Analyst Talk - Jennifer Baggett - Caring Through Data - Leapodcasts

Episode Transcript
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(00:23):
Welcome to Analyst Talk with Jason Elder.
It's like coffee with an analyst,or it could be whiskey with an
analyst reading a spreadsheet,linking crime events, identifying a
series, and getting the latest scoopon association news and training.
So please don't beat that analyst andjoin us as we define the law enforcement
analysis profession one episode at time.
Thank you for joining me.
I hope many aspects ofyour life are progressing.

(00:45):
My name is Jason Elder, and today ourguest has 10 years of law enforcement
analysis experience, both with theChattanooga Police Department and the
Hamilton County government in Tennessee.
She's an award-winning analyst.
Holds an MBA from theUniversity of Phoenix.
She's here to talk about,among other things, physical

(01:05):
health and social harm data.
Please welcome Jennifer Baggett.
Jennifer, how we doing,
man?
If I was any better, it'd be illegal.
Hello, Jason?
Yes, yes, yes.. It'sa pleasure to be here.
I I appreciate it.
It was, it was interesting in theprep call that your name for whatever

(01:25):
reason escaped my memory, but when Isaw your face, I'm like, I know Jen.
Yes.
You're, you're all famous.
So I was all nervous, but I wasglad that you recognized me.
Oh, man.
No.
So it's, it's been a while, butit's, it was great to catch up
yesterday and I'm looking forwardto getting your story here today.

(01:47):
Excellent.
So how did you discover the lawenforcement analysis profession?
Oh boy.
Well in short, I discoveredthe law enforcement analyst
profession by accident.
I probably shouldn't bean analyst to this day.
I went to college.
I went to the Universityof TE at Chattanooga.
My first year I wasactually a theater major.

(02:09):
About a year into, college, I realizedvery quickly that it probably wasn't for
me to major in and I probably couldn't geta job in theater unless I wanted to teach.
So I decided to go to my counselor andtell her I didn't wanna be a theater
major, but what else could I do thatkind of fits my my open background.

(02:30):
I have a, I I've done musicaltheater my whole life.
So she was like, well, the closestthing we have here at UTC, you
could major in communicationswhich is like media advertising.
You could be on the news,you could be on radio.
And I thought that sounded great.
So I switched my major to communicationsand a couple of years into my

(02:51):
degree, we had to do an eight hourinternship, a very short internship,
and they gave us a list and theywere like, here's all the places that
participate in our internship program.
You can choose one I saw on there our.
Very popular.
100,000 watt radio station inChattanooga called KZ 1 0 6.
It's a classic rock radio station.

(03:13):
I basically grew up listeningto it and I said, I'll do that.
That sounds cool.
So I went and I interned fora couple of days there and I
absolutely fell in love with it.
I said, this is what I wanna do.
So I went back to school and Itold my counselor that I wanted
to do a concentration in radiowith my communications degree.

(03:34):
So I did, I concentrated in radiointo, so then I was able to get a
part-time job at the radio station.
I literally did everything but sales.
I did filing.
I was the secretary at one point.
I was the board operator for manydifferent shows and sporting events.
I was an on-air DJ for a coupleof years during the night shift,

(03:58):
I also did my my actual 150 hourinternship needed to graduate.
I did it in promotions andat the same radio station.
So I worked there for aboutfive years during college.
What was so the night shift,what does that run and did you
have a, did you have a DJ in.
I, I certainly did have an on-air name.
It was Jennifer Rivers.

(04:19):
Mm-hmm.
I was a river rat back then.
I was really into fishing.
We're right here on the Tennessee River.
So I had friends and all, a whole crewof us that would go down to the river and
we'd fish and hang out and have bonfiresand so my on-air name was Jennifer
Rivers and I was that for many years.
In radio on KZ 1 0 6.

(04:40):
The night shift was midnightto six in the morning.
Mm-hmm.
So I did this while I was goingto school, doing my internship.
It, I was a very, very busy collegestudent, but not involved in anything fun.
Like it was all work.
It was all, I was a verybusy college student.
But
it sounds like you got paid to have fun.

(05:02):
I did, but that is one reasonwhy I left radio was because
I was, I could never get.
A full-time job because in Chattanooga,I don't know about other cities, but in
Chattanooga, all of the big radio stationsat the time, this was early two thousands
at the time, all of the, the full-timeDJs, we called them like the old heads.

(05:23):
They had been theresince like the seventies.
And they had the good gig they hadday shift, they had full-time hours,
benefits, and they weren't going anywhere.
Anytime soon they were like there to stay.
So unless one of them quit,retired, passed away, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Heaven forbid there was no way I wasgonna get my foot in the door to like

(05:43):
get a real first job out of college.
And I realized that basicallyabout my last year at University
of Tennessee, at Chattanooga,at UTC in 2005 when I graduated.
And I made the very difficultdecision to leave radio and leave
my, my, my job because I wasn't gonnaget a full-time job unless I moved

(06:04):
somewhere else and I didn't wanna move.
I loved my town that I grew upin, and so I thought I'm gonna
have to find a quote, a real job.
I found a job as an administrativeassistant for the City of
Chattanooga government.
So this is important becauseI was a city employee long

(06:25):
before I was a police employee.
And my police department is, you're stilla city employee, but I was a City of
Chattanooga employee for about nine years.
So I was an admin assistant forthese two performance venues.
And anyone, any of the listeners rightnow, if you've been to Chattanooga
and you've been to like a concert,you've likely gone to the concert at

(06:45):
one of three places, the UTC Arena orMemorial Auditorium and Tivoli Theater.
I worked for the MemorialAuditorium and Tivoli Theater.
This was during the mayor Andy Burkeadministration and about my ninth
year, oh, well, I should back up andsay during my nine years working at
the Memorial Auditorium and Tivoli,I also went back to school and got my

(07:09):
master's degree because while I missedand loved radio so much, I knew in
the moment that I wasn't gonna find aradio job locally because like I said,
all those old heads were still there.
I didn't want part-time work.
I wanted full-time work.
So I went back and got mymaster's degree in business.
But during me getting my master's, Iwas still a secretary and an Advent

(07:32):
assistant during this whole time.
So then mayor Andy Burke.
Tells us that we are laid off thatthe employees at the auditorium and
Tivoli, they're laid off because theway he described it was that the city of
Chattanooga owned those buildings and usbeing in the entertainment industry, it

(07:53):
was kind of a risk to taxpayer dollarsand to taxpayers because we couldn't
promote, for some reason, we werenot allowed to promote shows because
it was a risk to taxpayer dollars.
So he wanted a real entertainmentcompany to come in and run these.
Buildings.
Now, these venues, the Tivoliand the Auditorium, they are on
the National Historic Registry.

