How Does a Sheriff Foster Community Trust in Law Enforcement?

In this episode, the Sheriff of Nelson County shares his personal and professional journey in law enforcement, reflecting on his upbringing, family legacy of service, and a traumatic on-duty incident. He discusses his vision for modernizing the sheriff’s office, the challenges of leadership, and the importance of community engagement, transparency, and proactive training. This Sheriff emphasizes building trust, fostering collaboration among agencies, and preparing deputies for crisis situations, all while balancing his responsibilities as a farmer and community leader. The conversation highlights his commitment to service, resilience, and strengthening community ties in Nelson County.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Glad to welcome Sheriff Mark Emery from Nelson County be here.
Obviously it means a lot to me because I work
for you and I've retired and uh, but then I
think so much of you that, like I, it is
a it really is a blessing to work for you.
I don't think there's that many people that left in
our occupation that have the level of commitment that you do,

(00:31):
not only to the deputies like me, but also to
the community that they serve. And you serve some of
the same communities I've served. I know you're in rock Bridge.
So what I like to do is just have you
start out and say, hey, you know, this is this
is where I came from, this is you know, this
is where I was born and all that different stuff
like growing up, kind of your memories growing up and

(00:53):
you know, just rolling from there.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Sure. Sure, So thank you again for having me, and
glad to have you. It's a it's a pleasure to
be here and certainly pleasure to have you on air staff.
So obviously I became elected sheriff back in twenty twenty three,
took office January of twenty twenty four. I was born
and raised in Nelson County. I was the oldest of

(01:14):
three siblings, two daughters. But Nelson County has always been
my home. I have loved that county through and through.
Graduated high school class of ninety five, left, got my
degree from Radford University, made a lot of good friends
and a lot of good contacts. First job really out

(01:36):
was probation and Parole. I did that for eighteen months.
Oh yeah, yeah, so I started. I had an internship
my last year in college down at Montgomery County and
ended up getting a job with the Department of Corrections
on the P and P side in Pulaski County. I
did that for probably six months.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
It was probably one of the more interesting. Oh my goodness,
County has always been a little differ. Pulaski was different.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
It was a good experience, though the whole time I
had applied, my heart was with the Virginia State Police.
I always wanted to be a Virginia State Trooper and
I can tell you more about that. But got a
job offer. I wanted to get back home out of Pulaski,
just to get back home to be closer to family.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
But at that point you're already in the state system.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I was in the state system, that's correct. So got
an offer from District nine out of Charlottesville, being a
P and P for Almore County Charlottesviield City came there
under the Chief Probation Officer, Alan Rasmussen. Wonderful getting to
know everybody, but I quickly learned adult corrections, community corrections

(02:39):
was not for me. I didn't want to I didn't
want to monitor. It was urine screens, this, that, and
the other. It was not for me. So fortunately I
had gotten a letter from the Virginia State Police that
accepted me into the hundred and first base session that
started March of two thousand and one, and kind of
the rest was history. That started my law enforcement.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
And so you worked in Rockbridge County, and I know
that you had a significant event over there, and I
know it's probably not the greatest memory of your career,
but I think people don't realize something as simple as
a traffic stop, how poorly that can go. Just talk
about that a little bit, what happened over in Rockbridge
on this sure.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So at that point in time, I was a deputy
sheriff in Rockbridge County and the sheriff Blaylock. At the time,
he had initiated a traffic unit, and at that point
in time, I was the perfect fit for that unit
with my background with the state police. Love just loved
doing traffic, particularly on the interstate. So it was a
Sunday afternoon. It was March the eighth, twenty fifteen. I'll

(03:42):
never forget it. I was working. It was one of
my favorite honey holes, if you will, my mark or
two three, sitting in the middle between eighty one south
and eighty one northbound. And it was a silver van
registered out of Tennessee, came through eighty It was eighty
three miles per hour at the time said seventy mile
Prayer speed zone, so certainly reckless driving by speed. Go

(04:05):
out early afternoon one o'clock, I think somewhere early afternoon,
and typical traffic stop had done tens of thousands in
my career at that particular point in time. The van
gets pulled over right at the Augusta County line, the
two oh four and a half two oh four point
six mile marker on the right shoulder, and there's a

(04:26):
there's a guardrail there, and we'll never forget it was
a family get up speak to the driver, get their
information advice. I was gonna write them a summons. I
go back to my car. I'm sitting there and I'm
writing the summons, and I'm nearing the very end of
the summons to where you know, you put your your name,
your credentials, your badge number on it, and then you
go up and to release the violator after their signature.

(04:49):
As I'm putting my name on it, so I'm seconds
away from finishing it, I hear the sound of metal
being torn behind me, and I turn and I look,
and I could tell that you could you just know
the sound of an accident, so I could tell that
there was a collision. As I'm looking, there is a
tractor trailer that is pushing has already made contact with

(05:10):
the passenger car station wagon. Station wagon is turned that
the tractor trailer is the power unit. The nose of
the truck has already made contact and is pushing the
passenger door of a sedan of a station wagon. And
I'll never forget. As I turn and look, I'm looking
at the driver and the passenger of this sedan as

(05:32):
they're coming by me. Now the speeds are slowing. It's
probably you know, twenty thirty miles per hour, that's still
that's a lot of truck coming. And I'm looking at
it and I'll never forget the facial expressions on these folks,
and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, what in the world,
how did this happen? Well, as I'm looking in my
peripheral vision, I can see the trailer of the power

(05:55):
unit is coming towards me like the truck is being jackknifed.
At that point, and the moment them for you, there's
no place for me to go. We're I'm already as
close to the guardrail as I can so our cars
at that point had we had just gotten laptop computer,
so you've got a pretty busy area. It's a console, right,
and nowhere to go. So I'll never forget what I did.

