Ask A Cop
Ask A Cop is live and unscripted. Each episode gives other officers and the community a window into a police officer's world and provides authentic community engagement with law enforcement professionals.Listeners can relate by asking questions, hearing some of their own struggles, and finding solutions. Despite preconceived notions, these men and women, who serve and protect, are approachable and eager to answer questions. This resource provides meaningful engagement for officers, their families, and the community. As chaplains, we have witnessed the immeasurable rewards of simply sitting down and having these positive conversations. Produced in partnership with Gods Way Radio.
Ask A Cop
026: Does the pain of losing your legendary dad and MPD motors officer ever go away?
Detective Matt Williams' journey in the Miami Police Department has been both inspiring and heartfelt. Imagine balancing a high-stakes career in law enforcement with family life, all while honoring the memory of a father who lost his life in the line of duty. That's the reality for Matt, whose story unfolds from his early days at the police academy to his roles in traffic enforcement and the Problem Solving Team in Brickell. With a nod to the leaders who shaped his career, we delve into the significance of having strong mentors and support in law enforcement.
Matt's deeply personal reflections on his father, Motors officer William Williams, offer a poignant look at the legacy of a fallen officer's son. This chapter of his life is a testament to resilience as he shares memories of his dad and the profound impact of his loss. It's a touching tribute that underscores the importance of family support and the balance between professional duties and personal responsibilities. Through peer support and honor guard services, Matt continues to honor his father's legacy, providing an emotional and moving narrative that resonates with anyone who has experienced loss.
Finally, the episode explores the broader issues of mental health and community support for first responders. We highlight the Never Walk Alone initiative. Matt's insights into PTSD awareness among officers are invaluable, emphasizing the need for seeking help and breaking down stigmas. The episode wraps up with heartfelt gratitude for first responders and practical advice on coping with loss, making it a must-listen for anyone invested in the well-being of those who serve and protect our communities.
Welcome to Ask a Cop. We're sitting down with members of law enforcement to have an authentic conversation aimed to give you a window into the lives of those men and women serving the community. You'll hear about how you can support us at the end of today's episode, but for now, get ready to Ask a Cop.
Speaker 2:Our guest today is Matt Williams, and we're happy for him to be here. And whoever said we were too serious, well, we just proved you wrong. We're having fun here today. We are going to cover some stuff. You know, there's a serious side to life. There's a fun side as well. But, matt, just want to allow you to introduce yourself, uh, where you're working. How long you've been there?
Speaker 3:if, uh, you want to take a moment, introduce yourself, shout out to your family, yeah yeah, uh, so, uh, my name is uh, detective matt williams, work for the city of miami police. I've been on for about eight and a half years. Uh, I have two beautiful kids. One is nine, one is two. I married my high school sweetheart. She is amazing. We've been together for 20 Valentine's Days now. I remember, because it was last Valentine's Day 13 married.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, happily married. What I do for work. I am currently assigned to the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit. Yeah. And I love what I do there. I'm blessed to be able to play with guns all day. I mean, what guy wouldn't want to play with guns all day? But unfortunately it's not like that I can play with them as far as shooting more than two rounds Gotcha, Because that's normally as many rounds as I would shoot through a crime gun. But you want me to walk you through that process of what I do do at work.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll get to it, We'll get to it. That's very interesting and we talked about it, right? I don't know how many people realize the different jobs and realms that there is in law enforcement, right? Maybe people listening think, well, police, you drive in a police car and give tickets and arrest people. Right, there's so much right from detective to crime scene to there's so much to do in the realm of policing.
Speaker 2:But, man, thank you, eight and a half years with Miami PD married your high school sweetheart. I mean, maybe that's something else we'll get to later, it's not something that we mentioned earlier, but to just kind of put it in the back of your mind, you know how, how can you sit here and say happily married after eight and a half years of police work? Because, as you probably know, I mean, it's tough on the marriage. You know the profession, but you could just keep that in the back of your mind for now. Profession, but you could just keep that in the back of your mind, uh, for now. Hey, I just want to just let you talk about your, your career, your job for a bit. Uh, you know, maybe walk us through. You know where you started. Uh, everybody starts in c-shift, you know.
Speaker 3:But uh, some of highlights from your career, what sections you've worked, units you've worked in okay, I'm actually lucky enough to say that I've never worked C-shift to like an assigned area, assigned shift. But yeah, you know, I went to the police academy in our academy. It's amazing, it's one of those where I even got the opportunity to teach in the academy for four and a half years. So that was a little out of order there. So I did the academy. I was in Coconut Grove for a little bit, my niche. There was traffic, so I was an aspiring motorman.
Speaker 3:I probably had about a thousand stops and I'm not even over exaggerating wow a thousand stops, a uh a month and uh, I probably wrote about 300 tickets. Now, the 300 tickets, it's probably the the same person getting one, two, three, four, five tickets and and definitely using my discretion, and most likely they deserved it if that makes sense without having to say much you know, yeah, um so uh, after coconut grove I went to the problem solving team in brickle. I was under uh sergeant valdez at the time, lieutenant val Valdez now. Yeah yeah, he's by far probably one of my favorite supervisors ever. Nice.
Speaker 3:And I make that joke with him. Every time I see him I'm like, hey, you know, my wife thinks that you're amazing and you're her favorite sergeant too, even though she's never worked. It must have been all the days off he gave me to go to Disney and stuff. I don't know.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, and you know it's funny because the wives probably see how a supervisor is treating their spouse, Because that spouse goes home. Yeah.
Speaker 5:And they're going to either have a good day and so the supervisors have so much. So I'm sure she noticed, maybe under certain leaderships, you know, under certain people oh man, I like that guy Matt's coming home happy, or maybe he just really likes that position. But you know, I'm sure she, the wives, get a lot of the brunt and they're forgotten a lot of times. But they get the brunt of what are, you know, the frustrations at work a lot of times.
Speaker 3:So yeah, well, I've been in some amazing units and hands down brickle pst uh is is probably the one for the books. That that's probably my, my favorite uh set of partners, if that makes sense. Not necessarily my my favorite role that I've done with the department, but definitely my my favorite set of partners where I still talk to each and every single one of them today, uh, in our, our group chat, and I don't think anyone, maybe a handful of people, still work there, but you know it's for those listening.
