First Response with PepperBall CEO Bob Plaschke
"First Response," is an interview series hosted by PepperBall CEO Bob Plaschke. This series aims to shine a spotlight on the thought leaders within the public safety industry and provide a platform for these individuals to share their experiences, insights, and the valuable lessons they've learned through their careers in law enforcement.
First Response with PepperBall CEO Bob Plaschke
First Response with Bob Plaschke Episode 15 - Deputy Chief Jim Martin: Community Policing Meets Modern Technology: How Pueblo PD is Saving Lives
What makes someone dedicate their life to policing? For Deputy Chief Jim Martin of the Pueblo Police Department, it's about community connection, innovation, and heart. Born and raised in Pueblo with family roots stretching back a century, Martin returned after military service to protect the community he loves – not just as an officer, but as a youth football coach impacting hundreds of kids' lives.
Technology is revolutionizing how Martin's department serves their Colorado community. Their Real-Time Crime Center deploys drones to emergency scenes within 60-90 seconds, providing officers with what Martin calls "an angel in the sky." The results are tangible: 21 shooting victims received life-saving care who would have otherwise gone undiscovered, as no citizen calls were received for these incidents. Despite these advanced capabilities, Martin emphasizes strict policies protecting privacy rights while enhancing public safety.
The conversation tackles recruitment challenges facing departments nationwide, particularly in states with recent police accountability legislation. Yet Martin remains focused on building trust, dismissing the misconception that officers choose the profession "because we're bullies." Instead, he offers a simple truth: "We do this job because we care and have a deep love and passion for our communities." Perhaps the greatest testament to this philosophy? Two officers now serving alongside Martin once played on his youth football teams as fifth graders.
Subscribe to hear more real stories from the frontlines of public safety, where technology meets humanity, and discover the individuals behind the badge working to make their communities safer places to live.
Well, hello, my name is Bob Plaschke. I am the CEO of PepperBall. This and this is the front line. The front line, by the way, is loud the Frontline and from a policing perspective, that is but the voices behind it, they're louder and they're the right voices to listen to.
Bob Plaschke:This podcast is officially known as First Response. It's actually the number one podcast that takes you behind the badge and uncovers real stories and experiences of first responders from all walks of life and topics that shape public safety today. And I try to do this. Having not been a first responder, I'm trying to, as best I can understand the challenges that they face, and the best way to do that is to talk to folks who are practitioners, who do it on a day-to-day basis. So if you're curious about the human behind the hero and they are indeed heroes and the topics that drive policing today, this is your kind of front row seat, so let's get started.
Bob Plaschke:This podcast, I should say, is sponsored by Pepperball, where I have the distinct honor to serve as the chief executive officer. PepperBall creates non-lethal alternatives to guns that police use to keep themselves and the public that they serve safe. So today I'm super excited to have Deputy Chief Martin, Jim Martin on the podcast. Deputy Chief Martin is the, as you said, deputy Chief at Pueblo, Colorado, kind of a couple hundred thousand population city, which is about south of Denver, on the front range, as he would say, and they have about close to 200 sworn officers.
Bob Plaschke:Chief Barton, and I'm going to call you Chief through here. Welcome and thanks for taking the time, given that you served in the Army and now have had a long career here in policing. The events over the last couple of weeks in terms of lots of folks demonstrating their first right to speech, you know at the same time the Army's 250th anniversary, so congratulations. You know how do you, as a police officer, how do you look at the folks that do these marches and how do you think about it, how do you interact with them and how do you manage to keep them and the public in general safe?
Chief Jim Martin:You know it's a great question. Thanks, bob, for having me on. You know the Constitution of the United States is what we base our government and our lives on. And you know, having served in the military, you know I served, you know, eight years in the US Army and I did that to protect our citizens' rights, to be able to live under the Constitution and exercise their rights. You know, especially the First Amendment right.
