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
036: What is the mindset and approach to policing on a University Campus? - Alex Casas (Chief, FIUPD)
Chief Casas shares insights on the evolution of policing from traditional methods to community-oriented approaches, particularly in the context of academia. He highlights the importance of empathy, mental health awareness, and proactive engagement in fostering a safe environment for students.
• Chief Casas’ journey from Miami-Dade police to FIU’s chief of police
• The significance of community policing in a university setting
• Challenges of addressing mental health crises among students
• Balancing law enforcement with the educational mission of FIU
• Emphasizing trust and relationships between officers and students
• Innovative approaches to minor infractions and underage drinking
• Enhancing campus safety while promoting student engagement
• The role of collaboration with mental health services and local agencies
You're listening to Ask a Cop Podcast, a time where communities and cops connect. These conversations are recorded live, so stay tuned after the podcast so you can learn where to submit your own questions and to learn how you can support us. For now, though, get ready to Ask a Cop.
Speaker 2:This is Ask a Cop. You always get to listen to us live the first Tuesday of every month and we always have a special guest with us. Now, this exact situation has never happened before, because the special guest also happens to be my boss. I have, you know, as you guys know, you know, been a chaplain with several police departments, but in the recent times here I've gotten to join and be a part of a family here, very near where the studios of God's Way Radio are, at Florida International University. So, chief, good morning.
Speaker 1:Just so you can introduce yourself.
Speaker 2:Good morning. It's good to be here Now. I told Chief earlier that we were debating whether Joey should lead this time and this conversation or whether I was. Pastor Raz, who would normally take this portion, is out of town, and I wanted Joey to get it that way. If anything went wrong, I could just blame Joey. That's what I'm here for gentlemen.
Speaker 4:So there, you got Joey to get it. That way, if anything went wrong, I could just blame Joey. That's what I'm here for, gentlemen.
Speaker 2:So there you got Joey in the control. That was my way of introducing him. Joey's got it under control, he's a machine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you can see back. You can't see us now, but if you did, joey's pressing a lot of buttons. This is what it sounds like. I don't know if you heard that, but he's pressing a lot of buttons recording because this is live now. But then you know we record it and this is if you're listening, not live. That means you heard the recording. You heard joey's or someone's editing and putting it together to put it on the podcast. So, chief, again, thank you for being here and making the time to be here my pleasure, adrian, thanks for having me on the show I well, just just for for the listeners to be here.
Speaker 2:My pleasure, adrian. Thanks for having me on the show. Just for the listeners to know you. I heard in the mornings you got up, you did a workout. You're ready. This isn't early for you.
Speaker 3:This is normal. This is right on time. I start my day early, get it going and no matter what comes up, at least you got some stuff done already. That's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the way to think about it. Um, I want to get there myself. So, chief, going back a little bit to growing up, you know, uh, you born here, born where were you born?
Speaker 3:cuban parents born and raised in miami, florida been here been in the miami-dade my whole life. Uh moved to broward for a little bit after hurricane andrew and and I'm back and back in miami-dade now for a long time were you in a house affected by Hurricane Andrew?
Speaker 3:No, thank God I was not. I worked and lived in the north end of Miami-Dade County at the time but got to see a lot of that devastation. But you know what that storm did to properties. But at that time I had a new family. We were looking for a place to live and Broward was the affordable place at the time.
Speaker 2:We were looking for a place to live and Broward was the affordable place at the time. Yes, it was. Well, we're glad they drew you back here and I'm sure we'll probably get to how that kind of happened. But any shout-outs to the schools you went to down here.
Speaker 3:So Carl Gables, senior High was my high school. St Teresa was my elementary, and then Carver Ponce and then Gables Senior.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, I had a lot of friends in gables. I almost ended up at gables. Okay, my parents didn't want me to go to miami high, but I ended up at columbus I mean I was a big rival back in the day yes, they were, yes, they were. Well, my brother and my sister-in-law were uh miami high and uh coral gables, and they end up getting married.
Speaker 3:So you see, there's some unity. There's some unity. At the end of the day of the day, whether it's Dade, broward, whatever city you are in, dade, I always tell people South Florida it's big, but it's also super interconnected it is. Anywhere you go, you know somebody, who knows somebody, or there's a relationship. It's just one big community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we'll get to that, because the FIU is such a big mix of all that I'm seeing so many people and so we have someone on the phone here, so good morning. Uh, we just started. You are a familiar voice, but good morning hey, good morning.
Speaker 6:I I gotta say ask a cop is getting better and better. I mean you. You saved the best for that chief casas. He's not only an example in our community and not only the chief and neighbor to where we are at, but he's also a friend, and so I'm honored that you're there this morning. I apologize for being out of town. I hope I could say it's a trick to get you back.
Speaker 3:You know, Pastor, as Adrian says, you left because I was coming, so we've got to talk.
Speaker 6:No, that's exactly why I wanted to be the first caller and tell you it was a mix-up on my schedule, but I'm glad you're there and I know God works in mysterious ways. The question that I have for you you don't have to answer it is in being a chief and being a leader, in being in law enforcement for so many years, what would you say is the sauce, is the secret for you, even like you said in this morning your introduction, man, I've already worked out. I'm looking forward for my day. Obviously, you are a person that wants to achieve every day, you know so, to help other law enforcement officers, to help the citizen realize the humanity of a police officer, of a chief. What would you say?
Speaker 6:What's been your inspiration? How could you do this for the time, the length that you've done it and still be inspired, still be motivated, still be engaged? And I know you, you still have goals and you still want to achieve more. So I'm going to hang up. I just want to thank you for being on the program today, and I mean that I hope we have you back and man the best to you, your family, your troops, and thank you for what you're doing and thank you for hiring someone that's special to my life too. All the best to you, my friend.
Speaker 3:I took them off your hands, we'll take them. We your hands, we'll take them. We'll gladly take them, hey pastor, as thanks for calling in safe travels. Man, god bless and I hope, uh, thank you, sir, whatever you get you're doing up there gets accomplished thank you, sir.
Speaker 6:Thank you, thank you teaching other pastors, teaching younger pastors, doing what you do past, uh, the flame.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir, god bless, all right, bye-bye I mean, if you only have a few moments, why not tackle that question? It sounds like it should be at the end, but let's go. What keeps you going? What's your inspiration?