Speaker 5:You know they might not know what pst is and it's called different things in different departments. Um, just tell us what pst means so you're an officer, you're on the road, road, you're out with the public, because there's different right, there's investigators and different, but you're out in uniform. And what is that?
Speaker 3:So City of Miami has something called PST it's Problem Solving Team and it's a proactive unit. It's really reactive. You know, problems occur in a net area In this case it's Brickell and then we have to go out and we have to figure out how to solve that problem. So it might be homeless traffic. So they pulled me over to be their traffic guy because of my history of writing 300 tickets a month consistently. And it was one of those things where I said I do not want to deal with homeless, I don't want a smelly person in my police car. I, you know, don't want to have to interact with these people. And what ended up happening was, of course, they said no, no, no, all you're going to do is traffic. And then all of a sudden I come over. First day I'm dealing with homeless, you know.
Speaker 3:But that's that's actually one of the things that I think I've grown as a person and has helped me mature, because, uh, it's something I didn't want to do and I was. I was kind of forced to do it in that role. Um, I have helped a lot of people that want that wanted, excuse me, to be helped. You gave me. Not every single person wants to be helped, but it was, uh, instant gratification for those people that did say yes, uh, and for those people that did meet that criteria. Um, you know, you can't have, uh, an arrest record, you can't be a sexual offender. So for the people that I did help, it was instant gratification. It was, it was so rewarding you know that's awesome, so that's.
Speaker 3:that's more or less problem solved, did I?
Speaker 5:answer your question. Yeah, yeah, just for anyone listening, you're listening to God's Way Radio. The phone number, if you wanted to call or text us, is 786-313-3115. We're trying out Instagram Live through the Police and Fire Chaplain. So pfc underscore Miami If you wanted to go on, instagram had some technical issues so you can kind of hear us, but we just wanted to give the opportunity through different formats to listen. If you're on your phone and you want to hear it even clearer, download the God's Way Radio app on your phone and you can hear this conversation real clear. But we're thankful. We're thankful to have you, matt, um. You, you know well, joey has a lot of the uh of the direction we're going to take here. But I just want to jump in. You know, um, there's something about walking a half marathon, you know, and I wasn't running, but walking a half marathon with someone. You, you see different aspects of people, so, man, I didn't hear one complain. You look like you.
Speaker 3:You do this for fun yeah, actually I do that was uh number 44 at the time and I completed one shortly after. So 45 half marathons that I've completed, yeah well, adrian, you want to ask him more.
Speaker 2:Talk about the half marathon or the never walk alone.
Speaker 5:I was just talking so that I could give you time to take this conversation All right. You're really good at this, Joey.
Speaker 2:Well, like Adrian said, if you have a question for Detective Matt, if you want to just say thank you and encouragement, if you want to call, if you want to text, that phone number again is 786-313-3115. And if you're listening to the podcast, unfortunately you know who you are. If you're not listening live, you're listening to the recording you can always use that phone number to reach out and we'll still love to hear from you. So yeah, matt, getting back to what you've done, you you told us a little bit about your career, your your time in motors, ps no, no, never did motors oh I I misheard the the tickets aspiring motors aspiring
Speaker 2:that was my, my plan gotcha was to go to motors gotcha see, there you go, it was a family member who was in motors right so, um, you know, I honestly, man, I was, I was kind of dancing around it. You know I was thinking, man, what can we talk about? You know, before we get to the heavy stuff, but it's interesting, you know that I didn't catch that right Aspiring motors. Right, you wanted to be in motors and that's significant. And so here we are. I think a lot of people are going to be fortunate to hear your story and we know it's going to be tough. We talked about it, but your dad was a City of Miami police officer.
Speaker 7:Yep.
Speaker 2:And do you remember? When I mean since you were born, I mean your whole life. He was a cop.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was with the City of Miami for over 20 years. Awesome, Awesome yeah and then he subsequently passed away in the line of duty in 2000.
Speaker 2:In the line of duty and you know, if you know Officer Willie Williams, right? If that name rings a bell, well, this is Officer Willie Williams' son here with us, and it was in an escort, correct? In a funeral escort, struck by a motor vehicle on his motorcycle, serving our community and doing motors. That was in 2000, correct?
Speaker 3:I was in 2000 and that was the reason why I wanted to go to motors, but also the reason why I didn't go to motors, you know. Yeah, so I probably would have made a lot of people upset going and, uh, maybe later in the future, yeah yeah, you know again, if you're listening I hope you're you're really connecting with us.
Speaker 2:You know this uh gentleman here that's willing to come and talk with us and an incredible story, incredible family legacy. You know, you even use that word. Is that like a police term? I'm one of the legacy officers. Is that a term or well?
Speaker 2:he was a legend, you know, and I'm, I'm the legacy, I'm filling in his shoes that's awesome, that's awesome and uh, and I you know, just just even seeing you today again, I my opinion and, adrian, maybe you can chime in here with the officers that we've spoken with, with the people that we've spoken with, with what we've seen just in the thick of it in chaplaincy, man to to to have a a man, say, happily married, two beautiful kids doing their job. Well, I mean that in and of itself is a legacy. I mean that's that could be uncommon in the police realm not.
Speaker 5:I mean we've said it right many programs, but I mean it definitely is a huge challenge. So, um, hopefully she's listening and she'll give him a big hug, you know, for saying that, but but uh, but it comes from a real place, a genuine place yeah um, so many conversations I've had with, uh, with matt detective matt never. Never called him detective matt till now, but now you have to all the time now please
Speaker 5:um but uh, but you know he, you know he, he brings her up and he talks, you know very highly about her and his love for her and and you know, the kids and um, and, and so she, she, I'm sure, and him, have figured out.
Speaker 5:You know there's things that work. We're not perfect, we're not the same, different, and we, we figure out what works and and but it takes work, right? I mean I'm sure it's not like every day. I mean we even talked the other day about, you know, just a regular activity, right? I wanted to yeah you know exercise and how that sometimes is difficult and I was talking about it, you know.
