Tennessee Roll Call
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Tennessee Roll Call
Tullahoma Police Department
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The Tullahoma Police Department in Tennessee is starting a podcast, and they picked Tennessee Roll Call to assist.
Telehoma Police Department is starting a podcast. Like um humanizing the badge. There are a lot of questions that come up on agenda items, what we do day in and day out. We were trying to think of a way to get this information out to the public so we can be a little more transparent.
SPEAKER_02We had agency as far as Jackson, Tennessee, all the way up to not Knoxville, uh municipal airport, police.
SPEAKER_03So uh local gas station was broken into. Actually, he ran the truck through the front windows of the gas station within the first 10 minutes. The subject was in custody.
SPEAKER_02The police is the community, the community is the police.
SPEAKER_04Tallahoma Police Department is starting a podcast, and with me today is Chief of Police Jay Sons, Deputy Chief Jason Kennedy. Guys, thank you for being on the program. Thank you for allowing Tennessee Roll Call to do this announcement for y'all. Before we get started, let's talk a little bit about y'all selves. Uh Chief Sons, we'll start with you.
SPEAKER_03Um Well, I I guess I'll start with when I started with the Telehoma Police Department, which was around 2011.
SPEAKER_04Been a minute.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, it's been a minute. Um prior to that, I was with the uh Deckard Police Department. Started over there in 2008. And around 2011, I got uh an opportunity to come work for the great city of Telehoma. Um I've been here ever since. I think um going on two and a half years as your Telehoma police chief. Um I don't want to say it's not been stressful, but it's been a very enjoyable ride. I enjoy the people I work with. I I love this community, and we just want to do the best we can for everybody.
SPEAKER_04Obviously ups and downs, but very very worth it, I'm assuming.
SPEAKER_03There's a lot of ups and downs. Very we don't we don't get it right every time, but you know. Deputy Chief, tell us how we got you today.
SPEAKER_02Um I've worked for Telehoma in the past. Um I recently came back here. It'll be this August would be three years. Um I worked here from 05 to 2012 as a detective. Um I worked at s several different agencies, but always wanted to come back home to Telehoma and had an opportunity to come back as a shift supervisor. And then uh when Chief Sons got the interim chief, he appointed me as a deputy chief, and then we both looked up and got the permanent jobs and uh so you know loved it ever since.
SPEAKER_04And you called this home. So I mean it's yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um I grew up in Manchester, but I've always lived in Tullahoma. Uh my family's from Manchester. My wife lives here in Tullahoma. Um I really decided this was home whenever I started teaching school at the high school for about three years. It was uh it was a great community. Um that this is where I plan to live out my life, Tullahoma.
SPEAKER_04Well, we're tickled to death to have both of you, and you said two and a half years, so this is a fairly new administration.
SPEAKER_03It is a fairly new administration. And uh Deputy Chief's selling himself short. I mean, he comes the the man's done everything you can do in police work. He comes with uh an extensive background.
SPEAKER_04I mean, well, I do know uh you worked for some different departments doing detective work, all like you've done pretty much everything in law enforcement, patrol, uh detective, what what else? I mean, I know you were a teacher, and if I may talk about that, I've actually had the privilege of uh being the FTO for a couple of your students, and they were right on. And so obviously uh very talented in several different ways.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, I've been very fortunate. Um minus my three years of teaching, I've been in law enforcement for about 22 years. Um I've got to work at several different agencies, um mostly working violent crimes. Um I've got to also been a task force officer at United States Marshals. That was a lot of fun chasing down some of the worst criminals throughout southern Tennessee. Um But uh it's it's it's been a fun ride.
SPEAKER_04Well, it sounds it sounds like it. I remember a story you told me one time about your teaching where you left some like raw meat out for a while. And uh just so we could see how it uh disintegrates. I mean, who would have thought of that?