Chief Jim Martin:You know we are 100% behind individuals exercising that right as long as they follow the rules and laws of their country, their state and their community. You know we work really closely with a lot of the organizations in our community and have a great relationship. We've built that relationship with them over, you know, many, many years of interaction. And you know, when somebody wants to have a rally or or something along those lines, we tend to meet with them before that, have a conversation with them, you know, ensure that their plans are, you know, within within the rules and the laws and and just have that open conversation and continue to build that relationship to where everybody involved can be safe and their people can be safe and our citizens can be safe. So we've had a good amount of you know. Things happen since 2020, like every department across the country, and it's been very peaceful and no issues. So you know that's what we're here for, as law enforcement is to protect our citizens, no matter you know what side they're on, and give everybody the opportunity to exercise their rights.
Bob Plaschke:Yeah, to your point, everyone, we're all Americans and so we're on at least on that side, and we all and I appreciate you know that you, um are defending their um, uh, freedom of speech and that's, you know, that's part of that's part of the job. It's not part of your day-to-day job but it is um part of the of what you guys do, um, you know, I, I and I'll tell you what I hear in my role is that 95% of these protests or marches, maybe 99%, are as you've described. They engage the police in front, they do what they do, they march in a very predictable way and then they finish up. It's only the 1%, 2%, 3 percent where it doesn't go that way. Is that been your experience, that you know the disruption, what we see? You know what we see are more the exception than the rule.
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah, I would say so. I think you know, predominantly most of them are peaceful. You know, if you, like you said, across the country, you know 95 percent are peaceful, they're exercising their rights and there's no issues. And I would say, you know, we haven't had an issue here, it's been very peaceful and people have exercised their rights and it's gone rather well rather well.
Bob Plaschke:I'm glad to hear that. That's the. You know I always I find it a bit perplexing and this is my own personal view that you know the folks would engage the police. You know that one or two or three percent when they are, when they're doing, when they're engaging the police in a unlawful way, you know you're kind of biting the hand that feeds you, so to speak, in the sense that that's the same police that are there to protect your, your right to assemble and your right to free speech. I can never particularly understand those bad actors, frankly, because that's why police are there. They're there. You take an oath to protect the public, um, not to, not to limit them in any way. Yeah, to protect the public, not to limit them in any way.
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah, definitely. I mean, you ask any police officer what they said during their first hiring interview, and it was I want to be here to serve and help people, and that's our goal and that's what we do.
Bob Plaschke:We were talking before the podcast that you have, I think, the capability of having 200 plus officers, but you're a little bit, you found, like you're about 20% shy of the number of officers that you want to have on the street. Many of the police chiefs have been on the show, have talked about the challenges of recruiting post George Floyd riots protests. I assume you've experienced the same, is it? It's probably more difficult to recruit than it has been in the past.
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah, it definitely has. We've had some difficulties recruiting people and you know we talked about living in Colorado and you know if anybody follows law enforcement in Colorado. We were one of the first states to have a police accountability law. We were one of the first states to have a police accountability law. Senate Bill 217, you know, passed after the George Floyd incident and you know it has really made it difficult for us to, you know, recruit. Some of the laws that have been passed in the state have made it difficult for us to do our jobs, so I think that has a huge effect on our recruiting.
Bob Plaschke:You know, it's just difficult to get people to come in and want to do this job when you know legislation is. You know, we've heard of different legislation in different parts of the country that, to your point, was kind of a you know, a kind of post-George Floyd reaction. What is the bill and what does it mean? I assume it increases personal liability for a police officer.
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah. So Senate Bill 217 came out directly right after after George, the George Floyd incident and it it impacted a lot of different areas of law enforcement. You know it required, you know, body cameras for every agency, which has happened across many, many States. It affected our qualified immunity, you know it had some impact, and we did have officers leave after that or to get out of law enforcement. But you know it's not just that legislation.
Chief Jim Martin:You know you look at some of the states like California, which is, you know, had this soft on crime aspect, and Colorado tends to have that too. We've had legislation passed and they're trying to fix some of it. But where it limited our ability to, you know, arrest individuals for certain crimes, you know we've we've lowered certain drug possession crimes from felonies and misdemeanors. So a lot of the stuff that that that's happened, you know, with our legislation in this state, has really affected our ability to do our job and I think that also, you know, in turn affects our ability to hire people right, because you know, when you want to be a police officer, you want to come out and you want to do what's right for the community and you want to help people and you want to serve, and part of that is is, you know, people holding people accountable for their actions, and I think you know, when you stop holding people accountable for their actions, it creates issues and you know other states look more inviting to be a law enforcement officer when they have.