(06:15):
I dropped the summons and as the as the the
trailer itself is coming to me, I can see it's
already starting to tilt over, so I knew it's gonna fall.
I quickly said a very very quick prayer to myself.
I dropped the summons in the in the floorboard, and
I leaned over as much as I could into the

(06:35):
computer very little limited space I'll never forget the explosion,
And so you were in what kind of I was
in a It was a brand new at the time.
It was a twenty fifteen Dodge charger, so it's no
very little limited space that particular year in that particular car.
What saved my life was, and I'll never forget. Sheriff

(06:57):
Blaylock Hauld mentioned this. They when they were out fitting
that new year of the vehicles that they had purchased,
the chargers, they had gone with a new cage system.
It was a new roll cage system had never really
been proven before. So what ended up happening was and
had I been a trooper in a blue and gray,
as you know, they don't have prisoner transport, it would

(07:18):
I would I would have been killed instantly. So what
ultimately ended up happening was the trailer did tip over
on the vehicle, tip over on It tipped over on
my vehicle, but since the power it never disconnected from
the truck. So as the truck is still moving, the
only saving grace for me was is that after the
trailer hit my car, it still continued upwards. It missed

(07:43):
by luckily the family from Tennessee that I had stopped.
It made no contact with their vehicle.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
So basically that your car is here and that that
truck is just swiping across the top.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
It swiped across the length over it leanked. Yes, so
it had it fallen and lean and stayed on top
of me, I would have smothered. They wouldn't have been
able to get to me, and I probably would have
smothered to death.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
But the I mean, Kevin Young was talking about this
other day on the show. It was a god thing
like they hatalled it, and it just bounced. I guess
it just slid across, and it didn't compress the back of.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
It if it had dislodged from the power unit, so
the fifth wheel stayed intact. And so anyway, once it
made contact, thankfully, the trailer continued, rerected, it redirected it northbound,
and the whole thing flipped over right in the middle
of the interstate. I never lost consciousness. I remember sitting up.
I remember after all the glass exploded. Sitting up. I

(08:36):
reached down from a radio which was in the center console,
and I got on the mic, and of course I'm
barely able to make any I could hear myself thinking
that I felt like I was talking but nothing was
coming out.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, you definitely had the wind knocked out of it.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
I definitely had to win truck so obviously, but it
knocked the radio system out. So the entire door and
I think we've got pictures of that. We may, but anyway,
the entire driver side door, the door was closed on
it as I'm sitting in the car concluding the summons,
but it ripped the entire door off. The door is
found later underneath of the minivan from Tennessee that I

(09:12):
had stopped. So what I remember what I initially did
was I was able to turn my body, put both
of my feet and firmly on the pavement. The first
Good Samaritans that had stopped that witnessed this came over
there to me and they asked me if I was okay,
and I just remember shaking my head in the negative. No,
I'm not, and I'm trying to talk but I can't

(09:34):
get anything out. So I was able to get out.
First responders got me out. I was driven from the
from the accident scene at the Augusta County line to
Augusta Health and was later flown very shortly to University
of Virginia Medical Center due to a collapse lung. The
long diagnosis was I was in the hospital for two

(09:58):
days or two nights, three days uh discharged going home.
I had six broken ribs and I ended up having
a broken rotator. I ended up having a shattered rotator
cuff here on my left So long and short. I
was out of work for six months, very painful. Couldn't sleep,
couldn't I had to sleep in a couldn't lay flat
on my back, just sleep in a chair, slept in

(10:20):
a recliner with a tremendous amount of pain medication. My
fiance at the time, who's now my wife, she was
a godsend. She was able to see me through it.
We uh. She was with her sister when this accident happened.
We got married that year in September. I would say
what she was it worked, so she she and her

(10:42):
sister were David's bridal picking out wedding gowns and the
bridesmaid dresses when this happened. When when they got the call.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
It's a horrible call.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
It's a horrible call.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
So I would like to talk about that a little bit.
I think all of us in law enforcement, we really
do have the easy job. You know, the significant other
in our lives are the ones that were not there
to participate in these special events or any of these
other things. And then when something tragic like that happens,

(11:12):
it's not us delivering the message. I mean, we're fighting,
trying to go, we need to get through, but our
significant others are left with so many questions.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
So it was he's he's since retired now. But this
was Steve funkauser who had relayed him, and Chris Blaylock,
the sheriff at the time, came to Uva to see me.
But but Steve had offered to pick up my father
and my mother in Nelson County and bring them to
the hospital. My mother came with my with my wife,
my fiance at the time. My father he was battling

(11:43):
cancer at the time. Uh he had he had retired
from his work, and he elected not to come. He
was very emotional, very upset, and he heard from me.
As soon as I could get my wind back in
me and get my thoughts in composure, I was able
to make make telephone CONTs and he was fine.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
He was yeah, well, so just to go back a
little bit, what was it like growing up in Nelson County.
I know, I married a Nelson County girl, right and
she told me before I started working out there, she goes,
it is a very unique place to work.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
It's unique.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
There's nothing to do, but everybody loves everybody. It is
one of the most integrated. It is loving community.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
It is to be part of. It's rural. It's a
very close knit community. There's nothing to do there. If
you're a teenager, we would either then we would either
go to Stanton. Back in the mid to early mid
nineties on Friday or Saturday nights, you would go to
Kegler's or Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, or you would come
down to river Ridge Mall and hang with your friends
down here in Lynchburg. Outside of that, you know, because

(12:46):
Waynesboro really hadn't didn't have a lot. Waynesboro hadn't developed.
I tell you Waynesboro. My first duty assignon as a
trooper was in Augusta County, Rosser At they had one
seven eleven off Exit ninety four where it's all developed now.
That hadn't none of that, None of that was there.
You had the downtown that was I mean, I think

(13:07):
that was kind of going out. Stuart's draft had more
than Waynesboro literally knit at that particular point. And now
that they did that, they did so. But to go
back to your previous question, Yeah, it was unique. It
was It was just a close knit when you when
you grew up in a rural community like that, you
just kind of you had your close friends and you

(13:29):
would spend time field parties on Friday nights and you
just kind of hung and did your You just kind
of did your thing. And so what was.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
It like, I know everybody that I've ever met, the
every name, like everybody knew your dad. Everybody knew him,
and y'all, you actually, has he always done? Had he
always done like farms and cattle.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
And things like that, So he had so my father
his professional job was the Virginia Department of Forestry. His
secondary job was the Aubor Volunteer Fire Department. He was
the fire chief there for thirty plus years. And then
I grew up living on the farm which I managed today.
So it's a three hundred acre beef cattle farm. It
was my dad, my grandfather, and then really myself, I

(14:16):
grew up learning, not really taking a lot of things
to do with the farm. I just I watched. I
loved spending time with my father. He was my hero,
he was my idol. How I got to where I'm
at today, at least the choices of my professional career.
And I tell this, and the story was brought up