Speaker 3:So you know you get to a point in life where you find value in different things. You know you start one way thinking so, for example, when I started being a police officer, you always hear or you always say I want to go out and make a difference. But when I was young in my career I thought making that difference was how many arrests can I make, how many tickets can I write? How effective can I be at quote unquote fighting crime. But as a little bit of time goes on and the humanity in you comes back to the job because, yes, when you go through your academy training you come out a little bit robotic.
Speaker 3:You kind of lose some of your humanity because you're so engrossed in this world of you got to be safe, you know, you got to stop people from doing bad things. But you get to a point in your career where you find value and service, and that service manifests itself in many different ways. Yes, that service could be you have to arrest someone who hurt somebody or who committed a crime, but you start to find the value of doing things for others, um, and and impacting the people you interact with. And when you turn that corner in your career, the career just becomes so much, so much more fruitful and just more enjoyable, um, and it gives you that energy to keep doing things, um. And then, as I progressed throughout my career, I did a variety of different things throughout my career, um, but as you get into positions of leadership, you know supervision and leadership, and there's a difference.
Speaker 3:You get into those positions you start to understand how your influence can be exponential. You could increase your ability to serve your community and to serve others and to serve the people that work with you. Once you find the value in that and that's what it comes down to, find the value in things that's your spark, that's your energy.
Speaker 2:No man. And so if you've never experienced that, you know you might be kind of self-consumed and thinking you kind of are looking inward. But when you're able to turn that focus and look outward and you sense the fulfillment, you know a lot of times in a a, in a uh, you know church setting there is, uh, missions, trips and things like this, and you think you're gonna go serve some other person who's left and really you come back more fulfilled, more filled up when you give, uh, I think, I think that's the scripture. It says blessed, uh, it's better to give than to receive.
Speaker 2:And and when you really uh turn that corner in a sense. And for those of you listening that are young and we're going to go to some of the young parts of, oh, by the way, if you texted, you can text us 786-313-3115, 786-313-3115. And one of you asked what was the chief's name. It's Chief Alexander Casas and he's from fiu police department, originally started in the county, and he'll give us more information so take us back to kind of you know you're, you're at corgables uh high.
Speaker 2:You graduated from corgables high yep, I did graduate and then going into fiu went to fiu and kind of take us through that little piece of a journey there, uh, getting into law enforcement or whatever job. Maybe you had another job, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, local kid from South Florida. We lived in the north part of Carl Gable so I went to the schools in that area and I guess what kind of drew me to the career. You always walk around and see your police officers in the community and you have this modicum of respect. You know they're an impressive figure of authority and I was very fortunate that the ones that interacted with there were always good interactions, even when I was getting in trouble or doing things that interaction was always a good one and it was an interaction where you looked up to those people and I remember the.
Speaker 3:The big thing for me was I remember I was in man I must have been 13, 14 years old, um and our family was a victim of a crime. But I remember that the officer that responded to handle that for us, um, the way he spoke to our family, the empathy that he embarked and just the calmness and the peace that he brought to that incident and to our family, I said wow, wow. This is kind of a cool thing. That's pretty powerful.
Speaker 3:I saw a different side of the job, you know not just the cool uniform and the cool stuff you do, but then the impact, the things you can do for people. I thought that was kind of neat and I gravitated toward that. I remember when I always told my parents I was going to be a lawyer. Okay, so they didn't think twice about the different law classes I was taking, and all that Even in college I was a criminal justice major. To go to law school, it wasn't to go to law school, it was to be a police officer.
Speaker 2:But they wanted you to. They liked the lawyer, but I wanted them to be calm because they were concerned.
Speaker 3:Right. And then, yeah, you get to an age where you make your decisions and you move on and you take the plunge. In 1990, I went into the police academy. That was a long time ago. I don't know how many people on this show might have even been born back then, but uh, I've become the guy that I used to make fun of the old guy that they make fun of um and yeah, you're working out in the morning, so you're trying to keep up.
Speaker 3:You're trying, you gotta fight to stay young and you gotta fight to stay healthy and, uh, to allow you to continue to serve and to do, to have the energy to do things that you want to do. Absolutely it's a grind it's a struggle.
Speaker 2:Now let's just go back there one second because, because you mentioned, even when you had interactions with the officer, because you got in trouble, sir, I, you guys, I mean, how was that high school time? Uh, you know, you were uh getting in trouble so you know me a little bit, pastor.
Speaker 3:Pastor Raz knows me. Maybe some folks that are listening know me. I'm a bit of a clown. I don't take myself too seriously. I'm driven and I'm focused and I have discipline. But I don't take myself too seriously. And, yes, I'm a fun lover, and so I was a student who got good grades. Some classes were easier than others. I had to apply myself, but I was the class clown. I was always cutting up, getting in trouble the life of the party. So, yeah, once in a while, you know I, you know I don't know. I can't even remember chief hudak one day chasing me out of a park at night he was, you know, chief.
Speaker 2:Well, he was an officer. Back then he was an officer.
Speaker 3:Okay, this was much older, though I was already, almost, maybe right before I graduated high school.
Speaker 2:He's an old guy and now you guys are working as well as a chief Small world. Yeah, yeah, small world Chief, if you guys don't know which, maybe we need to have Chief Hudak here one day, but he is the chief of Coral Gables Police Department and going to Coral Gables High and living in that area. You might have had an interaction with him there as an officer. So that's man, what a what a, what a world. How, how, how funny, how interesting.
Speaker 3:So so you go to fiu, you graduate with criminal justice degree and then you go on get a master's in in leadership science from nova um continue to progress through the ranks and my middle police department so um continue to progress through the ranks and miami police department.
Speaker 3:So when I started did you start a 19? I started miami-dade in 1990, 1990, um worked. That time it was the northwest district, which was miami lakes, miami gardens, that total north area of the county pretty much north of the palmetto right, actually pretty much north of 103rd street um big area busy um very different communities because you had the west side versus the east side.
Speaker 3:So you know, east side was miami gardens, west side was miami lakes. Very different needs for those communities, um, but it was. It was a great career. Um a couple years of patrol. Then I went to investigations in northwest. At that time, about a year or two, when I was in investigations. Oj Simpson is a name we all know about and how we relate to domestic violence. So police departments realize that we need to focus on this. We need to have more of a specialty on this niche type of crime, because it is more of what we call now trauma-informed investigations, where when you work the case you understand what the victim is going going through and it helps you work the case better and ultimately serve that victim better. So my many police started domestic violence detectives within each giu. Eventually they centralized that and made it a bureau. I went then to headquarters um as one of the first detectives in that, in that bureau, a great part of my. That's where you start to realize the service to others.