(08:14):
They are these beautiful oldhistoric buildings that are awesome.
They've been aroundsince like the thirties.
They're awesome, but they alsorequired a lot of capital money and
a lot of work because they constantlyneeded renovations or things fixed.
So I think he wanted to get the City ofChattanooga out from under it and have
a real entertainment company come in.

(08:35):
So essentially I was laid off.
He told us you can stick around andsee if the new company wants to keep
you, and if they do, you, you willnot be a City of Chattanooga employee
anymore, or we can help you try tofind another job within the city.
Well, I had just bought myhouse like four years prior and
I was like, I have a mortgage.

(08:56):
I can't.
Take the risk to see if thisnew company will wanna keep me.
So I started looking for jobsimmediately and I found another
administrative assistant job atthe Chattanooga Police Department.
Mm-hmm.
Now I went to high school with aguy that I knew was a cop at the
Chattanooga Police Department.
We, I hadn't spoken to him in years,but I reached out to him and was

(09:19):
like, Hey, I see this job posting doyou happen to know anything about it?
And he said, actually, we're actually,our, our admin just retired and this
is an admin for the unit I'm in.
I'm in property crimes now.
Back then, I had no cluewhat property crimes meant.
Did not know what he meant, butI was like, okay, I'll apply.

(09:39):
So I, I applied and Iultimately got the job.
So it was really great becauseI was able to laterally move.
I was able to keep my city benefitsand pay and my accrued PTO.
And by now I was kindof done being an admin.
I had my master's degree.
I, I still did not know whatI wanted to be when I grew up.

(09:59):
'cause radio kind of to mewas out of the question.
So I was like, okay.
I'm gonna use this next year as an adminat this police department to find a real
job finally and use my master's degree.
Mm-hmm.
So I ended up going to property crimes.
I ended up finding out that propertycrimes at the time back then, so now

(10:20):
we're at 2015 that property crimes wasburglary, auto theft, fraud, and pawn.
Mm-hmm.
I am actually glad that I made thedecision to leave because I found out
later that at about six months after Ileft, they ended up letting all those
employees go that decided to stay.

(10:42):
Mm-hmm.
And I realized I made the right decision.
I ended up making a lot of new friendsduring this time and property crimes
and I ended up falling in love with justthe police culture and learning what.
Crime was all about.
Most of my job responsibilities asan admin and property crimes were

(11:03):
giving messages to investigators fromcitizens calling, asking about the
status of their cases checking towyards for stolen vehicles, helping
investigators organize their casefiles and making sure their check
sheets were correct, stuff like that.
Mm-hmm.
So I was in propertycrimes for almost a year.
When one of my acquaintances who worked inthe records department in the downstairs

(11:27):
floor she told me that she was leavingrecords and was going to be a crime
analyst in the crime analysis unit.
I had no clue what that was.
I literally didn't even knowwe had a crime analysis unit.
I didn't know what crime analysis was.
I don't think I couldeven pronounce analysis.
I did not know what it was.
A couple of months go byand she and another analyst.

(11:48):
Come into my office and tell methat they're about to hire a new
analyst and that I should apply.
And I was like well I don't have abackground in crime analysis or crime.
And they said, we don't care.
We just want someone thathas a master's degree.
And I was like, oh, okay.
Well I have a master's degree in business.
So it turns out that therewas another girl in payroll.

(12:11):
That ended up wanting to apply as well.
So the two analysts from thatunit told us, okay, you need to
go to the IACA website and startlearning what crime analysis is
and start learning about MicrosoftExcel and how to do pivot tables.
So me and the girl from payrollhad no clue what any of this was.

(12:33):
So she and I got together a coupleof times and studied and tried
to like understand what this was.
Tried to pivot table.
We were watching, Ithink YouTube tutorials.
So we ended up interviewing andultimately I got the job and she did not.
Oh man.
Right, so this was 2000 15.

(12:54):
So now this is 2016, early 2016.
Mm-hmm.
So in the two weeks between wrapping upmy time in property crimes and starting
in the crime analysis unit, I began tolearn really more about crime analysis.
'cause I was now down therein their office a lot.
Mm-hmm.
Shadowing and like trying tounderstand what crime analysis was.

(13:15):
I had no clue what Iwas getting myself into.
And I probably, I mean, Iremember thinking back then
going, what have I done?
Like, do I need to go back and go backto property crimes and be a secretary?
Because what if I'm not good at this?
Like, this seems like smart people things.
And I don't know if you knowanything about radio, but you don't
have to be smart to work in radio.

(13:36):
You just like talk andlisten to the radio.
Oh, I, I, some people will say, youdon't have, to be smart to run a podcast.
So, I mean,
you gotta push buttons,but that's about it.
Like I was, I was, I can'tdescribe the amount of like,
nerves I had during this time.
I, I genuinely thoughtI made the wrong choice.

(13:57):
Mm-hmm.
So during this two week time, Ialso found out, that two of the
analysts, they had a, like a unit offour, two of the analysts had quit.
One of them ended up going and workingat, for the city of Chattanooga, like the
mayor's office, doing data down there,and one of them left to go to Knoxville.
So we had my friend fromrecords who got that job and we

(14:19):
had another analyst in there.
So now they hired me.
So now there's three.
Well, I also found out that duringthe time when they interviewed me
and they interviewed other analysts,they also hired another one.
This dude from Las Vegas, but he wasn'tgoing to start for two more weeks.
But the dude from Vegas changedeverything and I'll get into

(14:41):
that if you'd like to later.
But, so now this is May, 2016.
I'm officially a crime analyst.
I get into the unit and on myfirst day, everyone is so nice.
I started realizing really quicklythat just from my experience, I don't
want anyone thinking that's listeningor that may have been employed
here or whatever, that that nobodyknew about the crime analysis unit.

(15:04):
From my experience nobody seemed to knowthat we even had a crime analysis unit.
We weren't being utilized tolike our fullest capacity.
We certainly weren't sendingout products left and right.
Back then, but we were, it was allbrand new and I'm not even sure how
long those analysts that were therebefore I got there were even there.

(15:25):
It wasn't long.
So we're still, I'm stillconsidering us very new.
I also learned during this time thatour chief Fred Fletcher, he came
from Austin, Texas and he wanteda data-driven and intelligence-led
policing police department.
I also had no clue what that meant.

(15:46):
I had no clue what any of this stuff was.
And I honestly, back then, I don't thinkany, like regular patrol personnel knew
what data-driven intelligence led meant.
Nobody kind of knew what this meant, but.
Fred Fletcher was the one responsiblefor creating the crime analysis unit.
And I just remember the crime analysisunit wasn't used to its full potential.

(16:09):
I was still very early on learningabout even what crime types there were.
It was all new.
And the girl from Records that alsobecame the analyst, we were all
new together and we were basicallyfiguring it out as we went.
Now she, her name was Katherine.
She had a background.
What,
what's Katherine's last name?