Chief Jim Martin:you know consequences for individuals that break the law and you can actually do your job.
Bob Plaschke:Yeah, no, I think that's right. We were talking before the podcast. We're both very lucky to be parents of boys and I know that we have tried to create some degree of accountability in my household.
Bob Plaschke:But it's not easy, but to your point, you see the effects in your own household if you don't create accountability. And it's no different in the public context in that sense, um, and it's no different in the public context in that sense, um you, by the way, um, um, you know to kind of pat you on the back, you've been, um, um, you've been a long time, uh, football coach, um, I, I, I. I have been a long time baseball coach, but a football coach, and and, and part of it is a lot of outreach that you've done, um, in in combination with the department to the community, um, uh, outreach that you've done in combination with the department to the community. So you know, congratulations, how long were you a football coach, or maybe you're still are.
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah, so I wish I could still coach, but you know, being a deputy chief, I'm a little busy. But you know, back in 2009, me and at the time I was a detective in property crimes and me and another detective, you know we had a passion for coaching and I had younger kids at the time and you know we had a Bantam League. They were playing football over on the baseball fields. I'm like, no, we need football fields. So we went ahead and decided we were going to start an organization and went to the chief of police and asked if we could use the public police as the namesake for it. The Public Police Activities League, partnered with the Denver Broncos, got some funding and partnership with the city to build a sports complex. It's basically a big green field that we utilize on the south side of Caldwell it's about six acres and to hold our games. And we started developing this league, which we we have age groups from 8U, 10u, 12u and middle school and we, you know, bring in coaches, volunteer coaches, and we affect roughly about 800 kids a year. We also added lacrosse to it because I was also a lacrosse coach for a while when my boys were growing up. So I coached football from about 2009 to about 2015. Had the pleasure of coaching both my sons through it and got to coach a lot of kids and make a lot of connections and relationships in the community. Matter of fact, you know, you get success stories when you're out there impacting these youth. And we created the organization to really look at our children who weren't able to play sports because they couldn't afford it. So we provide helmets and shoulder pads to those kids that can't afford helmets and shoulder pads so they get to interact in a positive environment with, you know, positive role models to help, you know, help them move in the right direction, keep them out of crime, keep them busy, help them learn teamwork. You know resiliency. You know, and it's been a really good experience. You know I got two officers that work for us now which makes me feel old sometimes that I coached when they were in fifth grade, um, middle school, um.
Chief Jim Martin:You know I have kids that, um, you know, were in foster families. You know their whole life, because of issues with their, their natural parents, um that I stay in touch with. Um that are doing well, that are, you know, contributing members of our society. That you, you know, went to school, got good jobs, raised families and, uh, you know, if you you look at some of those kids, you know they're, they're uh, you know they're, they're kind of set up for failure anyway, um, but to have them succeed and make it through life and and still see on the streets, or you know, when you walk into a store and they, hey, coach, how you doing, it's pretty cool.
Chief Jim Martin:But you know, I think it's important that we continue to look at our youth and provide those positive role models and, you know, learning lessons to them, because you know they're our future. I mean, they're the kids that are going to be sitting in this seat someday. And you know our youth is, you know, the most important thing that we have in our communities and in order to do that, we have to be a community, we have to work together. So we've got great relationships with a lot of organizations and, you know, we're getting ready to wrap up football now, got more teams coming in, so it's going to be a good season and I think we've had a positive impact in the community. So it's been enjoyable.
Bob Plaschke:Well, congrats, I mean, I think to your point. Dad is the most important title for me. Coach ranks up there, maybe number two. It's certainly ahead of CEO in terms of titles. And great that a couple of these folks have you know kind of they are your future, their future of the Pueblo Police Department, that you pick up a couple of folks who, in their interactions with you, realize and appreciate what policing is.