SPEAKER_02Um so back in 2011 I got to go to the National Forensic Academy, which is up in Oak Ridge, it's part of uh UT Knoxville's extension. Uh spent ten weeks up there. Um one week you get to go to the notorious body farm. And while you're at the body farm, um one of the things they teach you is the entomology and it's the decomposition a body goes through whenever after someone passes. And you can actually study or kind of pinpoint when someone passes away based off insects. And uh we did that at the high school. We got a a roast and put it outside, but then the raccoons got it, so then we had to get the then we had to get the welding department to make a cage and we put it in there and they got to collect the maggots and different things and get an idea on how to do that. It was it was really neat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I don't think I would have ever thought of that. I I didn't th think of it. I I was telling you. Yeah, but you applied it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, you know, and and what was really great about that criminal justice program, and that's part of the curriculum. I mean, they want these kids to learn. And like you said, you've FTO'd some of my students and you know, Donnie Carroll, one of our officers here. I mean, he's great. And, you know, him taking those classes in high school, you know, gave him a leg up when he came here because he understood the lingo. Right.
SPEAKER_04Well, I'm I I'm reaping the benefits of that. Donnie's on my shift and he's you know, didn't have to really do much with him. He he's already uh learned about we could do a whole podcast on your teaching. I mean, it's it's pretty it it's pretty intense. Uh real quick, guys, I mean y'all are y'all are wanting to start a podcast here at the city of Telehoma at the Telehome Police Department. Uh why is that?
SPEAKER_03Well, initially I I saw your Tennessee roll call and I really enjoyed it. I like you bringing light to what we do in the police business. I like um humanizing the badge, if you will. Um there are a lot of questions that come up on agenda items, what we do day in, day out. And I think during our discussions, we we were trying to think of a way to get this information out to the public so we can be a little more transparent. Um if anybody has any questions about anything we do, um we'll try to answer those to the best of our ability. I mean, obviously we're we're limited by some things when it comes to the legalities and the other.
SPEAKER_04And I think that's understandable. Um I mean you can't talk about active cases a whole lot. You're gonna have to limit that down. But I mean, for the transparency aspect, absolutely, uh to uh put out more information out there. How often are we gonna be doing these podcasts?
SPEAKER_03We're gonna try to do them the Monday before every board meeting, so twice a month. Um I'd like to give the opportunity when the agenda comes out to the public when it's open, um, if you have any questions, you can send those questions to our Facebook Messenger, email myself or the Telehoma email. And if you're wanting to know why we're asking for a certain item or why we're putting something on the agenda, we hopefully we'll be able to answer that for you and just give you a better, a clearer picture of why we're asking for it.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Well, awesome, man. And I mean, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of information concerning different events and all like that. It's gonna be on these podcasts, I'm assuming about 30 minutes long. Uh, and you can check it out on Facebook. Is that where it's gonna be available? Yes. Okay. Well, let's bring up a couple of things that's happened in the past few weeks. I know uh uh uh Corporal Justin Blackburn just did bowling with badges, and that was a big thing. Do y'all remember? I know you were were able to attend that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, kudos to uh Corporal Blackburn. This is I believe his third year doing it. Um it's a community event. It's uh mostly elementary school kids. There were a couple middle school kids, but the SROs really get out and they push it, and I think they have a little friendly competition amongst the SROs to see how many kids from each school can get there. Um I went, there's probably 40 to 50 kids and you know, smiles, you know, the officers getting out there showing they're human just like everybody else, and they're horrible at bowling. But we do have some officers that are really good. Michael Wilder, Brian Wilder, those guys are really good.
SPEAKER_04Oh, they were knocking them down, but whenever I went over there trying to film them, it's like I don't know if they knew it or what, but it's like it they couldn't do it at that moment. But whenever I wasn't, they were shooting strikes every time. So they're really good bowlers.
SPEAKER_02But the i it was a good event. Um it lasted about two hours. Um it it was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04I think the storm kind of scared some people off, but because there was a pretty good decent storm that came through the area.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we lucked up. Um it wasn't that bad, but I think there there was some speculation that it could get pretty bad that afternoon.
