July 21, 2025 • 56 mins
Episode: 00276 Released on July 21, 2025 Description: What happens when an intern with military intelligence experience is tasked with building a crime analysis unit from scratch? This week on Analyst Talk, host Jason Elder speaks with Victoria Curtis, an intern at the McPherson Police Department in Kansas and former Air Force intelligence officer. Victoria shares how she discovered the law enforcement analysis profession, pitched the creation of an analyst unit, and built it from the ground up. From Excel dashboards to city commission briefings, she offers an inspiring look at determination, innovation, and the power of saying “yes” to your own potential. 🎧 Listen, share, and keep talking! [Note: Description produced by ChatGPT.] This episode includes a call-in segment: Favorite First Jobs. Jan Mondale (https://www.leapodcasts.com/e/atwje-jan-mondale-inquiring-minds/) Alexander Gulde (https://www.leapodcasts.com/e/atwje-alexander-gulde-analyst-work-is-police-work/) Heather Fairburn (https://www.leapodcasts.com/e/atwje-heather-fairburn-the-fire-within/) Erica Wiles (https://www.leapodcasts.com/e/atwje-erika-wiles-venture-forth-and-appreciate/) Amanda Schenk (https://www.leapodcasts.com/e/atwje-amanda-schenk-the-successful-applicant/) Name Drops: Sabrina Potts (00:15:28), Jessica Dirks (00:21:40), Chris Delaney (00:29:53), Steve Gottlieb (00:39:30) Public Service Announcements: Jeff Vandersip (https://www.leapodcasts.com/e/jeffrey-vandersip-the-crackerjack-analyst/) Shawn Fisher (https://www.leapodcasts.com/e/shawn-fisher-the-geographer/) Related Links: https://www.mcpcity.com/171/Police-Department https://www.victoriacurtisanalysis.com/ https://degrees.apps.asu.edu/masters-phd/major/ASU00/PPCRMAGRCT/crime-analysis-graduate-certificate Association(s) Mentioned: Vendor(s) Mentioned: Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-curtis-veteran/ Transcript: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/36u37uzrrbxc4nue/VictoriaCurtis_transcript.pdf Podcast Writer: Podcast Researcher: Theme Song: Written and Recorded by The Rough & Tumble. Find more of their music at www.theroughandtumble.com. Logo: Designed by Kyle McMullen. Please visit www.moderntype.com for any printable business forms and planners. Podcast Email: leapodcasts@gmail.com Podcast Webpage: www.leapodcasts.com Podcast Twitter: @leapodcasts
00:00:17 – Introducing Victoria 00:08:24 – Air Force 00:11:56 – McPherson PD 00:24:30 – Break: Jeff Vandersip & Shawn Fisher 00:26:06 – Building a Unit 00:33:34 – ASU Graduate Certificate 00:38:14 – Advice 00:39:25 – Favorite First Jobs 00:51:40 – Personal Interest: Military Clothing 00:55:00 – Words to the World
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Analyst Talk with Jason Elder.
(00:01):
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.
My name is Jason Elder and todayour guest has four months of law
(00:26):
enforcement analysis experience.
She is currently the intern atMcPherson Police Department in Kansas.
She has eight years as anintelligence officer in the Air Force.
She's here to talk about, amongother things, internships and
starting a new analyst unit.
Please welcome Victoria Curtis, Victoria.
(00:48):
How we doing?
Hi Jason.
I'm doing great.
How are you?
I am doing very well and so I amreally intrigued by your story.
I think it's fascinating thatyou are both an intern for this
police department and you are also.
Helping to set up the analytical unit.
(01:09):
Yeah.
It's a little unique for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So how is Kansas these days?
Well right now it's really rainy.
Yeah.
But I actually live in Wichitaand I commute to McPherson, which
is about an hour away every day.
So I go from Yeah, kind of abustling big city to kind of.
(01:29):
Middle of nowhere up north.
So it's definitely definitely different.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I don't, I don't know.
I'll make you feel bad.
I, I work from home, so I don't,I don't miss driving at all to
and from, especially like an hour.
Oh my goodness.
All right.
Yeah.
Especially as flat as Kansas is.
Geez.
(01:49):
Oh
yeah.
Yeah.
No, it's it's quite the boring drive.
Gotta get a good podcast going.
Yeah.
So I see on your resume that yourbachelor's is from Michigan State.
Does that mean you'reoriginally from Michigan?
I am born and raised.
Nice.
What part of Michigan?
I am, well, if you could see me, I'ddo the little Michigan hand thing.
(02:10):
Yes.
With the Glo, the mitten.
Right.
I, I, that's the, like,that's the weirdest thing
is little point to a mitten.
And I never realized, I'm fromPennsylvania and saw, looked at the, the
map of Michigan all my life and neverthought that it looked like a mitten until
somebody did what you just, just did.
I don't know why.
It never came across my, my mind untilsomeone said, I, I live right here.
(02:33):
And they made a mitten out of their hand.
I was like, oh.
I guess it does look like a mitten.
Yeah.
It's our claim to fame for sure.
But yeah, no, I live I, or I'm fromthe Southwest portion right on the
Lake Michigan, right on the Indianaborder, like an hour away from Chicago.
Okay.
So kind of just barely there.
So
(02:54):
that's gotta be pretty close to Toledo,right, because Toledo is northwest Ohio.
Yeah, it's the other side of the state.
Oh, wait a minute.
What did you say?
The Southwest?
Yeah, east southwest.
Northwest east.
I'm sorry.
No, Toledo is northwest Ohio, so itshould be around there somewhere.
Alright.
It's, yeah, other side, but that's okay.
(03:15):
All right.
Yeah.
Well, I can't even, I don't even know whatthe state looks like, so I, I can't go.
It shouldn't go based on mybad memory of where Toledo is.
So.
All right.
Well, let's get this party started.
How did you discover the lawenforcement analysis profession?
Oh my goodness.
So, I mean, if we wanna startfrom the very beginning, I mean
birth I, yeah, birth right.
(03:36):
Oh, every little kid has like,their career that they wanna
be when they're a grown up andfirefighter ballerina or whatever.
But mm-hmm.
I remember meeting in a sandwichshop when I was very little.
Police woman that was there and she camein on a motorcycle and I just thought
she was a superhero or something.
(03:57):
And
I remember she smiled at me and shetalked to me and I was like, I'm gonna be
a police woman that rides a motorcycle.
And I told everybody that for years.
So my love of criminaljustice started very on.
But really it kind of started whenI was looking to get out of the
military I was, like you said, I wasan intelligence officer for eight
(04:19):
years, so I was trying to figure outwhat my transferrable skills were.
Like you said, I have a bachelor'sdegree in criminal justice,
and then I have my MBA as well.
And so I was looking to see maybeI can get back into criminal
justice as my original love.
So I looked into like, okay, wellhow does that translate for Intel?
(04:41):
Could I be like a backgroundinvestigator or a private investigator?
But like, neither of thosereally felt right, you know?
And I, I had never heard of crimeanalysis at this point, by the way.
So, part of transitioning out of themilitary is they make you do something
called taps, where you you take like aweek long seminar where they help you get
(05:02):
outta military, make sure you're set up.
So one of the exercises they made us dois use this website, which for the life of
me, I cannot remember the name of, but wewould type in where our military specialty
was and it would give us like this listof things that it was translatable.
And the only one I can remember and theone that stood out was a crime analysis.
So that was like, what is this?
(05:24):
The description sounded areally cool, really badass.
And so I delved into it, tried tofigure out what it was more about.
And then that's where Googletook me to the IACA website.
Mm-hmm.
And that got me interested Inoticed that there was gonna be an
annual conference in six months.
This was back in 2023, so it was gonna bein Dallas, which I don't know if you can
(05:46):
do geography again with me, but that'sonly a five hour drive from Wichita.
So I was like, well, that's perfect.
My boss was willing to let mego without taking any leave.
So I scrimped and saved for sixmonths to afford the registration
and the hotel room, and I got it.
And I went and I justabsolutely fell in love.
(06:08):
I, this, I, in every single seminar,I was just like locked in all the
time and I have a DHD so for me to belocked into anything the whole time
is a significant, so I was realizingthat this, I was interested in it.
I talked to everybody that I could.
And every single analyst that I talkedto was like friendliest person I've
(06:28):
ever met, which was just strange to me.
'cause I was like I've neverreally experienced a career
field where everybody's friendly.
So that was new to me.
But everybody was trying to connectme, get me in personal contact
with people that would help me.
I've collected so manybusiness cards that week.
I don't, I think I still have a bag ofthem somewhere because just everybody just
(06:49):
wanted to help me out, which was awesome.
Made some lifelong friendsthere, so it was awesome.
There's just something magicalabout going to conferences
to the first time I remember.
Yeah, mine, I was, I was sogung ho and so excited about it.
I was actually asking people that I knew.
(07:09):
I was like, I can, I'm, I. Ican't get to that session 'cause
I'm going to this other session.
Would you take notes for me?
Yes.
I was asking people to take notes for me.
Yeah, yeah.
Like doing the whole thing where you skipout maybe in the la in the first half and
try to try to get both and Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
No, it's the, it was, it's likeDisneyland for us nerds, isn't it?
(07:31):
Yeah.
It's a, you just a, you're just a sponge.
Right?
Right.
And you're just trying to makeconnections and learn new things
and just, there's just so much thatyou don't know and it's like, yeah,
yeah.
No, exactly.
And the, that's, that's even wheretoo, where I guess at the vendor fair
was Arizona State was doing mm-hmm.
Their, their pitch.
And I was like, I hadGI Bill money to spend.
(07:54):
Okay.
So I was like, I was like,well this would be free for me.
And like, I would, I was seeing all thissoftware that everybody was using and I
was like, I wanna learn how to do that.
So that's where I figured outthat I could register and, and
get my graduate certificate.
And so yeah, I made a lot ofgreat decisions that week.
I'm, I'm really glad I went, butthat's, that's how I got acquainted
with the, the career field.
(08:15):
Was, was that process.
I just going to, that conference was.
Steal the deal for me, so,
alright.
Yeah.
We'll talk about the graduatecertificate a little bit later.
Sure.
I do wanna back up to yourtime in the Air Force.
Okay.
, As mentioned in your intro, you were anintelligence officer, so I'm just curious
(08:35):
what types of things you got into andwhat, what you did and how it laid the
foundation to what you're doing now.
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean so as an officer you don'treally specialize in what type of intel.
You kind of are supposed to bekind of a jack of all trades,
master of none type deal.
And then you're enlistedthat you supervise, they're
(08:56):
the ones that specialize.
So each of my assignmentsthat I had, which I had.
They got about five.
They were all vastly different.
And I got to go to all thesedifferent countries and do stuff.
I got to do a lot of signals intelligence.
I got to do a lot of supporting aircraftand giving them threat briefings before
(09:17):
they went on their missions and stuff.
So it was a lot of not very,like, not very applicable type
stuff to law enforcement analysis,but you definitely learn.
Like the intelligence cycle very welland you learn how to use your tools
and how to present data and things likethat., I gotta tell you though, I was,
I did not love military intelligence.
(09:39):
It was not something that sparkedmy, my little nerdy reptile brain.
But I liked the I was good at it and Iliked the the data part of it, you know?
Yeah.
Was it because it was too stringentand didn't allow creativity?
What, what do you think it was?
Yeah, I mean, I, I would say that,I mean, you have like, I mean, you
have even down to like the templatesthat you're supposed to use in
(10:01):
PowerPoints, they're usually pretty.
Strict on what you'resupposed to do for those.
And, but I mean, also you're,you're reporting intel on
an entire country, you know.
Mm-hmm.
And whereas with law enforcementanalysis you have a specific, if
you're doing at least the investigativeparty, you have like a specific bad
guy that you're doing Intel on ora specific like game or something.
(10:22):
Mm-hmm.
It's just a little easier for me to getinterested in something more specific
versus I weapon specs on another countryor something is just not not really my
cup of tea, but I was good at it at least.
So,
yeah.
Do you have a favorite story you'd liketo tell from your time in the military?
Favorite story?
Oh my gosh.
(10:43):
Whew.
I gotta be careful.
I I I got my deployment, I deployedto Afghanistan and, mm-hmm.
I did.
I was a flyer out there.
I didn't.
Fly the aircraft.
I was in the back of the aircraftdoing top secret, nerdy things.
And I found out very quicklythat I am motion sick, like in
(11:06):
very small planes, apparently.
Mm-hmm.
So we had we had a very bad store one day.
I think it was, it wasliterally on New Year's.
And I just threw up every trying to domy job while throwing up and I can look
back on it and laugh, but I think it'sreally funny when you think about like, oh
stressful environments when you're tryingto brief the chief and command staff.
