PODCAST: If YOU want things to change, YOU MUST DO SOMETHING! Why law enforcement MUST choose action! with Joe Gamaldi | TIR 063
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If YOU want things to change, YOU MUST DO SOMETHING! Why law enforcement MUST choose action! with Joe Gamaldi | TIR 063
Join on Twitter / X: @JoeGamaldi
Meet this Weeks Guest: Joe Gamaldi
FOP National Vice President Joe Gamaldi was born and raised on Long Island, NY. Following high school he attended the University of Hartford, where he earned a degree in Criminal Justice, with minors in Political Science and Sociology. After graduation, Joe was hired by the NYPD in 2005 where he worked as an officer for approximately three years. He then transferred to the Houston Police Department in 2008, where he is currently an active Lieutenant.
Shortly after graduation from the academy, he completed his Master’s Degree from Long Island University in Homeland Security Management. Joe then went on to serve as a Board Member of the Houston Police Officers’ Union (HPOU) FOP Lodge 110 before being elected the Second Vice President, serving in that capacity for five years before being elected President of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, where he served for three years. Joe was elected National Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police in August of 2019 in New Orleans.
Within the National FOP Joe led the committee which developed the first National FOP mobile app, free to all members. He also assists running the social media platforms for the National FOP and with media relations/responses.
You can follow Joe on Twitter @joegamaldi
Show Notes from This Episode
We know first-hand the struggle of trying not to take the job home with us and let it affect our families. We know the toll the law enforcement career can have on marriages and relationships. And we also have been frustrated by the lack of authentic leadership in our agencies. This Law Enforcement Podcast was designed to help you overcome the mental toll of the law enforcement career and the negative effects it can have on your personal life.
Hosted by active-duty law enforcement, we bring you two weekly podcasts. On Thursday, in The Interview Room we sit down with amazing guests who provide actionable advice on leadership, mental health, and relationships from their lived experiences. On Monday, in Morning Roll Call, you and I enjoy a cup of coffee and discuss current events, offer encouragement, and discuss practical steps for achieving the life we were meant to live.
Go Deeper:
Step 1: SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast wherever you are streaming it.
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Step 2: FOLLOW us on social media, so you never miss an update.
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Topics we discuss:
“The importance of taking action.”
The best energy drinks for those longs nights on patrol.
Why politics matters for law enforcement.
The reasons cops SHOULD join a union.
If you make a mistake, own it, apologize and move on.
Effective leadership is imperative in extreme adversity.
You must be involved locally.
The solution is the American People.
Protect, Serve and Act.
Be a strong opposing voice for Truth!
Be a positive voice for change.
CONNECT with Joe:
TWITTER: @JoeGamaldi
WEBSITE/ Fraternal Order of Police: https://fop.net
RESOURCES mentioned:
BOOK: Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
BOOK: Leaders Eat Last: Why some teams pull together and other’s don’t by Simon Sinek
BOOK: Atomic Habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones by James Clear
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• VISIT OUR Website: https://www.ontheblueline.com/
• EMAIL me your feedback: Feedback@OnTheBlueLine.com
• Get the eBook, “How the law enforcement makes you cynical and what you can do about it” by Wayne Mulder.
On The Blue Line was founded and is operated by active-duty law enforcement to fulfill the mission of helping law enforcement overcome the mental health toll of the profession to become better leaders & protectors on & off the job.
We strive to create a world where law enforcement life expectancies are equal with the general population.
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TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE. Please note this is a new service we are offering and there will be spelling, grammar and accuracy issues. This transcription is offered as a convenience to our listeners, but at this time it is not guaranteed to be accurate.
00:00:09:14 - 00:00:26:22
Wayne Mulder
All right. Welcome, my friend, to the On the Blue Line podcast for law enforcement, the podcast that helps law enforcement officers overcome the mental health toll of the profession to become better leaders and protectors on and off the job. I am your host, Wayne Mulder. This week in the interview room, I'm sitting down with guest Joe Gum Maldi.
00:00:26:24 - 00:00:43:02
Wayne Mulder
He's the national vice president of the FOP, which is the Fraternal Order of Police. If you're unaware and this is a vitally important episode, I know that I say that all the time, but it is not hyperbolic. He has some great things to say and you are not going to want to miss a minute. The On the Blue Line podcast.
00:00:43:08 - 00:00:58:19
Starts now because, you know it's only going to get stellar seasons. No way to change that. Wanted to last for ever more. You know things have to stay. All right.
00:00:58:21 - 00:01:20:19
Wayne Mulder
So let me start with a couple of news items real quick. Just two of them. First of all, we have been most we I have been most active on Twitter or X or whatever Elon is calling it these days. I have no idea. But it's at the blue line. Oh, in the blue, lying in the number one. Try to be snarky, entertaining, informative and everything you see on there is me.
00:01:20:20 - 00:01:35:13
Wayne Mulder
My thoughts. In fact, it even says Wing Mulder. And then again it's at on the blue line and the number one. So definitely connect with me over there. That's going to be the platform that I'm on the most for social media. And then I'm honestly just going to take the information from there and share it to the other sites.
00:01:35:13 - 00:01:51:22
Wayne Mulder
I can't. There's one of me and I cannot possibly be on all these social media sites. Plus, if you've been a long time listener, you know that I am not a big fan of social media, so I will be active on Twitter. And then that information we will share out to the other sites to hopefully just keep you informed.
00:01:52:02 - 00:02:18:15
Wayne Mulder
But you can always go to the blue line open on the blue line dot com for the most up to date information on what is being released. And then lastly in the news section, please leave us a rating five star review, especially on Apple Podcasts. That makes a huge difference when you leave us a review on there and whatever platform your listening to us, watching us, we love the feedback, but then it also helps with the algorithm.
00:02:18:21 - 00:02:41:23
Wayne Mulder
When you like, subscribe, follow whatever it is for the appropriate platform that you are on. So without taking any more time, let's get to this week's guest. He is the ALP national Vice President, Joe Guy Multi. He was born and raised in Long Island, New York. After high school he went to the University of Hartford where he got a degree in criminal justice with minors in political science and sociology.
00:02:42:00 - 00:03:05:19
Wayne Mulder
That becomes evident if you evident if you've ever had the ability or the privilege of sitting down and listening to Joe. He's very knowledgeable and does a really good job articulating how what could be political issues affect the law enforcement community. After graduation, he was hired by NYPD, where he worked there for three years and then was then later transferred to the Houston Police Department.
00:03:05:21 - 00:03:29:08
Wayne Mulder
After graduation, he got a master's degree from Long Island University and Homeland Security Management, and he went on to become very active in the Houston Police Officers Union, FIP large 110 and worked his way up to the president of the Houston Police Officers Union, where he was for three years before finally in 2019, being elected to the national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
00:03:29:10 - 00:03:51:07
Wayne Mulder
And that was in New Orleans. And that year, and I believe he is up for reelection again. And this year it's going to be in Vegas in August. So be sure you go follow him on Twitter after you're done listening to this episode and follow everything he's doing. He's constantly on the national news sites and so forth, just saying really great things for law enforcement.
00:03:51:07 - 00:04:12:01
Wayne Mulder
I'm telling you, if you've never had the privilege of hearing him speak before, he's passionate, he's well spoken, and he's making a profound and positive difference for the law enforcement community. And all of that's going to come through throughout this episode. So without taking any more time, here's this week's guest, Joe Carmody. Joe, welcome to the show.
00:04:12:03 - 00:04:14:12
Joe Gamaldi
Thanks for having me on. I'm happy to be here.
00:04:14:14 - 00:04:22:22
Wayne Mulder
You know, it's been a long time coming. We've both been so busy with our actual jobs as we'll talk about. But it's great to have you here.
00:04:22:24 - 00:04:28:11
Joe Gamaldi
And I really it's my pleasure. I'm so glad we were able to find the time to sit down and do this. I'm excited about it. Let's. Let's roll.