SPEAKER_04But Right. And we also have uh some upcoming events coming up here in a little bit. Do you have some of those?
SPEAKER_02Um Yeah, uh two um to to touch on. Um Telehoma Police Department. Chief Sons has done a great job. One of his initiatives was he wants to be a great trained police department. Uh Lieutenant Arthur, she's over at training division, she really uh makes that possible. So we have two upcoming classes that are gonna be hosted here at the Telehoma Police Department. The first one is cybercrime investigations that's being put on by LEIC, and it's June 1st through June 2nd. It's a two-day course. Uh we'll probably have agencies from all across southern middle Tennessee attend that. Next one is gonna be instructor development. It's July 20th through July 24th. That is actually taught by our officers here at the police department. I think uh Jamison Wells, Jessica Taylor, uh maybe Sergeant Weaver, uh, those three are the ones that will teach that. And again, we'll have officers from all across southern middle Tennessee attend that.
SPEAKER_01Are these classes still open right now?
SPEAKER_02Um that I do do not know, but they can uh reach out to Lieutenant Arthur, uh call the police department and talk to her. But uh the instructor development class is free. Um the cyber crimes investigations, I'm not really sure if there's a cost. I don't think there is, but there may be.
SPEAKER_04Okay. And uh we also have a couple of spotlights to talk about. Uh, Chief, the uh I believe there was uh pretty big uh break-in that happened at a local store, and a couple officers are recognized for that.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I I recognized sh seven officers with letters of accommodation on their on the work they performed during this case. So uh a local gas station was broken into. Actually, he ran the truck through the the front windows of the gas station. Um he was in and out, the guy picked up an ATM, just manhandled it, threw it in the back of the truck. Um one of our officers quickly recognized this. They walked in, they noticed that was a theft, they noticed what was missing. Within the first 10 minutes, this subject was in custody. Um during during further investigation, this subject was wanted for multiple robberies doing the same thing, and he was also driving a stolen truck out of Manchester. So the quick work, the cooperation with Manchester Police Department, Coffee County Sheriff's Department, and our officers on shift led to the apprehension of uh a wanted suspect who's committed, like I said, multiple crimes. So I think it's just their attention to detail. It goes back to the training. Um a well-trained police force can deliver outstanding results. So I can't thank them enough. That's going to be um shift led by Sergeant Zach Weaver, and we also had a recent some of these are some of these are tough to talk about. We had a recent um structure fire at one of our local housing complexes. Um Sergeant Weaver quickly came on scene and noticed there was smoke coming from the building, flames coming from the building. Um without thinking, he wokes up, kicks open the door, pulls the suspect out, or pulls the victim out, um, brings her to safety. Um I know I've been in trouble for this a few times. When we have structure fires, they tell the officers don't run in there because of what our suits are made out of. Um they're very flammable. But it's hard to tell first responders don't go in there and try to help somebody in need. Um and that happened. Of course, I will tell them, you know, don't run into a burning building, but again, it's hard to tell a first responder not to do what you're trained to do. Exactly. I to say that I am proud of that shift is an understatement. I'm proud of all the officers here. And I think it really just goes back to, like you said earlier, we have an extensive training program. Um I want the best trained police force in Tennessee. Will we ever get there? I don't know, but we're gonna do our best to make that happen.
SPEAKER_04We'll talk we'll touch on training in just a moment, but one thing I want to mention, Sergeant Sergeant Zach Weaver uh going in to save this lady, he's also military. Um so it was great that we was able to get him. And of course, his father, Robert Weaver, worked with us for many, many years. Uh he was a great sergeant, and uh so definitely hats off to him and the chef for you know doing what needed to be done. And uh we uh you know we uh we appreciate them for that. Um you mentioned the training. I I I I uh as somebody who's involved with as much training as I am, I know that training is hard to get and a lot of times it's not cheap. I don't know why that is, but it's just the way it is. So it's it's awesome that Telehoma is bringing in uh this training opportunities for people in the area. It's not just Telehoma, y'all are opening it up for everybody, am I right?