(14:36):
at his funeral back in twenty nineteen. I'll never forget
I was in grade school. I was probably kindergarten, first grade.
It was early five, six, seven years of age. And
I'll never forget asking him, Dad, if you could do
anything else in your life other than be a fireman
or associated with forestry, what would you do? And he

(14:59):
looked at me, he said, son, I want to be
I would have been a Virginia State trooper. Really. I
grew up idolizing this man, and to this day and
I tell some of my closest even my command staff
knows this story. I live every day still for my dad.
I can't That's who I am, It's who I will
always be until my dying day.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
But I'm sure your dad did the same thing for
his dad.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
There's no doubt there.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
And I think that's why you have the name that
you have in the county is because the Embry name
to me, based on my brief experience, is a name
of service.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
It truly is. So. My grandmother, who's still alive one
hundred will be one hundred and one years old to
this year this December. She served the Nelson County Rescue
Squad for forty plus years. The actual Nelson County Rescue
Squad building that's still there on Irish Road today. She

(15:53):
was She was a founding member of that that actually
helped design that building and got it. That building opened
in the spring of ninety three and we were the
first family to assemble there for a gathering the fall
of that year. She has been treasurer of the rescue Squad,

(16:14):
local church, the fire department. So the service has always
been And again I grew up. She raised me when
my parents worked full time and she was retired and
I would always see her. She was a founding member
of the original volunteer rescue squad units.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
So one thing that I was wondering about is like
with that service and with Camille, like with the hurricane,
what was that like? I mean, I doubt you were
around during those times, So that was in more were
the stories that you heard from.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Them, lots and lots. So Camille was in sixty nine.
I was born eight years later. My father was a
teenager at the time, and I remember down right there
below air farm, there's a small Dutch creek which is
probably at any point in time seven or eight feet wide,
was raging river, probably close to what the James is,

(17:02):
or at least the Rockfish is. He actually swam that
the morning there after and crossed it to get to
neighbors who were living there who were flooded and trapped.
That was the first story that I had heard.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
So how would your dad have been there.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
At that time? He would have been He would have
been eighteen, seventeen.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Eighteen years old, I mean already sixteen, already looking like, hey,
these people need my help. Yes, I need as to
step out.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
So a lot of news. When we had the fifty
year anniversary of Camille back in twenty nineteen, my grandmother
had come. She was interviewed by a lot of the
local media outlets.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
She probably had all those stories.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
She has the stories. Her name was mentioned in quite
a few other other folks that described it so long
and short. Where our farm is located. Our farm is
located on the Rockfish River, basin. I'll never forget hearing
stories from my grandfather. A lot of the fields that
I now field and operate as Hay, a lot of

(18:03):
things were buried there because that's just how that they
did things. A lot of not people, of course, but
a lot of old sediments to breathe things like that
that just ended up washing there, got ended up getting
buried and covered up during those fields. I will never
forget hearing stories from my grandfather about houses. Literally you
could see from their front porch where their house is

(18:24):
still stands today. You could watch from the front porch
and there were people on their roof floating by, and
it was still probably several members of not the Embry family,
but my mother's family. My mother's maid name was Eiris.
Several members of her distant extended family perished and have

(18:46):
never been recovered. Yeah, I mean very, very somber.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
I could not imagine, like I know, the equipment and
the technology we have now, how catastrophic that would be.
I could only imagine back in those days.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Camille, if I'm not mistake, and still holds world records
from a historical weather pattern of the weather event, of
the amount of rainfall that fell in one hour. But
there there's some folks that are still in Nelson County
today that have memories of that, that that good friend,
good family friends that I know, they get choked aut

(19:19):
that that lost loved ones in it, but they survived.
And when they tell the story of how they had
to survive, it's it's just it's incredible. It's almost with
those folks.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
I mean, I feel like it's almost like prehistoric types.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Well it happened, and everything happened at nighttime, and there
was no advanced notice. It was just it was one
of those freak.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Of I don't even think back then flashlights probably not,
probably lanterns, and I mean, so you don't have any
of the technology that you have now.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
So some of the some of the family stories, again
from the hair side of the family that I heard
were I mean kids got their their adults now and
these folks lost family members. But they were woken up
by water just They're laying in their bed and all
of a sudden, the wall caves in because landslides, mud

(20:08):
slides have come through, and they're woken up by water
and mud and this is one two o'clock in the morning.
Imagine the panic in the hysteria that sets in not
knowing what you don't know where your parents are and
you have no idea where your parents are.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, I mean that's very I mean, I don't know, that's.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
A it's unfortunate. When you think of Nelson County, the
history that that falls back is probably one of the
most historical marks is King Camille.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
In a really dark period.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
It's a dark period of time. So let's talk about
some positive.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yes, So talk about what it's like to run for
a sheriff in an area that you grew up in.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
It Uh, well, this this run was this run was unique.
I mean, it's so how I ended up having to
do this. I ended up having to run against my ball,
my predecessor at the time.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
That's right, because you came from rock Ridge back well,
rock Ridge, Augusta and then you went.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yes, So I was hired that the gentleman, the sheriff
at the time, the incumbent who I defeated in twenty
twenty three, I was employed by so Sheriff Hill had
employed me in October of twenty twenty one. I came there.
I came to Nelson from being a supervisor in patrol

(21:21):
at the Augusta County Sheriff's Office. He had a vacacy.
I came over in a supervisor capacity. I was employed
there from twenty twenty one until twenty No, I'm sorry,
let me go back twenty twenty eighteen. October of twenty eighteen.
I worked there for three years. I left October first,

(21:43):
twenty twenty one, three years to the date I had
my twenty years in with VRS and I got a
job offer, very great offer in the private sector from
an insurance firm, Virginia Farm Bureau, who's just right down
the street. So as I left, I had to get
licensed to take the job, which was a very challenging aspect.