Bob Plaschke:I, you know. A question I always ask is what you know, what you know, whoever I'm talking to, what would you most want someone to understand about policing? And I'm going to ask you that question. But the answer that I get a lot is that the police officer that you're dealing with is it's a brother, he's a father, he's a son, a daughter, a mother, he's a football coach right, he's a neighbor. He's no different than you.
Bob Plaschke:He's under a lot of he or she are under a lot of stress. You know it's a, it is a. Your life is on the line. So they are a bit more stressed than normal, but they're just. You know this is their job, it's their passion, no different than yours. And but you know it's not a, you know they're not a biologically or genetically. You know, different species. They're just people who want to help in the community, and so, you know, being a football coach, I see that a lot in terms of you know volunteering your time, and you know, I think it's kind of what. It's how I think of police in that context Police officers, they are part of the community. Let me ask the question, though, and you can use that answer if you'd like, but what's the one thing if you, you know you'd like people who are not in the profession to you know to think about or understand when they think about policing or US police officers?
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah, that's a great question because you know it's really important to me being a police officer, especially in Pueblo. You know I'm from here, born and raised, went to join the Army to get some experience in life, came back to my hometown. My family's been here for over 100 years. My grandfather came over from Sicily as an immigrant, came here set up a life and you know the reason I got into this job is, you know, to take care of my community and in doing that, looking at why I do this job is, like you said, I'm a coach, I'm a father. You know I go to work, you know, on graveyards, so I can be available to coach for my kids and their families. You know, and you know I call them my kids because you know I felt like I had, you know, on my teams, I had, you know, at some point. You know we had a lot of middle school team. We had 120 kids, you know, with three different teams. You know they became a part of my life and you know it's a passion, it's a love for what you're doing and you're 100% right. You know I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm a coach, you know, and I do this because I care.
Chief Jim Martin:And every day, you know you get up at night, have dinner, you know, get dressed, go to work. You know get home If it's football season, you're getting off at eight in the morning. You know getting up at four, getting your shorts and your shirt on and going to coaching. And you know getting back and have a dinner again. And you know it's it's just, it's a passion and it's a love for the community. And you know we were like everybody else. You know I coached with guys that were bankers. I coached with guys that were teachers. You know we're all here just trying to do what we can to make, you know, our community a better place. And you know so everybody can be safe and happy and live their lives and take care of their families.
Bob Plaschke:You know why one of the things I try to convey to my kids and people. I ask me they say, you know, why has the public been so, you know, at least the response by the public being, you know, viewed as being more, you know, hostile, more defensive, less trustful. You know? Any thoughts in terms of you know, over the last? I assume you would agree that over the last 10 years the relationship between the police and the public has changed, or maybe not, maybe not in Pueblo, but if it has changed, how has it changed in your mind and kind of any any observations on why you think that it has changed?
Chief Jim Martin:You know, looking at the aspect from Pueblo, I think we built our relationship over the past 10 years. We have a great relationship with the NAACP. We have a great relationship with the Latino Chamber of Commerce. You know, and it's about outreach that we've done, I think you know. Looking at, you know other areas of the country. I think you know it's hard for me to answer that because we've had such a great relationship here.
Chief Jim Martin:I think that sometimes, you know, sometimes you look at how things are portrayed in the media and I think you only get part of the story. You don't get the whole story. You get that sometimes in news articles or interviews here they only give you snippets of what you're saying and sometimes that's taken out of context and it's presented wrong and it creates issues. If people would just like we talked about being human beings behind the badge, I mean, we're just people going to work. You know you look at what happened in LA and I was talking to my wife about it and I said I feel bad for those guys because all they're doing is their job. You know they were told to go out and protect both the protesters and the citizens and the buildings. They're just doing their job. They're not out there being spit and venom or trying to do things to anybody, they're just doing their job. And I think you know sometimes how things are portrayed kind of changes that view of what's going on and it creates issues I think that's right.
Bob Plaschke:I mean, I think they said the number of murders is down, yet people feel less unsafe, in part because what is conveyed in 30 second clips is a lot more about the violence, and I think that's. You know, that's. That's the thing that I think is a bit sad in, you know, absent. You know, in the old days, dating myself, you know your perspective of policing was based on what you experienced and what your friends experienced, and generally they were all positive experiences. You know, you call 911, someone showed up and now people's experience is shaped by what they consume digitally and I think there, you know, it only conveys the worst. You don't.