(11:27):
And I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm good.
I think I've had my stressful environment.
So,
oh man, that would be the worst I can'timagine still doing my job and puking.
Right.
I, but my wife will tell you I'm abig baby when it comes to getting
sick, so I can't imagine me trying toactually be functional why I am sick.
(11:49):
Right, right.
Yeah.
You you learn a lot about yourselfin those instances for sure.
All right.
Then how did McPherson get on your radar?
So when I was looking for aninternship to do and I was looking
at the, which the military internshipprograms called Skill Bridge.
Mm-hmm.
Which is where we get to ourlast six months of active duty.
(12:11):
We get to go do an internshipand the military still pays us.
So I was looking into doing that.
And I was looking for police departments'cause I had decided that I wanted
to be a crime analyst at that point.
Mm-hmm.
I was finishing up mydegree, so I was almost done.
And I found the closest one tome, which just happened to be
(12:32):
an hour away once mc person.
And they were only doinginternships for police cadets.
But I ended up emailing with theperson of contact over there.
And then eventually Chief Golden,which is still the chief over there.
And, kind of convinced them thatthey should start an internship
and start a crime analysis unit,and that they should let me do it.
(12:52):
And that's that's how that happened.
And yeah.
That must have been a pretty good,you must have had a pretty good pitch.
That's a you got threethings there, right?
Yeah, I
know, right?
It was it was quite the sell.
They did say no atfirst, but I kept trying.
And eventually chief, chief caved.
Oh, man.
(13:12):
So that's a, so that's apretty big responsibility.
It's a pretty big ask too.
Mm-hmm.
So, kudos to you for not giving up becauseI would've been, oh, you don't have an
in, you're not gonna gimme an internship.
I'm gonna go somewhere else.
I'm not gonna convince you to createa whole unit, and everything else.
But kudos to you forgetting us off the ground.
(13:34):
I mean, desperation does come to playthere it was a lot of opportunities
for me, and I didn't wanna wasteit on doing something else.
So, you know.
Yeah.
That's, that was the ticket there.
Yeah.
So, McPherson's how, how big is McPherson?
I, I, I might be wrong here, sodon't quote me on this, but I believe
the population's around 14,000.
Pretty
small, pretty, pretty small.
(13:55):
And but they've been around a long time.
And they, they've got a prettygood established police department.
So for a small town, they're,they're pretty robust in their,
like, law enforcement and thebudget they have for them.
So I was impressed.
Yeah.
All right.
So, I mean, it's, it boggles my mind whatlaw enforcement analysts are asked to do.
(14:20):
It's, it's, it's really notlike any other profession.
I swear it, it is really odd.
I just can't imagine in the businessworld or anywhere else, they're
like, oh yeah, we're gonna havethe, the intern create the unit.
That sounds like a good idea.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I definitely I think I hadto have a little bit of an
(14:41):
ego when I was pitching it.
But you know.
Here we are.
So,
yeah.
All right.
So you're walking in thefirst couple of days.
, Just take us back.
It's only a couple months ago, butjust take us back to those, to that
first week and as you look backon it and what you experienced.
(15:01):
Well, I am sorry to keep bringing it backto my a SU time, but I brought all my
textbooks because I kept all of them andI brought them in and I was like, this is
gonna be, these are gonna be my Bibles,so this is how I'm gonna set things up.
And I came in there and I tryingto figure out what software they do
have and trying to work off of that.
(15:21):
And just.
Trying to get the chiefand what his idea is.
And he actually was alreadyin talks with Sabrina Potts
over at the Shawnee Oh, okay.
Police department.
Yeah.
And so she was helping him before I evengot there about kind of understanding
what the career field is and what we do.
So he was kind of creating a listof like, okay, like I could get her
to do this for me and like this issomething we could probably use.
(15:44):
And so she ended up being a greatresource for me too as well.
I emailed her I think thefirst week I got there and was
being pretty needy obviously.
And she sent me a lot of productsthat she had made for her department.
She, sent me this really great one,which was like a significant activity
table that I just fell in love with.
'cause it was Excel based andvery nerdy and data oriented.
(16:08):
And just started from there and,and building dashboards on Excel.
And and the, so that's pretty muchhow I started was, was mm-hmm.
Really getting help from Sabrina.
And then the, the textbooks that Ihad to, to start setting up processes.
Do you have a records management system?
We do, we do.
It's not a good one though.
Oh,
okay.
(16:28):
Well, it's funny, I, i, I sometimesask, did you have a, is it RMS or RM Sy?
Oh, most, most people say it's RM Sy.
Mm-hmm.
That's accurate.
Yeah.
So so you're I mean, are you leastable to get the basic data out of it?
Obviously, most analysts, an RMS nevergives them everything that they want,
(16:49):
right?
Right.
I mean it has the ability to export yoursearches into an Excel table, right?
Mm-hmm.
And that's can pretty much doanything after you have that.
So the search function's a littlewonky, but exporting to Excel was really
all I needed to kind of get started.
So that, thankfully I had that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
As you're developing the data anddashboards and reporting, what what
(17:13):
patterns and trends are coming out?
What are you identifying as,as problem areas for McPherson?
So, it did take me quite a whileto start going through data
and start finding patterns.
With the small town like McPhersonyou're, I, I got the privilege of sitting
in the office with the detectives.
So I'm hearing them talk quitea bit and they're saying, oh,
so and so doing this again.
(17:34):
And I'm like, okay, I don't know so andso, so I gotta go look up so and so.
And so a lot of the patterns that you'reseeing, at least in a small town like
McPherson are done by the same people.
So that was the first thing I pickedup on, and then I realized, you know.
Pretty quickly that wehad a large theft problem.
And then we did have a little bit of somedrugs as well enough that we had our own
(17:57):
drug task force in that small department.
So those are the two thingsI noticed pretty quickly.
And then those were also the twothings that chief brought up of I
really want you to focus on this.
So I, I got lucky with kind of havinga little bit of direction there.
All right.
All right.
And then, I know it's still earlyyet, have you made any headway?
(18:19):
Yeah, no, , I think I have I love mydepartment and I, I love my chief.
They're, at least they act likethey're impressed every time.
So giving them data that they canlike, easily understand and be, I
mean, I'm telling them what's going on?
They, they enjoy it.
And so I think that, mm-hmm.
We're at least making headway there withlike, okay, now we're armed with data, now
(18:40):
we know what's going on on a large scale.
So I think, I think, yeah,I think I am making headway.
Alright.
Well, good.
And then I guess let's talk aboutjust setting up the unit, because
that's obviously, not only are youlearning the position, you're learning
the data, you are also trying toestablish this unit, so mm-hmm.
(19:03):
What's, what's that been likejust the last couple of months?
I mean, it's, it's been a challenge,but I told them that I could do it,
so I was gonna figure out how to doit and like I said, I had a lot of.
Mentors, I mentors, I joined MARCAN too.
Mm-hmm.
To make sure I had a,like a local network.
And a, a lot of the issuewas the software, right?
(19:24):
Because they never had acrime analysis unit before.
They're a small department the budget isjust not there for that kind of stuff.
And I'm operating off ofjust Excel for a while.
Mm-hmm.
But eventually I'm like I needsome sort of mapping software.
And we eventually found out that thepolice department was already paying
for Esri and they just never used it.
(19:44):
So, oh, we got that on board.
But a lot of it was just kind of Ihad to create my own software really
within Excel, like power queriesand, and things like that to just.
Give me the tools that I needed regularly.
And thankfully, obviouslyI had rgi IS pro as well.
And so setting that up, getting thoseprocesses done I started creating
(20:07):
some products for me that I, he wastelling myself I was gonna put out.
Because whenever I would talk toChief, I was like, what do you want?
And he was like, well,this maybe, I don't know.
So I he was, he was, he gave me completeautonomy and would give me feedback if
he wanted that or he didn't want that.
So I, I started setting up I was gonnasend out a weekly PowerPoint to him
(20:29):
at first and then to command staff.
And so I did that, and then I startedworking on a quarterly report.
And then I I just kind ofstarted creating things.
I was like talking to detectives,listening to patrol, seeing like.
Where, where was there a need for me?
Mm-hmm.
Where was there a needfor more data, more intel.
And just kind of working off that.
And, and it is only four monthsin, so I'm still creating more
(20:50):
processes and more things that theunit is gonna be known for producing.
So that's, that's kind ofhow it's been going so far.
Mm-hmm.
But yeah.
What, what about like hardware, likeoffice space and desks and post-it notes?
Post-it notes.
Gotta have post-it notes.
I am out of post-it notes currently.
(21:11):
So that's a good reminderto bring in more.
Yeah, I mean they, like I said, theygave me a desk in the investigation
office, which, if you ever see apicture of it, it looks like a closet.
It's very small.
Mm-hmm.
There's two detectives in there and me.
And then for a while we had a fourthperson, so it was cramped, but mm-hmm.
I think it was the best place for me tobe at because not only was it a great
(21:33):
place strategically for me to listento what was going on, but also I had
a detective in there and her name is.
Detective Jessica Dirks, andshe just wanted to use me.
She had worked with federalIntel agents a lot, and she loved
analysts from those experiences.
So when she found out that I wascoming, she's like, I'm gonna use her.
And she certainly did.
(21:54):
So hardware and office space workedout really well for me, even though
it was a little bit cramped and itwas like, I don't quite belong here.
And then we're moving over to anew substation here next month
as well, where the chief has kindof sectioned off an office for
me, which is I think a big deal.
So I mean, it's allabout just kind of like.
(22:15):
Make and do with whatyou have and then mm-hmm.
Making it an advantage, you know?
So,
Besides , the new space you're gonna get,
what else is next for, for the unit?
Well, next for the unitis making sure that this.
Unit, this unit stays.
I mean with, with the budgetingdiscussions that the city's having
right now they, they, I thinkthey want to keep it, for sure.
(22:37):
Mm-hmm.
So it's, it's all about wherethe, where the money's gonna be
at and if they can keep me aroundif they wanna keep me around.
And then I think that we have a veryforward thinking chief, which you
don't always get in small citiesand small police departments.
A lot of the times you getchiefs that just wanna keep doing
it the same way they've beendoing it for the last 40 years.
But Chief Golden is, heis so forward thinking.
(22:58):
He, he's, he's trying to createlike a mini real-time crime center.
He's working on gettingLPR set up in his town.
He is looking at the future andhe wants to make sure that his
city is set up for success inthe most futuristic way possible.
So a lot of it is depending on that, so.
He, I think as long as he isin charge we're gonna have
a lot of forward movement.
(23:18):
I really do believe that.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
That's that would be something thatyou're an intern, you created the unit.
Mm-hmm.
And they're like, oh, we'rewe're not gonna hire any analyst.
Yeah.
I really hope that doesn't happen.
Yeah.
We'll see.
Yeah.
Could you just work forfree the rest of your life?
Yeah.
Oh, oh boy.
But, and I just , reminded methat you're traveling an hour
(23:41):
every day for this internship.
Not getting paid.
Well, I guess you get, you saidyou got, you're getting it.
It's not totally for free.
You get the military benefits,so that's not too bad.
Yeah, I, right.
Yeah, it just reminded me of mydays when I was in Baltimore and
I was, I was driving probably 30or 40 minutes every day one way.
(24:05):
Not getting paid at all, just,
oh gosh.
I was just, their learning andit was but that impressed them.
That told them that that wasreally serious and they ended
up hiring me on afterwards.
So hopefully you you get the same nodgiven all the stuff that you've able
to accomplish this last couple months.
Yeah, I mean, it would, it wouldbe a really great honor if they
(24:27):
wanted to keep me on and I thinkthey do want to, so we'll see.
Hi, this is Jeffrey Vander sippand I'm gonna tell you about
a couple of my pet peeves.
Pet peeve number one is the sizeof parking lots at grocery stores.
They create these parking lots for Yugos,and yet everybody is now driving a Ford
(24:48):
F-150 and you can't fit in anything.
Or if you do, you're bangingthe doors of your neighbors.
Pet peeve number two is thelittle button in cars that open.
The fuel filler doorseems to be in the most.
Oddest of places.
And whenever I go somewhere else andI rent a car and I have to go to the
gas station for the first time, Ispend a half hour trying to figure
(25:09):
out how to open the fuel filler door.
Uh, pet peeve number three isjust packaging generally with
things that you get in the mail.
It's like Russian nesting dolls.
You've got a box and insidethat box is another box.
Inside that is another boxinside that is a bubble wrap.
And then you get to like a little.
Piece of whatever, whichis the thing actually sent.
And finally, and again, betraying myage here, the screen filters that people
(25:32):
use in their social media, everybodykinda looks like somebody out of avatar.