(22:07):
I worked two years in the field at Virginia Farm Bureau.
Had always wanted to run for sheriff. I didn't want
to leave the Sheriff's office, but I just I was
not happy at all with the direction that the office
was going. Things that I saw, and I won't get
into all of that stuff, but.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
I just think people don't appreciate how difficult it is. Yeah,
and I respect I respect people that say I don't
agree with what you're what you're doing, and it could
be something as simple as like the job that law
enforcement has to do. It is a very clear cut
in my opinion, and if you have someone that doesn't

(22:47):
view it very close to the way you, you're either
extremely miserable. It's a helpless feeling. You're out here trying
to service the community, you see victims, and you don't
have the back king of And I'm not saying that's
what happened. I'm just saying from a law enforcement standpoint,
it is. I respect somebody that says I can't do

(23:08):
it the way you're doing it, I'm going to do
something else. But then you come back and you're like,
we're going to do it the way. I feel like, Yes,
it gives you a unique perspective.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Where I was unique at you, it was I had
backgrounds from three other agencies. I had an agency, the
Virginia State Police, which I you know, if you're a trooper,
you understand if you're not. There's some that hate the
State Police. But I always look at them and I
still do as kind of the pinnacle of law enforcement.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
They're probably I think, in all honesty as far as agencies,
when you look at the quality of product that they
produce in their troopers and the level of training and
expertise that they have in the job that they have.
There's nobody better at the job that they did.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Totally agreed. So I come to this with that foundation,
and I never wavered even though I departed the state
after almost ten years of service to go to a
local agency. And I'll never forget. I'll never regret that
because I needed to at some point, needed to learn
local law enforcement to be able to do the job
I'm currently doing. But I have that foundation. Yeah, the

(24:16):
background of structure, it's the structure of the State Police.
And and until you work close with them or you're
a trooper, you most people don't understand the State Police
Manual is the bible it is, and that you strictly
adhere to it. So I age there is a reason
for that, and I bring that. So I bring every day.
You probably see the shoes I'm wearing now, I wear these,

(24:38):
and you see me at the office. I get this.
I look at myself compared to other sheriffs across the state,
and you can see a difference, a little bit of
a difference. And again I'm just saying I'm modeled by
what I knew and what I was introduced to in
law enforcement. You embrace, you embrace, you embrace the culture.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yes, I think, and I think it's a great culture
to embrace, and I think it's really cool that you
bring that culture back and apply it. Yes, in a
service type of environment that you have exactly is a.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Full So my background is a little bit more diversified
than some some that have only been you know, started
in a brown uniform or whatever. So anyway, I have
that culture and that diversity, if you will to bring
to that. What I wanted to do is and again
I immediately saw hands on Nelson County has been We'll just

(25:32):
be honest, it's been behind times a lot compared to
other places I've been, both with the state state TAC
teams going throughout Division six seeing what other rural counties have,
and then seeing the counties that i've worked, where Rockbridge was,
where it is now, what Augusta County has been able
to do. And these are all counties that border Nelson.

(25:54):
And I've always had the mentality Nelson, the citizens of
Nelson deserve better, just to you, and what I knew
when I worked previously under my predecessor, there were a
lot of things that I wanted to do and I
tried to do. But you can only make changes from
the bottom up, from the bottom up, but you have

(26:16):
to have that support and you have to have somebody
that sees that vision. We didn't have that and I
and I was coming at this from not a position
of power and a position of leadership with the ability
to make those changes. So I knew, if it's coming
to Nelson, there's only one way it's gonna get there.
It's gonna have to come through me, right, And that
I'm sure, And that started the journey for me.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
But that wasn't an easy I think. I think one
of the worst things right now in politics is and
I think that's is reflected in it, especially on the
and I shouldn't say this, but like on the national level,
you really don't have to care about your image at
all to run for national office because you will get destroyed.
You will get destroyed here. It doesn't matter, It really

(26:59):
doesn't matter if you've done anything wrong.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
The nature of politics now I learned very quickly, very
very quickly, even at the local level. The thing about
the local level is the people that are coming at you,
whether you win or lose. You know where they live.
You still have to unless you get up and leave.
And I will not about to leave my Nelson County
had I lost, because my farm, my family is there.

(27:22):
You got to see these people most likely every day
or at some point in time. Yeah, at the state
and federal level, you're not. But you realize why people
don't want to get into politics.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
It's ruth it is ruthless. It is unbelievable. What And
I one of the hopes that I have with doing
this podcast is bringing positive and realizing in everyday life
it's still another human being. They might not think the
same way that you think very much, but you can't

(27:52):
and people like you that can come on here and
say this is my story. They might not like your policies,
but they should reckon like here's somebody who heart is
in the right place. She has taking licks for you,
whether you are the one that put him on him
or not, and he continues to serve. And I think
if we spend more time understanding like liberal conservative, I

(28:15):
think we all want an America that looks like, hey,
let's talk about this, let's have a community, let's communicate
with each other, Let's not find pods of people that
agree with us. It's amazing if you go and I know,
you go all of these different places, you have these
community events, and there are people that probably don't agree
with your viewpoints, but they embrace the fact of like, hey,

(28:37):
this is my sheriff, this is who's elected, and when
you start the conversation there, it's amazing. What can happen?

Speaker 2 (28:43):
It is It is in these events that I go to.
I go geared for one thing, and that's to discuss
public safety. I can talk about public safety all day long.
I have, Yet I don't think at any of my
town halls, and I do them quarterly, so I'm up
to about six going on seven now for this year.
I really don't get asked anything when it comes to

(29:04):
left wing, right wing politics, socially social you know, my
views on social issues, I still completely stay out of
the weeds on that stuff.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Well, there's no I mean, from my standpoint, there's no
reason to get in it. Actually, we have a very
simple mission in law enforcement. I think we can get
what worries me is I read today in the news
about the FBI, you know, on the January sixth, stuff
like what information is out there about that. It is
terrifying to think that we have government people, people in

(29:35):
government that are willing to go that far for their agenda.
But then when I think about it, I also think
about the wonderful people we know that work for that
same agency. And then they're like phenomenal human beings and
they're all about.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
And they're caught up in they're caught up in the
political mess, if you will. They want to do their jobs.
You know. I've had opportunities to work with the folks
that we've worked with and have conversations with them, their
good boots on the ground people.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
And we want to serve the general public and local
law enforce I mean. And that's one of the things
that I think is so cool about what you've done,
is you've reached out to these big agencies, national agencies,
and they have they have come and they have stood
up for us. I know that one case that we
had with the third you know, the national from China,

(30:22):
like that was because you had already worked out a
relationship with the fbisoutely and it worked well, it worked,
and that lady would have never she would have been
a victim that never got any type of restitution whatsoever
if it hadn't been for the late absolute And that's
the one thing that I've seen over my many years
of service in Nelson and other jurisdictions throughout the Commonwealth,

(30:46):
is the conflict between agencies. It has never made since
we go back to the state police. There there are sheriffs,
there are police chiefs through that that like, we don't
want you in our county. We can't stand and we
can't and VS and I have always embraced we despite
the color of our uniform, we work together. We all