Speaker 3:It's not just about making arrests, but when you look out and you realize the impact you have on the people you touch, if you work your case correctly in DV, you can change a life. You just need to buy them a little bit of time to get them thinking clearly enough where they can make decisions to set them up for the best. You know very similarly to like, say, human trafficking Right, you got to get them out of that traumatic environment for them to be able to receive the help that they need or the intervention they need yeah, to then move on with their lives, you know, much longer down the road and be happy and not be in that controlling relationship.
Speaker 2:I remember, you know, as a kid I was in college I was actually going to FIU and witnessing, not in my family but a neighbor down the street a domestic violence situation out in the park. And I was so surprised when you know the woman in this case who received the abuse, um, she was the victim, didn't you know? When the police came?
Speaker 2:they didn't you know was almost lying yeah, I'm like, wait, that is totally not what I just saw and and and I was a kid, so obviously I wasn't a chap, I didn't know anything about law enforcement, but I, you know, I saw that where sometimes that trauma-informed care, uh, it's really to help that victim get out of these situations, because in the middle of it it's a cloud, it's upside down and it's difficult to accept or want or get the help.
Speaker 3:That violent act is just a piece of the entire puzzle. That violent act is just another way of controlling that person. There's a whole psychological abuse, the entire puzzle, it's a whole. That violent act is just another way of controlling that person. There's a whole psychological abuse, the financial dependence. There's so many things that the subject of a domestic violence incident does to control that person where they can't make decisions for themselves. They're in that haze where you kind of got to get them out of it, for them to start getting the help they need. It's a lot more complicated than just showing up and making an arrest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, you know, one of the things we try to make sure we always bring up here at God's Way Radio or in this podcast Ask a Cop, is you know whenever, again, you hear a siren, when you see an officer going somewhere? Now I see a lot of the cars. Maybe's a new rule. I'm not sure if you can maybe shed some light on it, but I see now cars having their the static lights on. Maybe it's a new thing.
Speaker 2:That's a new thing now, yeah um, I thought at first I thought they just forgot to turn it off, and then uh, but now I'm seeing more and more of that. But whenever you see that, just let it be a reminder that you never know what that officer is responding to. Um, and so just take the noise, even if you can't see the car you hear the woo-woo, you hear the siren, you see the lights to take a moment to stop and just pray, pray specifically, that when he arrives you know that officer is able to see what they got to see. Have the after driving through traffic in Miami with lights and sirens, having been on many ride-alongs Miami with lights and sirens, having been on many ride-alongs it is one of the most frustrating, difficult things to then be calm. It is very stressful oh my goodness so to your point.
Speaker 3:It's a stressful thing for an officer to do because it's tough to drive like that and be aware of all those things that are around you and not hit anybody. You know not get no trap accidents. Plus, you're trying to get somewhere, so when you get there you're already hyped up. Yeah, your stress is through the roof already and now you've got to. You know, bring it down, yeah, to a level where you can function and and serve the way you need to serve to do what it is that you need to do there?
Speaker 2:yeah, and so just just that alone. Uh, can you know that's just a piece, but any person that would just go through that piece can understand all the intricacies and difficulties. Now you know we want to get into in the county. You were there, you were a detective, you came to headquarters right, you progressed through the ranks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I took the sergeant's test. I then was a sergeant, went to Northside District.
Speaker 2:Went back up north.
Speaker 3:Went back up north, not as far, okay. I went to Northside District, great place to work.
Speaker 2:Was there, chief? I'm sorry, was there a Miami Gardens police at that time?
Speaker 3:Not yet At that time they hadn't incorporated yet. Okay, okay, they were just starting to At that time they hadn't incorporated yet.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, they were just starting to. So the county is still okay and I ended up back there. We'll get there. So I was in Northside for a little bit, a little bit into that. I then went to Miami Gardens to still Miami-Dade Police Department, but they were serving the city of Miami Gardens and I was an investigative sergeant there, Did that for a little bit, went to sexual crimes as a sergeant From there I got promoted to lieutenant where I ended up a little bit in community affairs From community affairs. Then I went back to Northwest District but now we didn't have Miami Gardens where I was the investigations commander there, Went back to Northside as the investigations commander. Uh, made captain, went to homicide another very interesting job um, and then, yeah, got promoted to major from there and went to the hammocks district yeah, yeah and uh again.
Speaker 2:If you're interested ever in in some of the things we speak about, you're not sure what those term means. You're like, wait, what is? I think we said a term earlier. I forgot what it was, but you know, sometimes we'll initial something. If you're not sure what that is, just text us 786-313-3115, 786-313-3115. Or maybe you know there's a certain part of something we're talking about. He mentioned then he going to homicides, the difference between DV, the domestic violence, and homicide, or you know whatever we might say, call us, text us and we'll expound on it. We want to be here to help answer your questions, or have you contribute as well? Or have you contribute as well? If you just want to call, you can. If you want to text, because you don't want to be on the air and call, no problem, Just text us 786-313-3155. So, Captain, and now you've moved to Homicide, so you're back at headquarters.
Speaker 3:Yep back at headquarters and then, yeah, go to Hammocks from there, and I was a major of the Hammocks district.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so you know it was actually the Kendall district. I know, for me some of the craziest. You would think the north side had some of the craziest situations, but you know and it's not to, it was just unexpected how much you know Kendall Hammocks. You think, oh well, you know it's Kendall Hammocks, but you know, stuff goes on still.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the stuff goes on. Each community throughout the county has different needs, right, and the police serves them differently. Just, the communities are unique and the needs of that community vary from region to region and I think it's important that policing you got to tailor yourself to the community, to what that community vary from region to region, and I think it's important that that policing you got to tailor yourself to the community, to what that community needs, and speaking about that, so from that time, eventually now you're transitioning to fiu.
Speaker 2:Is there any other, any other steps between that transition?
Speaker 3:so while I was a major in the hammocks, I you know after getting my master's degree I became an adjunct professor at FIU and a little bit after that I got a call from the FIU administration, said they were searching for a new chief of police and they wanted some input on the search committee. They wanted to talk to me to see what they thought a chief at a police department, you know the qualities, what they should be looking for. So you described yourself. So I didn't. I didn't realize I was doing that but I might have.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I started meeting with university administrators, um, with different members, trying to find out what it is they're looking for. So I give them the right guidance, but as I'm talking to them and I find out what it is that they wanted from their police department, I, I, I realized that man, I think that's something I might want to do.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, at that time I said look, I don't know that I want to be part of your search committee because I think I actually want to put in for this job and, sure enough, don't know if it was a recruitment pitch that they were doing they were just enticing me or if it just kind of you never know where you're going to end up. You never know the path that the Lord's got before you.
