First Responders

It's important to be able to recognize and celebrate your own accomplishments, even if there isn't someone else there to congratulate you. To do this, set goals for yourself and reward yourself when you meet them. This can be something like taking a half day off or treating yourself to something special. Taking care of yourself mentally and physically is important and it's okay to give yourself accolades.
 
Transcript: "How do you prioritize and celebrate your own personal victories? And how do people who are struggling with that handle it? But I think it's very important that you're able to take care of yourself and honor yourself for the achievements that you've made. Because there's not always going to be somebody there, it's going to Pat you on the back and say, great job. So you need to do that for yourself. I think the easiest way to do that is just set goals for yourself. If I'm going out for a run and I want to this run in a certain amount of time, if somebody's lifting weights and Ramon have a PR know, they set those personal records for themselves and I think within our own daily job in daily life it's okay to reward yourself the stuff that you've done and accomplished is that that you've made, you can make it to do list, a fire chief, this this is what I'm going to do and it could be you know I got this done within the certain timeline and I know I'm going to treat myself to Tonight or I'm going to take half a day and just hand pamper myself because you need to take care of yourself because there's not always going to be somebody there to reward you and to shower you with app at the lanes and it's okay to say I've done a great job and recognize your accomplishments. You're not being self-absorbed or anything like that. Take care of yourself. Both mentally and physically and take give yourself accolades that Evening."

I have always wanted to be a police officer since I was a kid. If you want to become a police officer or federal agent, follow your dream and you will enjoy a great career.
 
Transcript: "What inspired me to become a police officer in federal agent? Honestly, in my case, I have always wanted to be a police officer from the days. I was a little kid. I wrote on the wall of my bedroom, when I was in sixth grade, I wrote my name is Tom O'Connell. I want to be a police officer and so that was written in crayon but it was written in stone and it's been something that I've always wanted to pursue. There's never been been a time in my life that that wasn't the career path that I wanted to follow. And if that's something that you were really interested in, follow your dream, make it happen and you will also enjoy a great career. It is like, no other. So, follow your dreams if that's where you want to go. And those are the types of people we want in law, enforcement, people who have that dream, to be a police officer and follow through,"

The best advice I've ever received is to always tell the truth, even if it means taking a hit or getting in trouble.
 
Transcript: "Hey, the question is what's the best advice you've ever received? Well, the best advice I've ever received, has always been a tell the truth. You know, I found in my experience that if we lie about a situation, we get in more trouble about the live and The actual thing that we did. So if we just tell the truth, take our lumps, take the hit. Everything else will work out, having always followed that advice, but I think that's the best advice I've ever received. It's just to tell the truth."

I am working on a rapid ballistics solution for law enforcement agencies which provides crime scene analysis triage reports and can be used to link shootings to one another or recover guns linked to a shooting.
 
Transcript: "What projects are you working on? I'm currently working on our rapid ballistics solution, that provides law enforcement agencies. Weedy attacks low intelligence regarding the shooting scenes. They are investigating once they use our ballistics IQ solution, it can scan in all the recovery cartridge casings from a shooting incident. They will receive a crime scene analysis triage report and that report will be able to tell them of the 20 car trees. Casings at the scene is a 13 or from one gun and seven will from a second gun. What they can do now with our rapid ballistic solution because they can send that report to one of our 20 firearms examiner's that work for us, 24/7 365. And what they will do is look at that report, they will then compare that against all the other scans that the agency in the surrounding communities have put into the ballistic psyches solution and Then they can provide them a report back that says the shooting you had. Today was linked to a shooting from yesterday or a homicide. You just had in a gun. You recover that gun is linked to that shooting. We're all about getting those investigators at X moles halogens as quickly as possible. So we can get these shooters off the streets."

The biggest threat to public safety in my community is the prevalence of gun violence. I try to help agencies stem this by encouraging people to not resort to guns as their first response when faced with a problem.
 
Transcript: "What do I see as the biggest threat to Public Safety in your community and how do you address them? I would say, the biggest threat I see is the prevalence of guns being used against not only law enforcement, but the community as a whole. I mean, seems you can't go a day without something news, reading about or seen something about somebody being shot and killed or so many innocent being shot and killed. I think that's a problem that is systemic in society. That if you have a beef with somebody, if there's a road rage incident or you were disrespected or in, you know, communities, somebody disrespected or, you know, cross the wrong line on a block that the first thing that individuals resort to is picking up a gun and going after them and far too often law, enforcement is caught in those cross fires. I think, as of today, there have been three 13:23 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty so far this year, way too high. So the threats of gun violence against our community as a whole and against our Law Enforcement Officers because we see unfortunately, all too often often officers being ambushed to get called out to a scene and they get ambushed and shot and killed. Just the tenant that that is acceptable and Prevalent is a major threat to Public Safety in the communities, so anything that we can do and that's what I try to do, is help agencies stem that gun violence, but not having it. Where the first thing that somebody thinks of if they've got an issue is picking up, that gun is the mindset that we need to change."

I think that tattoos in the fire service are not unprofessional and they are a way for firefighters to remember their story and to use it to help others.
 
Transcript: "So what do I think of tattoos in the fire service while I have a few tattoos? And I think for the majority of it I think it's it's not a lack of professionalism. I think it's really a lot of people put a lot of thought into what they put on their bodies and for me a lot of it is my history. My story is so that I can remember. And also it's kind of putting it into permanent form of this. Something that I want to remember and this is something I want to be able to utilize to help other people remember. Maybe they're, they're struggling moments or their perseverance moments and I think, you know, it's it's a very personal thing. It's a very powerful thing to some people, so that's my take."