Uh, what's up with that?
Hi, this is Sean Fisher andat my work, we're known as The
Nerdery and we're proud of it.
Embrace who you are.
, For the listeners, I did forgetto mention in the beginning of
(25:54):
the show that we are doing acall-in segment favorite first job.
So for those that have a favoritefirst job get your calls in now.
Alright, Tori, then.
Let's talk about buildinga unit and, okay.
This is fresh on your mind.
Just from your experience, maybeadvice that you have or mm-hmm.
(26:20):
Just whatever you wanna say aboutbuilding a unit at the, from the,
from your point of view at the moment.
Right.
Well, I mean, I, I probably have alreadyblown so much smoke towards my chief
just complimenting him, but it mm-hmm.
Really does depend onthe chief's attitude.
Right.
Or the sheriff or, or whoeverthe leadership is that your law
(26:43):
enforcement agency that, thatyou have to have them buy in.
If you buy in, then you're out of no luck.
So, I mean, that's, that's the firstthing is just to make sure that you
have a forward thinking chief or sheriffthat that's got your back and will back
you with anything new you wanna try.
I think that making sure that whereveryou're adding things, is it mm-hmm.
(27:05):
Not at the detriment of anybodyelse in the police department.
You don't wanna create more work for yourofficers, you don't wanna create more time
sucking meetings or anything like that.
So.
Just immersing yourself in thatculture and listening and figuring
out what the need is there.
Because I mean, we all know thatone size doesn't fit all for Intel.
(27:27):
Mm-hmm.
And, and what the needs are there.
So I try really hard to well, Imean, I, every, every analyst should
read reports every day, right.
And mm-hmm.
Just cleaning from that and theconversations of like, Hey, what's,
what's gonna be useful for you?
Like, don't hand them an Excel documentwith 27 tabs and say, here you go, I'm
gonna help you do X, Y, and Z. 'causethey're not gonna look at it, you know?
(27:48):
So I think that's the, the foundationof on top of having leadership
buy-in is, is making sure that yourpresence is adding and not detracting
from whatever they're used to doingand how, how they're doing it.
Yeah.
Huh.
Yeah.
So I think it's, I think it's amazingthe, the, just the thought of just
starting everything from scratch.
(28:10):
Mm-hmm.
I don't know if I'm starting with hardwareor software first or where I would go.
Right.
That's probably, it's probably a decentgame we could play at a conference is
like, okay, you have all this stuff, youhave a budget, what are you buying first?
Right.
Oh, I
like that.
We should definitely do that.
Yeah.
Right.
You have a little bit of a salary capand you can only spend so much money.
(28:32):
What are you doing?
What quality you getting?
It is a lot.
'cause there is so much.
Before you know it, I, because I'mthinking about it, your perspective now
is like, most of your data is probablycoming from your RMS or maybe your cat.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
But as you mentioned, as thetechnology grows in the city, you
get LPRs or cameras, or you juststart getting so many more data sets.
(28:58):
It's gonna grow and growand grow before you know it.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's definitelytricky to try to, 'cause obviously the,
the chief was the one that's gotta bringany big cost to the city commission.
So you have to, anything thatyou think that the department
needs, you really have to vet thatthoroughly and he has to vet it.
(29:20):
So, you know yeah, so far I havenot brought him anything that he
needs to bring to City Commission.
That doesn't mean I won't have anything.
So yeah, just kind of figuring outwhat it is you can operate without
and what it is that you're like,all right, chief, we need this.
Before we found out we hadthe Esri subscription, I was.
Fully expecting to have to push himor act to request him to push this
(29:43):
at City Commission to purchase.
'cause I'm not able to do any mapping onGoogle Maps the way I wanted to, you know?
So yeah, that's definitelypart of it, for sure.
Yeah.
Chris Delaney,, when he was onthe show, he works for RI and.
He is regularly, as he goes toconferences, , analysts find out
(30:04):
that their city, one way or anotheralready is paying for an Israel license
that they could easily piggyback on.
He says that happens regularly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
And that was something newfor everybody involved.
So it was a really greatdiscovery to find out.
And that, I guess that would be my numberone tip for anybody setting up a unit in
(30:25):
a small town is check with that license.
'cause you're, countyGIS guy probably has one.
Yeah.
Or planning or somebody.
Right.
Somebody probably has a, a license.
You're right.
Yep.
Good.
Well, you mentioned City Commission andI see here on your resume you've actually
spoke at City Commission briefings.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm, I'm curious to know how that went.
(30:47):
Yeah, no like I said, I I was givingmyself homework to do and, and quarterly
reports were one of them, and so Ibrought my quarter one report to.
Chief at the end of March orbeginning of April and mm-hmm.
He was like, yeah, can you putsomething together that's not law
enforcement sensitive to, to brief tothe city commission, to kind of give
(31:08):
him an idea of what you've been doingand, and what you've seen in town.
And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
I have a lot of experiencebriefing from the military, so
that didn't hear me or anything putsomething together and I, I did it.
And we have a great.
Mayor at McPherson, he's, he's verylike law enforcement friendly and,
and loves everything that we do.
He's also a veteran, so he wasvery excited about us using
(31:29):
the Skill Bridge program.
And so I presented itand they, they loved it.
They had questions and it was good.
I think public transparency is justsuch a large part of, of Intel mm-hmm.
For law enforcement.
So it was good to, toactually put that into action.
Yeah.
And then I guess well, I mean, evensome tips there because that, that
could be pretty intimidating, right?
(31:50):
I, I, yeah.
I think, I think when I was ananalyst and in police departments,
I, I struggled with briefings.
Really?
'cause it seemed like the audience wasalways a little bit of a mixed bag.
People had a different understandingof data and really struggled with what
level of detail to go into, what to, whatto show, what not to show, what to how,
(32:16):
the best way to communicate my message.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I, it just, I, that, that kindof thing public speaking, I think it's,
it's just something that takes practice.
So it's not I don't wanna say it's, it'ssomething easy to do 'cause it's not.
Mm-hmm.
But figuring out your audience.
I mean I definitely ran it by mychief before I presented it and
(32:37):
made sure that it was something thatthey could absorb and react well to.
You don't wanna paint yourdepartment in a bad light if
you're saying that there's mm-hmm.
An increase like for me,this last quarter, which.
There's even a news clip of metalking about it because it was
such a big deal, but we had a 81%.
(32:58):
Spike in our, our drug offensesand the first quarter of this year
compared to first quarter of last year.
And explaining it in a way thatlike, well, we had two major busts
that our department did, you know?
Mm-hmm.
That was why, that was why we hadthose had these recorded reports that
were way more so just making sure thatyou're framing things and not, don't
lie, but frame them in a way thatit's like we have this, this spike
(33:21):
because our guys are doing a job.
So I think that that's probably themost important part of it, is to
make sure you're representing yourdepartment really well and you're
speaking in a language.
So,
alright.
Very good.
All right.
Well, let's, we talked about it before.
I do want to touch on the graduatecertificate that you got from a SU.
You mentioned the textbooks, but mm-hmm.
(33:42):
Just wanted to talk a little bit about, alittle bit about the program and, and what
you got out of it other than textbooks.
Oh, man.
I have never had so much fun in school,I'll tell you that much right now.
Uhhuh, I mean, Uhhuh, someof it was really hard.
Mm-hmm.
Just specifically, they very,cerebral portions of it where there
was like a, I can't remember namesof the classes, but there was a
(34:04):
lot of ones that were very researchheavy, which is not my strong point.
Mm-hmm.
But I think the class I got themost out of was the cry mapping
class because that's very hands-on.
And we they give us our ownRGIS license to use mm-hmm.
During that time.
So that, that is probably one of thebiggest things that I took into this
internship that has super helpedbecause I was able to remember somehow.
(34:27):
How to do a lot of thestuff from that class.
I wish I could remember the name of myTA that worked with me specifically,
but they, they were so good.
They, I mean, they told you exactly whatyou were doing wrong, how to fix it.
And that SQL and stuff likethat was not come easy for me.
So learning that kind of stuff was soimportant and learning how to import
(34:48):
Excel data was especially important.
And so yeah, that wasprobably the biggest one.
I remember.
There's the, the intro to crime analysis.
Which I think was probablymy favorite class.
And I just gained a lot of, like,they do such a good job of like
making you do real world stuff.
It's not just you're absorbing alecture and then you're taking a
test on it, you know you're doingprojects and you're doing things
(35:10):
that you would be doing in real life.
So I really, really enjoyed those classes.
I didn't get A's in all ofthem, but I really enjoyed them.
So did you, did you know ex didyou, had you worked with Excel
prior to the grad graduate program?
I, I mean, I have my MBAand that's part of it is.
You, you have to learn a little bitmore of some advanced Excel skills.
(35:31):
So I, I had that and I had somestuff that I had learned in the
military as well, but there was alot of stuff that I didn't know.
And I, I believe there is a Excel focusedclass, I can't remember the name of it.
Something data I believe that taughtme how to use that in the, in crime
like zco and things like that.
Significant values, things like that,that I just, I didn't know before
(35:54):
that I, I have such a nerd that Ilove Excel, so I things like that,
that I just, I really got a lot from.
Mm-hmm.
And that really helped me when Iwas coming in and setting up and
trying to figure out what to do.
Yeah.
How about, so the, thestudents taking this.
Program.
Is this mostly working professionals?
(36:14):
Is it people just straight out of college?
What was the makeup of your cohort?
Well, I, I think a lot of my classesin particular were, I mean, obviously
they were all remote, right?
Mm-hmm.
So a lot of the people that weredoing distance learning were people
that were from what I rememberfrom the introduction post were.
Working parents that mm-hmm.
Trying to go back to school.
(36:35):
There was like, I remember a coupleof retired police officers okay.
And there was some thatwere military as well.
And then just, it was a wide variety.
Like I could not tell youwho most of them were.
It seemed like it was.
Pretty mixed bag.
All right.
Very good.
All right.
And I also see on your resume herethat you've worked with Tableau,
which is a, a dashboard software thatI use regularly at my current job.
(37:00):
So I want to get your take on usingTableau and how you , feel that
it fits in the analysis realm.
I, so I have unfortunately onlygotten used Tableau with a SU mm-hmm.
And was one of the softwarethat they taught us.
But I mean, I enjoyed it.
I think it was very user friendlyas far as like knowing what buttons
(37:22):
to click to get what you need.
Yeah I don't I, I, I don't know thatI, I have an expert opinion on it,
just 'cause I haven't been able touse it in the professional world.
But that was just one of thesoftware that they taught us.
ASU and I, I, I felt like I had apretty good grasp on at least the
basics of it by the end of it, so
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I really like the dataimport functionality of Tableau.
(37:46):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
But just like with any other software, iteventually gets pernickety and frustrating
when you're trying to get certain graphsand things to look just right, right.
Oh, yeah.
And you're just fiddlingwith it for hours on end.
So that's usually where my frustrationwith the program gets is something
that I think should be very simple.
(38:08):
Turns out to be a, quite a headache.
Yeah.
They'll get it right someday.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, all right.
How about ad advice for our listeners?
Oh, advice from a crime analyst that'sbeen doing crime analysis before months?
Well, I'm trying notto repeat myself from.
Stuff I've already said, but mm-hmm.
You know going back to, to how Igot here in the first place is don't
(38:30):
take a no for a no unless it's ahard no in the professional world.
Like if, if I took that firstno, and just, I wouldn't be here.
So, I mean, if you truly believe inyour abilities and your you know what
you can do, I, I would say go for it.
I mean, I have a lot of people that arein other parts of law enforcement that
(38:52):
work for a police department, and they'retelling me, I keep pushing crime analysis
from on my small police department.
They, they keep saying, no,but I think it would be good.
And I'm like, well, keepsaying, keep asking.
It's like if you truly believe insomething, I'm like, I never, never
back down until you're told to.
Truly back down.
Yeah, definitely.
(39:12):
Don't get yourself a restraining order.
No, don't do that.
I mean, no means no when itcomes to a live page for sure.
All right.
Very good.
Let's take some calls., Let's do somefavorite first jobs and I always mention
I got this idea from Steve Gottliebfrom the Alpha Group and 'cause when he
(39:33):
was 16, 17 years old, his first job wasworking at the local radio station and
he worked his way up to being Sundaymorning DJ of the local radio program.
So I like to ask analysts whattheir favorite first jobs are.
So first on the line is Jan. Jan.What's one of your favorite first jobs?
(39:55):
My favorite first job was when I wasin the Air Force and it was literally
my first job in the Air Force.
I was a flight commander of a intelligencecollection unit in Alaska, and I was
the first female flight commander.
The intelligence unit in Alaska,and I walked onto the floor.