(16:30):
Hill, HAIL or HILL.
Katherine had a big backgroundin programming from like
the eighties and nineties.
So she was super smart in programming.
And I just remember kind of shadowingher and leaching onto her because I
just did not know what I was doing.

(16:50):
Now, was I capable, was I smart enoughto do what I was what I could do?
Yes, but I just didn'tknow, like the logistics.
We didn't even have acrime analysis unit manual.
There were no SOPs.
There was, there was nothing.
So two weeks later, this guy.
From Vegas shows up andhis name is Bruce Blackman.
Oh, instantly.

(17:10):
Yes,
I know, I know Bruce.
I guess I didn't realize I, I Ididn't put the two and two together.
Okay.
Yes.
Yeah, this is gonna be good.
So it is gonna be good.
So Bruce was a, a copin Vegas for many years.
But he always, he told me he was alwaysfascinated with their crime analyst.

(17:31):
And he decided after he retiredthat he was gonna go back to
school and for crime analysis.
And so he did.
And I think Chap pd was hisfirst job after he had graduated
with a crime analysis degree.
Mm-hmm.
But he and I. Instantly clickedthe way we worked together.
We just, we, we instantly clickedsuper nice, super outgoing.

(17:54):
He's one of those dudes that is just smartabout all things when you talk to him.
Like, have you ever talked to someone?
And they just, they're veryknowledgeable and relaxed and funny
about everything they talk about.
That is him.
That is how he
just,
he's so natural at everything.
He may, be a, a police officer to start,but he is very technically inclined.

(18:18):
Like he, he might as well be an IT guy.
I mean, but he a hundred
percent
he, yes.
And he's not like, I always bellyacheabout it being the party of No did.
Every time I ask them something,they just tell me no, but not him.
Not him.
He will figure it out.
He'll be, he'll give you lots of options.

(18:40):
He'll yes.
And he explain.
He's very helpful.
He explains.
Yes, he's very helpful.
He explains things to my likeblonde self, that he explains
things so easy and just calmly.
And he's a fantastic teacherand I instantly grew to
just love this man so much.

(19:02):
So once he arrived, Isaid we instantly clicked.
We became the best of buddies.
He was so smart and he began teaching me.
Really before crime Analytics, teachingme how to develop relationships
with investigators and officers,he was like, you cannot learn about
what's happening in your sectors.
Streets without talking to the officers.

(19:24):
They need to see your face.
They need to look into your eyeballs.
They need to like know that you exist.
They need to understand thatyou're trying to help them.
Like they need to becomeyour best friends.
And so I was nervous.
All I knew was my propertycrimes buddies, you know?
And he helped me break down these barriersof just being relaxed and getting out

(19:46):
from behind my desk and going to theseguys desk, sending emails to officers.
I don't even think, like the crimeanalysis unit sent emails to officers
that, I don't know if it was like a bigno-no, or if we just, we just didn't.
But I certainly did.
I learned from him a lot aboutjust creating those relationships.
In September of that year,so we're still in 2016.

(20:08):
We were told we're going toour first IACA conference and,
I will tell you a side note fromthis about Bruce at the end of that
conference I remember him saying, andlooking at me going, we cannot go back
to CPD with how we were doing things.
And I was like, do tell, what do you mean?
And he, he had gone to, we didn't go toevery class and every, you know mm-hmm.

(20:30):
Seminar together.
And he had learned a bunch of stuff.
He had already learned a bunchof stuff from his schooling,
but he said, we cannot.
Go back and how did he word it?
We cannot analyze crime if we'renot reading crime every day.
We've got to be tacticallyevery day reading crime.
And I said, you're right.

(20:50):
I mean, I can't do anything ifI don't know what's going on.
And he said, exactly.
So he put together this thisPowerPoint basically showing you
write a query and that's, we wereusing SQL Server Management Studio.
You write a query, you pull datain from the backend of our rms.
Mm-hmm.
You extract it, you put it into aspreadsheet, and then you can analyze your

(21:11):
data, and then you can put out productsand you're helpful and you're useful.
So he created this.
I need to remind you that noneof this was happening back then.
Mm-hmm.
So this was all brand new.
And I said, I love it.
Let's do it.
So we came back to CPD, and at thetime, Lieutenant Chambers was our
boss, and he's a whole other issue.

(21:32):
He is he's, he's mybiggest mentor to this day.
But he, back then he was a lieutenantand Bruce presented this presentation,
and I don't think Lieutenant Chambers atthe time, like knew all of what we were
talking about regarding the technicaljargon, but he knew enough to trust us.
And he said, that looks great.
If you can be helpful and startputting out products, then do it.

(21:55):
Just make sure you can do your job.
And so we ran with it.
And so for two weeks probablylonger, I don't remember.
It took a while, Bruce went under.
When I stay under, likehe put his headphones on.
We didn't talk to him forlike two weeks straight.
And during that time he wasbuilding our part one crime queries
for each one of our sectors.

(22:16):
So City of Chattanooga has three sectors.
Adam Baker, Charlie.
So he was building part one crime.
So AGAs assault, robbery, burglary,auto theft, and theft for motor
vehicles, building those queriesfor each sector, for each crime.
After he finally came up for Error, heshowed all of us how to run the queries
how to put that data into our spreadsheetsand how to read 'em and pull 'em in

(22:39):
every day and analyze 'em every day.
And that.
Is like the rest is history.
Once we started doingthat, it was game over.
We were unstoppable.
All of a sudden people startedrealizing we had a crime analysis
unit and we started analyzingand putting out products.
And to this day, the crime analysisunit at CPD today still uses those

(23:01):
same queries that were built offthe backs of my best buddy Bruce.
So That's awesome.
That is
kind of like my feel good story aboutlike how I became a crime analyst.
It, it, Bruce was my biggest mentorand I definitely wouldn't be here
right now if it weren't for him.
Now, all the other analysts inthe unit definitely molded me.

(23:22):
Mm-hmm.
But it, there was something aboutour working relationship that
has just always stuck with me.
Nice.
So Bruce and I worked togetherteaching a advanced SQL class.
Oh my gosh.
At, at the IACA conference.
I can't remember whatyear that would've been.
It probably would've been about 2017.

(23:42):
Yeah, I think it was the next year.
Yeah.
Or the year after.
After,
yeah.
Yeah.
So he and I got to know eachother as we were prepping for
that class, and That's awesome.
Just, just Yes.
I, so I know firsthand exactlywhat you're describing.
That makes me feel really good.
'cause now I don't soundcrazy or like starstruck.

(24:04):
So as you're coming in to this role,obviously you are not classically trained,
as you mentioned, you're, you're comingin really cold to a lot of these concepts.
But I guess with the background that you.
You did bring with you, what doyou think helped you along the way?