SPEAKER_03Yes. And um one thing that does, if if we have another agency or anybody that wants to host a class over here, we always get two free spots with that. And we have a great training room, the city's provided provided us for that, so thank you for that.
SPEAKER_04That's where we're in right now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So anytime they host a course, we we of course get two free spots. That means we don't have to pay for an officer to go somewhere, we don't have to pay for lodging, meals, any of that, because they're here on our own home turf. So that's really allowed us to host more classes, send more officers to training. Matter of fact, this year we had each officer received double the amount of required training. Do you have that number? I figure it was 3,000 something.
SPEAKER_02Well, I know averaged out, it was right at I think it was 78 hours per officer, which in other words, pretty much every officer is right at 80 hours of specialized.
SPEAKER_04So that's double than what's required from the posts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And one to touch on what Chief Sons, I think it was last summer, uh it might have been an FTO program uh class, I can't remember what it was, but just to show how great it is us having the training here, we had agency as far as Jackson, Tennessee, all the way up to Knox Knoxville uh municipal airport, please. So you had the span of Tennessee up here, which which I think was great.
SPEAKER_04It is great. I mean, I'm glad it it it's I don't like the fact that it takes that we that this training is not readily available everywhere to where people from Knoxville have to travel all the way over here uh to get it. But I'm glad that we're able to provide that because uh I believe the big difference between a uh great department and a not so great department is your training, is your education. And so I'm glad that uh Telehoma is taking a uh a stand on that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we were just looking at a way to get some cost savings back to the citizens. Now, you you guys know just as well as I do how hard it is to get into a trainer or a taser certification class just to get somebody certified. Um, the initial class to send a trainer for taser is very expensive, and a lot of times those classes were held out in Las Vegas or something like that. However, if you send one officer and bring them back here, well they can train the entire department to be taser certified, and we don't have to send the department anywhere. So that is uh um savings to the citizens when we as far as sending officers out across the country to go train somewhere. Um so we look at little things like that, and uh I'd like uh Deputy Chief Kennedy to highlight a lot of the things we're trying to do to, you know, save the taxpayers' money so we don't have to go to the board and ask for stuff. We've we've I think we've done very well with the wheeling and dealing and trading and um surplus of items.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, in a smaller town, you about have to be very strategic in how you be because you want to make the best department you can, but you've got to have the money to do it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, so over the past two and a half years, you know, uh Chief Sons and I and Lieutenant Arthur, even yourself, you know, we've we've all tried to think out the box. Uh one big thing we did uh when we first took this took over was uh uh recently, well before my time, uh the department went back to nine millimeter handguns. They had previously they had 40 caliber. Well, we had all this 40 caliber ammunition sitting downstairs, so we're like, hey, the county of Manchester uh uses 40 caliber, so we sold it to them, and we got money and we were able to buy more nine millimeter ammunition for us. Uh then another hurdle we had was uh our rifles. Our rifles were about 17, 18 years old, a lot of malfunctions, uh thousands of rounds shot through them, so we're like, hey, we need r new rifles, but new rifles to set up, they're about thirteen hundred dollars. Like, hey, let's let's try to do this. So uh we went with uh company out of Mount Juliet, Rusty Oaks Armor, and we've done it little by little. Our evidence custodian, John Krueger, got a whole bunch of weapons awarded to us. We were actually able to use that money to go towards it. We surplused all our old rifles, and probably here in the next month or two, almost almost every officer will have a new rifle at the police department, which is huge.
SPEAKER_04That is. I mean, and I don't think anybody really realizes how huge that is because you're thinking thirteen hundred officers times how many boots on the ground. You're looking at about seventy thousand dollars. Just for the rifles. And you and then not to mention everything else you've got that that you've got to get going on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So about $70,000 and all we did was did some trading and um like I said, it didn't cost the city nothing. Yeah. Well you had to think outside the box.