00:04:28:17 - 00:04:35:09
Wayne Mulder
Awesome. Sounds good. Well, let's start, as I always do. Very simple question. Is it coffee or tea, sir?
00:04:35:11 - 00:05:06:18
Joe Gamaldi
Oh, it's coffee like that. It's not even a competition. I have to say. Very caffeinated throughout the day. So it's right out of the get go. When I wake up, the first thing I'm doing is hydrating with water. And then I immediately start making my coffee. And then throughout the day it's periodic now because I'm on night shift and now in my forties, I have had to start to institute energy drinks as well because I think my body has just built up such an immunity to caffeine at this point that I need like higher doses that coffee cannot deliver.
00:05:06:24 - 00:05:14:16
Joe Gamaldi
So now I've started incorporating an energy drink that's like double the amount of coffee just to try to keep myself through the shift. Yeah.
00:05:14:18 - 00:05:18:22
Wayne Mulder
I am with you fully. That is essentially where I'm at.
00:05:18:24 - 00:05:36:14
Joe Gamaldi
And listen, for for the older folks watching, you don't have to drink Red Bull any more, folks. So there's this whole market of energy drinks out there. Now they've got ghost energy drinks, they've got bang energy while bang is kind of what the kids drink on the shelf. But I drink ghost energy drinks. You don't have to drink crap anymore.
00:05:36:15 - 00:05:38:17
Joe Gamaldi
They got all sorts of quality stuff. Now.
00:05:38:19 - 00:05:47:22
Wayne Mulder
I agree 100%. In fact, I personally am a big fan of Celsius. I love I love that product. So yeah, I think they're out of Florida here, which is probably why they're everywhere down here.
00:05:47:22 - 00:06:00:12
Joe Gamaldi
But yeah, yeah. And also, hey, if the ghost people are watching, I am open for a sponsorship. Let's go. I can just stock my fridge with your stuff. I'll post about it, whatever you need, because I love their products.
00:06:00:18 - 00:06:17:24
Wayne Mulder
You and me both. So we'll just put that out there. Joe. Right from the get go. Now I do have to segway off of my questions here real quick to ask because there's this theory with you as to whether or not this state of energy that you have, is it only fueled by caffeine or are you just naturally an energetic guy?
00:06:18:01 - 00:06:35:11
Joe Gamaldi
So I am naturally an energetic guy in general. You know, I work out seven days a week. I'm constantly going with my kids and with my wife. And so I naturally have a lot of energy. But like, I just kick it into another gear with the coffee and energy drinks. It's like, you know, I can run at a certain level.
00:06:35:11 - 00:06:39:08
Joe Gamaldi
But when you add that stuff, I, you know, I can really hit a hit top notch.
00:06:39:10 - 00:06:58:01
Wayne Mulder
I love it. Well, let me we've established that you, as do I drink coffee all the time. But my follow up to that is typically, where's your favorite place to have that drink? Not necessarily type, but just a location. I find with coffee drinkers, there's something typically that they just like to. Oh, and breathe and have that sip of coffee.
00:06:58:03 - 00:07:19:01
Joe Gamaldi
Yes. So particularly with me, for those that don't know, like I work night shift. So when I get up, you know, it's probably already about 11 and 11:30 a.m. and my routine is like, I have my breakfast and then I have my coffee afterwards and I normally sit in my office and just kind of catch up on just breaking news or any news that I may have missed or anything like that.
00:07:19:03 - 00:07:48:15
Joe Gamaldi
And that's just kind of about 45 minutes of just me sitting. Like whether it's just me scrolling social media or I may be looking at news websites, but it's just kind of 45 minutes for me to just drink my coffee and just kind of catch up for the day with no interruptions. And that's kind of when I enjoy my coffee in the morning, in the evening time, you know, if I'm getting ready to kind of like go to work and may be sitting kind of with the family for that little bit of time before the kiddos go to bed before I got to head off to work.
00:07:48:15 - 00:07:50:02
Joe Gamaldi
I'll have a cup then.
00:07:50:04 - 00:07:54:09
Wayne Mulder
I love it. Do you have a best or worst travel story?
00:07:54:11 - 00:08:21:01
Joe Gamaldi
Wow. A best or worst travel story? So probably best travel story ever was. Me and my wife took a trip to the Maldives for our ten year anniversary. Now, it actually happened on our 11 year anniversary because COVID canceled it and we had a eight hour layover in Doha, Qatar, which was amazing to tour that city there and then make our way to the Maldives, which is probably the most, most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life.
00:08:21:03 - 00:08:38:24
Joe Gamaldi
Or probably like a funny, interesting story was like, you know, some people bring their kids to Vegas and me and my wife were always like, We don't want to bring our kids to Vegas. You know, when they're older, we'll take them, whatever. But we took a trip. We go to Disneyland or Disney World about once a year. We took a trip to Disneyland on the way back, our flight gets canceled in Vegas, had a connection.
00:08:39:03 - 00:08:52:22
Joe Gamaldi
So we got to stay the night in Vegas or like, I what are we going to do now? So we booked the room in New York, New York, and we take the kids into Vegas. And I will tell you, I thought it was going to be a disaster, but it turned out that we just had such a blast.
00:08:53:02 - 00:09:08:00
Joe Gamaldi
The kids had a great time for one night in Vegas. And, you know, we avoided the guys, you know, with the cards that are on there, you know, point out all the other bad jobs around town. We were able to avoid them, but it turned out to just kind of be a funny trip. So those are kind of the most memorable ones right now.
00:09:08:02 - 00:09:15:06
Wayne Mulder
That's awesome. Yeah, that's a great answer to that. Do you have a favorite or most meaningful nonfiction book?
00:09:15:08 - 00:09:39:00
Joe Gamaldi
Favorite or most meaningful nonfiction book? There is actually a lot. Extreme ownership is probably one of my favorite from Jocko Will, and that's an extremely good book that I think any leader should read. And you know, kind of the the summary of it is that when something happens beneath you with your people, it's your fault whether you were there or not.
00:09:39:00 - 00:09:58:17
Joe Gamaldi
It's your fault. Some sort of failure in your in your process led to this mistake and you have to own it. And in that book, it talks about just owning your mistakes 100%. And we kind of live in a society now where if someone does something wrong, they will immediately. And I'm not just talking about criminals, we can get into that later.
00:09:58:17 - 00:10:25:22
Joe Gamaldi
But she's talking about generally everybody wants to make an excuse about why something happened. And if I can tell young viewers right now, own your shit. If you make a mistake, apologize on it and move on and you will be shocked at how much you can build a relationship with the person that you're owning that mistake in front of because you're just so not used to hearing that, that they'll immediately be like, Whoa, like this person's owning their mistake.
00:10:25:24 - 00:10:38:12
Joe Gamaldi
And that's, you know, I think that's an important lesson. Leaders eat last. The author's name is Simon and his last name is Escaping me. That's another good book that I particularly enjoyed.
00:10:38:12 - 00:10:39:09
Wayne Mulder
Was that Sinek?
00:10:39:09 - 00:11:09:01
Joe Gamaldi
Simon Sinek. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's another good one that that jumps to mind. Atomic Habits is another good one for people that are just looking to improve their lives. Those are kind of the three nonfiction. And then like anything about Churchill's life, like, Oh man, believe that man was just an amazing historical leader. And if you're if you read a lot of stuff about him, you just understand just how impactful he was to the world and just how great of a job he did.
00:11:09:03 - 00:11:15:04
Wayne Mulder
Though I agree. What are your Cliff Notes on why? I'm curious. Churchill Yeah.
00:11:15:06 - 00:11:37:20
Joe Gamaldi
You know, leadership in the face of just enormous adversity. I mean, just the amount of pounding that Britain was taking at the time and the fact that he would still go out, I mean, he wasn't like hiding in some bunker. He would be out on the rooftops with a fucking helmet on, you know, standing with his people, showing them not to be afraid.