This, I had 35 people and everybody'ssitting at these like collection
(40:17):
racks and or desks and things likethat, or writing on maps and things.
I mean, it's all very professional.
Secrety kinds of stuff going on.
And I walk in and this, my, my deputycommander stood up and he, like,
he was on a raised platform andthis man was about six foot five.
(40:37):
And, and he leaned over the railingbetween his desk and where I was
standing and said, LT, welcome aboard.
I mean, here I am, lucky, I'm, thisguy's a senior mass sergeant, so
he's been in a while and, and I'm.
Green behind the ears for secondLieutenant, and he was the most
welcoming, wonderful person.
(40:57):
And that was the best job ever.
We were a family, 35 people who hadto get the job done and did have a
organizational hierarchy and all of that.
But we were a family.
We did potlucks, we played baseball.
We, we were 24 hour operations,so we worked shift work.
It was, it was just the most amazing job.
(41:18):
And, and so that, I was so luckythat that was my first job in the
Air Force because it made the,the next 20 years just fly by.
Always having the memory ofthat as being my first job.
So yeah.
That's a interesting take.
Is it, I, I don't know from yourperspective on the Air Force how big the
units were, but I, it seems like whatshe had was a pretty tight knit group.
(41:41):
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I, it's so funny that you have anAir Force Intel officer, the first call.
But yeah, I mean, I, that was kindof similar to my first job as a psych
lieutenant as well as I was on shift workwith a small group and, you know mm-hmm.
Something about shift work just makesyou grow really close really fast.
So I can definitely relate to that one.
(42:02):
Yeah.
I think it's like minds aroundthe same age doing a similar
tasks, you just mm-hmm.
You just it's good when you bond asopposed to infighting, that's for sure.
Oh, yeah.
No, definitely prefer that.
Yeah.
All right.
Next on the line is Alex.
Alex, what's one of yourfavorite first jobs?
So, after I left the army and before Istarted college, I spent almost a year
(42:26):
working as a bartender at an Americanstyle diner in Germany, as envisioned
by a German who had been on exactly onetrip to the US sometime in the 1980s.
So imagine this, the decorwas a hodgepodge of different
styles and eras of Americana.
The place was called the Peach Pit Diner,a shameless and probably unlicensed ripoff
of the Beverly Hills, 92 1 oh diner.
(42:48):
And it was a lot of fun.
It was attached to a, a Cineplexand we were open every day
until three in the morning.
We served a pizza that was neitherNew York nor Chicago style.
Fairly decent hamburgers andAmerican beer as a novelty.
Now this is in Germany.
You gotta keep that in mind, right?
So American beer issomething that was sort of.
Laughed at.
And I mean, I remember customers doingcontests of how many they can drink at
(43:10):
a, at a sitting, and they would oftenrun outta money before they were buzzed.
But this was the first time inmy life where I didn't really
have to worry about anything.
I was not in school.
I lived fairly cheap andI had almost no expenses.
So I worked four or five nightsa week from six to three,
and it was a glorious job.
And at, at the end of that, when, when Igot close to starting college I seriously
(43:31):
considered staying on for a little longer.
I'm glad I didn't, but that was a fun job.
Yeah.
That is so interesting.
Could you imagine just going to arestaurant once in a different country and
then creating a whole restaurant back home
? Yeah.
That is so awesome.
I, I wish he would,would send us pictures.
(43:52):
That would've been so funny to seewhat, what that German thought.
1980s.
America was like,
oh man.
It's, I mean, it takes the same levelof confidence to starting a unit
when you've never been quiet before.
Oh
yeah.
Just, yeah.
Just yeah.
I wanted to go see this unit forone day for a couple hours and
(44:12):
this is what I come back with, so.
Oh, man.
And it, it is interesting about the,the beer, 'cause you would think that
it wouldn't fly over there, but it was,it sounds like it was like a novelty and
they took it as a challenge to oh man.
As you said, you see how manybeers you could drink and you ran
(44:32):
outta money before you got drunk.
Yeah.
I, I love Germany.
I, I studied abroad there andthey, they're not joking about
their beer, so I, I, I love that.
I love that so much.
Now, , when you were there inGermany, , is the beer cold or warm?
It's it's room temperature.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(44:52):
That's what, that's what I thought.
I think that's one of, it's more of anAmerican trait that it's ice cold beer, so
Yes.
Yes, it is, unfortunately.
All right.
Next on the line is Heather.
Heather, what's one ofyour favorite first jobs?
One of my favorite firstjobs I worked in aviation.
And so I was helping direct communicateradio communication from the aircraft
(45:16):
to where our facility was located.
And I would sometimes park andchalk aircraft and also help them
on their way out to the runway.
Coolest thing about that isI was able to park George w
Bush's plane when he came in.
One time I met the governorof Florida, the governor of
Kentucky, and I met Dirk Bentley.
Hmm.
(45:37):
Wow.
That's a name drop there.
It was awesome.
I I really love that job.
Yeah.
That, yeah.
That's interesting.
I, I, I always watch those folks thatare directing the airplane in and
they got the, they got the orangestick light and, and everything else.
(45:58):
And I'm like, there's a whole scienceand technique to everything that they're
doing, and it's, I don't know why I'mso intrigued by it, but I ha every time
I'm in a plane and I got a window seat,I take time to watch what they're doing.
'cause I find it fascinating.
I, I always feel bad for 'emwhen it's really cold out and
they're out there Oh bundled up.
(46:19):
But yeah, that's a, that isa thankless job for sure.
Oh yeah.
Well, just all kinds of weather.
Too hot, too cold, rainy, snowy.
Ugh.
Yeah.
But you might meet
Dirk Bentley, so
Yes, yes.
Or, or park the president'splane or meet a governor.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No big deal.
(46:39):
Yeah, that is a, that is a goodname drop there that she had.
All right.
Next on the line is Erica.
Erica, what's one ofyour favorite first jobs?
Well, Jason not, not so muchmy favorite, but because I got
my first speeding ticket, I wasforced to get a job when I was 16.
And I should also say I got my firstspeeding ticket trying to beat my
(47:01):
best friend and her mom to the bowlingalley, which I never made it to.
I just went straight home and triedto cry so that my dad might feel
bad that I got a speeding ticket,but that didn't work either.
He said, get a job.
So I got a job at Chuck E.Cheese and I worked there.
I made birthday cakes andyes, I wore the fat suit.
(47:21):
I was Chucky several times actually.
Oh man.
And so, so what are some crazymoments there with being Chucky
?Well.
As Chucky Jason, kids either love youor they are terrified of you, so they
either wanna hug you and like not letgo, or they run away screaming, crying,
(47:45):
and some kids like if they hug you,they like, they really won't let go.
So you have to learn and you do.
And the fat suit, like how tostrategically kind of kick them
and remove them from you so thatyou can carry on with your job.
Which sounds so awful now.
I wish I could be in the fatsuit and just hug kids all day.
(48:05):
That'd be easy.
Oh man.
Yeah.
Just knocking little kidsover and having them laugh.
Yeah.
That was me.
Yeah, that was me.
Oh
man.
I, I like the, the, the visual of Chuck E.Cheese strategically knocking over kids,
(48:27):
strategically doing anythingin the mascot costumes.
Gotta pick the talent.
Oh, man, I, that is one placethat I am really surprised
has lasted all these years.
I
know I've never been to one.
I've just seen them from the outside.
Oh man.
Never had any interest.
Oh no.
I, used to take the kids thereand it's, yeah, it's fun.
(48:51):
They actually have, speaking of pizza,they actually have really good pizza.
It is probably just frozen pizzathat they're cooking, but I really
enjoyed their pizza and if theywould allow me to roll in there by
myself, I would just get the pizza.
But they're not gonna allow someold white guy roll 'em in there by
(49:12):
himself to even just to get pizza.
Oh, yeah.
That might be a little bit concerning.
Or Jason.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I'll have to rent a kid to, inorder to get some pizza from there.
That might be worse, but, okay.
Oh man.
No, I, that's, that's a good one.
See, that was a story that I wouldnever have thought to, to hear an
(49:36):
analyst say that they were the Chuckycheese, and it all came from a speeding
ticket of all things breaking the law.
Oh my God.
Yeah, of course.
All right, last one.
Amanda, what's one ofyour favorite first jobs?
My favorite first job andmy first job altogether was
blueberry picking for a summer.
Got all the blueberries thatI wanted was hard work and was
(49:58):
tired at the end of the day.
And I walked away with maybe like$300 at the end of the summer.
It wasn't the most lucrative, but Iwas outside a lot and and worked hard.
Man.
This were your fingers blue?
Yes.
Yeah.
I, I did that just for a couple hours.
Once I mean, I, we, here in Tallahassee,there's a, there's a guy that has a
(50:21):
bunch of blueberry bushes, and he gets tothe point where he can't, he can't pick
'em all, so we'll go down there mm-hmm.
And help him.
And but.
I'm only doing it for a couple hours.
I can't imagine doing it like seven,eight hours a day all summer long.
No, no.
Absolutely not.
I mean in Michigan we docherries that's already taken.
(50:43):
Yeah, and it's, I haveliterally only done it once.
'cause it was exhausting.
Yeah.
But the cherry trees get pretty tall.
Right.
Yes, they do.
Gr You gotta stand on aladder sometimes, which, yeah.
Not always fun.
So
yeah.
Now that's an advantage of the blueberry.
It's basically, I mean, it's justa little bit, they, they're about
(51:04):
five, six foot high, so it's Right.
You're not, you're not.
Gr on a ladder or anythinglike that, but that's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Getting up and down on a, on aladder to pick anything all day
long does not sound like fun to me.
But,
It's not for nerds.
No.
I don't know.
Amanda really enjoyed working outside.
I would not.
I me and the sun don't getalong, so I don't I think
we're all pretty similarthat way, I think.
(51:27):
All right, so that's favorite first job.
If you have a favorite first jobthat you wanna share with the show,
email us at lea podcasts@gmail.com.
Alright, Tori, let's finishup with personal interests.
And you were in the military, soyou told me you were a gym rat,
which isn't a surprise to me.
(51:48):
But the other thing that you told methat you get into is that you do military
clothing, freelance with your mom.
Yes.
My mom and I own an Etsy shop mm-hmm.
Called Susan's Custom Military Clothing.
We make party shirts, which arelike the dress shirts that they wear
for like, fancy balls and stuff.
And we can mm-hmm.
(52:09):
Customize the sleeves in the back.
And then we also dobaseball, like the caps.
And we do like an elastic so the girlscan put 'em around their buns easily.
We make little kids clothes that aregood for like, deployment homecoming.
So my mom does all the sewing,obviously she's the talent.
And then I work the finance andthe marketing side of things.
So it's a lot of fun.
(52:29):
I, I enjoy it.
She enjoys it, so it's a good time.
So you're marketing to thefamilies of the military for snow
families and active duty.
I think we could even split.
Yeah.
So they're.
Good, good customer base for sure.
Okay.
Yeah, I was, I, because at first Ithought it was just the, the personnel,
but then as you talk there, I obviouslycould tell that it was more the
(52:53):
families I was trying to envisionlike a a teenager you're trying to get
teenagers to wear military uniforms,and I was wondering how that went over
kinda thing.
Oh no.
But hey, if you start trending, ifyou convince 'em it's a trend, then
they'll probably gobble it up, right?
Oh, probably,
yeah.
I mean, sure.
(53:14):
Whatever gets gets customers in the door.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's fun working with your mom.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, we enjoy it.
All right.
And but you don't getinto any of the sewing.
She's not gonna passthat trade down to you.
I, unfortunately,
yeah.
I she tried to teach me whenI was younger and I just did
not have the dexterity yeah.
To be able do that.
(53:34):
So all her,
oh man.
That was one thing thatstill lingered with my wife.
She got into sewing during COVIDand was making masks and taught
my daughter, taught our daughterhow to, to make burp cloths, and
she still does a bunch of stuff.
It's just grown and grown and grownthat all the stuff she makes bags and
(53:56):
all, all different kinds of things.
I didn't, I had to section off partof the house to give her a sewing
room, so it's grown that much.
So
Nice.
It's a dying hobby, soI hope she keeps at it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So mean she gets frustrated.
'cause the sewing machine willbreak and there's only like one
person in town that can fix it.
(54:18):
That is so true.
Every time my mom has the same problem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's like, isn't it is likeout for weeks kind of thing.
'cause that person's so busyand, and everything else.
So, and she's super depressedthat Joanne Fabrics is going out.
Oh, my mom,
I've had, I thought I was gonnahave to fly out and comfort her.
She was so upset.
(54:40):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
So she is not happy about that.
And so, oh, I don't know.