Speaker 5:And then I got home that day by the way, on a side note, this is and my son was doing squats. And I'm like man, even my son, I'm a lazy, I gotta, I gotta get out there and do some squats, you can do it. Adrian.
Speaker 2:I'm going to do it, adrian, I'm going to do it, maybe today, matt, getting back to you and again, look, you know it's funny, it's.
Speaker 2:I normally don't have trouble with it, but I just, you know, wanting to do right by you and it's a tough thing, it's a tough thing, but we want to just talk about it, you know, and just bring it to the table Because I mean, I'm thinking of, I don't know that we've ever heard from you know an individual who their father, their mother, died in the line of duty. I mean, this might be a first for our program, this might be a first for the station. I think it's important for people to hear about you know, the citizens of the community, people that you know want to talk badly, want to say things about law enforcement. Man, you need to hear this. So, going back 2000, you said you're about 10 years old, yep, and just tell us, tell us about that time, what you were going through, your family, whatever you want to share about that time in your life, that season in your life in your life, that season in your life, you know, it's one of those things where I always get asked that question.
Speaker 3:I'm a part of peer support, I'm an honor guard. A lot of people confide in me, you know, come to me for direction and advice, and a lot of the times they say, hey, you know, does it get easier? And I have to say no, it doesn't. You know, it really doesn't. Yeah and um, I mean my father wasn't there for my wedding, he hasn't met my wife, he hasn't met my kids, so it's just one of those things where it just has not gotten easier. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you can see, 22, 23 years later I'm still, you know, affected by it. Yeah, but I remember him on his motorcycle, I remember the smells, I remember, you know all the good you know and some funny bad. Yeah. I got some good stories for you guys, oh we'll hear them, we like, we like funny. Yeah, whatever you want to share um, I'll save that for for a private conversation.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, cool, I wasn't sure, I wasn't sure who you guys were like. You guys the radio, you guys awesome chaplaincy, confidential got it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, um man, thank you so much, if I could chime in, you know, in the power of those things that we go through right, because I know that you've gotten the opportunity to, without even it was kind of almost not on purpose per se but get a chance to be in training, you know, and help others who are up and coming officers, and in that training you got to use your own personal experiences to help them and I don't know if there's any, you know, which kind of leads us into man, the wellness of our officers, the well-being of our officers, and so I know that teaching portion, the pouring out to, you know, the younger generation of those coming officers. And you've been, you, you said, eight years on, so you know many more to go. But but I don't know if you want to mention a little bit about that opportunity that you got to just share, even from personal experience, and train others in that way yeah.
Speaker 3:so when I was assigned to uh, the police academy, I taught criminal investigations and uh for about 10, 12 classes. I ended up doing a, an emotional three-hour section where I would tell them my story. I would tell them about officers on their first day of the job, last day of the job, where, unfortunately, they passed away on the line of duty, passed away in the line of duty, and I brought the realism to what they were getting themselves into.
Speaker 3:And it was one of those things where I wasn't trying to scare them out of a job, but it was to show them what they were getting themselves into ultimately.
Speaker 3:So, like I said, it was a three-hour emotional fest, right, and that was a way of how it helped me deal with my situation and also giving back and how a part of that lesson I had them write a letter to the person that they loved the most. If something were to God forbid happen and there was a lot of people that were very appreciative of that One it made them love that person that much more, at least for that day, and it truly showed what can happen at any time, if it's your first day or your last day when you're retired. One of the guys I don't know his name at the moment he retired for New York Police Department, that's it. He was done, and then when the Twin Towers were hit, he went to the towers and then we know what happened then. So it's one of those things where it could happen your first or your last day, anywhere in between. So that was a part of the lesson.
Speaker 2:And that was in the academy.
Speaker 3:That was in the police academy while I was teaching.
Speaker 2:I mean what an important three hours right for them. You know the way the Bible puts it is count the cost right. When you're going to go to do something, you count the cost. If you just tuned in, we are here with Detective Matt Williams and again he's just sharing his story, his experiences. And remember, you can call, you can text. Maybe you want to text something of encouragement, maybe you want to call with a question. Maybe you're listening and you just you know. I'll say this much we enjoy hearing your voice. We love hearing your voice when you call in, even if it's short, if it's brief, please, 786-313-3115. If you're listening, if you're, if you, maybe you know Matt, maybe you know Adrian or you're connected here with the family somehow. Please call, we would love to hear your voice. If not, we'll take a text 786-313-3155. 786-313-3115.
Speaker 2:Matt, something else I want to ask you about. You mentioned how you had other jobs before becoming a law enforcement officer. You even described one as your dream job. We'll get back to that. We have somebody on the line, so let's take that phone call. Good afternoon, you are with God's Way Radio. Where are you calling us? Oh, we lost the line. We're going gonna hit that connect button next time you call and uh, and and we're. We're going to want to hear from you, so please call us back. Let me just hit that. Awesome, good, good afternoon you're. You're connected with god's way radio, hi, hello. Yes, this is one of our students. It sounds like. What grade are you in? I'm in third third grade.
Speaker 2:What would you like to share today?
Speaker 4:can I pray for the law enforcement? Sure, please a short prayer dear lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for everything. I pray for you in law enforcement. I'm going to be thankful for them because they protect us when something bad is happening and they can say amen.
Speaker 2:Amen, matt, anything you want to say to our student.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 5:Awesome, he's like what do you want me to say? If you're looking on our Instagram, you see Joey Matt and I looking at ourselves like okay, keep it together here, guys.
Speaker 6:That was special.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for that call. Anybody with you mom or dad want to say hello.
Speaker 5:I was with you.
Speaker 2:Anybody else want to say hello?
Speaker 6:I just want to say that I really appreciate these programs.
Speaker 6:It's so wonderful to hear these men of God out there protecting our cities and to be able to like share this with my daughters and have them see the heart of the law enforcement, have them see the heart of the city really that is protecting and serving, and just being able to pray for you guys and have my children grow up respecting and honoring and looking up to these men and women, from the phone callers to the first responders, to all of them.