00:11:37:23 - 00:11:58:10
Joe Gamaldi
And when you juxtapose that with Hitler, who towards the end wasn't even coming out of his bunker when Germany was getting hammered. So I think he's just so that's part of it. But also his story, like people don't know like Churchill was kind of on the outs politically before World War Two and then built himself back up and eventually became the leader there.
00:11:58:10 - 00:12:08:13
Joe Gamaldi
So, I mean, it's just a really good story, I guess just standing up to adversity and just never giving up like never giving up, just willing to fight to the bitter end.
00:12:08:15 - 00:12:26:07
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, no, I agree with you half that. I know. I love that. I think one of the failures and maybe it even kind of goes to the point you just made on owning mistakes is this whole thing where we also currently refuse to learn from history. And that's where I love exactly what you're saying right here with Churchill.
00:12:26:07 - 00:12:37:04
Wayne Mulder
Of course, other leaders that we can name throughout history. Let me ask you, what is that place that brings you the most peace? What's your favorite spot to just kind of stop, breathe and enjoy life.
00:12:37:06 - 00:13:04:23
Joe Gamaldi
In the backyard with my daughters and my family? That's that is my happy place. I am the most happiest when I am spending time with my family, quality time uninterrupted. And it doesn't have to be like, don't get me wrong, we love going on family vacations and everything else, but it can be as simple as just hanging out in the backyard, swimming in the pool, or, you know, going to get ice cream or Italian ices or something like that.
00:13:04:23 - 00:13:08:14
Joe Gamaldi
But I am at my most happiest when I'm spending time with my daughters.
00:13:08:16 - 00:13:28:17
Wayne Mulder
That's awesome. Yeah. And that was actually one of the follow up questions I was gonna get to later in here, because I think that's such an important aspect that sometimes get lost when we talk about, you know, people doing things within the law enforcement profession and especially at a high level outside of just the job itself. Let's start a little bit with your origin story for context.
00:13:28:17 - 00:13:34:14
Wayne Mulder
So tell us a little about who is Joe Grimaldi? What where have you served and what are you doing now?
00:13:34:16 - 00:13:56:06
Joe Gamaldi
Yeah, well, I was born and raised in Long Island, New York. After college, I joined the NYPD. That was from 2000, 5083 years. You know, listen, I'm happy that I did that job because it gave me a lot of perspective. But, you know, I was living in a shoe box apartment. You type is so small when you open your bedroom door and hit your bed.
00:13:56:08 - 00:14:14:19
Joe Gamaldi
And finally I was just like, is this really what I want for my life? I was also involved in an officer involved shooting, and that apartment didn't really support me. It was a clean shoot to the guy who shot at me. You know, he missed. I didn't recovered the guns, all that good stuff. And but, you know, in the end, I didn't feel very supported.
00:14:14:19 - 00:14:31:15
Joe Gamaldi
And of course, I wasn't making a lot of money in the cost of living went through the roof. So finally I was like, This is not really what I want. So I started looking around and different places you can live where the cost of living was a lot cheaper. My brother had lived in Houston at the time for about eight years, so I decided, Well, let me just see what I can get for the money.
00:14:31:17 - 00:14:47:16
Joe Gamaldi
So I went and visited and he showed me like model homes and I was like, Oh my God, like, these are so cheap, like cost of living. She Where do I sign? Yeah. And at the time, this was 15 years ago because I've been with HPD now over 15 years and they were hiring, like, big time, like hiring a kid.
00:14:47:20 - 00:15:05:05
Joe Gamaldi
So I just cold called them. It was like, Hey, do you have a test coming up? They're like, Can you come down right now? And I was like, Well, okay. And I went down there. They process me within a few days, had me come back a couple of months later. I mean, I was hired within like three months and and I joined the Houston Police Department.
00:15:05:07 - 00:15:22:23
Joe Gamaldi
I did patrol, you know, I did my patrol time in the NYPD, and then I did five years patrol in HPD, five or six years. And then I what really changed kind of my career trajectory there for a while was I had a man that I met who is my mentor in life. He's like a father to me.
00:15:22:23 - 00:15:38:07
Joe Gamaldi
Ray Horn, who is the president of the union. He gave a presentation at the academy where he was talking about different union things. And I was in the academy at the time, and I asked him a bunch of questions, like hammering him with questions. And he was like, What is your name? You know? And he called me like two years later.
00:15:38:07 - 00:15:52:08
Joe Gamaldi
It was like, would you like to be on our bargaining team? And I was like, Sure. And he said, We want you to represent the interests of younger officers. Then when that was done, he said, you should really run for a board position. I'm like, Oh, I'm not really involved. I'm not really interested in getting involved in union stuff.
00:15:52:10 - 00:15:58:02
Joe Gamaldi
And he looked me dead in the eyes and he goes, How do you expect anything to get better unless you get involved?
00:15:58:04 - 00:15:58:18
Wayne Mulder
Yeah.
00:15:58:20 - 00:16:16:23
Joe Gamaldi
And that was kind of like a slap in the face, you know. So shortly thereafter I got on the board. I became a board member shortly after that, I ran for second vice president of our local lodge, which I won. I was able to study under Reagan for a number of years. I then became the president of the local union.
00:16:16:23 - 00:16:40:24
Joe Gamaldi
I did that for three years and while I was president, the opportunity to run for national vice president, the FP came across and at first it wasn't even on my radar. It wasn't even something I was interested in. I was busy doing the local things. But when there was an opportunity and a lot of people reached out to me and said, Listen, we think this is just the right moment for you and your particular brand to kind of grab this by the by the reins and we think you should do it.
00:16:41:01 - 00:16:44:14
Joe Gamaldi
So decided to jump in and I won that and the rest is history.
00:16:44:16 - 00:17:04:22
Wayne Mulder
That's awesome. Just because it may interest the listener. It some of the reading I was doing in prep for this, it look like you also were able to when you came in that position do some things that may have even been considered cutting edge at the time, like developing an app and that kind of thing. Was that some of the things you were involved in on the front end when you got into that position?
00:17:04:24 - 00:17:25:20
Joe Gamaldi
Yeah. So you know, locally it was developing an app and also just developing a robust social media platform because I think people forget years ago police unions weren't exactly all over social media defending cops and making sure that our message were getting out there and we were kind of on the front end of that. And we developed a very big social media following locally.
00:17:25:20 - 00:17:43:11
Joe Gamaldi
Thanks to a great team that we had in place there that did a great job and I wanted to make sure and push and take that nationally as well. We also started in my time at the local unit, a complete standalone nonprofit that specialized in peer support for police officers. So we were kind of on the front end of a lot of that stuff locally and then nationally.
00:17:43:11 - 00:18:10:20
Joe Gamaldi
I just did the same thing. We made sure we hammered out an app for our people and we made sure to take on a robust social media platform where we made sure that we had a hammer. So any time that politicians or activists or anybody else or in the media themselves were bashing cops and engaging in inflammatory rhetoric, you know, just trying to de-legitimize us and demonize us, that we had a voice large enough to fight back.
00:18:11:01 - 00:18:30:03
Joe Gamaldi
And that's what we were missing for a long period of time in law enforcement. We weren't fighting back because we just believed in the old times, Well, this will pass. You know, this is going to blow over and we don't need that. We just got to keep our heads down. No, the media landscape changed and we needed to be out there fighting and telling our side of the story because we know damn sure the media ain't going to do us any favors.
00:18:30:08 - 00:18:53:09
Joe Gamaldi
There are some in media who still have integrity and will do a good job, but most are just looking for clickbait headlines and they're more than willing to throw some cops under the bus to get it. So we need to make sure that we were out there fighting for law enforcement every single day. And I'm proud of what we've done at the national level, because now you've even seen that politicians and activists are much more measured, sometimes with their words.