Somebody's gonna pick up the slack.
I don't know who's going to do it, butsomebody's gonna pick up the slack, right.
I think my money's on Michael's.
I don't know.
So
fingers crossed.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
All right.
Very good.
All right, Tori, our last segmentof the show is Words to the
(55:02):
World, and this is where you canpromote any idea that you wish.
Tori, what are your words to the world?
My words to the world would bejust to remember that you don't
need to have it all figured out.
If something lights is sparking youit's like a gut feeling or a skill
that you have to just follow thatcuriosity and see where it goes.
(55:23):
Life doesn't always follow a linearpath and just because you know your
career's, starting a little unorthodoxdoesn't mean that it's wrong if
you're the first to walk that path.
That's great.
I was at my department andI'm really happy that I did.
So if you're doing something alittle abnormal to get started,
that doesn't mean you're lost.
(55:44):
It just might mean you'redoing something great.
So just keep at it andfollow that feeling.
Very good.
Well, I leave every guestwith you giving me just enough
to talk bad about you later.
But I do appreciate youbeing on the show, Tori.
Thank you so much and you be safe.
Thank you.
Thank you for making it tothe end of another episode of
(56:05):
Analyst Talk with Jason Elder.
You can show your support by sharingthis in other episodes found on
our website@www.elliotpodcasts.com.
If you have a topic you would like usto cover or have a suggestion for our
next guest, please send us an emailat Elliot podcasts at gmail do com.
Till next time, analysts, keep talking.
Welcome to Analyst Talk with Jason Elder.
(00:01):
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.
My name is Jason Elder and todayour guest has four months of law
(00:26):
enforcement analysis experience.
She is currently the intern atMcPherson Police Department in Kansas.
She has eight years as anintelligence officer in the Air Force.
She's here to talk about, amongother things, internships and
starting a new analyst unit.
Please welcome Victoria Curtis, Victoria.
(00:48):
How we doing?
Hi Jason.
I'm doing great.
How are you?
I am doing very well and so I amreally intrigued by your story.
I think it's fascinating thatyou are both an intern for this
police department and you are also.
Helping to set up the analytical unit.
(01:09):
Yeah.
It's a little unique for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So how is Kansas these days?
Well right now it's really rainy.
Yeah.
But I actually live in Wichitaand I commute to McPherson, which
is about an hour away every day.
So I go from Yeah, kind of abustling big city to kind of.
(01:29):
Middle of nowhere up north.
So it's definitely definitely different.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I don't, I don't know.
I'll make you feel bad.
I, I work from home, so I don't,I don't miss driving at all to
and from, especially like an hour.
Oh my goodness.
All right.
Yeah.
Especially as flat as Kansas is.
Geez.
(01:49):
Oh
yeah.
Yeah.
No, it's it's quite the boring drive.
Gotta get a good podcast going.
Yeah.
So I see on your resume that yourbachelor's is from Michigan State.
Does that mean you'reoriginally from Michigan?
I am born and raised.
Nice.
What part of Michigan?
I am, well, if you could see me, I'ddo the little Michigan hand thing.
(02:10):
Yes.
With the Glo, the mitten.
Right.
I, I, that's the, like,that's the weirdest thing
is little point to a mitten.
And I never realized, I'm fromPennsylvania and saw, looked at the, the
map of Michigan all my life and neverthought that it looked like a mitten until
somebody did what you just, just did.
I don't know why.
It never came across my, my mind untilsomeone said, I, I live right here.
(02:33):
And they made a mitten out of their hand.
I was like, oh.
I guess it does look like a mitten.
Yeah.
It's our claim to fame for sure.
But yeah, no, I live I, or I'm fromthe Southwest portion right on the
Lake Michigan, right on the Indianaborder, like an hour away from Chicago.
Okay.
So kind of just barely there.
So
(02:54):
that's gotta be pretty close to Toledo,right, because Toledo is northwest Ohio.
Yeah, it's the other side of the state.
Oh, wait a minute.
What did you say?
The Southwest?
Yeah, east southwest.
Northwest east.
I'm sorry.
No, Toledo is northwest Ohio, so itshould be around there somewhere.
Alright.
It's, yeah, other side, but that's okay.
(03:15):
All right.
Yeah.
Well, I can't even, I don't even know whatthe state looks like, so I, I can't go.
It shouldn't go based on mybad memory of where Toledo is.
So.
All right.
Well, let's get this party started.
How did you discover the lawenforcement analysis profession?
Oh my goodness.
So, I mean, if we wanna startfrom the very beginning, I mean
birth I, yeah, birth right.
(03:36):
Oh, every little kid has like,their career that they wanna
be when they're a grown up andfirefighter ballerina or whatever.
But mm-hmm.
I remember meeting in a sandwichshop when I was very little.
Police woman that was there and she camein on a motorcycle and I just thought
she was a superhero or something.
(03:57):
And
I remember she smiled at me and shetalked to me and I was like, I'm gonna be
a police woman that rides a motorcycle.
And I told everybody that for years.
So my love of criminaljustice started very on.
But really it kind of started whenI was looking to get out of the
military I was, like you said, I wasan intelligence officer for eight
(04:19):
years, so I was trying to figure outwhat my transferrable skills were.
Like you said, I have a bachelor'sdegree in criminal justice,
and then I have my MBA as well.
And so I was looking to see maybeI can get back into criminal
justice as my original love.
So I looked into like, okay, wellhow does that translate for Intel?
(04:41):
Could I be like a backgroundinvestigator or a private investigator?
But like, neither of thosereally felt right, you know?
And I, I had never heard of crimeanalysis at this point, by the way.
So, part of transitioning out of themilitary is they make you do something
called taps, where you you take like aweek long seminar where they help you get
(05:02):
outta military, make sure you're set up.
So one of the exercises they made us dois use this website, which for the life of
me, I cannot remember the name of, but wewould type in where our military specialty
was and it would give us like this listof things that it was translatable.
And the only one I can remember and theone that stood out was a crime analysis.
So that was like, what is this?
(05:24):
The description sounded areally cool, really badass.
And so I delved into it, tried tofigure out what it was more about.
And then that's where Googletook me to the IACA website.
Mm-hmm.
And that got me interested Inoticed that there was gonna be an
annual conference in six months.
This was back in 2023, so it was gonna bein Dallas, which I don't know if you can
(05:46):
do geography again with me, but that'sonly a five hour drive from Wichita.
So I was like, well, that's perfect.
My boss was willing to let mego without taking any leave.
So I scrimped and saved for sixmonths to afford the registration
and the hotel room, and I got it.
And I went and I justabsolutely fell in love.
(06:08):
I, this, I, in every single seminar,I was just like locked in all the
time and I have a DHD so for me to belocked into anything the whole time
is a significant, so I was realizingthat this, I was interested in it.
I talked to everybody that I could.
And every single analyst that I talkedto was like friendliest person I've
(06:28):
ever met, which was just strange to me.
'cause I was like I've neverreally experienced a career
field where everybody's friendly.
So that was new to me.
But everybody was trying to connectme, get me in personal contact
with people that would help me.
I've collected so manybusiness cards that week.
I don't, I think I still have a bag ofthem somewhere because just everybody just
(06:49):
wanted to help me out, which was awesome.
Made some lifelong friendsthere, so it was awesome.
There's just something magicalabout going to conferences
to the first time I remember.
Yeah, mine, I was, I was sogung ho and so excited about it.
I was actually asking people that I knew.
(07:09):
I was like, I can, I'm, I. Ican't get to that session 'cause
I'm going to this other session.
Would you take notes for me?
Yes.
I was asking people to take notes for me.
Yeah, yeah.
Like doing the whole thing where you skipout maybe in the la in the first half and
try to try to get both and Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
No, it's the, it was, it's likeDisneyland for us nerds, isn't it?
(07:31):
Yeah.
It's a, you just a, you're just a sponge.
Right?
Right.
And you're just trying to makeconnections and learn new things
and just, there's just so much thatyou don't know and it's like, yeah,
yeah.
No, exactly.
And the, that's, that's even wheretoo, where I guess at the vendor fair
was Arizona State was doing mm-hmm.
Their, their pitch.
And I was like, I hadGI Bill money to spend.
(07:54):
Okay.
So I was like, I was like,well this would be free for me.
And like, I would, I was seeing all thissoftware that everybody was using and I
was like, I wanna learn how to do that.
So that's where I figured outthat I could register and, and
get my graduate certificate.
And so yeah, I made a lot ofgreat decisions that week.
I'm, I'm really glad I went, butthat's, that's how I got acquainted
with the, the career field.
(08:15):
Was, was that process.
I just going to, that conference was.
Steal the deal for me, so,
alright.
Yeah.
We'll talk about the graduatecertificate a little bit later.
Sure.
I do wanna back up to yourtime in the Air Force.
Okay.
, As mentioned in your intro, you were anintelligence officer, so I'm just curious
(08:35):
what types of things you got into andwhat, what you did and how it laid the
foundation to what you're doing now.
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean so as an officer you don'treally specialize in what type of intel.
You kind of are supposed to bekind of a jack of all trades,
master of none type deal.
And then you're enlistedthat you supervise, they're
(08:56):
the ones that specialize.
So each of my assignmentsthat I had, which I had.
They got about five.
They were all vastly different.
And I got to go to all thesedifferent countries and do stuff.
I got to do a lot of signals intelligence.
I got to do a lot of supporting aircraftand giving them threat briefings before
(09:17):
they went on their missions and stuff.
So it was a lot of not very,like, not very applicable type
stuff to law enforcement analysis,but you definitely learn.
Like the intelligence cycle very welland you learn how to use your tools
and how to present data and things likethat., I gotta tell you though, I was,
I did not love military intelligence.
(09:39):
It was not something that sparkedmy, my little nerdy reptile brain.
But I liked the I was good at it and Iliked the the data part of it, you know?
Yeah.
Was it because it was too stringentand didn't allow creativity?
What, what do you think it was?
Yeah, I mean, I, I would say that,I mean, you have like, I mean, you
have even down to like the templatesthat you're supposed to use in
(10:01):
PowerPoints, they're usually pretty.
Strict on what you'resupposed to do for those.
And, but I mean, also you're,you're reporting intel on
an entire country, you know.
Mm-hmm.
And whereas with law enforcementanalysis you have a specific, if
you're doing at least the investigativeparty, you have like a specific bad
guy that you're doing Intel on ora specific like game or something.
(10:22):
Mm-hmm.
It's just a little easier for me to getinterested in something more specific
versus I weapon specs on another countryor something is just not not really my
cup of tea, but I was good at it at least.
So,
yeah.
Do you have a favorite story you'd liketo tell from your time in the military?
Favorite story?
Oh my gosh.
(10:43):
Whew.
I gotta be careful.
I I I got my deployment, I deployedto Afghanistan and, mm-hmm.
I did.
I was a flyer out there.
I didn't.
Fly the aircraft.
I was in the back of the aircraftdoing top secret, nerdy things.
And I found out very quicklythat I am motion sick, like in
(11:06):
very small planes, apparently.
Mm-hmm.
So we had we had a very bad store one day.
I think it was, it wasliterally on New Year's.
And I just threw up every trying to domy job while throwing up and I can look
back on it and laugh, but I think it'sreally funny when you think about like, oh
stressful environments when you're tryingto brief the chief and command staff.
(11:27):
And I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm good.
I think I've had my stressful environment.
So,
oh man, that would be the worst I can'timagine still doing my job and puking.
Right.
I, but my wife will tell you I'm abig baby when it comes to getting
sick, so I can't imagine me trying toactually be functional why I am sick.
(11:49):
Right, right.
Yeah.
You you learn a lot about yourselfin those instances for sure.
All right.
Then how did McPherson get on your radar?
So when I was looking for aninternship to do and I was looking
at the, which the military internshipprograms called Skill Bridge.
Mm-hmm.
Which is where we get to ourlast six months of active duty.
(12:11):
We get to go do an internshipand the military still pays us.
So I was looking into doing that.
And I was looking for police departments'cause I had decided that I wanted
to be a crime analyst at that point.
Mm-hmm.
I was finishing up mydegree, so I was almost done.
And I found the closest one tome, which just happened to be
(12:32):
an hour away once mc person.
And they were only doinginternships for police cadets.
But I ended up emailing with theperson of contact over there.
And then eventually Chief Golden,which is still the chief over there.
And, kind of convinced them thatthey should start an internship
and start a crime analysis unit,and that they should let me do it.
(12:52):
And that's that's how that happened.
And yeah.
That must have been a pretty good,you must have had a pretty good pitch.
That's a you got threethings there, right?
Yeah, I
know, right?
It was it was quite the sell.
They did say no atfirst, but I kept trying.