Speaker 6:It's just, it's such a blessing in my life and you know, especially in the recent years with all the nonsense there's no other word for it going on the attacks and stuff. I just want to instill in my daughters this um, this pride that they have a righteous pride for the law enforcement and these type of programming and hearing your hearts and, like I was teary-eyed with you guys, like it's um, it's very powerful and it's very impactful and it's very good and righteous and I think it's God's work to being able to bring a faith, like a badge, and letting my kids know that they have families and that when they're scared or when they need something, that these are the people that they run to, and these are the people that will help them and I just, I really just pray for you guys and I think that you're doing God's work and I, detective Williams, thank you, and I find these programs just so very necessary and impactful, so God bless you guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thank you Anything you want to say.
Speaker 3:No, thank you again. And like you were saying, hopefully I know her child is definitely not scared of the police but to children in general, we're here to help. I hate it when parents or teachers or whoever are out there saying, oh, the police is going to take you if you misbehave, or something to that effect, and I always try to correct that behavior say that's not going to happen. We're here to help. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Actually I was talking with a family member well, church family, a friend and she asked her daughter she's in pre-kindergarten, she's three or four years old, four or five years old and she said, oh, what's my phone number, what's your dad's phone number? And it was the radio studio number. So the one number she has memorized is the studio phone number. So parents, if they have the studio phone number memorized, tell them. If they have an emergency, tell the police officer to text, text the studio, because they're going to get a voicemail, but if they text us then we're going to get it. Now, that's plan B. Plan A have them memorize your phone number, but plan B, if they already have the studio phone number memorized, tell them text this number.
Speaker 5:Okay, but anyways, 911 always, yes, yes, 911.
Speaker 2:What I meant was once they get to the officer, once they get to the emergency and they say where's your parents, here's my parents don't tell them 9-11, because then they're going to look for an 11 button.
Speaker 5:Right, doesn't exist. That's funny.
Speaker 2:9-1-1 that is funny. I've never thought of that. Yeah, yeah, 9-1-1. There you go um so matt. So you had another job before. You said it was your dream job, but you always had this dream of going into law enforcement. You tried again.
Speaker 3:Give us some of that story so, uh, I was working for a company called jeff ellis management. I ran pools, beaches and water parks. I was a lifeguard since I was about 15 years old. Uh, worked my way up supervisor manager at a young age. I was making very, very nice money. At a young age and towards the the end of of that chapter in my life, towards the end of that chapter in my life, I ended up working for disney as a, as a contractor, teaching the, the disney lifeguards, and, uh, it was one of those things where that's, that's what I wanted to do. Um, I have I I know the listeners can't see it, but a disney sleeve like I'm all about disney we used to go twice a month.
Speaker 3:Uh, I have a very deep connection there with uh, with disney. That's, that's my outlet, that's how I uh escape, you know police, that's how I can go ahead and turn off my, my switch. You know my, um, my hyper vigilance, yeah, you know, but, um, but yeah, that's what I was doing. Disney's good with their security. I hear, they've gotten a lot better. Yeah, that's what I hear.
Speaker 5:I heard a story and you might take my pocket knife you may.
Speaker 2:There you go. You may not know. I don't know if any of you know this true, but I heard a story of a dog that pick up this, the scent of gunpowder of someone who were working on their firearms earlier that day. They had no firearms on them. Yeah. But I thought that was like that's a good dog.
Speaker 6:That's pretty interesting, that is pretty good.
Speaker 2:But sorry, go ahead please.
Speaker 3:Well, going back to what you were saying, after Vegas they've gotten extremely strict, so I used to take my firearm as a law enforcement officer. We are allowed to carry anywhere, unless they say, hey, this is private property, you can't. And then I would store it in the hotel. Well, now it's one of those things where the hotel room gets checked with dogs. Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's one of the things that they are really big and mandatory on Interesting man, that's amazing. It's making sure, at the happiest place on earth, something like las vegas doesn't happen yeah, yeah, we appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Um, so you had this incredible job and you decided to pick a pay cut. What happened?
Speaker 3:uh, my wife got pregnant and she kind of gave me that ultimatum. Living here in miami she said hey, um, you know, you can come down here, we can go, and but the help is down here. We have no family and friends over there.
Speaker 3:You're going to have to kind of. She didn't tell me that, she didn't say that I had to pick, but I knew ultimately I had to make that decision. So obviously I'm going to pick family first. So I came down, family first. So I came down Before I went over to Orlando full time, I applied for FHP the county, the city, and then there was a hiring freeze so it wasn't the right time right. It wasn't in God's plan for me to be an officer at that time. So when I came down I applied and I got it and I got in with the city. He was probably waiting, god was probably waiting for me to, you know, go with the city of Miami because my dad's you know legacy there, um, and, and I I don't regret that decision one for the family and two for you know what I have experienced the last eight and a half years in law enforcement. So I'll take the good. You know there was a little bit of bad, but the good outweighs the bad, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like with any profession, with any pursuit, we got a text here. Actually, somebody took us up on our invitation. They said shout out to Officer Matt Williams, detective Matt Williams Quote we love and appreciate and thank you and your fellow law enforcement officers for your service to protect and to serve our Miami community and for putting your life on the line daily as you put on the badge of a peacekeeper.
Speaker 5:So just an encouragement and a thank you. I read some comments that came into Instagram Awesome please. And it says he's reading you gotta read it sideways, matt oh, the lot was that like, like a like they're crying for help or no?
Speaker 5:no, thank you awesome for always supporting my family. I'm not sure who who that is, but someone, uh, someone I gotta read it like this oh, you're welcome. Sorry no problem. Earlier there was a comment about also just appreciating you, so someone else that knows you are those bots or? No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, I'm sorry. One day I'll get better at the Instagram and be able to be more involved.