00:18:53:09 - 00:19:03:02
Joe Gamaldi
Now, to just bash cops because they know we're going to come out and we're going to fight and we're going to make a fool out of you, you better make sure you have your facts and you're coming correct or we're coming for you.
00:19:03:04 - 00:19:28:07
Wayne Mulder
Yeah. No, I think that's awesome. And I think it's something that is lacking. And I think it also draws people because right now one of the things we don't have and specifically on the pro law enforcement side of the political aisle, if you would, is having people who are willing to stand up and much like what you just said, in fact, I've read obviously you get a little bit of negative press also.
00:19:28:09 - 00:19:48:00
Wayne Mulder
And that's good, right? Because if you're not getting negative press, that means you're not saying anything important. So that's actually really good, in my opinion. So how do we encourage more people to stand up? Because I go to this with two different sides, right? So you have the flip side, which obviously is a large union. So there's some power there in numbers.
00:19:48:06 - 00:20:07:02
Wayne Mulder
And you can speak on behalf of that union, which is different in some ways than the individual officer. And when individual officers stand up to whether it's overreach from local governments, as we saw a couple of years ago or, you know, all sorts of things that are going on in this completely crazy society, we can get more into.
00:20:07:04 - 00:20:18:02
Wayne Mulder
What do you say that individual officer? Because a lot of them, obviously, and even me with this platform are leery to say anything because it could literally mean their job. It could literally mean all sorts of negative pushback.
00:20:18:04 - 00:20:38:11
Joe Gamaldi
Sure. There's certainly a risk associated with it. You know, what I like to tell people is like, it may not be that you individually have to speak up, but you need to be involved in your local lodge, in your local union, and you need to make sure that the leaders that you're electing are representing you well and stepping out there and making sure that you all have a strong, imposing voice.
00:20:38:12 - 00:20:55:23
Joe Gamaldi
All the nonsense that goes on like that is your job as an individual officer to make sure, because all of us are, you know, willing to just sit and chat rooms and argue with people or they keep their heads down or they don't want to block walk when there's a political candidate that we should be supporting, like there's all these different things that you could be doing.
00:20:55:23 - 00:21:12:16
Joe Gamaldi
But if to the individual officer who may say, Hey, I want to be the one speaking out, well, guess what? Get on your local board, run for an election, run for a position. Don't just talk about it. Be about it, because so many times everybody's got the best ideas, but they don't want to get involved and do any of the work to make those ideas a reality.
00:21:12:18 - 00:21:30:24
Joe Gamaldi
And you know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions that people have for things. You know what I mean? Just go ahead and get out there and do something. But there is a component to this that you kind of brought up that's important, too. And like police chiefs need to step up. Like, where are they exactly?
00:21:31:01 - 00:21:47:19
Joe Gamaldi
There are some police chiefs, don't get me wrong. And should Garcia in Dallas do a great job, But they need to be stepping up. And I understand, you know, a lot of these guys work their whole careers to get to this position and they don't want to be controversial. Okay, fine. Let's say I give them that. Okay. You don't want to be controversial.
00:21:47:19 - 00:22:11:11
Joe Gamaldi
Fine. Okay. I can I can I don't necessarily agree, but I can give them that point. Why aren't you speaking out about the violence against law enforcement in this country? Why isn't every police chief starting every press conference talking about how the fact already this year we've had over 150 police officers shot in this country, chiefs even know that, number one.
00:22:11:13 - 00:22:40:11
Joe Gamaldi
Number two, why aren't we talking about the fact that last year we had over 330 police officers shot? The year before, we had over 340 police officers shot. These are historic numbers, the likes we haven't seen since we started tracking this data almost a decade ago. And yet they do not talk about it. This is a gimme that you can be talking about and messaging to the press every single day about the violence against law enforcement, about the dangers that our police officers are facing every single day.
00:22:40:13 - 00:22:58:21
Joe Gamaldi
And let's be real. You know this The only reason we don't have more dead cops is because technology has gotten better. The medical profession has gotten better. We're all carrying tourniquets. We're doing a better job with treatment. That's the only reason we are adding more names to our law enforcement, more. So I think there is a definite gap.
00:22:58:23 - 00:23:20:17
Joe Gamaldi
It is incumbent upon every person who is a leader within law enforcement, that's police chiefs, that union leaders, whoever it may be, if you fashion yourself a leader in law enforcement, you are remiss in your duties if you are not talking about the violence against us. I'm sorry. That is that is building block number one that you must be doing.
00:23:20:19 - 00:23:42:21
Wayne Mulder
Yeah. No, I that is powerful, Joe. I think that is such an important. We really have cowardice. Like there's no other word for it, right? Like there whether we're talking in the political side or we're talking some of these leaders of agencies, It is a level of cowardice where we're not even willing to stand up. But then the other side, if I may, that is so shocking to me.
00:23:42:21 - 00:24:15:08
Wayne Mulder
You actually had on your Twitter a couple individuals that called themselves the squad in their recent vote where they were talking about this was simply honoring officers killed in the line of duty. So exactly what you're talking about. And yet we have people in this country that are literally being we have these people who have leaders, a term I'm using loosely in Congress, representing them that voted nay to that resolution.
00:24:15:10 - 00:24:19:06
Wayne Mulder
How do you fix that? I mean, this is a societal issue as well.
00:24:19:08 - 00:24:46:02
Joe Gamaldi
You know, this is them not voting for it is absolutely despicable. Yes. That this is happening in our country right now. It's absolutely despicable. And and, you know, it's funny because Cori Bush had a missouri who represents Saint Louis, who led the nation in murders per capita in 2020. But she wants to defund the police. I mean, people are dying in her community, but she wants to defund the police.
00:24:46:07 - 00:25:10:08
Joe Gamaldi
You know what's interesting about her? Do you know that she has a private security detail that she pays? You know, who is the highest paid of that private security detail? Her husband. So, of course, there's no corruption going on there. None. And let's make sure I'm protecting me because I'm important, but not the community. I sure that's the type of people we're dealing with.
00:25:10:13 - 00:25:27:10
Joe Gamaldi
And here's where we have a problem is that every other Democrat should have treated them as a pariah and said, You're wrong for this. You should not be doing this, and they should have put them on blast for it. And said this is absolutely not acceptable. Let's not worry about. But, you.
00:25:27:12 - 00:25:32:11
Wayne Mulder
Know, in fact, they got fairly positive coverage on it from most media.
00:25:32:13 - 00:26:01:08
Joe Gamaldi
They were. Yeah. And are we really we're really in a place now where it's such a stain on society that we can't honor dead cops. I mean, are you are you kidding me? Yeah. This is reminiscent of, you know, troops coming home from Vietnam and people spitting on them and assaulting them like, you know, come on. At the very least, you could honor the sacrifices of police officers and their families.
00:26:01:14 - 00:26:23:08
Joe Gamaldi
But you know what? It really boils down to? For them, it is ideology over everything. So I have to fit myself into this far left box. And I cannot step out of it. Instead of just having a little bit of human decency and supporting cops that have given their lives in service to their communities and their countries, it's disgusting.
00:26:23:10 - 00:26:44:13
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, it absolutely is. And one of the things I love is how forcefully you're talking about this. One thing you had said and I thought this was very eye opening and I couldn't agree more, but I want to go somewhere with it is the statement, quote, They burned down the institution of policing and now we are living in the ashes and quote, so what do we do living in the ashes?
00:26:44:13 - 00:27:04:15
Wayne Mulder
Right. So we're this leads is and you've hit on this before. And I'm kind of curious. I want to dig a little deeper into it because obviously this podcast is speaking primarily to law enforcement. So the majority of our listenership are active duty law enforcement, a lot of retirees as well, but primarily active duty law enforcement. So we're running into two issues, as I see it.