(24:25):
Because obviously it's notlike you sink, you succeeded.
Right.
And so what do you think you brought, whatdo you think you brought to the table?
Well, I have one thing that Ihave never been able to put on my
resume is that I'm a fast learner.
I am actually the exact opposite.
I'm a very, very slow learner.
It's one reason why it took me anextra year to graduate college.

(24:48):
I'm just, it's the way my brain, I'mjust very analytical and slow and I
like to make sure I understand all partsof all things before I do something.
I've been that way since I was a kid.
It's just, it's justthe way my brain works.
And so, while I was never the fastestlearner on the flip side is once I learn

(25:09):
something, I become like a master at it.
Mm-hmm.
So I got really, really good atanalyzing crime, just tactical, good
old fashioned two weeks to abouta month long period worth of data.
And I would find, I. Anypattern you could find.
I mean, I would just find all the things.
And Bruce was, again, he would show meabout like, how important time of day

(25:32):
and day of week was in property crimes.
He would show me that, okay,this may not look like it.
It goes with this incident, butlook up this one about a week
ago, prior to that, like mm-hmm.
He just showed me how to analyzeand the way he taught me was that
like, and I think I still carrythis with me to this day, is that
you can't really mess up anything.

(25:54):
I mean, you can, but likeyou, you can't take risks.
You don't need to beafraid to analyze things.
You don't need to be afraid to be wrong.
You need to like reach and like, don'tbe one of those that's too afraid
to try new things with your data.
Try everything and see whatworks., He taught me I would do
time of day, day of week analyses.

(26:16):
I would map things that didn't seem likeit would be mappable or that wouldn't,
wasn't related to something else.
I, I did.
All the far reaching I could becausethe more that I was trying and
doing, the more I was learning.
Because like I said, I came in cold notknowing anything about any software.

(26:36):
I didn't know what a query was.
I knew nothing.
And he literally just taught me , fromthe ground up from scratch and it.
He, he taught me the foundationof what I needed to where I
would be successful when he left.
And that's a whole other story ofwhen he left and I got real sad.
But I, I tried everything , hewas just amazing.

(26:59):
, He wasn't afraid to present inour comp staff meetings where
I was shaking like a leaf.
Mm-hmm.
It's because he just knew his data.
Oh.
He would do this, these littleexercises with me, like okay.
Did you analyze all that data?
And I'd go, yeah.
And he'd go, okay, tellme what you learned.
And I would pull up my spreadsheetand he'd be like, Nope.
Just tell me, tell me what you learned.

(27:20):
And it really got me used to editingmyself and less is more, and just
learning the who, what, when, where,why, how, like what needs to be known
and take out all the rest of the junk.
Yeah.
And yeah, I was able to just tellhim but also doing that type of
like exercise helps you just reallyunderstand your data, mm-hmm.

(27:43):
And I think sometimes analysts, we canrely too much on doing everything perfect.
And our spreadsheets are great and wejust analyzed these 30 rows of data.
But tell me what you just analyzed.
So that way you can convey it,, hewas just, he was so great all around
on teaching me all the things.
Nice.
Yeah, I definitely got that in my daywhere it was just wor worrying about

(28:08):
what the details say rather than whatI'm, the message that I'm summarizing.
I know people are gonna saylike, okay, show me the details.
What's the details?
And so I would skip thatstep even though what you.
You're very right in that it'san important step, but I know
as as an analyst, I would havethe tendency to skip that step.
Yes.
And I also just naturallyam a wordy person.

(28:31):
I talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
And I'm wordy, wordy, wordy.
And he really taught me how to editmyself, take out even unnecessary
words keep it very simple.
And I remember.
Taking a class from Christopher Bruce,and he told us that if you needed to, you
could do a bulletin on a paper napkin.
You definitely can ask that.
But we like aesthetics and welike to show off all our skills.

(28:54):
But I think just getting back to thevery bare basics, and I will always be
this type of analyst like Bruce taughtme, is you can't analyze any crime if
you're not reading crime every day.
Now whether that's manual, if something'sautomated, you still need to read your.
Tactical crime every day.
And it's just kind of, itwas built into me from him.

(29:20):
Hey there.
This is Jessica Elsmore and thisis your friendly daily reminder
to remember why you started.
Keep your passion, stay involved,and just remember what got you
interested in crime analysis.
Hi, my name is Kyle McFetridge andI want to talk to you today about
merging in construction zones.
You've probably understood mergingin construction zones to be

(29:41):
getting over as fast as you can.
This is not correct.
Merging lanes are designed to be filledall the way to the point they end, and
traffic then merges one vehicle at a time.
Think about it logically.
Would traffic flow better if peoplerandomly stopped put on their
turn signal and tried to get over?
Or if both lanes were completelyfull, the lane is supposed to be full
until the point you come to a trafficcone and can no longer fill it.

(30:03):
So to the people that block thatlane swerve at cars, honk, yell,
or flip off people trying to usethe merging lane correctly, you're
not only rude, you are wrong.
You do not get angry at people whopass you in the left lane a couple
miles from that construction site.
So why would you then be angry at themfor passing you at the construction site?
So next time you come to a mergein a construction zone, remember

(30:25):
to go all the way to the endand merge one car at a time.
You'll be doing it the right way andhelp make traffic flow much better for
everyone, even for those angry people.
Thank you.
This is Jennifer Loper.
Why?
Because no good storyever started with a salad.

(30:46):
All right, well let's move onto your analyst badge story.
And for those that may be new tothe show, the analyst badge story
is the career defining case orproject that an analyst works.
And so it's, this really startsin 2016 at the IACA conference
in Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Yeah.
So just to set the stageand let's hear the story.

(31:08):
Alright.
So I became an official analyst in Mayof 2016, and that September was my first
IACA conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
Never been to a conference.
We show up and so, okay.
First day they had the opening ceremonyfirst speaker of the day opening ceremony.

(31:29):
This woman who's.
Of age.
She's of a certain age.
She was definitely probably backthen in her seventies or eighties.
Marilyn Van Derber, I don't know if youlisteners remember, or, or were, were,
were at that conference, but MarilynVan Derber she gave a presentation on
how important an analyst's role canbe in helping catch sexual predators

(31:55):
exhibitionists sexual assault suspectsbecause she was sexually and ancestrally
assaulted by her father from like fiveor six years old until she was 18 years
old now, she did not come forward withthis until she was in her fifties.

(32:17):
Now, during her presentation,she's talking about how.
Trauma affects the victim for therest of their lives, like forever.
Not only just mentally, emotionally,but she even talked about physically
how, like I remember one point shewas talking about she always had like
this knot in her neck and she couldnever kind of get it to go away.