And eventually chief, chief caved.
Oh, man.
(13:12):
So that's a, so that's apretty big responsibility.
It's a pretty big ask too.
Mm-hmm.
So, kudos to you for not giving up becauseI would've been, oh, you don't have an
in, you're not gonna gimme an internship.
I'm gonna go somewhere else.
I'm not gonna convince you to createa whole unit, and everything else.
But kudos to you forgetting us off the ground.
(13:34):
I mean, desperation does come to playthere it was a lot of opportunities
for me, and I didn't wanna wasteit on doing something else.
So, you know.
Yeah.
That's, that was the ticket there.
Yeah.
So, McPherson's how, how big is McPherson?
I, I, I might be wrong here, sodon't quote me on this, but I believe
the population's around 14,000.
Pretty
small, pretty, pretty small.
(13:55):
And but they've been around a long time.
And they, they've got a prettygood established police department.
So for a small town, they're,they're pretty robust in their,
like, law enforcement and thebudget they have for them.
So I was impressed.
Yeah.
All right.
So, I mean, it's, it boggles my mind whatlaw enforcement analysts are asked to do.
(14:20):
It's, it's, it's really notlike any other profession.
I swear it, it is really odd.
I just can't imagine in the businessworld or anywhere else, they're
like, oh yeah, we're gonna havethe, the intern create the unit.
That sounds like a good idea.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I definitely I think I hadto have a little bit of an
(14:41):
ego when I was pitching it.
But you know.
Here we are.
So,
yeah.
All right.
So you're walking in thefirst couple of days.
, Just take us back.
It's only a couple months ago, butjust take us back to those, to that
first week and as you look backon it and what you experienced.
(15:01):
Well, I am sorry to keep bringing it backto my a SU time, but I brought all my
textbooks because I kept all of them andI brought them in and I was like, this is
gonna be, these are gonna be my Bibles,so this is how I'm gonna set things up.
And I came in there and I tryingto figure out what software they do
have and trying to work off of that.
(15:21):
And just.
Trying to get the chiefand what his idea is.
And he actually was alreadyin talks with Sabrina Potts
over at the Shawnee Oh, okay.
Police department.
Yeah.
And so she was helping him before I evengot there about kind of understanding
what the career field is and what we do.
So he was kind of creating a listof like, okay, like I could get her
to do this for me and like this issomething we could probably use.
(15:44):
And so she ended up being a greatresource for me too as well.
I emailed her I think thefirst week I got there and was
being pretty needy obviously.
And she sent me a lot of productsthat she had made for her department.
She, sent me this really great one,which was like a significant activity
table that I just fell in love with.
'cause it was Excel based andvery nerdy and data oriented.
(16:08):
And just started from there and,and building dashboards on Excel.
And and the, so that's pretty muchhow I started was, was mm-hmm.
Really getting help from Sabrina.
And then the, the textbooks that Ihad to, to start setting up processes.
Do you have a records management system?
We do, we do.
It's not a good one though.
Oh,
okay.
(16:28):
Well, it's funny, I, i, I sometimesask, did you have a, is it RMS or RM Sy?
Oh, most, most people say it's RM Sy.
Mm-hmm.
That's accurate.
Yeah.
So so you're I mean, are you leastable to get the basic data out of it?
Obviously, most analysts, an RMS nevergives them everything that they want,
(16:49):
right?
Right.
I mean it has the ability to export yoursearches into an Excel table, right?
Mm-hmm.
And that's can pretty much doanything after you have that.
So the search function's a littlewonky, but exporting to Excel was really
all I needed to kind of get started.
So that, thankfully I had that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
As you're developing the data anddashboards and reporting, what what
(17:13):
patterns and trends are coming out?
What are you identifying as,as problem areas for McPherson?
So, it did take me quite a whileto start going through data
and start finding patterns.
With the small town like McPhersonyou're, I, I got the privilege of sitting
in the office with the detectives.
So I'm hearing them talk quitea bit and they're saying, oh,
so and so doing this again.
(17:34):
And I'm like, okay, I don't know so andso, so I gotta go look up so and so.
And so a lot of the patterns that you'reseeing, at least in a small town like
McPherson are done by the same people.
So that was the first thing I pickedup on, and then I realized, you know.
Pretty quickly that wehad a large theft problem.
And then we did have a little bit of somedrugs as well enough that we had our own
(17:57):
drug task force in that small department.
So those are the two thingsI noticed pretty quickly.
And then those were also the twothings that chief brought up of I
really want you to focus on this.
So I, I got lucky with kind of havinga little bit of direction there.
All right.
All right.
And then, I know it's still earlyyet, have you made any headway?
(18:19):
Yeah, no, , I think I have I love mydepartment and I, I love my chief.
They're, at least they act likethey're impressed every time.
So giving them data that they canlike, easily understand and be, I
mean, I'm telling them what's going on?
They, they enjoy it.
And so I think that, mm-hmm.
We're at least making headway there withlike, okay, now we're armed with data, now
(18:40):
we know what's going on on a large scale.
So I think, I think, yeah,I think I am making headway.
Alright.
Well, good.
And then I guess let's talk aboutjust setting up the unit, because
that's obviously, not only are youlearning the position, you're learning
the data, you are also trying toestablish this unit, so mm-hmm.
(19:03):
What's, what's that been likejust the last couple of months?
I mean, it's, it's been a challenge,but I told them that I could do it,
so I was gonna figure out how to doit and like I said, I had a lot of.
Mentors, I mentors, I joined MARCAN too.
Mm-hmm.
To make sure I had a,like a local network.
And a, a lot of the issuewas the software, right?
(19:24):
Because they never had acrime analysis unit before.
They're a small department the budget isjust not there for that kind of stuff.
And I'm operating off ofjust Excel for a while.
Mm-hmm.
But eventually I'm like I needsome sort of mapping software.
And we eventually found out that thepolice department was already paying
for Esri and they just never used it.
(19:44):
So, oh, we got that on board.
But a lot of it was just kind of Ihad to create my own software really
within Excel, like power queriesand, and things like that to just.
Give me the tools that I needed regularly.
And thankfully, obviouslyI had rgi IS pro as well.
And so setting that up, getting thoseprocesses done I started creating
(20:07):
some products for me that I, he wastelling myself I was gonna put out.
Because whenever I would talk toChief, I was like, what do you want?
And he was like, well,this maybe, I don't know.
So I he was, he was, he gave me completeautonomy and would give me feedback if
he wanted that or he didn't want that.
So I, I started setting up I was gonnasend out a weekly PowerPoint to him
(20:29):
at first and then to command staff.
And so I did that, and then I startedworking on a quarterly report.
And then I I just kind ofstarted creating things.
I was like talking to detectives,listening to patrol, seeing like.
Where, where was there a need for me?
Mm-hmm.
Where was there a needfor more data, more intel.
And just kind of working off that.
And, and it is only four monthsin, so I'm still creating more
(20:50):
processes and more things that theunit is gonna be known for producing.
So that's, that's kind ofhow it's been going so far.
Mm-hmm.
But yeah.
What, what about like hardware, likeoffice space and desks and post-it notes?
Post-it notes.
Gotta have post-it notes.
I am out of post-it notes currently.
(21:11):
So that's a good reminderto bring in more.
Yeah, I mean they, like I said, theygave me a desk in the investigation
office, which, if you ever see apicture of it, it looks like a closet.
It's very small.
Mm-hmm.
There's two detectives in there and me.
And then for a while we had a fourthperson, so it was cramped, but mm-hmm.
I think it was the best place for me tobe at because not only was it a great
(21:33):
place strategically for me to listento what was going on, but also I had
a detective in there and her name is.
Detective Jessica Dirks, andshe just wanted to use me.
She had worked with federalIntel agents a lot, and she loved
analysts from those experiences.
So when she found out that I wascoming, she's like, I'm gonna use her.
And she certainly did.
(21:54):
So hardware and office space workedout really well for me, even though
it was a little bit cramped and itwas like, I don't quite belong here.
And then we're moving over to anew substation here next month
as well, where the chief has kindof sectioned off an office for
me, which is I think a big deal.
So I mean, it's allabout just kind of like.
(22:15):
Make and do with whatyou have and then mm-hmm.
Making it an advantage, you know?
So,
Besides , the new space you're gonna get,
what else is next for, for the unit?
Well, next for the unitis making sure that this.
Unit, this unit stays.
I mean with, with the budgetingdiscussions that the city's having
right now they, they, I thinkthey want to keep it, for sure.
(22:37):
Mm-hmm.
So it's, it's all about wherethe, where the money's gonna be
at and if they can keep me aroundif they wanna keep me around.
And then I think that we have a veryforward thinking chief, which you
don't always get in small citiesand small police departments.
A lot of the times you getchiefs that just wanna keep doing
it the same way they've beendoing it for the last 40 years.
But Chief Golden is, heis so forward thinking.
(22:58):
He, he's, he's trying to createlike a mini real-time crime center.
He's working on gettingLPR set up in his town.
He is looking at the future andhe wants to make sure that his
city is set up for success inthe most futuristic way possible.
So a lot of it is depending on that, so.
He, I think as long as he isin charge we're gonna have
a lot of forward movement.
(23:18):
I really do believe that.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
That's that would be something thatyou're an intern, you created the unit.
Mm-hmm.
And they're like, oh, we'rewe're not gonna hire any analyst.
Yeah.
I really hope that doesn't happen.
Yeah.
We'll see.
Yeah.
Could you just work forfree the rest of your life?
Yeah.
Oh, oh boy.
But, and I just , reminded methat you're traveling an hour
(23:41):
every day for this internship.
Not getting paid.
Well, I guess you get, you saidyou got, you're getting it.
It's not totally for free.
You get the military benefits,so that's not too bad.
Yeah, I, right.
Yeah, it just reminded me of mydays when I was in Baltimore and
I was, I was driving probably 30or 40 minutes every day one way.
(24:05):
Not getting paid at all, just,
oh gosh.
I was just, their learning andit was but that impressed them.
That told them that that wasreally serious and they ended
up hiring me on afterwards.
So hopefully you you get the same nodgiven all the stuff that you've able
to accomplish this last couple months.
Yeah, I mean, it would, it wouldbe a really great honor if they
(24:27):
wanted to keep me on and I thinkthey do want to, so we'll see.
Hi, this is Jeffrey Vander sippand I'm gonna tell you about
a couple of my pet peeves.
Pet peeve number one is the sizeof parking lots at grocery stores.
They create these parking lots for Yugos,and yet everybody is now driving a Ford
(24:48):
F-150 and you can't fit in anything.
Or if you do, you're bangingthe doors of your neighbors.
Pet peeve number two is thelittle button in cars that open.
The fuel filler doorseems to be in the most.
Oddest of places.
And whenever I go somewhere else andI rent a car and I have to go to the
gas station for the first time, Ispend a half hour trying to figure
(25:09):
out how to open the fuel filler door.
Uh, pet peeve number three isjust packaging generally with
things that you get in the mail.
It's like Russian nesting dolls.
You've got a box and insidethat box is another box.
Inside that is another boxinside that is a bubble wrap.
And then you get to like a little.
Piece of whatever, whichis the thing actually sent.
And finally, and again, betraying myage here, the screen filters that people
(25:32):
use in their social media, everybodykinda looks like somebody out of avatar.
Uh, what's up with that?
Hi, this is Sean Fisher andat my work, we're known as The
Nerdery and we're proud of it.
Embrace who you are.
, For the listeners, I did forgetto mention in the beginning of
(25:54):
the show that we are doing acall-in segment favorite first job.
So for those that have a favoritefirst job get your calls in now.
Alright, Tori, then.
Let's talk about buildinga unit and, okay.
This is fresh on your mind.
Just from your experience, maybeadvice that you have or mm-hmm.
(26:20):
Just whatever you wanna say aboutbuilding a unit at the, from the,
from your point of view at the moment.
Right.
Well, I mean, I, I probably have alreadyblown so much smoke towards my chief
just complimenting him, but it mm-hmm.
Really does depend onthe chief's attitude.
Right.
Or the sheriff or, or whoeverthe leadership is that your law
(26:43):
enforcement agency that, thatyou have to have them buy in.
If you buy in, then you're out of no luck.
So, I mean, that's, that's the firstthing is just to make sure that you
have a forward thinking chief or sheriffthat that's got your back and will back
you with anything new you wanna try.
I think that making sure that whereveryou're adding things, is it mm-hmm.
(27:05):
Not at the detriment of anybodyelse in the police department.
You don't wanna create more work for yourofficers, you don't wanna create more time
sucking meetings or anything like that.
So.
Just immersing yourself in thatculture and listening and figuring
out what the need is there.