(31:08):
have a common good. One that is to make.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Sure our officers go home and we all go home
to our families. But we absolutely work for the common good.
We're here to protect and serve with with one mission
and one mission alone. Despite how much money you make,
what you offer to me. It has never been about
power or ego. It has always been about the communities
that we that we serve, and we do an absolute

(31:31):
disservice When we can't even get along with other agencies.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
I think what is crazy. And I know you won't
go into this a lot, because I know you're a
lucky Oh you'd never know.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
But I think one of the.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Things that I learned working on a state task force.
Is the divisions mean something in the state Police I've
never seen. I've seen conflict between agencies, but the conflict
between divisions when it comes to narcotics, yeah, is unreal.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
So I worked in the Patrol and b when I
was there, and I can assure you I've worked Division three,
Division six and they're completely night and day. And I've
always heard stories from my friends at Division one, Division seven,
Northern Virginia, and Southwest Virginia. They're all run a different
way with different levels of expectations. So if the uniform

(32:18):
patrol field operations is that way, I have no doubt
that BCI your CID folks experienced the same thing.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
And the thing is is I think though once I've
had many opportunities. One of the opportunities I had was
worked with you know, Tier one type groups overseas, and
one of the things I look at is like they're
high drive individuals and if they don't have a fight,
they will look for it within themselves. I mean, I
think maybe that's the problem with law enforcement is we

(32:46):
have all these resources and all these humans, and if
we can't find a if we can't find a target,
we're going to go after each other, and maybe maybe
we need to do a better job of like saying, look,
this is our mission and explaining to the public, this
is our mission, and let's.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Get out there and do it again. I say it all.
It all starts at the top. It starts with leaders
that understand their agency's role and that want to do
what's best for the communities that they serve. Right, That's
where I'm at.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah, And so talk a little bit about your let's
just say, your first six months in office, Like what
what did you think went really well? And what did
you think like, Oh my gosh, I've got like I
feel like I was planning a one day hike and
I am going to be.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Here for well. I knew it was going to be difficult.
I had I had reached out to some folks that
Glenn Phillips, who we both know, who had the phenomenal
person retired from the state. He and I had. He
was already my number two. I knew I had to
have a solid number two known and Nelson knows the
Nelson community, but I can trust in law enforcement to

(33:51):
be my right hand man. He was already on board.
I already knew where I there were some other pieces,
and I knew that the people that I wanted to
bring in. It was just a matter of who fits
where and what works best for them. Once I got
that command staff set up, which would have been most

(34:11):
of it in my mind, was prior to the election.
But then as soon as the election hit, one of
my one of my guarantees and promises was to be
fully staff day one. That was we were on the
right trajectory for that. What I didn't anticipate was so
many existing deputies that were at Nelson had left and

(34:33):
went to the UH went to AMers County Sheriff's Office,
which they had every right to do. I met with
everybody and and some just decided to leave for the
fear of the unknown. Let's just be honest. It was
the fear of the unknown.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
I think I think a lot just being close to
it is. I think from my standpoint is if you
know something is a certain way, the old grass is
always a green right aside. But you Nelson was a
known for them, and they were like, you know, I've
probably heard the same speech you gave them before in
this county. I don't know if I'm want to trust

(35:08):
with this, and I think that's one of the biggest things. Yeah,
me making the decision come is I knew you, I
knew what type of person were, and it wasn't like
you weren't gonna fluff it. You were just gonna say, look,
this is the way it is, go do the work.
So here, here's what we had to work with.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
By the time the dust settled, by the time we
had our swearing in ceremony, which you were there, and
I'm grateful for you for for reaching out to me
and us talking and having you having your experience in
leadership coming with us. The only person that was left
in the patrol division. There was a lot of vacancies
to begin with, So I don't want to think that
there was just there. There was an exodus of folks,

(35:42):
but there was also a lot of vacancies that needed
to be filled. But we had one individual in patrol,
the only person left that was assigned the patrol had
just graduated the police Academy in December, so he was
still in the field training off officer process. We had

(36:03):
three school resource officers, we had three court security staff.
That's it. We had to fill all these additional patrol vacancies.
So I ended up hiring and again my hiring was
limited because I didn't have that you know this I could,
I didn't have the authority and I didn't have the
resource do background investigations. I had to rely on my gut.
I had to rely on phone calls. I mean, I

(36:26):
didn't have certain things at my access that I did today.
Once we January one, once we once we took office,
so I ended up hiring a lot of officers deputies
that had previously worked there, that I had worked, that
I felt comfortable and I knew, And then we brought
in some folks from of course, we had some folks
that left Amherst after that twenty twenty three election that

(36:49):
wanted to leave and come to Nelson. So we got
within I think we still had two, if not three
vacancies January one. We quickly had that filled by May.
I was very very proud of that. We hire two
new people to go to air to our academy for
the June class. But outside of that, we we we

(37:11):
brought in a lot of skill set. We we we
brought some folks in that averaged I guess our average
years of experience was about ten, which is pretty good
this day and age.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
No, I think I think what people don't. I don't
think people appreciate the market right now for long enfoce.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Oh, it's it's your skimming the I mean, I mean
you do you do not.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Have Like if you're an experienced police officer and you
have your dyeing breed, You're exactly right, there are there
are so few people. And that's one of the things
we uh. I actually talked to somebody the other day
about it. Actually, uh our producer over there, I talked
to her about it the other day, Like you know,
starting programs where it's almost like they have a client

(37:57):
that they have here that they do heating and air
and basically they brought them on and when they graduated
from high school, they had a job. And I think
that is and I know Jessica Ligan does the same
thing with her for her VETAX very much. I just
think it is a very difficult.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yes, it absolutely is the biggest thing that I knew
that we wanted to do. We wanted to I wanted
to brand the agency. Again taking away from myself, it's
it's recreating the agency, the image of the agency, giving
it a new face. It starts with social media and
being able to put that out there and having fresh faces.