Bob Plaschke:I mean all the stories. You don't get the stories every day of the police chief going and put his football coach, you know, and his whistle on, or the. You know the people helping the community and you know people, the police officers, helping and doing what they do every day, and all the 911 calls and all the interventions and all the times that they've saved a life. So it's a bit slanted to the negative, unfortunately, but it is what it is. On that note, I was. You know we were talking beforehand about changing and policing and you had talked about, you had recently taken over the, your High Crime Information Center.
Bob Plaschke:I think is what the right name is, yeah, high Crime Center, high Crime Center and you know this is. I think this is, you know, this is where digital technology actually is to a positive right. For those who don't understand what that center is or what it does and its impact to the community, could you give us a little bit of an overview?
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah, definitely so. We have a real-time crime center that's been up for about a year about a year. We have several different technologies that we utilize in it. We utilize ShotSpotter, which is a gunshot detection system. We have around 75 advanced license plate readers. We have about 350 cameras. We have access to that are in government buildings and we are standing up a drone as first responder program with Brink drones. What this allows us to do is we're able to get a drone on scene within 60 to 90 seconds of a call to provide real time intelligence to our officers. As well. As you know evidence, you know purposes if anything happens.
Chief Jim Martin:We've had great success with this. You know, with ShotSpotter alone, you know when you look and the biggest stat to me is not how many gunshots we've detected, not how many shell casings we've recovered. The biggest stat to me is the life saved. So we've had 21 incidents since inception of ShotSpotter in February 24th where we've provided life-saving measures to individuals who were shot that we did not receive a call from a citizen on. And the interesting statistic is about 85% of the shot alerts that we get through ShotSpotter we do not get a call from the citizen, which is pretty consistent across the country. So you know, without that system, you know those are 21 people who may not be with us now. So we were able to save 21 lives.
Chief Jim Martin:With the added technology that we have with the system, you know, we're going to be able to have our citizens register their ring cameras. Um, we can't look at their ream cameras, but what it does, it gives us an idea of, uh, you know locations where those cameras are and if we have an incident occur in that neighborhood, we can send out a mass email to those individuals and say could you please look at your cameras between this time and this time? Um, we're looking for you white vehicle or an incident occurred to you with your video, and if you have anything that would assist us in the investigation, please send it to us and they can just email it to us. I mean, in July we are also having a meeting here at the police department with our business partners and the community where we can actually federate their cameras into the real-time crime center, such as businesses and other organizations, where we will actually federate their cameras into the real-time crime center, such as businesses and other organizations, where we will have access to those cameras in case something does happen. So it gives us a whole new level of responsiveness for both the citizens and our officers.
Chief Jim Martin:I can tell you stories of where we've logged into body cameras. We had an incident where we had a female officer get in a full pursuit with an individual with a knife that she contacted and our real-time crime center sergeant was able to log into that body camera and see the direction of travel she was running. So instead of having her worry about keeping an eye on the suspect airing her direction and location on the radio, he was able to get into that, air it over the radio so other officers could respond to the scene to assist her and all she had to do was focus on the individual she was chasing so she could really focus her, her vision on what she needed to focus, focus it on and in talking with the officers it was interesting because they feel like now they have kind of an angel in the sky, they have somebody that can be their virtual backup and, you know, get that information out quickly and, you know, promote more officer safety. So you know I'm excited about, you know, what we have here. I'm excited about the implementation of the Drones Versus Smarter program. We'll have three drones this year up and running in Pueblo. In two years we'll go to five drones and we'll be able to cover the city with that technology and, like I said, provide real time intelligence within 60 seconds of a scene to our officers.
Chief Jim Martin:The other good thing about it, too, is with the staffing shortages around the country. One of the things that it can do is it can also clear about 25% of the calls for service where you don't need to send an officer to. You know suspicious vehicles have been sitting there for a while. You know we get calls in Pueblo. You know of a man with a weapon and then when the officer gets there, you know it's a 65-year-old man walking down the street with a rather tall cane or stick. So you can utilize that drone to clear those calls and have your officer available for more higher priority calls where life and live is at risk, and you know so it's.