Speaker 3:So it was a blessing because I got to go back to my alma mater, yes, a place that I was already teaching, a place where my kids go to school, a place I mean, it's just everything in life things tug at you for time. This is one of those places where many of those tugs the knots, there it overlaps.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's a blessing. I mean, you put the hours in, but they're very rarely are they unhappy hours. They're usually pleasant hours, right it's a labor of love.
Speaker 2:Yeah and so. So how many years total was that in the county before this transition? 21 years in the county, 21 years. So you were an adult. You know, you just became a legal adult in police career.
Speaker 3:Um yeah, still growing, by the way, still growing.
Speaker 2:And then now moving over to FIU. And you know you'll see, and if you're in law enforcement you'll understand. You know university now has its own different community. You're serving different needs.
Speaker 2:It's a different pace, even just different, it's just different and we're going to get into that because I think it's so different, uh, pace, even just different, it's just different and we're gonna get into that because I think it's so unique to anyone listening. I mean, maybe it's something that interests you and uh, and you see a lot of sometimes either retired guys or people who have served maybe a lot of years, then transitioning to maybe uh fiu, and there's, at the same time, there's this big mix, there's young, young people who have mixed up and so you got some experience from years of law enforcement.
Speaker 2:You got, you know, young officers coming up and and it provides a very interesting dynamic. So so tell us, uh, as you go into FIU now you, you go from major in the county directly to chief of FIU.
Speaker 3:What year is this? More or less, that was 2011. 2011.
Speaker 2:So I've been there 14 years now 14 years, so you're almost going to be a double adult if you stay there.
Speaker 3:Double adult. I'm already getting the AARP correspondence.
Speaker 2:It's coming to the house, oh man, I wish we had a video camera and everyone could see, because the chief doesn't look AARP. But so now in FIU there has to be, I would imagine, a transition there, learning a new community.
Speaker 3:I mean. So it is very different. In law enforcement we talk about community policing and that is a philosophy of policing where you try to solve the community's problems, build relationships, have ongoing relationships with your community and solve their issues, not just put band-aids over them with an arrest. But the truth is we don't always have time to do that. It's the right way to police. It's the best way to police, I think. But the demands are so diverse on law enforcement and it's so taxing that it's a very resource intensive way of policing. But at FIU our jurisdiction is a little smaller.
Speaker 3:We will typically say the same people day after day because the community is there every day. It's the same folks. People day after day because the community is, they're there every day. It's the same folks. You may go to a call for service today and tomorrow as you're walking through a building you'll see the person that you helped, that's. You don't always get that in in municipal policing or traditional policing or even federal. You know policing, but you'll get that here at fiu. So what you don't get is you know we're not chasing robbery trends or murder sprees. You don't get is you know we're not chasing robbery trends or murder sprees. We don't get that type of crime there. So you get to put the time into keeping those things from happening, and hard to quantify, because how do you measure how many shootings you prevent? That's a hard thing to quantify. You get to put time into actually solving people's issues because you have the time to do that, but you got to see the value in that. Yeah, for it to be a fulfilling job.
Speaker 2:So it's a little different and you know, for again, different communities, different ages, different, uh, demographics of people, there's different priorities um yeah, people need different things at different times in their lives and we don't sometimes, and it took me a second, you know, uh to, to see more and more of it. But for someone, uh, you might think a scooter is no big deal, right you?
Speaker 2:know a bicycle is no big deal uh, but for this community, uh, it becomes a really big deal uh when their books are stolen or you know you're like it's books, who cares? Yeah, when you're comparing to, you know double homicide, murders and you know some yeah but but um, again, you look at the community you serve and and what are the new think? I mean, I guess thank god that that that's not fiuU's focus, that the community doesn't need homicides.
Speaker 2:Thank God that's not a problem that we have to solve right, and so you get to see that again, some of these students you know, some of even faculty you know. Whatever those issues are, that's the issue before you and so that's what you've got to solve, whether it seems like, oh, that's nothing, but if we treat everything as if that's nothing, no, but it's big to them.
Speaker 3:It is big it could be big to them. Whenever we bring new officers on, I interview them at the beginning of the onboarding process. When they first apply, they got to go through a panel, turn in some paperwork their personal history questionnaire which is like a summary of your life pretty much this is my life Familiar with that.
Speaker 3:It's a little booklet, um, and then you, you meet with me before you get into the psychological and the other stuff in in the in the background process, because I need them to have a clear understanding of what they're they're probably going to get into if they get selected to work here. And I talk about that. Um, you gotta, you gotta have the ability to be ready to stop that active shooter to. You got to remember you're in the middle of a major metropolitan area, so anything that happens anywhere else could spill into fie or could happen here. You got to be ready for that violent crime to occur. You know, like we mentioned that active shooter, that that crazy incident, so we got to train you and prepare you to do that. But you've also got to be ready to handle.
Speaker 3:You know some students who says that you know they put their laptop down in the library. When they went to the bathroom and came back the laptop was gone and and you got to handle that call with empathy and not make them feel like a fool. How you know, because your first instinct is why would you leave your laptop on the table?
Speaker 3:yeah, I've asked that because they feel comfortable there right you know they there Right. They think they're in a library, they feel comfortable and they're going to do things there that they wouldn't do at a shopping mall or at the Miami-Dade County Library because, it's just a different environment here.
Speaker 2:And it's weird to take your laptop and try to go to the bathroom holding your laptop. I would imagine that would be weird. I get it no-transcript.
Speaker 3:you can put your stuff on there we have a lot of church for bibles. That's it.
Speaker 2:Okay, there you go because you might leave your bible in a in a chair. You might come back and it's gone, and someone liked that one and they take it.
Speaker 3:You never know what happens, so you got to be able to handle that call Adrian and not make that person feel like a fool. Yeah, because that student could be on financial aid. That laptop could be a significant investment to them. And now to replace it, not only the work that's on it, even though a lot of the stuff's in the cloud now but there's probably some stuff on there that they can't replace that could be their master's thesis or a good chunk of the research on the dissertation, not to mention they now got to spend another $1,500 to replace it.