SPEAKER_04Are we able to use any grants and stuff like that to help out?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Lieutenant Arthur, uh, she does a lot of our grants. One thing the state of Tennessee started doing a few years ago was cost sharing. Um, picking up uh in the past, when you sent a police officer to the academy, the agency had to spend about three thousand dollars. Um Governor Lee uh did this initiative where the academy's free for officers now. Not only that, once you have an officer graduate the police academy, they turn around and give the agency nine thousand dollars to you know for training. So we also use some of that money to help buy some of the training stuff we need. So that that was great.
SPEAKER_04State state of Tennessee stepping up is that well, good deal.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_04Good deal. Again, education is where it's at. We got to have good educated officers out there on the ground. Yep. Uh absolutely. Uh well guys, uh what else uh do you all know of anything else that y'all want to bring up for the very first podcast?
SPEAKER_03And um well, one thing we did last year, we um SRO Tyler Walls, he started a golf event. Um it's a charity golf tournament. It benefits our National Night Out and the uh Telehoma Fire Department Toy Drive. Um they've been gracious enough to invite us along with some of those purchases of toys for children for Christmas, some of the less fortunate families in Telehoma. So any anytime we can help those guys out, um, we're gonna jump on it. So SRO Walls, he came up with a great, a great idea of hosting a annual golf tournament. We hope it's gonna be annual out at the Telehoma General.
SPEAKER_04Well, they did it last year, right? Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna try to do it again this year.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. He he's he's already talked about it. Sounds like it's gonna be another great event. I just can't imagine a lot of our officers being that great at golf. Are we are we really that great?
SPEAKER_03I mean, I'm I'm probably the best one here.
SPEAKER_02So we did I'm gonna be checking you on the We did have some officers play in it. Um but what was neat, there was teams uh from Chicago Police Department that came. Oh wow. Um there was a couple other agencies, but uh but I know Chicago PD.
SPEAKER_03Nashville Chief?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Nashville uh Chief Drake was there. Um it was cool to see, you know, some of these big agencies come to Talahoma to play in our golf. And you said it goes to where it's proceeds?
SPEAKER_03So it so it funds our national night out. It's a it's a community event that the Telehoma Police Department puts on once a year, and it uh we invite all the public out um just to have fun. We have games, we have food, we give out prizes. It's just a way to get the officers mingling with the public and a way to, again, humanize the badge. I mean, that's at the end of the day, we're all human. Um we want to show the public that we're not here just to arrest bad guys and you know take people to jail. And then as far as the Telehoma Fire Department toy drive, again, that benefits the less fortunate in this community. There's you know, there's kids sometimes they'll wake up with no toys for Christmas, Santa Claus didn't come. So that isn't uh that's an event that's been going on for years, and I am I'm so proud of that, even though we didn't we didn't come up with it, it was the fire department still. Shout out to them. Um we want to keep that program going as long as we can, and any way we can benefit that, we're gonna do our best to do that.
SPEAKER_04Do we have any dates for national night out yet? Or that comes up in October. Yeah, so it's not we're not close to that yet, but I I know it's we're probably on what fifth or sixth one, and they're always uh really well. Lieutenant Arthur is the one that plans those. And uh at the city park, uh the fire department comes out. I know THP comes out a lot. We have uh our canines out, and we'll mention our canine program here in just a minute, and uh just so much fun for the kids and so much information out there. So we'll definitely be keeping people up to date on that as we do our podcast. Since I brought up canines, let's talk about our canine program real quick, because we have uh Derek Bowles, who uh has Nike, and we've had him for years. We uh uh Officer Bowles come from Manchester Police Department and over here, and now we have Corporal Johnston. And uh can y'all tell me about this program that happened because we now have two canines in Tellahoma.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um Derek Bowles, he came from Manchester, I think, May of 2023, and the department actually purchased Storm, which is his original dog. Unfortunately, Storm had to retire last year. So um we ended up getting another dog with our drug fund money. Um Nike, big success. Uh Chief Sons had a r uh, you know, really good feedback from the public, the aldermen, and they're like, hey, you know, we should look into getting another dog. So Chief Sons got with finance. Uh Sue Wilson was able to uh work some st things out with our drug fund, and then we ended up getting Manja, which uh is another canine we have, and uh Corporal Johnston handles that dog. Uh both these dogs are dual-purpose dogs, patrol and narcotics. Um they've been great, you know, success story just last week. There was a a man that uh uh DUI hit a vehicle, took off, uh left on foot, and Nike tracked him down and uh they were able to arrest him without incident. So it def definitely pays off.