Chief Jim Martin:It has a lot of different capabilities. That, I think, is going to be a huge benefit to our department.
Bob Plaschke:Oh, I totally agree, it's. You know, PepperBall is a de-escalation tool because it allows officers to engage subjects at distance, but this is the ultimate de-escalation in that and aerial some perspective, so that they can. It allows them to, I would imagine. It allows them to calm their mind and engage in a way that's appropriate, as opposed to having that little bit of adrenaline when you don't know exactly what you're dealing with.
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah, I mean just the example of the female officer that was in the foot pursuit. I mean, when I started back in 02, in 02, you know I worked the east side of 12 along gray guards and we didn't have body cams or gps or anything. And you know you get a foot chasing, great on graveyard. You're in an alley somewhere and everybody's asking where you're at and you're like I'm somewhere on the east side, um, you know, if you lose track of where you're going, and to have this ability now where you have an individual sitting at a desk that has all this technology that can log into your camera and see where it's running and be like, yeah, she's, she's here, she's traveling westbound there between this street and this street in the alley, you know they're going to pop out here. You know 10 seconds and you got guys that are ready.
Bob Plaschke:So, you know, like I said, it's kind of like an angel in the sky. You know, guardian angel, how do you address, you know, the I guess the devil's advocate would say privacy? This is a big brother Now we'll have, you know, constant surveillance. You know my, my, my dozen license plate readers, cameras, et cetera, et cetera. How do you address the privacy issue?
Chief Jim Martin:So you know we have retention policies, of course, right For retaining video. You know we have very strict rules and policies that dictate how we utilize these systems. So, like cameras, we can't look in people's windows without a search warrant. We can't look at people's yards you know fencing yards. You know if we're doing an investigation, you know, without a search warrant, you know so we have to abide by the laws of the state. We have to abide by our policies. You know.
Chief Jim Martin:And of course you have policies and you know if somebody violates those we'll hold them accountable for those violations. But you know we stick to what our policies say and you know our legal team reviews what we have and ensure that. You know we have the utmost protection for our citizens. You know, when you talk about the cameras that we're looking at the businesses to connect in, you know we have waivers and acknowledgments so they know what they're exactly getting into. And you know also, you know when you look at the ring cameras, we cannot log into ring. We won't do that. We don't want to do that. We just want to have all. We want to have the ability and the technology to protect our citizens and provide good cases up to our district attorney's office so we can ensure that you know we're, you know, impacting crime in a positive way in our community and, you know, improving the quality of life.
Bob Plaschke:And just a specific question, that that means drones. You can't fly the drone into the backyard. Does that mean you have to kind of stay in the street? I mean, that's a no, so we can fly the drone.
Chief Jim Martin:But what I mean by that is is we're not gonna. We're not gonna look in people's windows. You know we're not gonna fly into that. So you know, barricaded suspect. We're going to put the drone up. We have a reason to be there. You know we'll have the drone up providing overwatch. So, yeah, if we have a reason to be there, we're going to be there. But you know we're not going to look inside your windows. We're not going to enter your house unless we have a search warrant. You know that nature.
Bob Plaschke:It's interesting, our listeners in the US drones. You know, the FAA does a really good job of limiting drone activity and, as an example, you're not allowed in an absence of a waiver, I think, you're not allowed to deploy anything from a drone. So people always ask what about? You know Pepperball from a drone? And we say that's just. You know, the FAA doesn't allow that in an outside context. They do. By the way, interestingly enough, I just recently learned that they will give you a license to deploy inside a building, which I thought was interesting. So there's schools now starting to be equipped with drones for active shooting and then, the drones basically have.
Bob Plaschke:It's not a lethal capability, but they've allowed for our non-lethal capability to be deployed inside a school, which I thought was, you know, at least a step in the right direction.
Chief Jim Martin:Yeah, technology is. I mean, it's a force multiplier. You know we're going to be having you know, it doubles every year. And looking at what it's going to be doing for law enforcement, what we're doing across the country, it's going to be huge.