Speaker 3:So now they're struggling with the rent next month or do they eat next month? It's just it could be a pretty catastrophic incident to them. So you got to treat it that way and do what you can to help them out and not make them feel foolish. Make them feel like you're here to serve them and then give them some resources to get them back on track, which we can do that as well.
Speaker 2:And just for anyone listening, and especially if you're in Miami, you understand, you know how large FIU is, but we have listeners and you know when this becomes a podcast and if you're listening on podcast you might be from an area you don't understand. Uh, or you're not from you know dade county, miami-dade county, but just to give us an idea of the scale and size, because I think even I was surprised. You know the student population and multiple campuses.
Speaker 2:Multiple campuses and someone even asked me like oh, oh, you like when I mentioned that now I am part of that fiu family, fiu police department family, and they're like like like a security company, like someone from virginia you know where. You know it's a different dynamic there where they're from, and they didn't understand. I said no, no, it's a full-fledged police department. I looked up their police department and their police department was the same size as FIU.
Speaker 4:Police, their city police department, yeah.
Speaker 2:So can you just describe for us just a little bit so anyone listening not from here understands the dynamic, the scale of what FIU is so FIU has 56,000 students, right, you know every semester main goes off about 1,000, but we're at 56,000 students.
Speaker 3:You have another 8,000 to 11,000 faculty, thousand faculty staff and employees not to mention the people coming on and off campus daily, the events you have.
Speaker 3:It is a small city, um, our population is larger than many towns and smaller cities throughout Miami-Dade County. Our police department we have 71 budgeted police officers, another 30 or so support personnel. It's considered a mid-sized agency by national standards Again, one of the mid-sized agencies even in South Florida. People don't realize that. People don't realize that we can provide the full range of police. The only thing we don't do at FIU is investigate homicides and arsons. Miami-dade Sheriff's Office does that for us.
Speaker 2:That's a new one. We've got to get used to that now. Yeah, it's coming.
Speaker 1:Miami-Dade.
Speaker 2:Sheriff's Office. For those of you again listening, this year 20—.
Speaker 3:The muscle memory is tough to switch off when you get to my age.
Speaker 2:For many years our county didn't have a quote-unquote sheriff's office. It was just a county with a director. But now, this year it was voted by the citizens and so, since you mentioned it, now we have Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office again and we have a newly elected sheriff, you know, and living here in Miami-Dade and having worked at Miami-Dade, I think the future is bright.
Speaker 3:I think they elected the right person. She's, you know, Sheriff Rosie Corderastutz is exactly who that department needs to lead them right now and I think she's going to be wonderful, and I see the department lined up behind her. They're moving in the same direction. There's nothing you can't accomplish when you're all moving in the same direction, so she's going to be fantastic yeah.
Speaker 2:And stepping into these roles, and I would like to know from you too, just a little bit of the difference even between a major at a very large you know police department to the chief. You know some of the key differences maybe that you noticed in leadership. You know, maybe, things that became easier, things that became more difficult, just like we know that. Again, listening, if you're listening and you're a person, a man, a woman, you're a person of prayer again, pray for these police departments that you hear us mention. We just mentioned the sheriff, the newly elected sheriff. She needs prayer too.
Speaker 2:Even though she's been a leader, she's been in major positions. This sheriff thing is a whole other ballgame. You just instantly became a celebrity from one day to the next. I mean, there's a whole set of dynamics. Maybe she'll join us one day and we can ask her all about her journey through that. But just for you, just going from a major in one of the stations in a large police department to now, kind of a lot of focus and a lot of attention and it is a lot of students, but it's yeah.
Speaker 3:Just tell us about some of the differences and the geography might be different and the size, you know, the acreage, if you would might be different. Um, the scope and the span might be different, but the issues are still very similar. So, you know, as a leader and you know, as the chief of the police department, you're still addressing personnel related issues. You're looking at what's impacting community and trying to figure out how to keep that from impacting your community and you're trying to get ahead of stuff that happens. So, for example, at FIU, one of the things that I think we do there we put a lot of effort into it and, adrian, I know I'm speaking to the choir because you're down the hall from the people that do this.
Speaker 3:Um is we do what. We put a lot of effort and energy into threat assessments. So you're in class and your classmate says something that's just off. You know, often in active shooters, when we we go back to these mass casualty incidents and we look at who perpetrated these incidents, you always hear, oh yeah, I about that guy, or he was in my class, or yeah, I was his counselor. And there's these dots that we don't always connect. We've gotten much better at that over the years in law enforcement connecting those dots, working with our non-governmental organizations to help us handle and connect these issues to get ahead of them when we can and again, god only knows how many we've stopped yeah because you can't measure that.
Speaker 3:So at fiu we put a lot of effort into that. We need you to be comfortable to be there, and part of that is addressing anytime we're made aware of anything. Somebody makes a posting that's concerning, says a comment that's concerning um goes somewhere where they don't. You know, there's some buildings at fiu that aren't necessarily publicly accessed, right. So when someone walks into that building and you can kind of tell they're lost and they don't belong, we, we can. We can intervene in there, get them where they're supposed to be or get someone out that shouldn't be there.
Speaker 3:In the case of threat s assessment, we took a look at everything, every comment of concern or every incident of concern, to see if it rises to the level of a threat, and then we implement whatever measure we need to, whether it's the most extreme cases, safety planning, to include an arrest or a trespass to get them out of there, or just to give people who feel uncomfortable the attention to feel like we see them, we hear them, it's okay, we're paying attention. Sometimes just that alone is all they really need Absolutely, and they feel much better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's you know. I think that's one of the great things we get to bring up in this podcast. And you know again I don't know how much of the FIU family, whether students maybe, you drive by I know there's a caller on Wednesdays, I remember it comes to mind. He always says where are you calling from? He says, oh, from FIU. I know it means he's driving by FIU. So whether you're driving by FIU or you're inside the campus, you know there's a lot of things you might not be aware.
Speaker 2:We won't have time to cover all of it, but even just as something as simple as the scooters, right, they became real popular all of a sudden and there began to be scooter thefts and I don't know if everyone understands the amount of conversations in-house over these scooter thefts and what is the best thing. So you might just see, oh, my goodness, they're not doing anything, but there is behind the scenes. You might just see, oh, my goodness, they're not doing anything, but there is behind the scenes. I know there's already been some actions to a particular person that was found.