SPEAKER_03How'd you come up with a name for Nike?
SPEAKER_02Alright, so Nike was pretty cool. Yeah, actually uh Derek Bowles was the one that uh came up with the idea. Um he picked four names and uh we went to every elementary school K through um I think it was K through second that got to vote. We submitted the names to them because if not we'd have been there all day, but because they're but they'd have been picking all kinds of names. But there was four different names and uh kids all picked Nike pretty much.
SPEAKER_04That is awesome. But again, that community involvement that I think y'all are really, really trying to promote here. That's and so they got the name Nike. So I now I've got to ask, how did Manja come into the play? Or was that already? That was just his name. Okay.
SPEAKER_02We we didn't make it around to the schools, unfortunately. Uh when we got Manja, he still needed a lot of training, plus uh so we just it time got away from us. So Manja was just the name.
SPEAKER_04Well Manja's cool. Yeah. That that that's a cool name. But I love the fact that that the kids, the community got to pick Nike. Even though it probably would have been very interesting to hear what the kids' names would have come up with. I almost kind of want to go back and see that to see what they would have said.
SPEAKER_02You you say police and community. I I didn't come up with this phrase as a gentleman I know. I mean the police is the community, the community is the police. Yeah. Uh so I mean that's something I've that's always stayed with me, and I think it's a good little saying.
SPEAKER_04I think it is. Unfortunately, though, as you know, um some media outlets and all like it have a tendency to want to separate. So we have to try to put that back together. And uh and I think this podcast that y'all are going to be doing every two weeks is gonna be a good way to be uh transparent and give out that information.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I think during our conversation, we had we had talked about this a little bit. Um during any any critical event, any any big news story, any big case we're working, there's a lot of stuff we can't put out to the public. And a lot of that comes back to it's an open case. Um maybe a juvenile involved, may not be, maybe we're looking for somebody. However, with us not being able to put a lot of information out, there's a lot of misinformation that gets put out by the public, and a lot of the public come up with their own story. Now, uh I think we all, I think you've all done it, we fight everything we we can in us to not get on there and respond to social medias and all that. However, if there is something we can answer, that's why we want to start this podcast. If you want to know why we didn't put out information on this case or that case, um in limited detail, what we can answer, we will answer. Right. Like I said, we want to be transparent and once the case is closed, we'll answer everything we can.
SPEAKER_04And we'll put an invitation up there, uh inviting people like a little bit before the program that they can send in their questions. Want to put out the disclaimer that sending questions does not guarantee they'll be read or answered on the program. But uh we want people to know that they can uh make the comments, ask the questions, and we'll definitely try we'll give as much information as as possible, and just hope everybody understands that there's some things in active cases that we just can't get into. And I think most people would understand that. Yeah, especially the you know victim, family victims, you know, you don't they they don't want their business out there either whenever it comes to stuff that's continuing to happen. So, well, good deal. Uh Chief Sons, Deputy Chief Kennedy, thank you so much for using my platform to uh announce this podcast coming up. I know that's gonna be a very positive thing for the citizens, and I hope uh hope everything turns out well and uh we'll uh keep moving forward and move from there.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. Just uh thank you for having us on. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for your leadership at this department. Thank you.