(38:38):
We wanted to go with new uniform to give us
a new a new appearance. It took a while to do,
but we're there now as you can see, and we
get a lot of great, great positive feedback. I'm sorry,
I wish i'd wore mine today. That's on me. It's
all good, but but we wanted to. We wanted to
to bring a fresh face, or with with with my

(38:58):
fresh face and the the ad men. We wanted to
give a new patch, a new uniform. We stepped away
from the brown, and I wanted to more or less
give the agency I wanted. I wanted the deputies there
to have their voice and let their voice be heard.
So what I decided to do is let them have
a vote. We have department meetings every quarter, and I

(39:20):
feel like being if I'm going to be transparent with
the community, which I promised and I'm doing, I need
to also be transparent with the department. Now. I need
to let those guys feel like their voice matters. And
so we let them. We brought in different uniform variations
and let them vote and unanimously what we decided to.
Some people say we're another version of the state. I

(39:42):
understand that with our coloration, but we look very professional
and we went away, which I don't think we do,
but some people that don't know any differently think that.
But our patch is unique and it's symbolism of what
Nelson County represents, and we selected a few venues that
are there that are symbolic of that. And again, very

(40:03):
very proud of what we've been able to put together.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
I think I think when you look at those uniforms,
you stand out, and I think I think the community
that we serve stands out. It does and that's why
people come to Nelson County medication and there's there's a
reason why people stay there to live, even if they
have to travel to find employment.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
That's right, Yes, and so talk a little bit.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
I know this is a totally different topic, but you
know how my brain balances.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Talk about what.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
I hate to think what's on on the internet now.
I just think about like the farm life, like what
does that look like? Trying to run a sheriff's department
and trying to maintain them.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
It's not easy this time of year. We're in hay season.
So you know, I've got thirty hit of cattle. Okay,
and it's so I have a beef cattle cow caf operation.
My oldest son, Zach Zach will be twenty five this year. Okay,
h he is. He is a mechanic at Carter Caterpillar

(40:58):
in Fishersville, So big ending, yeah, big big unit. He
does all my service work for me. Great, great young man.
I couldn't get by without him. And he lives on
the farm with my mother. My father passed in twenty nineteen,
so I took over the operation and I've redone the farm.
I have completely redone it from where it is, new fencing,

(41:19):
new watering system and everything. But going back to it,
it's it's difficult. If I didn't have a great staff
that can run the office day to day operations, I
wouldn't be able to do what I do now. I'm
at the office every day, with the exception of if
I have something come up that's pressing. Right now this

(41:39):
time of year, all of our well, it's wet.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
It's wet, and as soon as it drives, you're going
to have to be cudding.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Yes, So I'm in I've got, you know I do.
I do round bails. Everything is machine related. I've bought
some advanced updated equipment that really helps me and speed
up my operation. But it's for me. It's therapeutic. I
built the farm up the way before my father passed.

(42:05):
He and I both entered into a contract with a
ten year contract with the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Conservation
Unit out of Charlottesville. What they did, they came in
and put in all these new fences and waters. He
never got to see that. He passed in twenty nineteen.
The fencing and watering systems were installed this summer of

(42:26):
that year. I'd like to think he's very proud of that,
of what and that has just kind of helped us.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
I think that diversifier operator, I think he would be
proud of it. He would because I think I think
one of the things the older you get, you realize
what does your legacy look like? Yes, and your dad
gave you a great legacy, but he also left some
things undone because like you have technology, you have all
these things that are added. You have like what you're

(42:53):
talking about, I would say, they don't like cattle to
be a certain distance from creek, yes, very and so
you have to comply with all that, which is a
good thing, but you also have to have the technology
and the thought process to get you to.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
That point when I'll never for the day my father passed.
It was January thirtieth, twenty nineteen. He was there at
the house, surrounded by myself, my mother, my sisters weren't there,
my wife, and some very close friends and fellow farmers
of his. And I will tell you, I mean, I
had always helped my dad, but I had never really

(43:26):
made any farm decisions because I just it just hadn't
worked out that way. And you want to talk about
going back to the drawing board and fear of how
am I going to do this? I'm a deputy sheriff
at this point, I'm in Nelson. I'm working twelve hour
rotating shifts. I've now lost my father, you know, boys,

(43:48):
I've lost my hero. What am I going to do?
What am I going to do? I've got to learn
at that point, he was still Dad was one of
these guys that he loved his family, but he didn't
like to let go of the rain. So I had
always helped him, but I had never managed and never
made any real always let him make the decisions. I

(44:10):
had to learn to do it all. And I mean
I had the background, but I said, so fast forward.
The day he the day he was buried, I left
that service. I thanked everybody for coming. I went and
I started doing stuff on the farm. One to kind
of take my but I said, if I'm gonna do it,

(44:32):
I got to do it and not look back. And
to this day, I haven't looked back. It's it's therapeutic
for me. It it gives me a lot.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
There's a lot of crossover though. It's a lot of
crossover of like you have your growing seasons and everything else.
And I think if you learn how to prioritize, make tasks,
you know what's important, what's not important. On the farm,
it relates back to what we do day to day.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
It does. I take pride with two things. I love
seeing a credible agency that we've been able to build
with good solid people, equipment, the technology that we've been
able to bring with some of the new stuff. And
then on a personal personal note, I take pride in
making beautiful hay every year, three times a year during

(45:18):
cutting seasons for me. And then incredible calfs. I've got
a cow calf operation, and when you go to sell cattle,
I take all my cattle to Stanton Market. That's just
I'm on the north end of the county. It's more
convenient for me. But when you unload your cattle and
you have a lot, all the experts, I'm not an
expert by any stretch, but when your cattle bring in

(45:39):
top dollar in that top ninety ninth percentile, you know
you're doing something right.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Well, it's like a by definition here comes to m breeze.
They always have, they do the little I think people
don't realize how much preparation, just like you were talking about, Hey,
I think people think it's really simple. All you do
is go out there and you rake it and then
you roll it into rolls. But then when you look
at the rolls like you look at you go buy

(46:05):
some of these farms and you're like, I don't know
who rolled that.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
So the stress. So there is stress in this. And
all farmers will tell you that care about their product.
Usually come late April early May, you're you're I'm fixated
to w ST thirteen George Flickinscher's weather forecast three or
four times a day because I need to know when
that window is going to be. I'm looking at my
work calendar making sure I don't have any appointments because

(46:30):
it takes I need two or three days of good
time to be able to cut tetor rake bail and
move out of my field into where it's secure. And
that's it. Because you're looking at that window, and I'm
constantly talking to my staff when they're like, hey, can
we have a staff meeting, I'm like, nope, I'm cutting. Hey,
can't do it.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Yeah, And it's not like you can, like you can
tap out and go, hey, come over here and do
this for me. So it's on you.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
It's it's unique, not other you know, not all sheriffs
or administrators have to do that. Now before right now,
I'm fortunate now I'm in the position that I'm in.
Prior to being elected to this office, I was having
to do this. Like I said, when my dad passed,
I was still a patrol deputy. I was working twelve
hour shifts and we were doing night shifts. So it