(32:39):
She didn't know what was wrong.
There was nothing wrong.
It turns out way years later, shediscovered it was like unhealed trauma.
It was just stress traumathat made her ache.
And anyway, during that presentationtowards the end of the presentation,
she asked if anyone was braveenough, if they had been a victim of

(33:00):
sexual assault, if they could stand.
And I was not one of them, but.
Man, the, the majorityof the rooms stood up.
It was just wild.
There was not a dry eye in the house.
Everyone was bawling, everyone was crying.
Her, her presentationprofoundly hit me into my soul.
It was very, very good.

(33:20):
And I remember thinking,well, I wanna be the type of
analyst that is victim focused.
I don't know how, I don'tknow what that looks like.
I'm not even a good analyst.
I don't know what I'm doing rightnow, but that's what I wanna be.
I don't, I want to get theresomehow one day she was also selling
her book called Miss America.
By day it's called Miss Americabecause she was in the Miss

(33:42):
America Pageant in the 1950s.
She was Miss America.
She was the pitcher of grace,beauty education money.
She was an advocate of.
All these events that pageant winnersgo around for a year and they tour
and they're in commercials andthey're brand ambassadors for things.

(34:04):
She did that.
She ended up getting married andhaving a daughter and in her fifties.
She revealed that she wassexually assaulted by her father
for the majority of her life.
But she wrote this book,miss America, by Day.
And I remember going to the backof the, the conference room and
immediately buying her book.
It was 20 bucks.
I took $20 of my per diem money andbought it, and I read it when I got

(34:27):
home without basically putting it down.
And it was a thick book.
She's a heavy victim advocate.
A public speaker now.
She teaches victim's rights.
She's just awesome.
She's incredible.
I think she's in her early nineties now.
Her presentation had avery profound effect on me.
And still to this day, sheis why I want to be a good

(34:50):
analyst, basically her and Bruce.
Nice.
Nice.
Yeah.
So fast forward to a couple ofyears later, like late 2000,
I think it's actually 2019.
I could be wrong.
Late 2018.
By now I'm an analyst for abouttwo and a half, three years.
And I'm getting kind of good at it Istill think you're like a newbie when

(35:10):
you're five years or younger, right?
Like mm-hmm.
You, you're, it's kindof like the rookie cop.
You're still considered a rookie,even though you've been a cop
for like five years, mm-hmm.
You're, you're still, youstill have so much to learn.
With the help of my coworker, whowas an analyst at the time, we
got a call about an exhibitionistthat was in one of our sectors.
He was going around toplaygrounds and flashing children.

(35:31):
Marilyn Van Derber and her book and herpresentation instantly go back into my
mind and I'm like, oh, no, no, not today.
We are gonna find him.
Because I remembered that in herpresentation she talked about how
even slight sexual assaults can havelasting lifetime effects on the victim.

(35:52):
And I was thinking these children werefive and six years old at a playground.
I didn't want them traumatizedfor the rest of their life.
And, I knew I had to catch the suspect.
So me and my coworker wekind of broke all the rules.
We did not just stay in our chainof command, but we ended up finding
out, long, very long story short, weended up finding out that the suspect

(36:12):
crossed over state lines and boundarylines exposing himself everywhere.
And we found out he was on the sexoffender registry, like in Georgia.
Mm-hmm.
And North Carolina.
So we had all these agencies involved.
We had special victims unit involved.
We had patrol on the lookout.
It was this huge thing.
We put out a product and all of our hardwork we did end up catching him nice.

(36:35):
And he is still in jail to this day.
I look him up every once in a whileto make sure that he's still in jail.
But that is my badge story becauseI think I've done cooler things,
analytical wise, like and productwise and catching bad guys.
But it's one of the things thatI'm most proud of because of

(36:58):
the way I want to be an analyst.
I wanna always think of the victim.
And it just had a profound effecton me, her presentation and then
catching this guy a few years later.
It was what I set out to do, thetype of analyst I wanted to be.
And it kind of, my little dreams cametrue on how I wanted to be an analyst.
Nice.
Nice.
All right.

(37:18):
So let's move on then, because as I saidin your introduction, you take a job with
Hamilton County Government as an analyst.
So, yeah, that's right.
Let's get into that gig.
So I was a crime analyst in the crimeanalysis unit from 2016 to 2023.
Then they opened up a gang intelligenceanalyst in the organized crime unit,

(37:42):
which is in a whole different buildingthan our main police service center.
And I apply for that job and Iget the job during that time.
I am.
Primarily focused on our narcoticsunit and working drug overdoses.
So I start analyzing drug overdosesand I was really good at it.
It became kind of like my secondpassion of these people that

(38:05):
were addicted to substances.
I had read dreamland by Sam Quinonez,obviously Dope Sick by Beth Macy and
the Narcotics Unit, they are overdoses.
Chattanooga we're happening fasterthan they could keep up with.
Mm-hmm.
That's one reason why they wantedthem to start being tracked.
I started, I kind of called them therepeaters and so that was anybody that

(38:28):
had overdosed more than twice, I startedkeeping track of them so then we could
send their name to like our drug coalitionand hopefully try to like reach out.
To them and offer them help and services.
Because most of the time I wasseeing these individuals that it
wasn't going to be, if they died,it was gonna be when they died.
And through data from all theoverdoses I tracked that I had data

(38:51):
of, from 2017 to 2023, I watchedheroin leave and fentanyl come on the
scene in Chattanooga through data.
It was wild.
And it was, it, our, ournarcotics unit couldn't keep up.
It was definitely the primarysocial harm affecting our community.
But I say all of this because in 2023I got offered a job to go to Hamilton

(39:18):
County Government and to create thisreport basically about overdoses.
And I. I didn't understandwhat I would be doing.
I didn't want to leave 'cause by thenI had been with the city for 17 years.
It was a very big change for me.
It turns out that Hamilton Countywas going to receive 1.2 to

(39:39):
$1.5 million in opioid abatementfunds for the next 18 years.
Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp wasaggressively going to spend that money.
He definitely wanted toput that money to good use.
He was going to start trying todo an MAT program at the jails.
He was going to create anopioid response team with EMS.

(40:02):
He was going to, give some cashto community agencies, like
kind of like a grant type thingto where they could use it.
So for prevention, for recovery,he was aggressively spending the
money and that's what we want.
That's what you want counties todo, is to spend that money to put
back into the community to kindof heal from the opioid epidemic.

(40:22):
But the very first thing that hespent the money on was me, was
hiring an analyst because theydidn't know what they didn't know.
They didn't know what the opioidepidemic looked like in the county,
in the city of Chattanooga limits.
We looked at everythingfrom a policing perspective.
We wanted the suspect,we wanted the dealers.
But this goes kind of into social harm.

