to tell the good the seven
people who are mostly related tous that are going to be
listening to
Stacy Simmons (36:08):
this, come talk to us. Yes, come up to any
deputy anywhere, anytime. Yeah,you're going to see exactly what
kind of folks we hire and whatkind of personalities they have.
You'll be surprised. And moreavailable. Yeah,
Jay Armbrister (36:22):
and as well. And come take a tour if you want. I
say we open that to anybody, butthat's a lie. There are certain
people who cannot come. But I'llalso add in a shameless plug for
our Citizens Academy, which isthe application is going on
right now, and it will close onMarch 12 or something, yeah,
(36:44):
something like, I don't knowit's on, but dgso, dot O, R, G
is our website, if you want to,if you want to learn more about
us and what we do. Why we do it?
Come and do this CitizensAcademy, because we're going to
fling the doors open. You'regoing to come in. You're going
to eat jail food with us. You'regoing to learn defensive
tactics. You're going to driveour cars, you're going to you're
going to go out. We're going tohave a day at the range. You'll
(37:04):
get to see the drones and thedogs and the in the get to shoot
our guns and everything. We'regoing to give you an all
inclusive experience into whatit what it takes to be a member
of the Douglas County Sheriff'sOffice. And I tell this story
all the time, but I had a goodfriend that I grew up with,
played baseball with all the wayup through high school. And it
was, it was, I don't it wasn'tGeorge Floyd, but it was one of
(37:27):
the horrible ones of thePhilando castiles or Freddie
Grays, whichever one at Michael.
And so he was very openly vocalon on the Facebook about law
enforcement and the need forchange. And so I just reached
out to him and said, Man, Iwould love for you to come
through this, because A, youwould bring a great perspective
(37:49):
for us, but also B, we I want, Iwant you to see and have the
opportunity to ask questions,the hard questions about why we
do things the way we do them.
And even after that, what sevenweeks, I think, is the at the
end of that, you may not havewalked out change, but at least
you'll know what you're angryabout. And he took me up on it.
(38:09):
He came in and did it, had anamazing time. And when it when
he left, he he basically said,I've learned a lot, but I still
think there needs to be changes.
And I said, Okay, well, what arethey? And he says, You guys have
got to be better about takingcare of your officers mental
health, because you could besending somebody on the streets
who is not well and and Iabsolutely agreed with him on
(38:33):
that, so that that that was oneof that's a success story for me
personally, because he and Istill to this day, are very good
friends, and if I have aquestion or a concern, I would
never hesitate to reach out tohim, but I feel now that he
would do the same for me. And sojust, I just want to tell you
how open and open ended this,this will be for the for the
(38:56):
Citizens Academy, and also, ifyou're afraid to do some of
those things, but you want to bea part of it. You don't have to
participate in everything. Youcan just sit and watch it is a
play at your own speed kind ofprogram. So I think that wraps
it up for us here today, I can'tthink of anything else silly to
talk about. We're going to becoming back. We're going to try
to do these once a month. Thenext one, I'm going to hope to
(39:19):
get one of our communitypartners, maybe Katie
Fitzgerald, who is the in chargeof our criminal justice
coordinating and coordinatingcouncil, get her on here to talk
a little bit more about it, butalso, I hope to have a little
bit of fun, bring some folks inwho can explain some things, but
maybe, maybe have a laugh inbetween. So that does it for us.
Today, I want to thank Stacy forcoming in. You know, she was
(39:41):
only 10 minutes late because shewas in the wrong spot, but it
worked out perfectly. And I justwant to thank all of you for for
tuning in. If you did, hopefullythis will, this will be
something you've, you've, you'velistened to and enjoyed and are
looking forward to the next one.
So signing off for now. I'm JayArmbruster. I. Your Sheriff here
in Douglas County. Thanks a lotfor listening, folks. You.
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