(47:19):
would be times I would get off at six a m.
If I had to. If I had to cut, you
maybe get three or four hours of sleep on my
own because I have no help to do this. My
son helps me when he can, but I understand. But
outside of that, this was all my thing. My wife
and mother I haven't trained taught them yet, have operated

(47:39):
exactly terrible, terrible. I used the wrong tea word taught.
I have not taught.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
You're getting take use the t word of takeout because
exactly that's exactly right.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
So uh, but it's not easy. And I bring that
up because I enjoy doing this. I could easily just bush,
I could easily just sell everything, and but that wouldn't
be what my father would want.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
So why I would say, there has to be a
lot of pride, not like the bad pride, but the
pride of like man, the product that I produced. I know,
I trained dogs, and like when I see the dogs
that I've trained, I think that is the coolest thing.
Is that is the closest thing is an extension of me. Yes,
because good or bad.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Yes, that is a reflection, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
And so I invest in that in that.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Way, just like any business leader. I mean, if you
know you want your if you're manufacturing a product, you
want it to be top notch. Will you want it
to I think you take to do it in it.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Yeah, but I think the difference between animals and machinery
it's totally totally differently because you have you have to invest, yeah,
and you have to be so in tune with what
they do day in and day out. People think they're
riding through the fields and they're I guarantee, if you
ride through your field, you'll know where each one of
those cows are physically, nutritionally and everything else when you

(48:52):
have to and if you don't pay attention, you missed
one day, Like I know right now, no farmer, but
I know that my garden is suffering because it rained
for two or three days. And I can't catch a lot.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Of folks when they go to the when they go
to a supermarket and they're looking, they're they're just buying
a steak and the hey, they hey, I want a
steak for the weekend or something. They take for granted
what all went into producing this.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Well, at this point it probably isn't from here anyway.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
I was gonna say, probably not.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
So what I know you can't recommend. But like just
as a p s A. People that want to buy local,
are there places local in Nelson? County that sell beef
for sure, Okay, all right, so that I I guess
it's just a matter of just going out there and
finding one that works. Yeah, do you sell your beef front?

Speaker 2 (49:41):
I don't know. I take it. I take it straight
to them, because it takes a process to do that.
You really gotta rain the animal and you got to
do this.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
And to do the USDA and all that other stuff too.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Well. I don't know how they I don't really know
how they do that, but there's a lot of time
and investment that goes into getting that animal to a
certain size. You really have at that point. It's a
science and it's it's time consuming, no sir. I get
them to a certain size and weight when they need
to be coming off their mother, and that's that's it.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
And that's I don't know. Like to me, I think
like you have a calf and all the things that
go into that, Like I do think people take for granted,
like all the effort that goes into that. So back
to the department. So like from your standpoint, I don't
want to make a general statement, but I will law enforcement,

(50:35):
how good of a job do we do explaining to
the general public? Actually what our job is, because like
I feel like ever since George Floyd, I think we
have adopted we're in a safe place. We interact with
the public in in a way that makes them comfortable
as opposed to know and I know you're not like

(50:57):
this because I work for you. But how many leaders
do we know that are like their thing is? I
want to my best deputies are the ones that I'm
not getting complaints on because they're not contact in the
general public. If you're not, if you don't get a complaint,
there's probably a reason you aren't contact in the general public. Now,
you definitely are not acting as a as a You

(51:20):
can say you're a protector and everything else, but letting
stuff go doesn't work. And so like for me from
a law enforcement standpoint, how do we transition to general public?
We're very fortunate in Nelson people. I feel like, for
the most part, we're very supportive in our community.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Obviously very much.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Obviously we'll get like he's driving too fast, he was
using this, all these different things, but for the most
part they want law in order and so but in
other areas where they have the different opinion about law enforcement,
what can we do and what can leaders do to
prepare the public to say, we have all these violent
acts committed in this area. If we send law enforcement

(52:02):
in there, they are going to have that same violent interaction.
It's probably going to be on our body camera. You
can either choose to interact with We can either in
law enforcement go after the people that are responsible for
the violent acts, which are going to create a violent
act more than likely because most violent people do not
voluntarily comply. Yeah, I think that.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
I mean, you know that, Jewett. There's only one way
to do it, and I've learned it. It's transparency. You
have to have transparency. There's a reason why I do
the town halls one. I feel like it's it's it's
it's needed, and it's an expectation as a constitutional officer,
I need to do that. But the community just doesn't
understand what we do. And it's not just us. I've
learned this from I'll use VDOT for an example. We

(52:44):
brought ve Doot in back in November and I asked
and and and and they did not want to do this,
but they they did. They they decided to.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Do like the calf that didn't want to get pulled in.
That's right, they got there.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
But they saw what we were doing. They saw that
we had an issue with fatalities back in Nelson County
during a high number of fatalities on the twenty nine
corridor in a one week time span, and the critiques
that I was getting for not having enough deputies out there.
I went to VITOT and VDOT came back to me

(53:18):
and like, we'll sheareff. You know we can't do this
unless we do this, And I said, well, no, I
didn't know that. It was just an example of something
that they use and everything else, well the study, well
they use something like that. They know you can't put
an I didn't know this. They brought to my attention
in a closed door meeting that we can't put an
extra traffic light on twenty nine in Nelson County if

(53:39):
we're going to go that route. And that was something
that people were asking at some intersections where we were
having trouble, and they said, if we have to put
a traffic light at this intersection, we by law, whether
it's federal or state, I don't know. I didn't go
into the weeds. We have to remove a traffic light
on the twenty nine corridor from another jurisdiction. I said, well,
if I don't know that, these people in Nelson County

(54:01):
don't know that, why not get out and educate. That's
what I feel like. That's where I feel like everybody lacks.
It's just education and communication. When you do that, you
gain public trust. When you gain public trust, you really
you can't go wrong. You can't go wrong. Now. Do
we make mistakes, Yes we do. Do I own them

(54:21):
when I do it? Yes, I do. That's why I
say I believe transparency and accountability. If I make mistakes
and I come out and I say, yes, this happened
and I'm sorry for this and it's not going to
happen again, and we'll do better, well, there be repercussions, yes,
but I don't lose that trust from the community. That's
what The fact that you own it, that's it. So

(54:44):
when I'm transparent and I get out every ninety days
and I say this is what we've done. This are
the stats of what we've done, and people answer questions,
I constantly have it, and I don't mind that. I
feel like that's what we need to do, and I
really do. I've noted locally. Some other agencies are starting
to put out on their social media sites statistics it's

(55:07):
worked for us. I don't know if they're doing that
following us, or they see and it's working, or it's
just something that right. It's I mean, I follow other
agencies too, And I'm not saying that we need to
be the premieer what we're doing. What we're doing works
for us and it works for me.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Yeah, and they can see whether it works. Yes, But
so what would you say if if somewhere to ask you, like, so,
what is the mission of the Nelson County Sheriff's Office
as it relates to public safety and service?