(40:43):
I didn't know there was anythingelse besides overdoses from
a policing point of view.
I didn't know that there was emergencyroom data, that there was Narcan
data from EMS administrations.
I didn't know about recovery housing.
I didn't know about de-stigmatization.
I didn't know about any ofthat when I was just an intel
analyst in the narcotics unit.

(41:03):
So, when I got this job, even though Iwasn't a crime analyst anymore, I was
having to learn about public policyand health data, public health data.
I was reaching out to ourepidemiologist in the epidemiology
department at our health department,learning about the software they
use to analyze overdose data.
And yes, they, they do analyze overdosedata because it is a public health crisis.

(41:26):
It's not just a crimeor social harm crisis.
It's so I started learning all of this.
Mayor Weston Wamp wantedme to create this.
Port cleverly called Hamilton counted,and I thought that was very clever.
I love that.
And again I was starting from scratch.
I knew nothing.
I knew no one, I did not haveany of my crime contacts, like

(41:49):
any of my crime software anymore.
I was no longer a crime analyst.
But he trusted me to create thisreport and he wanted to do, first
the three primary social harmsaffecting Hamilton County, which was
homelessness the opioid epidemic andsubstance use disorder and crime data.
Eventually the report grew toinclude victim services data like

(42:11):
child abuse and domestic violence.
It grew to include education dataand it kind of became my baby.
I think when I left, I ended up havinga total of 19 different partners that
shared their data with me every month,and I created this quarterly report.
Called Hamilton counted.
I am wildly proud of what I did.

(42:32):
We created a whole brand for it.
We had a whole brand kit.
It was the first time that datawas accessible to the public and
transparent for the public to see.
And I don't know.
I mean, it's definitely a good thingthat, that accountability and transparency
through data was kind of like our tagline.
And it allowed the end user to have.

(42:54):
Data at their fingertips for thefirst time in Hamilton County I
was there for right, literally twoyears and I started missing crime.
I was really missing crime.
And so to come back fullcircle that Lieutenant Chambers
was now the chief he is.
The current chief of CPD and backwhen he was a lieutenant, we all

(43:17):
knew that he would be chief one day.
You could just tell talking to him.
The guy is he's a former SWAT guy.
He he works out every day.
He has these big muscles.
I remember him coming in with thislunchbox that had like six trays in it.
That was like his meals for the day.
And he was very disciplined.
He would drink protein shakes at our staffmeetings and this real but really cool

(43:40):
guy, but that also understood technologyand the value of data, even back when he
first was over our crime analysis unit.
And I knew there wasa very limited window.
Of opportunity to come back and be a crimeanalyst under Chief Chambers leadership.
And I said, I gotta gowhile he's the chief.
This is what I've beenwanting for a decade.

(44:01):
He's now the chief, so I need to go back.
And I did, I came back toChattanooga Police Department and
now I'm a crime analyst again.
Nice.
No.
So, so back to the, the county job andthe social harm data, and you went into it
a little bit, but I'm just wanna ask youdirectly, that's a data set that as you

(44:23):
said, you were not aware of as an analyst.
Yep.
But for an analyst listening to thisthat may be a data set that while
they're not directly working on.
An opioid case, there may be data in therethat will help them in their current job.
Oh, a hundred percent.

(44:44):
Back when I was the the n Narcoticsanalyst, I wasn't, I call it,
I call it the, the trifecta.
You have emergency room data Narcan databy EMS, which is extremely important.
And on a side note back then, the onlypeople that had access to Narcan was
like emergency rooms and EMTs, right?

(45:04):
Mm-hmm.
Now, narcan's everywhere, everyonehas Narcan, but back then,
when I was the analyst, nobodyhad that much access to it.
So.
The EMS data was huge.
And then you have the policedata, which is only data that
generated a police report.
Well, I was, as a crime analyst, I wasonly looking at it from that one side as

(45:24):
mm-hmm.
Just police data.
Now we look at everything from acrime perspective, that's our job,
but you're missing the whole picture.
You're missing what other drugs arepeople dying from that you can learn
like, like xylazine and car fentanyl.
You can learn all of thosethings from your epidemiologist.
You can learn those things fromyour medical examiner's office.

(45:46):
I didn't have access to any of thatas a crime analyst but I did as a
county analyst because I wasn't acrime analyst and I was under the
mayor's office, I had access to all ofthese people that I was able to create
relationships with and get buy-in.
And they generously gave metheir data to publish it.
And I, it was also the first time thatmy products were being published to

(46:10):
an actual public, to the community.
As a crime analyst ourstuff is all internal.
It's all internal.
It was very nerve wracking to havethings being published to the 382 people
in Chattanooga or Hamilton County.
But I like to see the whole picture andI wasn't seeing the whole picture as an
analyst for narcotics unit at the time.

(46:32):
That things that could wildly helpme back then, if that makes sense.
It seems like one of your superpowersas an analyst is you get assigned a
task and you turn into this spongein term in which you can just totally
immerse yourself into knowing everythingyou can about that particular topic.

(46:53):
Well, and well, I, and.
But I guess my point is, and it canyou get assigned different tasks in
different, different cases, but I think,I think that opportunity to become
either a subject matter expert or evena semi I. Subject matter expert can be
lost in the, with certain departmentsor certain centers because it's just

(47:18):
like a quick turnaround type of thing.
It's just, you're not,you're just real, real quick.
Study this a little bit.
You, we don't, you can't spendtwo weeks, two months on this.
We gotta do what we can and then move on.
, I the a s could be a jack of alltrades and just spread so thinly.
So I just wanna give you,you're exactly right.
Just give you an opportunity to,like you, it sounds like you had,

(47:43):
and you took the opportunity to, toreally take on some of these cases
and tasks that you were assigned.
I think what makes not only just myexperience unique was just the timing.
Because I came in when the crimeanalysis unit was basically nothing.
Mm-hmm.
That's when they were building ourrealtime intelligence center, which

(48:05):
I was the first analyst in here that.
It was also built from the ground up.
Sergeant Billy Atwell, who's still here,is now like the subject matter expert
in our real-time intelligence centerbecause he built it from the ground up.
I became known as like the shotsfired girl, because I took CAD
data and combined it with RMSso we could get a full picture.

(48:27):
Mm-hmm.
Because I could just pull RMS you know.
Report types, but you'remissing a lot of the data.
If you don't pull cad, I look ateverything as also like, kind of
like, what will this data show me?
Not right now, but how can it stillhelp me or help someone a year

(48:48):
from now, five years from now?
So I like to, I've always just beenthis way is learning everything I can
about a process or an assignment and.
Than giving it my best shot.
I think people can eitherwork fast or work thorough and
it's really hard to do both.
Mm-hmm.
I choose not to work fast, but Iwould rather be thorough and have

(49:11):
very little margin of error thanwork fast and pump out stuff so fast
that I don't even know what I justdid because everything's so fast.
I, I think all the timing ofeverything during my early days was.
New crime analysis unit, newrealtime intelligence center.
They had just started a gunteam, which was doing n iban.