00:27:04:15 - 00:27:27:18
Wayne Mulder
One is and I know you know the statistics when it comes to the recruiting issues we're having across this country of getting people into these agencies. And then my fear is who and this is kind of the second part of the question, if you would, is the people word then attracting to the profession since a lot of people don't want the job, it scares me who does.
00:27:27:20 - 00:27:35:17
Wayne Mulder
Yes. And so that that is kind of my two pronged question for you. What do we do? Like, what do we do as we're living in the ashes, as you say?
00:27:35:19 - 00:27:57:20
Joe Gamaldi
So, you know, retirements are up 45% nationwide. Resignations are up over 20%. Applications for the New Jersey state troopers are down 90%. Applications for the Chicago Police Department are down 83%. Illinois police application is down 70%. 70% of ages. Agencies in Colorado say they can't fill there, can't get anybody to take the job. The list goes on and on.
00:27:57:21 - 00:28:01:11
Joe Gamaldi
I'm just giving you a snapshot, but it's across country. Everybody's dealing with it, right?
00:28:01:17 - 00:28:02:18
Wayne Mulder
Yeah.
00:28:02:20 - 00:28:26:15
Joe Gamaldi
So as a result in this, there's only a few things that communities can do. So number one is lowering standards. Now, we're already seeing this. We're seeing them taking people that have multiple criminal convictions. We are seeing physical fitness standards lower. We're seeing drug standards change. So they're clearly lowering standards, right, to get more people to the door.
00:28:26:15 - 00:28:44:09
Joe Gamaldi
So that's number one. Number two is they cut services to their community. Now, they're not cutting the taxes that their people are paying, but they are cutting the services. And that's not fair to the taxpayers because we just don't have enough people to fill the job. But, you know, they don't cut the citizens taxes when they don't have enough cops.
00:28:44:11 - 00:29:18:15
Joe Gamaldi
So they're basically saying, you know, unless it's a high priority, call it a lot of community are coming out. Property crimes, fill out an application online, you know, fill out a report online. Is that really fair to them? I don't think so. There is a certain level of service that they're expecting or they're keeping these levels in place and you're digging a hole underneath us before we even get to a call, because you have people that have been waiting five, 6 hours on the worst day of their life when their home is burglarized, who are they pissed that they're pissed at the cops when they shouldn't be pissed at the politicians who've been thrown under
00:29:18:15 - 00:29:43:14
Joe Gamaldi
the bus for years and the media. And that's why cops will be willing to take the job, which is why we're shorthanded. All right. So all of those things are at play. So now we have departments and municipalities, counties accepting people who otherwise just a few years ago would not have been qualified to be a police officer. And we are going to reap what we showed as a country in a few years.
00:29:43:14 - 00:30:02:20
Joe Gamaldi
When you're seeing issues of corruption or use of force or the quality of policing has gone down, they're going to continue to hammer us and say, we always told you cops were terrible. We've been saying for years when really they've just set us up for failure because we're taking people that we shouldn't have taken in the first place.
00:30:02:22 - 00:30:29:11
Joe Gamaldi
So essentially what they've done is they made our profession toxic to where nobody wants to do it. The quality of our applicants have gone down because smart people are weighing the options and saying, well, screw this, I want to be a cop anymore. And you can forget legacy because all of us who are police officers right now are telling our kids, you can literally do any job in the world, but police work because we don't want to see our kids going through what we've all had to go through over the last few years.
00:30:29:13 - 00:30:51:17
Joe Gamaldi
So that's those are really the problems we're facing. But this has been a several year march to get to this point, and it has just all come to a head and we are in crisis mode. I don't think it's hyperbole when I say when you cannot fill the positions that are out there, you cannot get people through the door.
00:30:51:19 - 00:31:13:03
Joe Gamaldi
Our profession is slowly dying and the only thing that's going to turn it around well, and let me give you credit to all of us, the 750,000 of us that are still out there putting the uniform on every single day and going out there and putting our lives on the line, we are a testament to resiliency and in the face of adversity, still doing our job.
00:31:13:08 - 00:31:43:20
Joe Gamaldi
And that is like the beacon of hope that we still have is that we're still out there, we're still protecting our communities. We're still doing a damn good job with less resources. But what's going to turn it around is public sentiment needs to shift rapidly in how we view police officers. The silent majority needs to speak up. We know that they mostly support us, but they need to speak up at the ballot box and essentially, if you don't support police officers, you should not have a place in politics.
00:31:44:01 - 00:32:05:13
Joe Gamaldi
And I don't mean saying that, oh, you're not allowed to criticize cops. Joe just wants us to always agree with everything. No. When we do our job by policy training and the law, you back us. And if we step out of line, I'll be the first to say we need to be held accountable. That's what every politician should be saying.
00:32:05:15 - 00:32:24:09
Wayne Mulder
Amen. Yeah, that's really all I can say to that one. Joe, I agree with you 100%. And I love how you because, yeah, there's so much going on. It's even hard to quantify that. But like, we could talk forever with all the problems. But I like how you say the solution is the people who are doing this job and then trying to change public sentiment.
00:32:24:12 - 00:32:39:17
Wayne Mulder
I do want to ask this. This was something I debated on even bringing up. But since you brought it up, I'm going to. Do you believe the silent majority exist? I just have to ask because that was what I always heard, right? Like every person with an hour after their name was going to come along some day and save us.
00:32:39:21 - 00:32:53:14
Wayne Mulder
And we've seen recently that just because you have an R or a D doesn't mean you're necessarily for the people on either side. So I'm just kind of curious, do you really believe the so-called silent majority actually exist?
00:32:53:16 - 00:33:08:18
Joe Gamaldi
I absolutely believe the silent majority exists, but I don't necessarily believe that they just have an R at the end of the name. I think there's a lot of these at the end of the name, too. I think that there is 80% of us in this country who live our lives in the middle. And there's a lot that are center right, there's a lot that are center left.
00:33:08:22 - 00:33:25:13
Joe Gamaldi
And then there's the that the 10% on each side, right. That are the radicals because I'm old enough to remember that Republicans wanted to take our pensions away just a short period of time ago. Right. And they would pat us on the back and show up at our funeral and then want to stamp us in the back and take our pensions away.
00:33:25:17 - 00:33:46:19
Joe Gamaldi
So I'm old enough to remember those things, too. Yes. I'm also old enough to remember that right now the Republicans control the House of Representatives and haven't passed to protect and serve. AG That would make it a federal crime to knowingly assault the police officer so maybe they could get off their ass and get that passed. So, yes, that's just I just point that out that there's there's equal opportunity blame on both sides.
00:33:47:00 - 00:34:05:20
Joe Gamaldi
And of course, you know, the Democrat Party and the far left is the party of defund the police and completely do away with policing. So, you know, we get it from both sides. Yes. But what I'm saying is there is an 80% in the middle. And I believe that the center right in the center left, they both support police officers.
00:34:05:22 - 00:34:22:03
Joe Gamaldi
They want safe communities. They want their kids to go to school and be able to walk them to school. They want to be able to go to a grocery store that doesn't look like a military installation and they just want to live their lives. But, you know, and I hear from people, well, why don't they show up at the ballot box?
00:34:22:03 - 00:34:47:14
Joe Gamaldi
So why don't they come out and rally for us? Because they're busy, Because they have lives. Because you know what? They're not really worried about their local D.A. race. They're worried about getting their kids soccer practice that night. They're worried about getting their kids swimming practice to worried about that big project they've got do the work they're worried about and paying their mortgage at the end of the month or why groceries may be more expensive right now.
00:34:47:15 - 00:35:09:13
Joe Gamaldi
So their kids may be on the national political scene, but they're not keyed in on what's going on locally. And we know as cops that all politics are local and that the biggest impact you can possibly have is voting in inner city council elections, your school board, Election Day elections, etc., etc., judges, everything else. And I just think the silent majority is busy.