Speaker 2 (55:37):
So for me, the mission obviously it's protecting and serving.
But I want to be I want to be in
the community, which I already am. I want to have
that community trust and I want to provide services. I
want to see our youth. We see across the country
we see a decline in people wanting to get involved

(55:57):
in law enforcement. Now we can sit here and have
a debate as to why that is and when did
that break down. What I want to do is I
want air youth. I want I'm not going to hold
this office forever, but however long I'm in there. I
want it to succeed and I want it to continue
to grow and strengthen those ties and binds with their youth.

(56:20):
That's why we're focusing so much right now on our
cop camp SR programs and things of that nature. But
to answer your question, I want to bring a community together.
I get together with church leaders. I go to a
different church pretty much every other Sunday. Wherever I'm invited,
I go. And it's not easy, but it's again it's

(56:43):
if people can see me and I represent this agency,
then they know that we're here for the community and
that that will never waver as long as I'm as
long as I'm in the seat. It's building that community,
which Nelson again has never had. And that was one
vision that I had that that we wanted to do,
was to strengthen that. Yes, while we make arrest and

(57:05):
we do these other things, we're also we want to
provide services and and and.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Just so along those veins. From a prevention standpoint, I
think I think I feel like law enforcement. I don't
feel like that where we're at, But like, how do
you go from a reactive and I think about and
I'm trying to lead you into it because I most

(57:31):
I am most impressed with your desire to make community
safer active shooter training things like that, because like for me,
it's too late, yeah to train. You know, I had
a T shirt a long time ago it said something
to the effect of, if your life depends on having
a skill, it's too late to learn it.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
And how much skill have you provided these deputies since
you've been.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Oh, it's it's been. It's been a one eighty versus
what they've had in the past. So obviously, one of
my biggest campaign platforms was we want to train by annually,
not just annually. And the reason we do that is,
you know, from your years of experience, you have to
keep your mind fresh and you learn from muscle memory.

(58:16):
And so what we've done and we've been proud to
make contacts with our Alert, We've adopted the Alert Active
shooter training. We've got a collaboration with our schools so
we know when we can do it in our schools.
We're hitting it at spring break, fall break, and we're
continuing to use the assets that are available to us.

(58:37):
There's other agencies out here that love to train, and
we've got those resources now we've got that bond. So
if we're training in April when school is on their
spring break session, which we have done the last two years,
and now we're following that up in the winter with
Virginia State Police tag teams that are coming in and
just providing scenarios to our guys, we're keeping that mental fresh.

(59:00):
Now we're incorporating our volunteers and our professional fire and
EMS staff that have also they train not necessarily volunteers,
but not to a degree in a level that we
just threw at them a couple months ago. So what
is all brand sure?

Speaker 1 (59:15):
What was the feedback? I know I didn't I wasn't
there because I was in and out a lot, But
what was the feedback from EMS and fire?

Speaker 2 (59:23):
After all, they said, why haven't we done this before?

Speaker 1 (59:26):
Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 2 (59:26):
And it's for their feedback? Was my god, how much
did this cost you? And when I say this is
free training, these people travel across the country, they bring
you food, they give you the knowledge, and they give
you the best training possible. All we have to do
is make ourselves available, have a venue to provide them,
and we have to be receptive to what they're teaching us.

(59:49):
And we learn from it and we build from it.
And the question they said, thank you, this is the
most incredible training we've had, but why haven't we done
this before?

Speaker 1 (59:58):
And so how do we build that moving forward? How
do you feel building the the is it? How do
you transition into the next phase in Nelson?

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
So obviously you surround yourself with people that believe in
what you want to believe all of our fire So
luckily for us we have one paid organization with a
green fire and rescue and Chief Sheets and Assistant Chief
Mike Riddle are completely on board from that standpoint. Air
the Nelson County Emergency Services Council, which is comprised of

(01:00:29):
our local fire and rescue chiefs, they have bought in
on this air. Nelson County Dispatch Center has bought in.
And certainly all of our deputies have deputy that they want,
they want training opportunities they wanted, they want that. So
the big thing for this, there were two national scenes
that I take from all of this. One was Lakeland, Florida, Parkland,

(01:00:53):
I'm sorry Parkland, Parkland and Uvalde, Texas. And I brought
this up and it's a failure to train and it's
a failure to act, and we won't dive into what
DOJ found and what those results came from all that,
But I always said Nelson is unique, and this, God
forbid if it happened here. But our guys are going

(01:01:14):
to be prepared. Our school resource officers are going to
be prepared. It's not the first time they're going to
see this, and we need to give them all the
tools on their belt to in the resources to be
able to handle this. God forbid if this happens, and
if it happens in an adjacent jurisdiction, we give them
all the tools to respond and help our fellow neighbors out.

(01:01:35):
So I'm committed to this, Jewett, and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
I think it's been it's been an amazing thing. I
think I think whatever marks that you have in your brain,
you know, like, hey, this is a watermark of where
we've arrived at what we need to do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
So we're already on the books for twenty twenty six
in April. So and those guys love it. I mean
they you can tell the folks that come here to
as to us. They love working with people that are
always receptive and want to train.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Yes, well, I appreciate your time it has been. I
always enjoy spending time with people, especially people that have
the same thought process as I do as far as
service and man, especially somebody that's rose to the highest
level and is implementing a plan. I think it's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Well, it's good to be here. I thank you, and
we'll have to do this again some time and again.
I feel terrible. I'm not wearing a new uniform again.
I'm very very proud of

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
It, but I wanted you to be comfortable, absolutely all right,
So thank you, thank you.