Because I mean, we all know thatone size doesn't fit all for Intel.
(27:27):
Mm-hmm.
And, and what the needs are there.
So I try really hard to well, Imean, I, every, every analyst should
read reports every day, right.
And mm-hmm.
Just cleaning from that and theconversations of like, Hey, what's,
what's gonna be useful for you?
Like, don't hand them an Excel documentwith 27 tabs and say, here you go, I'm
gonna help you do X, Y, and Z. 'causethey're not gonna look at it, you know?
(27:48):
So I think that's the, the foundationof on top of having leadership
buy-in is, is making sure that yourpresence is adding and not detracting
from whatever they're used to doingand how, how they're doing it.
Yeah.
Huh.
Yeah.
So I think it's, I think it's amazingthe, the, just the thought of just
starting everything from scratch.
(28:10):
Mm-hmm.
I don't know if I'm starting with hardwareor software first or where I would go.
Right.
That's probably, it's probably a decentgame we could play at a conference is
like, okay, you have all this stuff, youhave a budget, what are you buying first?
Right.
Oh, I
like that.
We should definitely do that.
Yeah.
Right.
You have a little bit of a salary capand you can only spend so much money.
(28:32):
What are you doing?
What quality you getting?
It is a lot.
'cause there is so much.
Before you know it, I, because I'mthinking about it, your perspective now
is like, most of your data is probablycoming from your RMS or maybe your cat.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
But as you mentioned, as thetechnology grows in the city, you
get LPRs or cameras, or you juststart getting so many more data sets.
(28:58):
It's gonna grow and growand grow before you know it.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's definitelytricky to try to, 'cause obviously the,
the chief was the one that's gotta bringany big cost to the city commission.
So you have to, anything thatyou think that the department
needs, you really have to vet thatthoroughly and he has to vet it.
(29:20):
So, you know yeah, so far I havenot brought him anything that he
needs to bring to City Commission.
That doesn't mean I won't have anything.
So yeah, just kind of figuring outwhat it is you can operate without
and what it is that you're like,all right, chief, we need this.
Before we found out we hadthe Esri subscription, I was.
Fully expecting to have to push himor act to request him to push this
(29:43):
at City Commission to purchase.
'cause I'm not able to do any mapping onGoogle Maps the way I wanted to, you know?
So yeah, that's definitelypart of it, for sure.
Yeah.
Chris Delaney,, when he was onthe show, he works for RI and.
He is regularly, as he goes toconferences, , analysts find out
(30:04):
that their city, one way or anotheralready is paying for an Israel license
that they could easily piggyback on.
He says that happens regularly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
And that was something newfor everybody involved.
So it was a really greatdiscovery to find out.
And that, I guess that would be my numberone tip for anybody setting up a unit in
(30:25):
a small town is check with that license.
'cause you're, countyGIS guy probably has one.
Yeah.
Or planning or somebody.
Right.
Somebody probably has a, a license.
You're right.
Yep.
Good.
Well, you mentioned City Commission andI see here on your resume you've actually
spoke at City Commission briefings.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm, I'm curious to know how that went.
(30:47):
Yeah, no like I said, I I was givingmyself homework to do and, and quarterly
reports were one of them, and so Ibrought my quarter one report to.
Chief at the end of March orbeginning of April and mm-hmm.
He was like, yeah, can you putsomething together that's not law
enforcement sensitive to, to brief tothe city commission, to kind of give
(31:08):
him an idea of what you've been doingand, and what you've seen in town.
And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
I have a lot of experiencebriefing from the military, so
that didn't hear me or anything putsomething together and I, I did it.
And we have a great.
Mayor at McPherson, he's, he's verylike law enforcement friendly and,
and loves everything that we do.
He's also a veteran, so he wasvery excited about us using
(31:29):
the Skill Bridge program.
And so I presented itand they, they loved it.
They had questions and it was good.
I think public transparency is justsuch a large part of, of Intel mm-hmm.
For law enforcement.
So it was good to, toactually put that into action.
Yeah.
And then I guess well, I mean, evensome tips there because that, that
could be pretty intimidating, right?
(31:50):
I, I, yeah.
I think, I think when I was ananalyst and in police departments,
I, I struggled with briefings.
Really?
'cause it seemed like the audience wasalways a little bit of a mixed bag.
People had a different understandingof data and really struggled with what
level of detail to go into, what to, whatto show, what not to show, what to how,
(32:16):
the best way to communicate my message.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I, it just, I, that, that kindof thing public speaking, I think it's,
it's just something that takes practice.
So it's not I don't wanna say it's, it'ssomething easy to do 'cause it's not.
Mm-hmm.
But figuring out your audience.
I mean I definitely ran it by mychief before I presented it and
(32:37):
made sure that it was something thatthey could absorb and react well to.
You don't wanna paint yourdepartment in a bad light if
you're saying that there's mm-hmm.
An increase like for me,this last quarter, which.
There's even a news clip of metalking about it because it was
such a big deal, but we had a 81%.
(32:58):
Spike in our, our drug offensesand the first quarter of this year
compared to first quarter of last year.
And explaining it in a way thatlike, well, we had two major busts
that our department did, you know?
Mm-hmm.
That was why, that was why we hadthose had these recorded reports that
were way more so just making sure thatyou're framing things and not, don't
lie, but frame them in a way thatit's like we have this, this spike
(33:21):
because our guys are doing a job.
So I think that that's probably themost important part of it, is to
make sure you're representing yourdepartment really well and you're
speaking in a language.
So,
alright.
Very good.
All right.
Well, let's, we talked about it before.
I do want to touch on the graduatecertificate that you got from a SU.
You mentioned the textbooks, but mm-hmm.
(33:42):
Just wanted to talk a little bit about, alittle bit about the program and, and what
you got out of it other than textbooks.
Oh, man.
I have never had so much fun in school,I'll tell you that much right now.
Uhhuh, I mean, Uhhuh, someof it was really hard.
Mm-hmm.
Just specifically, they very,cerebral portions of it where there
was like a, I can't remember namesof the classes, but there was a
(34:04):
lot of ones that were very researchheavy, which is not my strong point.
Mm-hmm.
But I think the class I got themost out of was the cry mapping
class because that's very hands-on.
And we they give us our ownRGIS license to use mm-hmm.
During that time.
So that, that is probably one of thebiggest things that I took into this
internship that has super helpedbecause I was able to remember somehow.
(34:27):
How to do a lot of thestuff from that class.
I wish I could remember the name of myTA that worked with me specifically,
but they, they were so good.
They, I mean, they told you exactly whatyou were doing wrong, how to fix it.
And that SQL and stuff likethat was not come easy for me.
So learning that kind of stuff was soimportant and learning how to import
(34:48):
Excel data was especially important.
And so yeah, that wasprobably the biggest one.
I remember.
There's the, the intro to crime analysis.
Which I think was probablymy favorite class.
And I just gained a lot of, like,they do such a good job of like
making you do real world stuff.
It's not just you're absorbing alecture and then you're taking a
test on it, you know you're doingprojects and you're doing things
(35:10):
that you would be doing in real life.
So I really, really enjoyed those classes.
I didn't get A's in all ofthem, but I really enjoyed them.
So did you, did you know ex didyou, had you worked with Excel
prior to the grad graduate program?
I, I mean, I have my MBAand that's part of it is.
You, you have to learn a little bitmore of some advanced Excel skills.
(35:31):
So I, I had that and I had somestuff that I had learned in the
military as well, but there was alot of stuff that I didn't know.
And I, I believe there is a Excel focusedclass, I can't remember the name of it.
Something data I believe that taughtme how to use that in the, in crime
like zco and things like that.
Significant values, things like that,that I just, I didn't know before
(35:54):
that I, I have such a nerd that Ilove Excel, so I things like that,
that I just, I really got a lot from.
Mm-hmm.
And that really helped me when Iwas coming in and setting up and
trying to figure out what to do.
Yeah.
How about, so the, thestudents taking this.
Program.
Is this mostly working professionals?
(36:14):
Is it people just straight out of college?
What was the makeup of your cohort?
Well, I, I think a lot of my classesin particular were, I mean, obviously
they were all remote, right?
Mm-hmm.
So a lot of the people that weredoing distance learning were people
that were from what I rememberfrom the introduction post were.
Working parents that mm-hmm.
Trying to go back to school.
(36:35):
There was like, I remember a coupleof retired police officers okay.
And there was some thatwere military as well.
And then just, it was a wide variety.
Like I could not tell youwho most of them were.
It seemed like it was.
Pretty mixed bag.
All right.
Very good.
All right.
And I also see on your resume herethat you've worked with Tableau,
which is a, a dashboard software thatI use regularly at my current job.
(37:00):
So I want to get your take on usingTableau and how you , feel that
it fits in the analysis realm.
I, so I have unfortunately onlygotten used Tableau with a SU mm-hmm.
And was one of the softwarethat they taught us.
But I mean, I enjoyed it.
I think it was very user friendlyas far as like knowing what buttons
(37:22):
to click to get what you need.
Yeah I don't I, I, I don't know thatI, I have an expert opinion on it,
just 'cause I haven't been able touse it in the professional world.
But that was just one of thesoftware that they taught us.
ASU and I, I, I felt like I had apretty good grasp on at least the
basics of it by the end of it, so
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I really like the dataimport functionality of Tableau.
(37:46):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
But just like with any other software, iteventually gets pernickety and frustrating
when you're trying to get certain graphsand things to look just right, right.
Oh, yeah.
And you're just fiddlingwith it for hours on end.
So that's usually where my frustrationwith the program gets is something
that I think should be very simple.
(38:08):
Turns out to be a, quite a headache.
Yeah.
They'll get it right someday.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, all right.
How about ad advice for our listeners?
Oh, advice from a crime analyst that'sbeen doing crime analysis before months?
Well, I'm trying notto repeat myself from.
Stuff I've already said, but mm-hmm.
You know going back to, to how Igot here in the first place is don't
(38:30):
take a no for a no unless it's ahard no in the professional world.
Like if, if I took that firstno, and just, I wouldn't be here.
So, I mean, if you truly believe inyour abilities and your you know what
you can do, I, I would say go for it.
I mean, I have a lot of people that arein other parts of law enforcement that
(38:52):
work for a police department, and they'retelling me, I keep pushing crime analysis
from on my small police department.
They, they keep saying, no,but I think it would be good.
And I'm like, well, keepsaying, keep asking.
It's like if you truly believe insomething, I'm like, I never, never
back down until you're told to.
Truly back down.
Yeah, definitely.
(39:12):
Don't get yourself a restraining order.
No, don't do that.
I mean, no means no when itcomes to a live page for sure.
All right.
Very good.
Let's take some calls., Let's do somefavorite first jobs and I always mention
I got this idea from Steve Gottliebfrom the Alpha Group and 'cause when he
(39:33):
was 16, 17 years old, his first job wasworking at the local radio station and
he worked his way up to being Sundaymorning DJ of the local radio program.
So I like to ask analysts whattheir favorite first jobs are.
So first on the line is Jan. Jan.What's one of your favorite first jobs?
(39:55):
My favorite first job was when I wasin the Air Force and it was literally
my first job in the Air Force.
I was a flight commander of a intelligencecollection unit in Alaska, and I was
the first female flight commander.
The intelligence unit in Alaska,and I walked onto the floor.
This, I had 35 people and everybody'ssitting at these like collection
(40:17):
racks and or desks and things likethat, or writing on maps and things.
I mean, it's all very professional.
Secrety kinds of stuff going on.
And I walk in and this, my, my deputycommander stood up and he, like,
he was on a raised platform andthis man was about six foot five.
(40:37):
And, and he leaned over the railingbetween his desk and where I was
standing and said, LT, welcome aboard.
I mean, here I am, lucky, I'm, thisguy's a senior mass sergeant, so
he's been in a while and, and I'm.
Green behind the ears for secondLieutenant, and he was the most
welcoming, wonderful person.
(40:57):
And that was the best job ever.
We were a family, 35 people who hadto get the job done and did have a
organizational hierarchy and all of that.
But we were a family.
We did potlucks, we played baseball.
We, we were 24 hour operations,so we worked shift work.
It was, it was just the most amazing job.
(41:18):
And, and so that, I was so luckythat that was my first job in the
Air Force because it made the,the next 20 years just fly by.
Always having the memory ofthat as being my first job.
So yeah.
That's a interesting take.
Is it, I, I don't know from yourperspective on the Air Force how big the
units were, but I, it seems like whatshe had was a pretty tight knit group.
(41:41):
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I, it's so funny that you have anAir Force Intel officer, the first call.
But yeah, I mean, I, that was kindof similar to my first job as a psych
lieutenant as well as I was on shift workwith a small group and, you know mm-hmm.