Speaker 2:And again, not being sore in myself trying to speak in a way that in case I'm not supposed to say something, but I've seen the progress. And then you know one of my involvements, you know coming out with some little social media videos, and it's just so that people are aware and they realize that stuff is trying to be done. I mean, there was a more.
Speaker 3:That's a good point. You mentioned scooters. I remember when they first got popular. Our focus is on. You know. We've seen these people jetting around on the scooters and I'm thinking, oh my God, they're going to kill themselves or they're going to knock somebody out as they're riding by them flying around. So we were proactive and we started a campaign, an information campaign. Just try to get people to be a little safer when they ride and be a little more aware of what's around you. Ride them safely, don't hurt anybody, don't hurt yourself. That has now evolved. They're so common now that that has evolved is lock your scooter up when it's not around you so it doesn't get stolen yeah, I'm surprised, chief, how many times I love to walk throughout the campus.
Speaker 2:It's a beautiful campus. If you ever I mean I, I when I was a student, I gotta admit I was not. I didn't want to be on campuses so I was. I went to the biscayne bay, mostly campus which is a beautiful campus yeah but I, uh, I wanted to be in and out. When I was a student I didn't linger and want to, you know, hang out and play and stuff and then. But it was a beautiful campus. Going back now it's huge.
Speaker 3:So when I went and when you went, FIU was very different back then. It was much more of a commuter school. Now it's. We have almost 4,000 residents that live on. We didn't have those big dorms when.
Speaker 2:I went to FIU. We had the small ones on 8th and 107th. Yeah, little two floor the university apartments.
Speaker 3:Now we have almost 4,000 residents. Now you have the city of Sweetwater, especially that southern portion. That's like college town. Yeah, they're building what looks like dorms. They're public-private partnerships, you know they're dorm-style apartments, right.
Speaker 2:But it's full of students.
Speaker 3:So much so that we even have an officer attached to the Sweetwater Police Department to help serve our students in that community. Yeah, we work very closely with Sweetwater PD. You know very well. They're our sister agency. They have a great command staff, a great group of officers there now and I think very well they're our sister agency.
Speaker 2:Um, they have a great command staff, a great group of officers there now and I think it's very important for people to understand that again. Uh, you can call in 786-313-3155 if you have any questions, 786-313-3155. Or you can text us. If you're listening to the podcast and you text us, uh, we can get back to you, leave us a little contact info. But, uh, we just want to I want to highlight that that, because I don't know if everyone is aware, because people ask me, you know now, being there, when something happens, even off campus, but it involves an FIU student, it now becomes a little bit part of FIU.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we want to be part of that solution.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And crime is regional. We want to be part of FIU. Yeah, we want to be part of that solution. Yeah, and crime is regional, and our students in particular. At FIU we have 56,000 students, but 4,000 of them live on campus. That means the rest of them are somewhere else.
Speaker 2:So, if I can, have a relationship with the agencies in South Florida which we do, thank God where I could be an asset to them. We definitely want to be that asset and so know that's, that's a special and I, you know I've seen them. Uh, again, they'll respond, they'll help. You know, whatever student involvement piece they can have, resources, uh, you know, sometimes a talk about their academics and and withholding academics, uh, sometimes it's at the end of the day, we want someone to make the right choices, right to not commit a crime or not get caught in a lifestyle and decisions that are going to hurt their future. We want the best for them and sometimes an arrest is needed, sometimes a little school conversation is needed.
Speaker 3:You know we're very lucky Working at FIU. I've got a few. We have a few things in our tool belt that other law enforcement agencies don't have.
Speaker 3:So, for example, working in FIU, our police officers have the ability to trespass anybody that shouldn't be on campus. Typically in a municipal law enforcement agency, you have to have that authorization by the property owner. Unless it's public property owned by the government, the property owner has to give you that authorization. But at FIU, since our officers fall under the administrator category, they have the authority to do that. That's an incredibly effective crime prevention tool. It's an incredibly effective cooling off tool.
Speaker 3:The things we're able to do with that is just magnificent. And we've also got the code of Student Conduct. So if a student there makes a mistake that maybe somewhere else could lead to arrest, our officers have the ability to use their discretion. Maybe in this case let's not make an arrest, let's use student conduct, where you can still teach a life lesson to get them to make good decisions you know better decisions in the future without kind of nudging the direction that their life is going to go in, where you're putting them now in a criminal justice system. That it's hard to undo. Some of that it's just a great thing.
Speaker 3:And again it's, but again the officer's got to see the value in that tool.
Speaker 2:And they do.
Speaker 3:You see that they do. We don't. We're not arrest heavy, you know, and you and I have had conversations in the past, I think, in law enforcement. You know we want to connect to our communities and we want our communities to love us and trust us. But, you know, sometimes we create a system where that makes it a little bit difficult.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we just have our call real quick. We just have a text, a text that came in and it's just to say thank you, chief, for your leadership, thank you for keeping our kids safe. Just to say thank you, chief, for your leadership, thank you for keeping our kids safe. And they put Matthew 18, verse 5. It says anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. Massive prayers and gratitude for all our LEOs. This is again from a mom with kids who are LEOs and she understands the difference, you know, and that's awesome thank you for that
Speaker 4:I had a couple questions, uh, that were coming to mind as you guys were speaking. What's your, your take on? You said there's 4 000 or so students that live on campus, right?
Speaker 3:just under 4 000 yeah are these?
Speaker 4:are these young people more less mature in the sense of you know? Are you and your officers coming along as dads and brothers and you know they're living away from home?
Speaker 3:That's a good question, man, because that's an interesting perspective. And the truth is it runs the gambit. You've got some that it's the first time away from home, first time making their own decisions, and you know I make the big joke that it's always something as simple as make sure there's toilet paper in the bathroom before you go. They got to learn to do that, you know, because you can't yell, hey, I need TP, bring it down the hall. You know that's not happening.
Speaker 2:Call the police department. Maybe they can help with that. So it's a huge adjustment for them, you know.
Speaker 3:Then you have others that are just incredibly mature for their age. You know, you have that 18 to 23-year-old range. That's the typical range of our FIU student, I think.
Speaker 3:Think of yourselves from 18 to 23. Every year is so different in your development and in your maturity it's hard to put them all in one bucket because it does run the complete gambit. So our officers have to be able to empathize with them, regardless of the age and more on. You know, it's a case by case. You got to figure out where they are and what they need and how to communicate with them.