00:35:09:15 - 00:35:46:16
Joe Gamaldi
They're not going to come out and hold a rally to support cops every week and they've got their own lives. And so but I think you see it every day when you're out there, if you guys are wearing a uniform and patrolling the you get the thank you's, you get somebody buys your coffee, buys you lunch, all these different think has their kid come up to you and say hello, not in the he's going to take you to jail saying you need more of a that's a police officer if you need help they're out there and I think are as a police officer, our vision also gets skewed because we don't interact with the silent
00:35:46:16 - 00:36:21:19
Joe Gamaldi
majority all that much on calls for service. We are not necessarily dealing with the silent majority. We're dealing with the people that need help in their worst moment. And that's not always the best type of people. Leave it. A lot of criminals call the police. That's an interesting point that I want to make to you know what I love about the whole, like, Black Lives Matter thing and how they try to paint us as these horrible people and that the black community is so scared of us, so scared they bully.
00:36:21:19 - 00:36:47:00
Joe Gamaldi
And society as a whole is scared of us. Right. Right. Because we're just these horrible people who just murder people indiscriminately. Yet still people are calling the police that historic numbers. And we get the most calls in minority communities. That's just statistically right. So if they were so scared of us and believe that we were all murderers, why are you still calling the police?
00:36:47:02 - 00:37:06:17
Joe Gamaldi
Yeah. Somebody answer me that question. Well, if you really believe that we were coming to murder, and I'll give you a perfect example. There was a video that we posted the other day on a an on Twitter and Instagram, and I encourage people to go look at it. There is a group of NYPD officers walking, and I think they're monitoring a protest or whatever it is, may have a deal with that subway deal.
00:37:06:19 - 00:37:28:00
Joe Gamaldi
And there is a Black Lives Matter activist who is black screaming in this Officer Chase. I mean, he's like this close, using the most horrific language you've ever heard in your life. If you really thought we were murderers, do you think that gentleman or gentleman, do you think that asshole would feel comfortable talking to the police officer like that?
00:37:28:04 - 00:37:48:06
Joe Gamaldi
Of course not. Fine. Give me a break. And that's that's another thing, too. You know, Black Lives Matter has lost all credibility. And they they have stayed silent. While the black homicide rate has now risen. Black males are 12 times more likely to be murdered in this country than any other race. You hear nothing from Black Lives Matter.
00:37:48:11 - 00:38:09:03
Joe Gamaldi
You hear nothing about the revolving door criminal justice policy that is pushing all of this. You're nothing from that. Well, you do hear is in the news about how they misappropriated funds, about how they were building real estate empires. Their story just I won't bore you with the details. Just go Google it, folks. They're funding in 2022 is down 88%.
00:38:09:07 - 00:38:29:22
Joe Gamaldi
Let me say that again. Their funding is down 88%. And it's thanks to people like us at the national level and a lot of other media outlets who are willing to cover the corruption that you saw and willing to call out there have policy for not supporting the black community because, you know, there is a group of people in this country who really cares about the black community.
00:38:29:22 - 00:38:42:03
Joe Gamaldi
And we're in their communities every single day, and we care about protecting them and we care about the prosperity of them and their families. And you know who it is? It's police officers. We're the ones that care because we're there every day.
00:38:42:05 - 00:39:01:16
Wayne Mulder
I couldn't say it better myself, Joe. That is that is exactly it. In fact, it kind of leads into something else I was going to mention. So I'll kind of open that door right here because you hit it nail on the head. You talk about Black Lives Matter, which besides the corruption and misappropriation and everything else, really is a marxist organization.
00:39:01:16 - 00:39:19:03
Wayne Mulder
And I can establish that from just go to Wayback Machine and pull up their original websites and the listeners can do that on their own if you don't want to take my word for it. But there are so many people trying to divide this country, divide it by race, divide it by class. All these things that never existed in mass are now existing.
00:39:19:05 - 00:39:37:06
Wayne Mulder
So one thing in the conversation we've had is we have a danger of kind of creating an us versus them mentality. What can we do to avoid that? What should law enforcement officers be careful because it really isn't. And I think it piggybacks well on everything you've just said, that it isn't us versus them.
00:39:37:08 - 00:39:53:17
Joe Gamaldi
Yeah, I think as law enforcement, we really need to never miss an opportunity to talk to our community and like connect with them. And I don't necessarily mean like coffee with a cop or like dancing on TikTok, Like those are all fine things. Like, I'm not criticizing. I'm just.
00:39:53:19 - 00:39:55:21
Wayne Mulder
Yeah.
00:39:55:23 - 00:40:14:15
Joe Gamaldi
But I think you get more out of it. Like when you when you're on patrol and and, you know, I was on patrol for a long time. I just got done being a patrol sergeant. You have all these opportunities to interact with the public. And I think too often and I'm not criticizing us, we just kind of want we want to stay in our bubble, right?
00:40:14:15 - 00:40:27:21
Joe Gamaldi
We don't want to talk to anybody. I just get my coffee and let me walk out the door. I don't need to interact or, you know, let me just eat as quickly as possible. And I know we hate the interruption when you're just sitting down in your meal and the random person walks over like, Can I ask you a question?
00:40:27:21 - 00:40:45:23
Joe Gamaldi
Like, I get it. But those are all little opportunities. Those are all little opportunities. Like to smile at the person, at the coffee shop that's making your coffee and make little chitchat. And like, I know there's some cops that are watching right now like, Oh, screw that, I don't need to do that. And I'm like, You don't. You're right.
00:40:46:00 - 00:41:11:06
Joe Gamaldi
You don't. But do we want to turn this around? Do we want to make it better for all of us? Do we want to make it better for our relationships in the community? Do we want to make it better for the next generation of cops? I know this isn't our fault. I know that we've done a fantastic job and we continue to go out there every day, but we can just sit there and say, This isn't our fault and everybody should just come around or I'm more personal.
00:41:11:08 - 00:41:34:17
Joe Gamaldi
Let's take some action and do something on our part. So take opportunities, try to be friendly, carry the stickers in your pocket to give it to the kids. Take that extra step. I know you're tired. I know you're overworked. I know you've just seen the worst in humanity, but these are little things we can do to try to turn stuff around and just make sure you're just respectful with the people that you should be treating.
00:41:34:17 - 00:41:56:18
Joe Gamaldi
People respectfully. And I'm not saying you got to be, you know, compromise officer safety or you got to be talking nice to criminals. That's not what I'm saying. But we all know that after a long day of running 14 calls and seeing that two dead bodies and then you run into the 18 year old girl who got into a car accident and she's crying and it's the worst day of her life.
00:41:56:20 - 00:42:16:13
Joe Gamaldi
You want to say hi, let me get the information. Come on. I want to talk at this point, I want to get off on time. Like that's the worst day of her life. Yeah, worst thing that's ever happened to her. She's going to have this memory forever so she can remember the cop that rushed her through, was short with her, was rude, and was just trying to get it done.
00:42:16:19 - 00:42:33:03
Joe Gamaldi
Or maybe just take like an extra, like, 10 seconds. Just like, so sorry this happened to you. I got to get this information. And I'm telling you, there is a group that are watching this right now, like, Oh, screw Joe for saying this to us. Oh, yeah. Oh, what I've been through during a shift. I get all of it.
00:42:33:03 - 00:42:44:24
Joe Gamaldi
I've been there. I know. I'm just saying that these are opportunities. If you want to take them as an individual officer to just try to make things a little bit better.
00:42:45:01 - 00:42:58:20
Wayne Mulder
You are absolutely right, Joe. In fact, I call them when I'm training a new individuals are coming to the force. I call them gas pump conversations because I don't know how many times just that smile and that, hey, how are you doing today? I mean, I don't need to sit there and talk to her for an hour now.
00:42:58:20 - 00:43:20:16
Wayne Mulder
Sometimes it may become a five or ten minute conversation because we just know there are those people. They're going to talk our ear off. They're kind of like, all right, I go, let me get to my car here. But that's just part of it, right? But the positive impact that that has and the dichotomy of that is what brought me to one of the many things that brought me to law enforcement was, see, it was interaction as my family had had when I was growing up.