(49:32):
And now we have a crime gunintelligence center because we're,
we're like a, a national model.
All of these things started, allon the backs of people that had
great ideas and didn't have a lotof resources, but just did what they
could in the moment, including me.
I did not have the fancy softwareand I did a lot of stuff by

(49:52):
hand and by manual at the time.
Not because of my passion,just, but because I cared.
So you always hear about people thatwhat's like you have a lot of just
naturally talented people that are justborn talented, and then you have a lot of.
Hard workers, and I feel like I fall inwhere there are more talented people than
me, and there are probably harder workersthan me, but you'll be hard pressed to

(50:15):
find someone that like cares more than me.
You see it in my products, yousee it in my relationships.
It's just the way that I decide to work.
I, I want to show that I'm puttinggreat care into things, and I think
that makes all the difference.
As an analyst Angela Duckworth wrotethe book Grit, and she talks about
that, about how some people thataren't born very talented but like work

(50:38):
their butts off, can end up basicallybecoming more talented because they
worked hard, not because they havelike this innate natural talent.
I'm definitely not one of those analysts.
I don't have a background in it.
I don't know what I'm doing half the time.
But I think you asked earlierwhat, what do you bring from
your previous life as a dj?

(51:00):
I think personality a lot ofanalysts we're all nerdy and
we're very nerdy and we sit.
All day and we don't get upand I'm the exact opposite.
I think creating those relationships helpsyou become reliable, helps people trust
you when you send a product even if youmake an error, they don't judge you for
it because they already know how you work.

(51:21):
Because you've createdthose relationships.
The relationships are everythingand that's how you also build
up your leadership skills.
Nice.
Did I ramble too much?
I'm so sorry you didn't, but youremembered our our prep call and
you segued very, very nicely.
'cause where I want to go into is getinto your advice for the listeners.
And part of this advice istalking about the physical health.

(51:44):
Analyst, we, we, we've talked, we'vetalked about, we've talked on the show
before about mental health and justthe awful things that analysts see
and how that needs to be addressed.
But I don't think I've ever talkedabout the physical health of an analyst
a hundred percent.

(52:05):
So in 2022, three, when I went toorganized crime, I started realizing
that like I had a hard time walking, likethe bottom of my right foot would hurt.
My hip was really tight, my wristwas hurting, my fingers were hurting.
Starting and I waslike, , this is the end.

(52:25):
, This is what's happening.
I, I'm, this is what it's like to get old.
But I realized after much many doctor'sappointments, much research trying to
self-diagnose myself and seeing manydoctors that it's because I sat too long.
I sat for like eightyears up to this point.
I sat for eight yearsand like barely got up.

(52:46):
We, we as analysts were hunchedover our computer and our keyboard
and we're staring at spreadsheetswith numbers and photos all day.
Especially when like admin numbers,charts and graphs and lines.
I mean, it's the worst on your eyes.
We're clicking and typing and clicking andclicking constantly and back in the day.

(53:07):
Before there was moresoftware that they have now.
I did everything manual and a lot ofmy reports were so click heavy, so
click heavy, and I just sat all day.
I would rarely get up and I thinkit was the culmination of eight
years worth of just sitting all day.
Oh, not to mention ladies out there, Iwould wear high heels to work because

(53:30):
I wanted to be professional and nice.
And so, but then I'm in highheels and I'm sitting at my desk.
Still in high heels, so my feetare squished into these like
pointy horrible shoes for you.
And I would just sit there for eight hoursand it really, really took a toll on me.

(53:50):
I don't know if I can speak forother analysts or lady analysts
out there, but I'm telling you, thejob literally took its toll on me.
And when I got asked to come workat the county I, it could not
have been better timing becauseI think I was not just burnt out.
Mentally wise of doing,gangs, guns, and dope.

(54:11):
'cause that's what I had done.
I was the violent crimeanalyst my whole time.
And then I went to the gang unit.
And like, I, I, not only was I burnedout, but physically, I don't know
if I would've lasted much longer.
At one point I remember I was in a boot.
I had horrible, horribleplantar fasciitis.
I did everything butcrawl to the bathroom.
It was awful.

(54:31):
And I was like, what is wrong with me?
And after speaking with so manydoctors and doing a lot of online
research, I found out it wasbecause I'm not moving enough.
And not just like.
Moving enough.
I mean, I could still be arunner and if I was only running
after work, that's not enough.
It's not enough.
Our bodies aren't meant to sit all day.

(54:52):
And so when I joined the county,I worked at the third floor on the
third floor of this building, andI just, I said, enough's enough.
I, I've got to start finding waysto put myself first in that, in
that sense, because I am no good tobody if I'm sitting here in pain.
And so I began doing a ton of walking.

(55:12):
I began climbing the steps.
I got a standup desk.
I got a a walk pad.
I took.
Many, many breaks throughout the day.
And I think in my earlier yearsI was trying to prove myself and
I would just put in the hours,I would burn the midnight oil.
And I realized that what I thoughtwas probably emergencies back
then were likely not emergencies.

(55:34):
There's most there, there's notmany things that are really true
emergencies that couldn't wait orthat still didn't deserve me having a
break and I just wouldn't take breaks.
And now I'm like the exact opposite.
I take tons of breaks throughout the day.
I take brain breaks.
I get up a lot.
I go walking with my coworkers.

(55:55):
I, I just.
I just wanna make sure that Iam putting my best self first
so then I can give my best.
I am no good to anyone if I'm not my best.
And the crime and the workthat we're doing deserves that.
And we deserve that.
As analysts, we deserve the breaks andstretching and getting up and walking
around and don't eat at your desk.

(56:15):
Go eat somewhere.
Like, get away.
I'm a huge proponent of gettingup and the physical part of being
an analyst it takes its toll.
So we need to take better care ofourselves and prioritize getting
up and taking breaks, and not justphysical breaks, but also brain breaks.
They're huge.
Nice.
Good advice.
Well,
thanks.

(56:35):
One of the things for, those listenersthat have never been on the show, have
never gone through my prep processfor the show, one of the things I ask
every guest for is a resume or cv.
And so, and I did the same with you Jen,but I was big smile on my face when I open
up your resume and I'm like, what is this?

(56:57):
This is very colorful.
This is a bulletin.
You're, you just sent me a bulletin asa resume and it's not anything that I
think I've ever seen in the five yearsof collecting resumes for the show.
So that's
hilarious that youdescribe it as a bulletin.
I didn't even think of that.
Yeah, it just looks and feels.

(57:19):
It's a one pager with lots of colorand graphics and you reference
it as an infographics resume.
It is, it's an infographic resume.
I mean, I've, resumes are boringand I got my degree in business
and I learned you've got about 20seconds to capture your audience's
attention on that boring paperwork.
And so I do use the regularboring formats of resumes.