Speaker 4:Have you seen? This came up recently. Our pastor made this comment how there's young people that are making man. I forgot how he said it. They're like they think they're still making kid decisions, but they're actually making adult decisions and getting adult consequences. Have you had any of those moments where you see a kid realize oh no, there's real consequences. Any, of course, with privacy for the student, but any story you can share, that you go. Man, that was a big.
Speaker 3:Their eyes were open, typically you typically see that, typically in the fall semester of every year students are away from home.
Speaker 3:That's the freshman danger zone that's the freshman red zone those first two months of you being away from home, starting a new school, where there's no, there's rules that you have to abide by but there's no one in you know over your head saying, hey, you got to do this, you got to do that, so your independence takes off. At that time, um, it's, it's a big point on campus where everybody's there, so it's a. It's a cool, dense environment with a lot of great energy and a lot of parties. Um, the football season's in, so there's tailgating. So where I see that is, it's their first experience in enjoying themselves, partying or taking in the social life without limitations that they haven't imposed self-limitations on. So I'll give you an example.
Speaker 3:At a tailgate, yeah, there's drinking. In some cases there's drinking where they haven't learned to drink yet, so they want to cram it in 45 minutes before kickoff and we know that's not the way to do it. You know bad things happen afterwards. So our focus isn't necessarily on enforcing laws no, you don't want to underage drinking but our focus there is making sure they don't get hurt.
Speaker 3:So you go to a tailgate, you'll see a couple of officers, but you'll see a lot more firefighters, interesting firefighters to make sure that when you make your mistake and FIU, by the way, has an amnesty policy where, if you get sick or ill or hurt from alcohol or drugs call for help You're not going to get in trouble. As long as you remain on the scene, you don't run away, you call for your buddy and you don't take off and you let us know what happened. We're going to take care of you first and then figure out how to get you that life lesson so you don't do it again. But we can do that there. I couldn't do that when I worked at Miami-Dade. You can hand someone a resource brochure and hope they call, but I don't remember having the time to go back the next day. Yeah, you can't really walk them through.
Speaker 3:There's exceptions Once in a while you could, but typically you just can't because somebody else needs something else right after that. Yeah, yeah, but we could do that there and after. So that's where I see it. The most is that that I gotta wake up when I'm supposed to. Yeah, you know, I gotta go to class. I gotta do my homework and balance homework, class. Maybe I got a job to make some money.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um, and balancing all those things without the structure that some people have when they live at home the other area I want to talk about and, ad Adrian, I'm just kind of taking some liberty here to chime in. Please you go for it. The other thing and you know there's some of the more serious topics because, again, you guys mentioned it I was just sitting here listening. I was like I felt like an audience member. I go, wait, I'm here, lord, do I ask anything? I was just enjoying the conversation. But people that might say, oh, it's just college, oh, kids, there are serious issues you guys deal with, which, again, the financial issues are serious. You explain why they're serious. Here's the point. Do you guys get and I don't know the right term for this like mental health crisis calls? I'm thinking young people, this aid group, the things that they're dealing with these days? Could you elaborate on that a little bit?
Speaker 3:That's one of our larger demands for service and one of our greater focuses on service. So it's funny, the person texting in kids and you talk about kids. They're students, but they're not kids. They're students but they're adults and they're in that gray zone of becoming from young adults to adults. So you can't fall into the trap of treating them like kids. They're students but you still got to treat them like adults and help them like you would help an adult. So one thing you'll see often there at FAU is after that two or three month period you start to get a little tick in mental health calls.
Speaker 3:you start to get a little tick in mental health calls when now, all of a sudden, the stress, the pressure, the consequences of maybe some bad decision-making or a lack of structure starts to pile up and you'll get a lot of students that go into crisis, that have anxiety issues. One thing FIU does very well as big as we are, we can get to the size of a pinhead when it comes to helping somebody. So an individual student will get whatever help they need to make them successful. They have a very strong mental health counseling program. Our counseling and psychological service is part of the overall student health and wellness. Adrian, you know, one of our strongest partners on campus is student health and wellness. Wellness is for the rain. Student health and Wellness, wellness is for the rain Student Health and Wellness. And they're a big, big partner of us because our services overlap so much. They bring us people, we bring them people to help.
Speaker 4:Is there a, because I know they were testing this out in different places of the country. Is there like a police will respond with a health person or not always? So we do that, but not always. So what we?
Speaker 3:do. That is when we work a sexual assault case or a case where a student is a victim of violence, we'll call the victim empowerment program, which are the counselors that focus on on violent, on victims of crime, and they'll come out with our investigator to start working with the victim so the victim doesn't have to tell a story two or three times. So you get a victim of sexual assault, um and we were one of the first in the country to do this, which I'm very happy about, very proud of um we respond to a sexual assault. Typically the person has to tell a story to the detective. Then they go to a rape treatment center to get you know they're. They're an exam done that now allows us to admit some of that evidence in court and they'll get connected to a counselor. But they're telling a story again and again and again and reliving that trauma. What we try to do is connect them with a counselor, so it's all happening at the same time.
Speaker 4:We're going to pause there. We have a phone call.
Speaker 2:Good morning You've called Ask a Cop this morning. Where are you calling from?
Speaker 5:Good morning Calling from the Hammocks. Love you guys, how are you?
Speaker 2:Good, good Tell us.
Speaker 5:I was calling because the chief, he's an amazing guy. He might not recognize my voice, but he was my lieutenant back in the days in community affairs and to have him in our church radio is an amazing, is a treat.
Speaker 3:You're an amazing. I do recognize the voice, danny, I do recognize the voice.
Speaker 5:He is an amazing, amazing person. Even when he was up in the ranks, you know he treated everybody with respect. You know he was a lieutenant, but you know, and he's an amazing guy, he's one person that you can truly count on and it's a blessing to hear you and thank you. I pray for you, your family and all the good guys that you have over there at FIU.
Speaker 3:Thank you, man. Thank you very much, great to hear your voice and thanks for calling in bud.
Speaker 5:No problem, Take care guys.
Speaker 2:God bless Stan. Yeah, familiar with that.
Speaker 3:It's good to hear from the old guard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's always so nice reconnecting. So we have another question that came in via text here and as we wrap up, we got just a few minutes left, about seven minutes. But the question is for you, chief Casas, and it's regarding the different demographics of different people in FIU and there's different groups. So, specifically, a Jewish student attending FIU who feels threatened by campus protests. It says how do you guys deal and what are we doing, what's going on there with FIU PD to help a Jewish student and for that meaning it could be another student that feels threatened in any way.