00:43:20:16 - 00:43:31:16
Wayne Mulder
And I saw some of those officers that didn't understand the human side of the business and quite frankly, were kind of jerks in those moments. And it had a lot to do with why I do what I do.
00:43:31:18 - 00:43:48:19
Joe Gamaldi
And the great part is you can do it in your own way. You know what I mean? You can do it however it fits into your daily thing. It doesn't have to be the organized community affairs thing that your department is doing. It's just if that day you feel like chitchat with people, do it. You know what I mean?
00:43:48:19 - 00:44:10:12
Joe Gamaldi
Just take the extra step. I find it pretty rewarding when I interact with the community for the most part. Now I will say that I am in Houston, where the overwhelming majority of folks really do support cops here. I'm not saying that's the same for everybody's neighborhood, but I'm just saying that for the most part, I hope it always ends up being a positive and maybe a win over that one person.
00:44:10:14 - 00:44:29:13
Wayne Mulder
Absolutely. And my heart goes out to those ones that are I'm in the free state of Florida. My experiences here are not the same as everybody else's. I was very fortunate through the reaction to the pandemic, as well as everything sense. That's just been I'm very blessed and I understand that isn't the same for our brothers and sisters across this nation in certain areas.
00:44:29:13 - 00:44:55:19
Wayne Mulder
But I do think these little things, at the end of the day, we're all human, right? So I do think these little things that you're mentioning are so powerful. I want to switch gears real quick. Obviously, you shift commander, you national vice president of the FOP. You've got a lot going on. And there's a tendency when we have a lot going on, especially you hear these, you know, day one of the academy, everyone in this room is going to be divorced, you know, that kind of thing, which maybe it's true, but hopefully not.
00:44:55:19 - 00:45:11:23
Wayne Mulder
Right. So there's always a struggle between balancing the profession and balancing other goals. We may have, like running podcast or being national vice president. And then what is really important, which is that home life or whatever it is that centers us. Can you speak a little bit to that?
00:45:12:00 - 00:45:44:07
Joe Gamaldi
Yeah. So as you you know, for younger officers that are watching, like as you go through your career and you have a family and everything else, it is very important to remember what gives you the most joy. And ultimately when you when you put pen to paper, what is the most important to you and then design your time and and where you spend it accordingly.
00:45:44:09 - 00:46:07:07
Joe Gamaldi
Another thing too, for those that are like up and coming and ambitious and I made this mistake for a very long time and I've learned that over the last few years. You have to learn how to say no. It is so hard when you're starting out. You want to say yes to every new assignment or promotion, or they need this project done, they need this done, they need that done.
00:46:07:09 - 00:46:28:05
Joe Gamaldi
And you will just stretch yourself so thin to try to please everyone, which, by the way, you won't. There will always be somebody that won't be happy with what you're doing. It doesn't matter how good you are. So get that out of your head to learn to say no. Learn to prioritize your time. Learn to make sure that there are certain things that you will not compromise on.
00:46:28:05 - 00:46:58:10
Joe Gamaldi
Meaning, like for me, one of the things is like my daughter's swim meets. My daughters are competitive swimmers and I will not miss. I don't care what's going on. I don't care what's going on in the world. I'm not missing. And I'm happy to say I've only missed two one. I had COVID, which it is what it is, and the other was for the National Police Memorial in Washington, D.C. And every other time I've had to say no to state conferences, I've had to say no to this.
00:46:58:14 - 00:47:25:17
Joe Gamaldi
And people are going to get upset with you. They really are. And, you know, don't take it the wrong way. It's just because they want year round. They want you to be a part of whatever they're doing. But you have to prioritize what is important. And, you know, as far as a cop's got the highest divorce rate and you're all going to be divorced, whatever, like you just need to decide what is important to you and where you want to spend your time.
00:47:25:19 - 00:47:46:10
Joe Gamaldi
And there's other sacrifices that go along with that. So you may sacrifice time with your friends that you can hang out with them as much as you like. What I would say, though, is don't sacrifice your own health. And I mean, make sure you're still working out. Make sure that you're doing proper nutrition. Try to get enough sleep.
00:47:46:10 - 00:48:12:24
Joe Gamaldi
That is something that I am very big salt of is that I tend to cut down my sleep to make sure everything else fits. And and obviously like we talked about, I then supplement with caffeine. But you need to take care of yourself because the empty well gives no water and and just think of the time that you're putting into your working out and your nutrition is buying you years on the back end that you'll get to spend with your family as well.
00:48:13:05 - 00:48:34:17
Joe Gamaldi
So it's just like long term investing, but you have to find that balance. I wasn't always so good at it, you know, when I was younger, probably like my late twenties, early thirties. You just your ambition is driving you and you just want to achieve the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and it's okay.
00:48:34:17 - 00:48:53:04
Joe Gamaldi
At some point you just say, I'm happy where I am and I don't need the next thing. The next thing may not make you happy. And then guess what? Then you need the next thing and the next and the next. At some point, stop and say, Am I happy right here? Have I achieved what I wanted to achieve?
00:48:53:06 - 00:49:17:11
Joe Gamaldi
And is my drive still consistent with how I want to spend my time? And especially for those of you with kids, just know you only get so many years of their undivided attention at your home, right? Because at 18 they're moving out. You know, they go to college and maybe they're never moving back in. So that is the most time you will ever spend with them.
00:49:17:13 - 00:49:28:01
Joe Gamaldi
And too many of us are working overtime and extra jobs and missing those moments. And then before you know it, they're grown up and off to college. And what the hell do you have to show for it?
00:49:28:03 - 00:49:48:14
Wayne Mulder
Yeah. Now there's so much wisdom in that. You're absolutely right. And even speaking from my own experience in my own things that I've been through in my career trajectory, both before law enforcement and after, I couldn't agree with you more. Let me just quickly, I want to play devil's advocate on something. And this may seem like an odd question, so I've got to give you a little context to it.
00:49:48:16 - 00:50:13:14
Wayne Mulder
Okay. So it's specifically about unions, right? So, as you know, my brother is quite actively involved in the FBI. That's how we get man. Well, thank you. I will do a shout out for him, but he's quite involved. I am a member of the FOP. I've got it primarily for the Legal Defense Fund. But let me tee up this question because I want you to speak to anyone listening who's been in New York, probably Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois.
00:50:13:16 - 00:50:32:10
Wayne Mulder
This isn't going to make sense, but I'm from Indiana originally and I'm currently in the state of Florida. First of all, here we have something called non binding arbitration. So it's essentially a gentleman's agreement on anything that is decided at a union level. I early on was a landscape contractor and was the only nonunion guy on a union job site.
00:50:32:10 - 00:50:49:15
Wayne Mulder
So they destroyed all my stuff. So I have always had a very negative opinions of unions. And then we also have the growth of what we're seeing with the teachers unions, which is essentially a propaganda machine that anyway, I'll just bite my tongue on that one. So we have that is kind of where I come from with this question.
00:50:49:15 - 00:51:16:00
Wayne Mulder
So obviously my brother's a great guy. You're obviously a great guy. A lot of good people involved in the OP. So speaking to those skeptics such as myself, because this is very true, how do you expect change anything if you don't get involved? Your mentor was absolutely right on. But then on the other side of that, you have people like me that are like, but unions, we have a very pro-union president lunchbox, Joe, that I don't 100% agree with anything when it comes to unions.
00:51:16:02 - 00:51:21:14
Wayne Mulder
So how do you how do you square that for someone like myself that may be a little skeptical. Who's listening to this?
00:51:21:16 - 00:51:46:20
Joe Gamaldi
Yeah, What I think I tell people about the importance of unions because I actually come from a like a very odd background where my one grandfather was like super duper union. He was in the Masons Union, laid brick his whole life and the union was able to provide a pension for him and all this other stuff. And my other grandpa was actually in the management side and owned businesses.