Speaker 2:One day you will be. Never mind, I'm not gonna. Yeah, alright, back. One day I'll get better at the Instagram and be able to be more involved. One day you will be, Never mind, yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:Hey, if you just tuned in, it's four o'clock here, in real time on our live premiere of Ask a Cop, if you're listening on the podcast, you know that that might not be exactly the time you're listening, right? Thank you for listening to the podcast if you're getting this as a later date, but if you're listening live, live, you know who you are and you can call or text ask a cop. It's the first tuesday of every month. We have guests in the morning and in the afternoon and it's always special, it's always meaningful and if you've been listening since 3 30 today, you know we've already, you know, dived into some heavy, heavy stuff and of loss, how to go through that, how god uses that, uh, you know, I actually might go back to that, just different questions I had. But you can call or you can text us right now 786-313-315, 786-313-315. That's the studio phone number where you can participate live. You know, just an encouragement.
Speaker 2:I didn't get to kind of tie this thought together, but I wanted to emphasize, matt, how you mentioned, 23 years later, it still affects you the loss of your dad, police officer in the line of duty, and I hope that people listening can resonate with that. You know, we don't have to get over it in six months, one year, two years, whether it's the loss of a loved one, death. I mean, man, let me just ask you this straight up You're in peer support, you've helped a lot of people. There's a lot of different loss, right? I mean, if someone listening you know, imagine someone listening is dealing with a loss, a breakup, a divorce, the loss of a dream I mean, you've, I'm sure, tried to help many people from your own experience what would you say to that person listening that is dealing with some kind of loss?
Speaker 3:Don't hold it in. Get the help you need. Talk to someone If you don't like talking to someone. It's proven that if you write it down it's just as effective. They say cursiveive, believe it or not is uh it's one of those, uh, things that probably aren't around anymore. Probably people around my age are the last breed of of cursive writing.
Speaker 2:But writing cursive it, it just does something where it helps what I've heard is is that the reason is because it engages the left and right brain. So writing cursive is much like drawing yeah so you're doing something that's creative, and then you're also engaging your words and your thought at the same time.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so that's why it's really really exponential if there's any lhm students listening which is the school we have here uh, at the church, and cursive is mandatory. You are now knowing that maybe there's reasons behind cursive learning, so we still teach cursive here, awesome. So if you're a Lighthouse student and you're like, oh, I don't like penmanship, well, it can help you. It can help you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so definitely, you know, find help, you know, figure out what works best for you, but but definitely uh, don't hold it in. You know, uh, there's a million resources for the city of Miami. They just came out with a wellness app. Um, I, I did a roll call training today, uh, promoting it, you know, and and and showing officers that you know wanting help isn walk alone. It's a one-stop shop. They have a ton of resources on their, their website never walk alone.
Speaker 5:Miamiorgcom is itorgcom. I'll check it.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna yeah, let's, let's verify that because, that that's really important.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, we're gonna verify that we're gonna take this call right now. We're going to verify that we're going to take this call Right now. Let's go to the call. Hey you're listening to God's Way Radio. It's NeverWalkAloneMiamicom. We're going to come back to that. I wanted to dedicate a good amount of time to that, but we have somebody on the line. Thank you for calling. Where are you listening? Darrell and Sweetwater. Thank you, my brother. If you could keep it brief today, we'd love to hear from you. Go for it.
Speaker 7:Okay, I want to share something about an officer. Maybe you remember this word officer friendly. Maybe you never heard it, but I heard it before. And they're still out there, man, they're friendly. They're not there, they're there to do their job. God bless you guys, and just to let you know, if I'm one of them, there's got to be thousands of them that are still praying for you guys.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 5:But I'm one of them, I'm one of them.
Speaker 7:Let's all get together and pray for those officers.
Speaker 2:Thank, you there's criminals out there.
Speaker 7:There's people out there that are really, really criminals, bro, and they're risking their life. They got families to take care of and they're risking their life for us. So God bless you guys. Man, keep on doing the good work, and you got a brother in Christ praying for you guys.
Speaker 3:That's all I wanted to say Thank you, my friend, thank you, yeah, just to capitalize on what he was saying we're a human behind that badge. We have families, we every traffic stop you know cuz I was? I am, I guess, one of those officers, officer friendlies you know, even though I'm not on the road yeah, but I would say so so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got a text ready. It's, it's, this is it's. I can't think of a joke. It just says this lieutenant body, we got a text. It says lieutenant body, so I think someone's listening, yeah, so, uh, thank you for listening. Hey, if you want to text or call us 786-313-3115. I was going to joke about oh, we got a long text get ready. Yeah, whatever, it was a silly joke, so, lieutenant body, checking in. Thank, thank you, my friend, for listening, for participating. So I want to get to Never Walk Alone. You alluded to it. You and Adrian were talking about the experience you guys had late last year, 2022, or was it this year?
Speaker 5:No, this year, Wow, about a month ago.
Speaker 2:About a month ago, but let me just let you kind of go back give a little history on on the program, what it is, what it's all about when you join, tell us all about it.
Speaker 3:So the the history uh behind it.
Speaker 3:Um and again, I apologize if it's out of sequence, if it's out of no, no problem if it's inaccurate, um, but from from what I could recall, it started in 2015, uh, with a firefighter from Miami Beach, claudia Navas. I was actually doing the half marathon that year. I was running it and I ran past him and I saw a firefighter in full bunker gear. I think at that time I might have known him through Instagram. I can't recall that part, but I said, hey, next year I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to do it with him.
Speaker 3:And the following year, I think, I did the full marathon. So I kind of you know I couldn't do it with him, but it went from one firefighter, I think Lucy she's known in the running community as GoPro Girl I think Oscar they were also walking it with him, but ultimately it was just one firefighter. That's it for first responders. The following year, 2016, it grew a little bit Tracy Sierra from Miami Beach and that's really all I can remember because that's why I stayed close with she was another person that ended up doing it with him.
Speaker 3:So come 2018, 15, 16, 17, excuse me, 2017 is now when I ended up doing it with him in full uniform, I got the blessing from my department. Ended up doing it with him in full uniform, I got the blessing from my department. I wasn't scared. You know that's probably what happened the year before. I wasn't scared to ask my chain of command to go ahead and do something in uniform. You know he's awesome. You know that's awesome. It's one of those things where he did it for a city of Miami fireman, danny Alvarez. He ended up committing suicide from having PTSD.