(57:44):
When I apply for a job, you knowhow you have to upload your resume?
Mm-hmm.
I, I do that, but when I interview inperson, I bring that in my portfolio
and I just think that helps people.
Their eyes are more catchyand not it's not so Wordy.
Mm-hmm.
Everything's kind of summarized andlittle bitty compartmentalized boxes.

(58:04):
I think it's, it's kind of nice.
It's fun, huh?
Yeah.
No, it might not be the most
professional, but I like it.
No, it, it, it pops, it flows,it, there's, it directs your eyes.
It does everything that a bulletinthat you would expect a bulletin to do.
Mission accomplished.
Yes.
would you, would you be okayif I posted your resume a sure.

(58:28):
I sure would.
Okay.
So for the listeners then, I'm lookingthe show notes, you'll see her resume
and you'll see what we're talkingabout to give you a better idea.
. All right,
You mentioned portfolio, so everytime someone mentions portfolio on
the show, I gotta mention Sean Bair.
'cause Sean Bair is, it was inmy original five analysts that

(58:49):
I interviewed for the podcast.
So he's, it's coming up on five years.
Awesome.
We started in, it was probably aroundthis time, we in, I interviewed
him and so the June 1st is thepodcast anniversary and we, yay.
And we published five episodes in oneday, and one of them was Sean Bair and.

(59:13):
So I, I will put a link to Sean'sepisode in the show notes, but I also
put in, he and I did a series on a guideto hiring a law enforcement analyst,
and it's a seven part series where wecreated a cycle and go over all the
parts of hiring from beginning to end.

(59:34):
Right.
And so I will put, I'llput a link to that.
That's a its own webpage on the website.
An LA, a podcast.
It's at the top header.
But he is a big proponent of theportfolio and I am just showing your work
there is no other way for an interviewpanel to see what you can do.

(59:54):
Now they can give you a like,I guess, what's it called?
A test assessment, a, a data assessmentwhere you analyze some crime really quick
and you probably likely put togethera bulletin in front of them, you know?
But what about your past work?
Show me products you've alreadydone so I can kind of see the
analyst you kind of are, right.
I look at it as like I. Backin my radio days, nobody cared

(01:00:17):
about your hard copy resume.
Nobody cared which radiostation you worked at.
We had what was called air checks,which was just basically sound
bites of you being a DJ so theycould hear how you sounded because
that's what they cared about.
So if you're gonna interview fora crime analyst spot, I feel like
it only makes sense that they seeyour crime analytical products.

(01:00:37):
It's, I definitely, andplus it's very professional.
I'm huge on professionalismand wearing suits and doing.
All the things for an interviewbringing your very best self forward.
Nice.
Let's finish up withpersonal interest then.
You mentioned it earlier, that you areinto musical theater and that you have

(01:00:59):
consistently done that worked in thetheater even beyond your time in college.
Oh, yeah.
So I am involved with a playhouse, anamphitheater playhouse where I live
signal Mountain, Tennessee, which is justa little suburb outside of Chattanooga.
I've been involved with itsince I was like 10 years old.
I love musical theater.

(01:01:20):
I've done it my whole life.
So that's what I like to do for fun.
I started taking piano lessonsas a 40-year-old woman.
When I, when I turned 40, Istarted taking piano lessons.
I found a piano teacher.
I bought a digitalkeyboard, a digital piano.
And I started taking piano lessonsand I've been taking them since.

(01:01:41):
I was 40 and I'm going to be 43 this year.
So I think that's kind of.
Neat.
I'd never learned how to play a musicalinstrument, and I think it was just
kind of like a bucket list item.
And to always get uncomfortableand to do things that you think
you can't do, go do 'em anyway.
And and that's what I didand that's what I'm doing.
So, musical theater, piano.

(01:02:02):
I have a German Shepherd.
I live on six acres, so I liketo spend a lot of time outside.
Yeah, I'm actually just very boring.
I like to read and listento audio books and podcasts.
But the, the musical theater,is this where your headlining
are you, do you have solos?
All of the above, yes.

(01:02:22):
All of
the above.
I've, I've been like, I call it treenumber three, when you're just chorus
when you're, when your cast is.
Chorus or background.
Mm-hmm.
I call it tree number three 'cause itjust means you're just in the background.
I've had some fairly good roles butI've, I've, I think what, what part?
I didn't tell you that the thingthat makes the musical theater very

(01:02:43):
special is that I do it with my mom.
So my mom has also been doingmusical theater since 1995,
and so we do it together.
It's loads of fun.
My favorite musical is Lil Abner.
I don't know if anybody'sever heard of that.
So that's what I do.
I do musical theater.
I like to go see Broadway showsand musical theater shows at

(01:03:04):
my local theaters here in town.
I like soundtracks of musical theater.
Well, very good.
Well, our last segment of theshow is Words to the World.
This is where you can promoteany idea that you wish.
Jen, what are your words to the world?
I think right now the most importantthing going on in all of the United
States is this opioid epidemic.

(01:03:24):
I will always be talking about itbecause it's so, so important, especially
all of our preconceived notions andthe stereotypes of what we think.
A person that uses drugs lookslike is not the case anymore.
Addiction has no.
No barriers.
Addiction has no pre prejudice.

(01:03:46):
They, it can attack anyone.
It can attack, quote the the soccermom to the athlete that got injured, to
the lawyer, to the professor a teacherall the way to teenagers and young kids
that are just starting high school.
It knows no bounds.
It's a very real serious thing.

(01:04:06):
It's one of my greatest passionsis substance use disorder and
fighting the opioid epidemic.
My words to the world are to just,if you are an analyst, find something
that is affecting your community.
And find that passion and work on it.
It could be homelessness, it couldbe catalytic converter thefts.

(01:04:29):
It could be the opioidepidemic, it could be anything.
But find something that can help yougrow as an analyst that will make your
analytical products have huge valuebased on the context you're giving it
that is outside of law enforcement.
Very good.
Well, I leave every guest with,you've given me just enough

(01:04:49):
to talk bad about you later.
Yes.
But I do appreciate youbeing on the show, Jen.
Thank you so much.
And you be safe.
Thank you so much, Jason.
It's been a pleasure.
Thank you for making it tothe end of another episode of
Analyst Talk with Jason Elder.
You can show your support by sharingthis and other episodes found
on our website@www.podcasts.com.

(01:05:12):
If you have a topic you would likeus to cover or have a suggestion for
our next guest, please send us anemail at elliot podcasts@gmail.com.
Till next time, analysts, keep talking.

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Analyst Talk - Jennifer Baggett - Caring Through Data

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Analyst Talk - Jennifer Baggett - Caring Through Data