00:51:47:01 - 00:52:20:23
Joe Gamaldi
So these kind of things, we're just always butting heads, you know, family functions, everything. So I'm kind of like, understand all sides. But what I would tell people who are skeptics, and especially in law enforcement, especially if you trust politicians and the department to always do right by you and never be influenced by any other outside factors and just treat you the way that people should treat employees or man, you probably don't need a union.
00:52:21:00 - 00:52:50:14
Joe Gamaldi
You're probably good. I don't know a single member that works in apartment like that. Not one. I don't care if you work for the best police chief in the country. There are always politics involved. There is always the mayor's brother who got a ticket. There is always City council is upset about something. You need protection. And that's what the union provides because there is strength in numbers and their strength in unity.
00:52:50:16 - 00:53:18:11
Joe Gamaldi
So what I will tell people is you need to be involved in your local union. You need to be a member, because our job, not just for legal protection, but our job is become something totally different. Where in a moment time, even if you've done everything right, as I talked about earlier, policy training in the law, tomorrow, your whole world could come crashing down and you could be on the front page of every newspaper, on every single media outlet, every single news story will be about you.
00:53:18:15 - 00:53:43:18
Joe Gamaldi
And they will call for blood. They will tear your life apart. And if you don't have something, advocate someone advocating for you, a strong opposing voice who's going to put out the truth? Who is going to defend you, you're screwed. Yeah, period. End of story. You will not survive. So that is my case to people that you should be a part of that of of a police union.
00:53:43:18 - 00:54:09:21
Joe Gamaldi
Absolutely. You should be and you should be a part of the biggest and baddest and the number one voice for law enforcement in this entire country. The fraternal Order of Police. It's not even close. When they when we take media mentions of the other 11 groups combined, they only make up 50% of the media mentions we have. Last year we had over $31 million in free advertising on all the national networks because we're always on there.
00:54:09:23 - 00:54:16:21
Joe Gamaldi
The other groups combined only made up 20% of that. So if you're going to be a member of any group, you might as well be a part of the biggest, baddest.
00:54:16:23 - 00:54:35:20
Wayne Mulder
That's great. That's a great answer, Joe. And I certainly agree with what you're saying. And I too, I love how you intro that with if you trust your politicians and your agency to always have your back. If you trust any politicians right now, I have some concerns about you in general, so we'll just leave it at that. All right.
00:54:35:20 - 00:54:41:22
Wayne Mulder
So my two final question for you, because I want to respect your time, sir. What's next for you and your mission next?
00:54:41:22 - 00:55:04:00
Joe Gamaldi
For me and my mission. So I'm I'm up for reelection here in August. So I'm certainly hope that I will have the support of of the FOP members. You know, I feel like where we are right now as a profession is that over these last few years, we've really been in like a war time setting where we have had to fight back every single day.
00:55:04:02 - 00:55:34:23
Joe Gamaldi
What I would like to do is continue these strong opposing voice to the, you know, digital imaging, the demonizing police, police officers, but continue to like push a path forward and show all the great work that police officers are doing every day. Because I really do believe, as we talked about, that the silent majority supports us. We just need to keep pushing, but we need to always stay on guard because we are one in and away from being back in that wartime footing all over again.
00:55:35:02 - 00:55:54:07
Joe Gamaldi
And I don't want us to slide back. I want us to move forward because ultimately it's better for everyone when the community and politicians and the media support police officers. It's better for the cops because it makes it safer for us. You know, the less anti-police rhetoric, the less violence there is against us. We have statistical data to prove that the less crime there is.
00:55:54:13 - 00:56:18:06
Joe Gamaldi
The American police officer delivered historic crime reductions before this latest huge spike in crime, and it coincided with training cops like shit and the revolving door criminal justice system. So our country as a whole will be more harmonious and more safe if we support police officers in this country. And all you have to do is look at history to show us that.
00:56:18:08 - 00:56:21:08
Joe Gamaldi
So that is really what I would like to see going forward.
00:56:21:10 - 00:56:37:09
Wayne Mulder
I love that. That's a great answer. Let me ask you my final question. I ask everybody we've kind of touched on a few things that would qualify here, but this is kind of my question where we boil it all down. So what is the one thing or the one take away law enforcement officers can do that's going to make a difference in their personal lives?
00:56:37:11 - 00:56:42:07
Joe Gamaldi
The one takeaway that can make officers.
00:56:42:09 - 00:56:43:16
Wayne Mulder
A difference in their personal lives.
00:56:43:16 - 00:57:14:02
Joe Gamaldi
Difference in their personal lives, you know, own your shit, own your mistakes, like I talked about earlier, if you're wrong in minute and apologize people forget how powerful a real apology is and you need to take care of yourself, I don't just mean mental health because it is a big thing right now for law enforcement, obviously, and I don't want to talk about it too much, obviously, because we're getting to the talent.
00:57:14:04 - 00:57:36:02
Joe Gamaldi
Yeah, you need to take care of yourself. And I mean that physically. You need to make sure that you're you're working out, you're eating right. And I don't just mean for like officer safety, like fighting in the streets for your own mental health. You need to be doing these things because you have to be there for your families.
00:57:36:04 - 00:58:14:06
Joe Gamaldi
You have to be there for your coworkers. And what good is it to go through life miserable every single day? We know those guys and gals that we work with that show up to work every day and it's woe is me. This is terrible. That's terrible. It must be exhausting to be that negative. But it's because so many things are probably going wrong in their own life that they are that negative and they're either not seeing their role in that negativity, in those negative things that are happening, or they're not taking steps to change it.
00:58:14:08 - 00:58:37:01
Joe Gamaldi
So, you know, if somebody is negative and this is how what are you doing to change it if your life is bad right now, whatever it may be, whether it's work transferred to a different assignment, change departments, you're unhappy with your physical fitness level today. Start eating better. Start working out. If if you don't know how to get started.
00:58:37:01 - 00:59:00:07
Joe Gamaldi
Shit. Send me a message. I'll help you. But if something isn't going right, own your shit and take the steps necessary to change it and make it better. I'm not saying that my life is perfect or that everything's great, but if there's something that's going wrong, the first thing I want to do is what am I? What is my role in why it's going wrong?
00:59:00:09 - 00:59:15:13
Joe Gamaldi
And the next thing is how can I make it better? I may not be able to fix it 100% because not going to all walk through life when everything's perfect but take the steps necessary to change it instead of just complaining about it, Get off your ass. Do something about it.
00:59:15:15 - 00:59:29:20
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, that's great. It really is. That concept of accountability and just personal. Just being willing to take control, which is so lacking. So thank you so much. What is the best way for people to connect with you?
00:59:29:22 - 00:59:43:10
Joe Gamaldi
Our best thing is follow me on Twitter at show them all the Instagram and show them all can find me on Facebook as well. You know, if you any questions or anything, feel free to send me some a DM, whatever I'm here for whatever anybody needs.
00:59:43:12 - 00:59:48:05
Wayne Mulder
Perfect. Make sure all that is linked up in the show notes. Joe, thank you so much for coming on.
00:59:48:07 - 00:59:50:16
Joe Gamaldi
Thanks for having me on, man. It was a blast. Thanks.
00:59:50:18 - 01:00:08:10
Wayne Mulder
You're welcome. All right. So how was that for you? I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. Every episode has full show notes with all the links and pictures and a transcription of the episode is on the website at I'm the Blue line on on the blue line dot com.
01:00:08:12 - 01:00:25:11
Wayne Mulder
Just click the link below on whatever platform that you're watching or listening this to. You know, I'll take you straight to the website. That's all for today. Don't forget, I'm going to see you next Monday in the morning roll call and then next Thursday in the interview room. But in the meantime, I'm going to see you out there on the blue line.