Speaker 3:So that's how it all ended up, starting 2018, I believe a large group of first responders joined, I think shortly after I don't know the year but, Never Walk Alone was, I guess, like trademarked, and it's been an amazing journey and there's a lot of things that are going to happen in the future with Never Walk Alone. So stay tuned, absolutely, and follow them on Instagram. It's kind of one of those shout outs you know where you're going to want to you know be a part of this.
Speaker 3:It's going to be something big and the very first year that I did it, I was a little selfish, right. I was doing it for myself. I was doing it for my personal PTSD, I don't know. I've never gotten diagnosed and said I have PTSD, but I mean I think we all have it your own struggle.
Speaker 6:Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3:I was doing it for myself. I see now, at this time, that it was selfish, because it's more than me, it's more than what I'm going through than you know what. I'm going through it, a lot of people are going through it and I I need to make sure that, man, if, if, if I could overcome whatever I was going through. Whoever's going through something, if, if they figure out what works best for them, you know, they can go ahead and overcome it as well, that's great.
Speaker 2:We got a couple texts here, so this is from Lieutenant Bodhi again. He said listening to a great friend and police officer now promoted by Chaplain Adrian to detective.
Speaker 5:Are you sure that's Lieutenant Bodhi?
Speaker 2:Almost sure. Check the. You can check the number.
Speaker 2:My phone's streaming says uh, for the past few years, matt has been a phenomenal advocate for ptsd. His passion for those in need is commendable. Looking forward to participate with matt once again next year in the never walk alone marathon, uh, so, so that's awesome and, uh, we're gonna get a call soon, hopefully. Uh, uh, she she introduced herself. She said this is yami with the fire department in miami. I work closely with Matt and she's hopefully going to call in any moment, but she had this to say. She said I just wanted to say how grateful we are for Matt. He is a dedicated family man and police officer. These interviews are certainly never easy and we are all grateful for all he does to help and support his peers in sharing his journey. So that's pretty awesome. Anything you'd like to say to LT or to Yami there?
Speaker 3:No, Yami's a chief. Yami's a chief for the city of Miami. Fire she's the big, you know, reason why never walk alone took off, uh, her and and the benevolent and and Danny Alvarez's family and and man, uh, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of stress and she does it for an amazing cause. Obviously, you know, and and she's, you know, she has uh that, that legacy herself of when she retires, she has something that people are going to know her for. That's awesome, it's something amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, if you don't mind, I think we might have her on the line. Is this Chief Yami?
Speaker 8:Hi, good afternoon.
Speaker 2:Good to hear from you. Well, with Matt's permission, I'd love to have you chime in and and join us here for the last few minutes and just yeah, we really wanted to highlight Never Walk Alone, you know, because I think now here's, I'm going to give a little thought, a little springboard here and then you could take it away, yami or matt, um, but I think that never walk alone is for people like matt, that that need that support or don't know they need that support, right, people that have gone through things, first responders that carry a heavy weight and maybe they've they've really come a long way, like you, matt, or maybe they're not there yet and they and they need it more than others. Uh, if, if that's about right, tell us more yes, a hundred percent.
Speaker 8:First, all I want to thank you all for giving us all the opportunity to chime in, to speak in, and Matt, obviously, sharing such a personal, touching story. It's amazing what this has all created for us, because it's become just one huge platform of all types of first responders we have police officers, fire rescue personnel, dispatchers, military. Their families have joined us. You know, and even after the COVID experience, we know the stress that placed on our healthcare workers and it's opened the door in the community of our healthcare workers to be a part of what we do. But yeah, going piggybacking off of what Matt shared, it did start in 2015 by firefighter claudio navas with miami beach fire rescue, and then we heard about it through miami fire rescue and in 2018 we joined. We showed up with a group of about maybe eight uh, one of the.
Speaker 8:A few years prior to that, danny's father, rolofoolfo, was already walking with Claudio and then started walking with Matt and Tracy, so we were moved by it, thinking well, you know, this is one of our dear friends that wears our patch. You know we have to go out there and walk. So you know from there it's just taken off. Every year it's grown immensely. You know from there, it's just taken off. Every year it's grown immensely and this past year now in 2023, we're encompassing. We reached over 250 first responders from different departments. We've even had people. We had one firefighter from France.
Speaker 8:We had one from Denver. We have a wonderful following from Polk County. Shout out to Polk County Chief Gonzalez. Over there They've lost about four, five firefighters in the past several years.
Speaker 8:So, yes, it is NeverWalkAloneMiamicom. That is our website, like Matt shared. There's a bunch of resources, there's a bunch of resources, and what's great about it is that it's not just resources where you know, it's anything related to, let's say, mental health, counseling or treatment facilities. It encompasses podcasts. It encompasses general wellness and health apps that we could use just to get through a terrible shift or just a lot of pressure, because sometimes it's not the difficult calls, it's not the work experience.
Speaker 8:Sometimes there's something personal going on in our lives and we do owe it to our community and our peers to show up the best way we can. And I think, through Never Walk Alone, I love what it brings because it started humbly, it started wholesome and it's embraced everyone. And during that walk, what we find, I've had some of the most amazing conversations during that walk. If it's not, you know, with Danny's family themselves, it's with firefighters, police officers from every agency, and Matt and I have had conversations, you know, and we met through this cause. Had it not been for this cause and, as you know, adrian, recently I was with with you all in the struggle, well, well, of course, which is, you know, primarily based with law enforcement, and it was about four of us firefighters sitting in a room full of cops and you know it was really funny because once we got past the jokes with the donuts and the firefighting jokes and the little jabs at each other, you know, within like 20 minutes of the class, some of us are in tears, crying together, sharing stories and the takeaway from that class which, by the way, I highly recommend it to any first responder listening and struggle, what was amazing?
Speaker 8:Because it gives you tools to use in the toolbox. It reminds us that, you know, we could take one of two paths. We we could, uh, focus on all the horrible things that have happened to us, or we could use that and turn it around and grab these tools and hold on to our peers and look for a supportive network to give back to the community or another peer that's going through a difficulty, and it really lies within us to find that ability, that faith, that truth in that. You know we're all human and this job is hard. This job, you know, you're trained, whether it's police, fire dispatch to remain calm under pressure and we have to stuff whatever it is that we're seeing or feeling to the side in order to give our community the best that we can give to serve, you, know and protect.