Speaker 3:So you know that's actually a good question and it's a good thing to talk about. I think if you speak to our Jewish community at FIU you know Hillel or Shabbat they'll tell you that FIU police is very present and front and center and very much around and doing everything we can to make them feel comfortable. And there's a difference between feeling uncomfortable and being unsafe. I get the feeling, but I think our Jewish students will tell you that they're safe at FIU. We have to balance that line of expressive activity and free speech. And then what makes other people unsafe? And I think we've been there to keep the peace, to allow the expressive activity to take place, but not to where it crosses a line where it's an illegal activity or it's impacting other groups. But that's just the handling. The demonstration is just a small piece. The bigger part of the work is our interaction with the different student organizations or trying to stay ahead of what could happen. So we have the right presence to keep bad things from happening. And I don't think you've seen the level of protesting at FAU that you've seen at other universities across the state or around the country. But that takes work up front.
Speaker 3:If you ask the folks from Hillel. I think they would speak highly of us. I think we have a great relationship. They know us, they know our officers. We interact with them often, as we do with all our other student organizations, because that's where I think the work needs to be put in is being present so people feel comfortable, or, if they feel uncomfortable, that it's a momentary thing that is fleeting.
Speaker 3:What I understand, though, is and we need to also, you know, recognize is so many of our students bring their lives with them to fiu, so they bring their experiences, which shape how they feel or respond to certain things, and we have to understand that it sometimes takes us a minute to get them to understand that it's a little bit different here. Yes, where you come from, you know I was speaking to someone the other day. I attended a, a speech by by john warren, who runs the hal at FIU, and he was talking about he was giving a presentation on anti-Semitism or on social media and how that impacts that, and after that, I spoke to someone who was from Philadelphia, who transplanted in Miami, going to school at FIU, and they said that this is the only place they've ever felt safe wearing what's it called the yarmulke.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Wearing that, where they're openly projecting their faith, place they've ever felt safe wearing um what's it called the yarmulke? Yeah, wearing that, where they're openly projecting their faith in philadelphia.
Speaker 3:You wouldn't do that, he says I would never do that, because I was afraid here I feel comfortable doing that because it's it seems like, yeah, people express their differences here, but I'm not afraid for my safety here, like I was somewhere else, because they knew I was jewish. Um, I also had a chance to speak to the Israeli consul general, who says FIU is the only place he wanted his daughter to attend, because he felt it was the safest university in the country.
Speaker 4:Well, that answers that question from that listener.
Speaker 3:So it answers that question on a broader text. But if that listener wants to reach out to me in my office, I'd love to sit down and talk to them personally, because I've got to understand what they're experiencing to be able to help them with their experiences.
Speaker 3:Thank you, you know I gave you a broader synopsis, but who knows what they individually have experienced. That may be in a conversation with me and I explain some more to them. They'll just be a little more comfortable tomorrow, so I'm open to that if you want to reach out.
Speaker 2:Thank you, if you want to reach out, the campus non-emergency police number is 305-348-2626. You can always reach the university that way, and my direct line is 305-348-1657 call.
Speaker 3:Leave me a message, I'll call you back and we'll sit down and talk. Or if it was just a general question, because, because sometimes you know you feel that way about a certain thing, but this may be enough. That's good. Good too, great, great and you can reach out.
Speaker 2:You have the Chabad and the Halal groups. They're very familiar with Chief Casas and the FAU Police Department. Reach out to them. So that's a great resource, chief. Just I wanted to see if we got into and this is where Pastor Raz might have you back. You know there's some questions that are going to be left lingering. You know, I like to know kind of some of the personal challenges that sometimes come unexpected, because I know other officers might be listening and say man, you know what? I felt that before I felt that pressure this way, and so we're not going to really have a lot of time to dive into that. So I'm just giving you a teaser. So if we have you back, maybe we'll get into like what, what are some of those things that, as an officer, you found, you know, difficult and and so just throwing that out there, that's a whole other hour.
Speaker 3:But that's a whole other hour to talk to.
Speaker 2:You know, I'll be happy to come back on and in some economy we'll talk about personal growth and professional growth and, yeah, and I think that's a great one and I think, pastor, I would be great for that, uh, as we bring chief casas back one of these days. But I gotta ask you, because you might be a student at fiu and you're wondering well, what does the chief like to eat there?
Speaker 4:because there are some I was literally thinking the same thing that that's hilarious.
Speaker 2:Listen, this is not an endorsement. There is no trade going on here, but just in general. You find yourself hungry, you walk around campus. Where would you find yourself sometimes going?
Speaker 3:I think most people will tell you they can find me at Bustelo yeah.
Speaker 5:I'm partial.
Speaker 3:I tell people that's my second office and actually I often ask. When students want to meet with me because I'm also an adjunct, I'll ask them to meet me there and we'll have a coffee together and sit in the graham center and take the energy in while you're having a conversation there. Uh, food wise, there's just so many places. There's anything you want you can get. There's so much subway sushi, sergio's vickies, the.
Speaker 4:The cafeteria there is pretty good great by the way, the street cafe has Great salad bar by the way, the H Street Cafe has a great salad bar.
Speaker 2:Chili's what's the other one there's Pincho, there there's Pollo Tropical. So a little bit of everything. You can eat something different every day, and then you got a Chick-fil-A and put on a Harry's.
Speaker 4:You seem like a person that packs your lunch, that meal preps.
Speaker 3:So you're very, very perceptive. I don't meal prep, but I grocery shop. So I got a fridge. I stock it up, only because our days can get so busy. You don't look like that eating out every day. Yeah, yeah. Well, you didn't see me a couple of weeks ago, man it was a. You know, a couple of months ago I was a chocolate guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got you gotta be for a lot of choices. We're so thankful for sharing your eating choices and just some of the background information to FIU. If you were listening, hopefully you got to learn something you might have not known before. This is Ask a Cop.
Speaker 3:You've been listening and we're going to go back to our regular Thank you for having me on guys. Thank you, Chief, Bless you.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Ask a Cop. For more information or to get in contact with us, visit our website, policethankyoucom. You'll also find out how you can support us Again, just visit policethankyoucom. All one word Don't forget to subscribe to the Ask a Cop podcast, wherever you're listening right now. We look forward to continuing the conversation when you join us next time for Ask a Cop.