Something about shift work just makesyou grow really close really fast.
So I can definitely relate to that one.
(42:02):
Yeah.
I think it's like minds aroundthe same age doing a similar
tasks, you just mm-hmm.
You just it's good when you bond asopposed to infighting, that's for sure.
Oh, yeah.
No, definitely prefer that.
Yeah.
All right.
Next on the line is Alex.
Alex, what's one of yourfavorite first jobs?
So, after I left the army and before Istarted college, I spent almost a year
(42:26):
working as a bartender at an Americanstyle diner in Germany, as envisioned
by a German who had been on exactly onetrip to the US sometime in the 1980s.
So imagine this, the decorwas a hodgepodge of different
styles and eras of Americana.
The place was called the Peach Pit Diner,a shameless and probably unlicensed ripoff
of the Beverly Hills, 92 1 oh diner.
(42:48):
And it was a lot of fun.
It was attached to a, a Cineplexand we were open every day
until three in the morning.
We served a pizza that was neitherNew York nor Chicago style.
Fairly decent hamburgers andAmerican beer as a novelty.
Now this is in Germany.
You gotta keep that in mind, right?
So American beer issomething that was sort of.
Laughed at.
And I mean, I remember customers doingcontests of how many they can drink at
(43:10):
a, at a sitting, and they would oftenrun outta money before they were buzzed.
But this was the first time inmy life where I didn't really
have to worry about anything.
I was not in school.
I lived fairly cheap andI had almost no expenses.
So I worked four or five nightsa week from six to three,
and it was a glorious job.
And at, at the end of that, when, when Igot close to starting college I seriously
(43:31):
considered staying on for a little longer.
I'm glad I didn't, but that was a fun job.
Yeah.
That is so interesting.
Could you imagine just going to arestaurant once in a different country and
then creating a whole restaurant back home
? Yeah.
That is so awesome.
I, I wish he would,would send us pictures.
(43:52):
That would've been so funny to seewhat, what that German thought.
1980s.
America was like,
oh man.
It's, I mean, it takes the same levelof confidence to starting a unit
when you've never been quiet before.
Oh
yeah.
Just, yeah.
Just yeah.
I wanted to go see this unit forone day for a couple hours and
(44:12):
this is what I come back with, so.
Oh, man.
And it, it is interesting about the,the beer, 'cause you would think that
it wouldn't fly over there, but it was,it sounds like it was like a novelty and
they took it as a challenge to oh man.
As you said, you see how manybeers you could drink and you ran
(44:32):
outta money before you got drunk.
Yeah.
I, I love Germany.
I, I studied abroad there andthey, they're not joking about
their beer, so I, I, I love that.
I love that so much.
Now, , when you were there inGermany, , is the beer cold or warm?
It's it's room temperature.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(44:52):
That's what, that's what I thought.
I think that's one of, it's more of anAmerican trait that it's ice cold beer, so
Yes.
Yes, it is, unfortunately.
All right.
Next on the line is Heather.
Heather, what's one ofyour favorite first jobs?
One of my favorite firstjobs I worked in aviation.
And so I was helping direct communicateradio communication from the aircraft
(45:16):
to where our facility was located.
And I would sometimes park andchalk aircraft and also help them
on their way out to the runway.
Coolest thing about that isI was able to park George w
Bush's plane when he came in.
One time I met the governorof Florida, the governor of
Kentucky, and I met Dirk Bentley.
Hmm.
(45:37):
Wow.
That's a name drop there.
It was awesome.
I I really love that job.
Yeah.
That, yeah.
That's interesting.
I, I, I always watch those folks thatare directing the airplane in and
they got the, they got the orangestick light and, and everything else.
(45:58):
And I'm like, there's a whole scienceand technique to everything that they're
doing, and it's, I don't know why I'mso intrigued by it, but I ha every time
I'm in a plane and I got a window seat,I take time to watch what they're doing.
'cause I find it fascinating.
I, I always feel bad for 'emwhen it's really cold out and
they're out there Oh bundled up.
(46:19):
But yeah, that's a, that isa thankless job for sure.
Oh yeah.
Well, just all kinds of weather.
Too hot, too cold, rainy, snowy.
Ugh.
Yeah.
But you might meet
Dirk Bentley, so
Yes, yes.
Or, or park the president'splane or meet a governor.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No big deal.
(46:39):
Yeah, that is a, that is a goodname drop there that she had.
All right.
Next on the line is Erica.
Erica, what's one ofyour favorite first jobs?
Well, Jason not, not so muchmy favorite, but because I got
my first speeding ticket, I wasforced to get a job when I was 16.
And I should also say I got my firstspeeding ticket trying to beat my
(47:01):
best friend and her mom to the bowlingalley, which I never made it to.
I just went straight home and triedto cry so that my dad might feel
bad that I got a speeding ticket,but that didn't work either.
He said, get a job.
So I got a job at Chuck E.Cheese and I worked there.
I made birthday cakes andyes, I wore the fat suit.
(47:21):
I was Chucky several times actually.
Oh man.
And so, so what are some crazymoments there with being Chucky
?Well.
As Chucky Jason, kids either love youor they are terrified of you, so they
either wanna hug you and like not letgo, or they run away screaming, crying,
(47:45):
and some kids like if they hug you,they like, they really won't let go.
So you have to learn and you do.
And the fat suit, like how tostrategically kind of kick them
and remove them from you so thatyou can carry on with your job.
Which sounds so awful now.
I wish I could be in the fatsuit and just hug kids all day.
(48:05):
That'd be easy.
Oh man.
Yeah.
Just knocking little kidsover and having them laugh.
Yeah.
That was me.
Yeah, that was me.
Oh
man.
I, I like the, the, the visual of Chuck E.Cheese strategically knocking over kids,
(48:27):
strategically doing anythingin the mascot costumes.
Gotta pick the talent.
Oh, man, I, that is one placethat I am really surprised
has lasted all these years.
I
know I've never been to one.
I've just seen them from the outside.
Oh man.
Never had any interest.
Oh no.
I, used to take the kids thereand it's, yeah, it's fun.
(48:51):
They actually have, speaking of pizza,they actually have really good pizza.
It is probably just frozen pizzathat they're cooking, but I really
enjoyed their pizza and if theywould allow me to roll in there by
myself, I would just get the pizza.
But they're not gonna allow someold white guy roll 'em in there by
(49:12):
himself to even just to get pizza.
Oh, yeah.
That might be a little bit concerning.
Or Jason.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I'll have to rent a kid to, inorder to get some pizza from there.
That might be worse, but, okay.
Oh man.
No, I, that's, that's a good one.
See, that was a story that I wouldnever have thought to, to hear an
(49:36):
analyst say that they were the Chuckycheese, and it all came from a speeding
ticket of all things breaking the law.
Oh my God.
Yeah, of course.
All right, last one.
Amanda, what's one ofyour favorite first jobs?
My favorite first job andmy first job altogether was
blueberry picking for a summer.
Got all the blueberries thatI wanted was hard work and was
(49:58):
tired at the end of the day.
And I walked away with maybe like$300 at the end of the summer.
It wasn't the most lucrative, but Iwas outside a lot and and worked hard.
Man.
This were your fingers blue?
Yes.
Yeah.
I, I did that just for a couple hours.
Once I mean, I, we, here in Tallahassee,there's a, there's a guy that has a
(50:21):
bunch of blueberry bushes, and he gets tothe point where he can't, he can't pick
'em all, so we'll go down there mm-hmm.
And help him.
And but.
I'm only doing it for a couple hours.
I can't imagine doing it like seven,eight hours a day all summer long.
No, no.
Absolutely not.
I mean in Michigan we docherries that's already taken.
(50:43):
Yeah, and it's, I haveliterally only done it once.
'cause it was exhausting.
Yeah.
But the cherry trees get pretty tall.
Right.
Yes, they do.
Gr You gotta stand on aladder sometimes, which, yeah.
Not always fun.
So
yeah.
Now that's an advantage of the blueberry.
It's basically, I mean, it's justa little bit, they, they're about
(51:04):
five, six foot high, so it's Right.
You're not, you're not.
Gr on a ladder or anythinglike that, but that's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Getting up and down on a, on aladder to pick anything all day
long does not sound like fun to me.
But,
It's not for nerds.
No.
I don't know.
Amanda really enjoyed working outside.
I would not.
I me and the sun don't getalong, so I don't I think
we're all pretty similarthat way, I think.
(51:27):
All right, so that's favorite first job.
If you have a favorite first jobthat you wanna share with the show,
email us at lea podcasts@gmail.com.
Alright, Tori, let's finishup with personal interests.
And you were in the military, soyou told me you were a gym rat,
which isn't a surprise to me.
(51:48):
But the other thing that you told methat you get into is that you do military
clothing, freelance with your mom.
Yes.
My mom and I own an Etsy shop mm-hmm.
Called Susan's Custom Military Clothing.
We make party shirts, which arelike the dress shirts that they wear
for like, fancy balls and stuff.
And we can mm-hmm.
(52:09):
Customize the sleeves in the back.
And then we also dobaseball, like the caps.
And we do like an elastic so the girlscan put 'em around their buns easily.
We make little kids clothes that aregood for like, deployment homecoming.
So my mom does all the sewing,obviously she's the talent.
And then I work the finance andthe marketing side of things.
So it's a lot of fun.
(52:29):
I, I enjoy it.
She enjoys it, so it's a good time.
So you're marketing to thefamilies of the military for snow
families and active duty.
I think we could even split.
Yeah.
So they're.
Good, good customer base for sure.
Okay.
Yeah, I was, I, because at first Ithought it was just the, the personnel,
but then as you talk there, I obviouslycould tell that it was more the
(52:53):
families I was trying to envisionlike a a teenager you're trying to get
teenagers to wear military uniforms,and I was wondering how that went over
kinda thing.
Oh no.
But hey, if you start trending, ifyou convince 'em it's a trend, then
they'll probably gobble it up, right?
Oh, probably,
yeah.
I mean, sure.
(53:14):
Whatever gets gets customers in the door.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's fun working with your mom.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, we enjoy it.
All right.
And but you don't getinto any of the sewing.
She's not gonna passthat trade down to you.
I, unfortunately,
yeah.
I she tried to teach me whenI was younger and I just did
not have the dexterity yeah.
To be able do that.
(53:34):
So all her,
oh man.
That was one thing thatstill lingered with my wife.
She got into sewing during COVIDand was making masks and taught
my daughter, taught our daughterhow to, to make burp cloths, and
she still does a bunch of stuff.
It's just grown and grown and grownthat all the stuff she makes bags and
(53:56):
all, all different kinds of things.
I didn't, I had to section off partof the house to give her a sewing
room, so it's grown that much.
So
Nice.
It's a dying hobby, soI hope she keeps at it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So mean she gets frustrated.
'cause the sewing machine willbreak and there's only like one
person in town that can fix it.
(54:18):
That is so true.
Every time my mom has the same problem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's like, isn't it is likeout for weeks kind of thing.
'cause that person's so busyand, and everything else.
So, and she's super depressedthat Joanne Fabrics is going out.
Oh, my mom,
I've had, I thought I was gonnahave to fly out and comfort her.
She was so upset.
(54:40):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
So she is not happy about that.
And so, oh, I don't know.
Somebody's gonna pick up the slack.
I don't know who's going to do it, butsomebody's gonna pick up the slack, right.
I think my money's on Michael's.
I don't know.
So
fingers crossed.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
All right.
Very good.
All right, Tori, our last segmentof the show is Words to the
(55:02):
World, and this is where you canpromote any idea that you wish.
Tori, what are your words to the world?
My words to the world would bejust to remember that you don't
need to have it all figured out.
If something lights is sparking youit's like a gut feeling or a skill
that you have to just follow thatcuriosity and see where it goes.
(55:23):
Life doesn't always follow a linearpath and just because you know your
career's, starting a little unorthodoxdoesn't mean that it's wrong if
you're the first to walk that path.
That's great.
I was at my department andI'm really happy that I did.
So if you're doing something alittle abnormal to get started,
that doesn't mean you're lost.
(55:44):
It just might mean you'redoing something great.
So just keep at it andfollow that feeling.
Very good.
Well, I leave every guestwith you giving me just enough
to talk bad about you later.
But I do appreciate youbeing on the show, Tori.
Thank you so much and you be safe.
Thank you.
Thank you for making it tothe end of another episode of
(56:05):
Analyst Talk with Jason Elder.
You can show your support by sharingthis in other episodes found on
our website@www.elliotpodcasts.com.
If you have a topic you would like usto cover or have a suggestion for our
next guest, please send us an emailat Elliot podcasts at gmail do com.
Till next time, analysts, keep talking.
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