Speaker 5:That's right.
Speaker 8:And it is challenging. So, yes, through, never Walk Alone, I feel it's helped me as well, you know. And protect, that's right and and it is challenging. So, yes, through never walk alone. I I feel it's helped me as well. You know, we we've all had challenges, uh, similar to matt, you know it, and losing a parent very young.
Speaker 8:Uh, my mother didn't, you know, do law enforcement, was not a first responder, but I lost her to cancer, you know, and I was 20 at the time, and three months after I lost her, I had to join the fire academy and that's one thing that's always, you know, been difficult to navigate through, you know, the loss of a mother, very early on, of course. So I can empathize with Matt and I respect him truly for being one of those first responders that has come out and been forward and I think, through him and others, you know, uh, everyone that has supported this journey and has come forward with their story, I think it truly opens the door for others to see that they're they're, they are really not alone and there are resources available and, um, we can get past the stigma of mental health you know, because it still exists.
Speaker 8:But I, I think, I think all of these things coming together are truly opening doors absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I mean that's a whole other conversation. I know adrian is continuing to tell me, you know how he sees this new work, this new spirit, this new attitude and law enforcement and the first responder community of really wanting to come around and help each other like never before. Yami, anything else you want to say about Never Walk Alone before we say see you later for the day? I know we're going to have you in here eventually in the studio with us, but anything else you want to say before you go?
Speaker 8:Well, just to everyone listening in, stay tuned. We're growing. We've formalized a committee that encompasses one board member for every organization that participates with us. If there's anyone out there listening that would love to join our board, our arms are open. We want to embrace our community of first responders, and that's it. And just again, acknowledging Matt and thanking Matt so much for sharing his story today and his journey, because it's through people like Matt that our organization continues to expand and just be a truly, you know, humble cause, that it's through stories like that that others say you know what? This is something that I'd love to be a part of. So thank you, matt, and and thank you, um you know, for allowing us to speak today thank you so much for listening and for calling.
Speaker 2:We'll speak with you soon. I'm sure matt anything you want to say yeah, thank you, ami, love you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for the the flotation device there, because I I felt I was sinking over here emotionally on this side and you, you really helped out. You know, I mean, there's a lot of important information that you know when I'm just full of emotion and I just I couldn't get out, you know. So I I really appreciate her calling and I I ended up sending her a text like thank you so much awesome well, there you go never and this year radio alone?
Speaker 5:yes, never do radio alone we, um, and this year one of the unique things and I'm so glad we could have matt here and just talk about it was, uh, was the response of police really, um, increased from previous?
Speaker 3:years. Yeah, so this was was the largest turnout for first responders. I have a picture here so I don't leave anyone out, but I was able to do it with they're not first responders, but my wife and my brother and that was special to me my cousin that he works for the city of Miami. I had old partners. You know, I have a best friend there. I had old partners, I have a best friend there and then I have old they're not old.
Speaker 3:But I have sergeants and lieutenants that I previously worked for.
Speaker 3:It was an amazing experience.
Speaker 3:I was on cloud nine after the race and I was on cloud nine after Friday after our meeting and seeing that direction we went from from one firefighter the very first year to 250 plus this past year and, like Yami chief, yami was saying you know, we want to try to get as many departments, not just in South Florida, not just in Florida.
Speaker 3:You know those are short-term goals, but you know Nation, or the guy from France, you know worldwide as many people that will come together with us and walk, you know. So if you're interested again, please go to NeverWalkAloneMiamicom and I'm sure there's some contact information on there to contact Never Walk Alone or the social media page and express your interest so that we can go ahead and keep you informed and rather put you a part of the committee or a part of the email blast that they do and make sure that you can join us. And we continue to grow. We continue to get the awareness out there about PTSD and first responders and at the last meeting we were branching out to ID technicians, to ambulance drivers, to correctional officers, officers, to people in the similar fields, dispatchers. They may not fall under the scope of first responder, but technically I mean they're part of the team.
Speaker 5:Yeah, many times I've been up to dispatch right Communications and the tablet.
Speaker 2:Have we ever had a dispatcher on the program?
Speaker 5:We did. We have actually our largest download on Spotify episode was our last episode, I think that just released on Spotify. So plug for Ask a Cop on Spotify podcast or Apple podcast and his program had the largest downloads. That's awesome. So somebody shared that somewhere. That's awesome. So somebody shared that somewhere. That's awesome. Thank you for whoever did that.
Speaker 2:I want to get to a text here. Don't know the number, I thank them for texting. They simply said this it was needed for a bigger reason, beyond one individual. So I'm thinking they're referring to Never Walk Alone. So, thank you, it was needed for a bigger reason, beyond one individual. Yeah, matt, so I want to kind of give you the floor here we have, you know, it's funny just to give you a little bit behind the scenes, matt, if I may. I hope I don't regret this.
Speaker 2:Matt was saying I don't know if we could talk for an hour. You know what are we going to talk about? Well, we're running out of time already and there's still more that we're not going to get to cover. Going to get to cover, it's always that way. Um, here's the two things. I want to leave some room, just any closing comments or thoughts, but I did want to get to your cool job. So I don't know if you have room for both of those, but anyone listening that's interested in, let me see, don't tell me, don't tell me. I wrote it down interested in your current assignment, which is crime gun intelligence. What is that about? Uh? Tell us please what you do for for uh, for that assignment so crime gun, gun Intelligence.