Bob Plaschke:Well, you know, the chief, by the way, told me that at the end of this podcast he gets to go on vacation, so I'm not going to hold him, not going to hold him up, um, and enjoy the, the, the few days off, um, um, you know I'm going to go back, um, uh, to let two last questions. But the second to last question is you know what's what's one misconception about police that you'd you know that people think, and it's just wrong, just wrong, um, that you've heard over your career you know, I guess the one thing I think you know I'm sure a lot of people have heard this is that we got in the job because we're bullies, um you know, oh interesting, I have not heard that, but okay I've heard that we've gotten the job because we're bullies.
Chief Jim Martin:You know we're. You know we wanted to have some power, you know it. That's not why we did this job to do this job. We. We do this job because we care and we have a deep love and passion for our communities and we want to help people. So I think that's the biggest thing that I've.
Bob Plaschke:I found humorous, you know, when people said people said you know, and I now, having heard that, I can understand. I can, at least I don't know I can understand where the question might have emanated from, but I completely agree, I have. It's almost the. It is the opposite in the hundreds and hundreds of police officers I meet every year. Is that, you know? That is the word. That is not the word that would ever come to mind in any context. It is what you say. It is someone who cares for and thinks about the community. That's kind of why they don't risk their lives to be a bully.
Chief Jim Martin:That's not a good ROI. In that context, I mean some of the people with the biggest hearts I've met are cops.
Bob Plaschke:Yep, I agree, I totally agree. Well, chief, this is the last question, which is, we'd love to make a small donation, an honorarium on behalf of first responders, this podcast, to your favorite charity.
Chief Jim Martin:What charity can we donate to?
Bob Plaschke:Let's go to COPS. Okay, great, you're not the first and you won't be the last to pick that organization. It's the. It's a great organization in terms of taking care of those who fall into the line of duty. I super appreciate it. Well, folks, thanks for listening.
Bob Plaschke:You know and that was Deputy Chief Martin out of the Pueblo, colorado Police Department you know that we didn't talk much about it, but Pueblo is not a quiet suburbs, it's a blue-gray-collar community and it has a lot of challenges, a lot of gang violence there. And you think about what you heard from Chief Martin, an empathetic football coach who's, you know, been in the community, lived there for 100 years his family's been there for 100 years, I should say and you know just wants to do right and get back to the community. And you know that is, you know that is the police, the police officers I meet every day, and you know, and that community is lucky to have him and lucky to have his leadership and lucky to have those two folks who graduated from his football program as police officers. Because, you know, that is what policing is. By the way, in the United States it's a very local context. It's primarily people who grew up there who want to serve their communities.
Bob Plaschke:This is not a, you know you don't bring people in from other parts of the world. It's just a. It's a local, it's a local job to keep the community safe and lots of local people who really care. The other thing I took away is this force multiplier from technology. We have to, you know and this is as a community member you have to, and I'd encourage folks to think about that and in terms of when police and fire agencies try to raise money with bonds, that they're raising it to save lives, you know they're not raising it for salaries, they're not usually raising it to bring new technology and capabilities to make their community safer. And you heard about ShotSpotter, which you know.
Bob Plaschke:It has saved 20 lives in Pueblo over the last couple of years, simply because they can get someone out to someone that's been shot and they can get medical aid to them so they can save their lives. So it's a technology is good, I would say, particularly in the hands of police who are very thoughtful about how to deploy it. Well, that's it for me and for this podcast. This is I am Bob Plaschke, I am the CEO of Pepperball and this is First Response.
Bob Plaschke:Hopefully you enjoyed the half hour or so that we went behind, kind of, in this case, chief Martin's badge and uncovered and talked about him and his background and the experiences that have shaped him and how he serves and protects his local community. I appreciate you guys listening Again. I'm going to shout out one more time to PepperBall the pitch is, that Pepper Ball does and it does it now for 6,000 agencies across the United States produce non-lethal alternatives to guns that police can use to keep themselves and the public safe. Signing off for now and we'll see you next time, thank you.