Speaker 3:it's one of the old units that we brought back recently. Within the last three, four years, what I personally do for that unit is I inspect the intake of any firearm that comes in, for the city of Miami specifically, and I determine if it's a crime gun or not. Uh, if it's a crime gun, if it meets a certain criteria, then we'll go ahead and put it off to the side and, uh, I'll shoot. Uh, that gun, I'll shoot two casings from that gun, we'll put it in a system called Niven Um and it'll tell, tell us the history of that firearm, as far as if there's any other crimes that were committed with that firearm. Wow, and that's just like a software, a special technology. So, nyman, it's pretty much a glorified camera and microscope. Wow, if that makes sense
Speaker 3:that's like really dumbing it down. But if, uh, if it doesn't meet, uh, the criteria for crime gun, or if it is like a shotgun revolver or a bolt action, if it doesn't meet our criteria, if it is a crime, then I won't shoot it, I'll put it off to the side. And if it's related to some major crime, like a homicide, then we may shoot it for a one-to-one comparison. Or we'll go ahead and send it off to my county and they'll go ahead and run ballistics and all that stuff, and they have other um resources that they would run that firearm through. Amazing, that's pretty much what I do.
Speaker 2:It's playing with guns all day yeah, but I mean you know I'm thinking of kids, young people. You know, people looking at the profession. That's kind of like sciencey. I mean that's cool, right, you know somebody interested in that aspect of it, very, very interesting. Thank you for sharing that. So if you've been listening, you're going to, you know you'll hear an outro with information, contact, information, all that. But, matt, just about two minutes closing thoughts. You know anything you wanted to leave us with or say, or anybody comes to mind that might be listening Floor is yours, you know I was told that I'd be on here mainly for the PTSD awareness.
Speaker 3:And that's what I want to capitalize in these two minutes is if you need the help, please, please, please, reach out. I don't know where I got it from it had to have been somewhere, because I'm not this clever but I'd rather hear your story from you, and it's 100% confidential, you know, and instead of hearing it at your funeral from someone else. You know and I say that wholeheartedly where I'll give my information to these two gentlemen here, where, if you want to speak to me directly because of something that I said and it relates, I'm here for you.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. And I was telling something to Adrian off to the side. Did you give any contact information? I'm not telling you to give your phone number.
Speaker 3:I'm going to give it to you, cool, and you guys vet the stuff, because I don't want to call at 3 in the morning saying hey you know, and then it ruins a happy happily marriage, yeah, so I mean, I mean, I, like I said, I I'm putting myself out there as a resource, absolutely there there are a ton of resources.
Speaker 3:Never walk alone. Uh, miamicom, go there, you'll find the majority of them there's. Uh, there's a big one again. If you don't feel that you you want to talk to someone, write it down cursive. We talked about that. And then, uh, there's a spinal injection man.
Speaker 3:I wish I would have had yami give more information on that but, it's, uh, about twelve hundred dollars, and it's one of those things where there's a 90 plus percent rate of it working and the person feeling better and not feeling suicidal, just just because you know we throw the word PTSD. Ptsd awareness doesn't mean we're technically suicidal, of course, but but it can ultimately lead to that so the people that fall into that umbrella, it's helped them tremendously interesting. So again, never walk alone.
Speaker 5:It's growing, you know, please come join us, uh, so we can continue to to grow and and uh help one another I mean that you know, that's what I saw on that walk, uh, throughout that marathon, was uh going and a seeing officers that I've seen and having had a chance to talk to, how can I pray for you? How can I pray for you? And then through that, being able to pray for one another, and we always have. I mean, we take it for granted, maybe to our listeners, but we have a God that listens to our prayers a.
Speaker 5:God that listens to our needs, our cries, even if there's no words. And so to know that God, uh, god, is present there, it's with us.
Speaker 2:you know, that was one of the the parts that we didn't get to go into and I don't want to rush it now, but I'll just say what you told me, and you could just say, yep, that's true, or or whatever, uh. And then uh, um, you know, um, definitely, you know, we could just, on the fly, right thinking, but but all that to say that you had a friend right that that asked for permission. Hey, can I send you some verses from the Bible, some inspiring quotes? And you said, yes, and that's been a benefit to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean I can make it quick, yeah, so. So I, I have a friend, frank, he sends me. He's a retired police officer for the city of Miami. I'm pretty sure he knew my father. Wow. Through another friend. He saw that I was going through some stuff last year January through June, july and he was sending me daily devotionals and that's how my relationship with God grew you know, and and I, I wasn't very religious, I don't. I mean, I'm on a religious radio show.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I'm wording that correctly you know, and and I I'm happy to be here you know, and and it's one of those things where I I am very appreciative for that, because it makes my day so much better starting my day off one, a text message from a buddy that I know that cares, that's doing it out of his own heart because he doesn't need to. And two, someone that I never met in my entire life until I took the peer support class and I didn't know who he was until 4.30pm when we were walking to the parking lot. I said, hey, you said a lot of things that this, this one gentleman that I text daily says that I've never met.
Speaker 3:Super creepy no right probably on my end, uh, and, and once he said, yeah, that's me. I busted out crying like I did on this show 10 times, you know, but but he's, he's awesome, and and you know that that's. That's my journey, I guess, with God where. I wasn't religious my entire life because of what I went through, and now, at 34, is when I found God, or God found me.
Speaker 2:I love that again and thank you for condensing it. I hate to do that, but I mentioned to you. I said, man, think of people listening that they need to be reaching out to their friends. Right, there might be Christians listening that that they have a friend that they should be texting. I mean so many ways that that could be helpful to someone. That little story. So here's what I wanted to end with and and I know we're rushing, I mean we're over time already, but I just want to read this text is the last text that we got. Check this out.
Speaker 2:So I, I read, I read that that that text, that short sentence, and we didn't know where it came from. It was needed for a bigger reason, beyond one individual. We got a second text. This is danny alvarez sister. It has been so rewarding seeing how never walk alone has evolved beyond my brother. This organization was needed for a bigger person. Yami and matt have been such a crucial part of this movement. We don't give first responders enough credit for what they go through. That's pretty special text yeah, it is.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much so thank you, thank you yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Everyone that has contacted us, texted, called today, matt. Thank you so much again for being here thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate you guys thanks for listening today.
Speaker 1:If you have any questions or would like to get in contact with us, visit policethankyoucom. You'll also find information on how you can support the mission of Ask a Cop. We'd also ask that you subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform and if you're enjoying these conversations, let us know and be sure to join us again here on ask a cop.