Hey Chaplain: The Police Wellness Podcast

Send us a Text Message.Today we're talking again to Jonathon Westbrook, from episode 011. Now, two years later, Jonathon is running for a seat in the US House of Representatives. Because he's making a first time run for congress, I wanted to put his story in front of you, to give you a glimpse into the process, and to talk about what it means for a cop to run for public office. I know a lot of you can follow the same path, and maybe you should, but before you do, please listen to Jonath...

Send us a Text Message.Surprise! It's the 100th episode of the Hey Chaplain podcast… if you count every "part two," bonus, and update. So today let's talk about where the podcast is at and what's coming in the future. The show is opening doors for me and for my guests and I'm really grateful to you for spreading the word; thanks for telling a cop or someone who loves a cop!And from the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting Hey Chaplain!Music is by Chris HaugenHey Chaplain Milestone Epi...

Send us a Text Message.Naturally, I think every cop should listen to every episode of Hey Chaplain. But this one… this is really important. It's about leadership and integrity, corruption and gaslighting… it's a about a type of dishonest supervisor who can destroy the culture of a police department and then walk away looking like the only hero. Warren Wilson calls that character a Münchausen Manager and he wrote an article about it for Police1, which is how I found him. ...

Send us a Text Message.We need 10,000 more first responder chaplains but there's not enough church-trained clergy to recruit those kinds of numbers. So we are going to have to recruit retired first responders! Retired first responders come with a pension, cultural competency, and a passion for the people who run toward danger. But they'll need training, pastoral experience, and one other thing… convincing.Thank you to the guys from the Washdown Podcast for the excerpt from Episode 125Music is...

Send us a Text Message.Ward Jenkins is joining us again. I was wanting to do an episode, not specifically on Internal Affairs, but generally about officer integrity. Ward has a good story on that topic and he was also adjacent to the famous Rampart Corruption Scandal in LA over twenty years ago. So Ward can speak specifically about cops throwing away their career, or worse, for short term gain. There is no greater danger to your career than compromise; this is an area ...

Send us a Text Message.Today we're talking about cold case investigation with J Warner Wallace, he's a famous cold case homicide detective who had his cases featured on television for a decade. Interestingly, he also was once a 35 year old atheist cop who applied his knowledge of solving cold cases to the Bible and then became a Christian. A police officer who's law enforcement skills led him to faith? Now that's an interesting story.The first twenty minutes or so are about cold c...

Send us a Text Message.The 1980 Norco Shootout was an astonishing bank robbery turned running gun battle turned manhunt turned courtroom drama/circus. And like any critical incident, it had an effect on everyone involved. But throughout this story, I kept asking the same question: how are these officers doing now, 40 years after the deadly event?Author Peter Houlahan was in a unique position to help me answer that question; he had interviewed almost everyone involved. And wh...

Send us a Text Message.The Norco shootout is a very modern critical incident, despite happening over 40 years ago. Apart from the lack of cell phones, much of this could happen today. The bank robbery, shootout, and manhunt that happened in Riverside County California in 1980 are important in part because it is one of just a few historical events that directly led to every police car in America having a patrol rifle. It's also important because four decades have passed; thi...

Send us a Text Message.Let's define a wellness retreat as a combination of vacation, seminar, professional conference, and counseling session. But most cops I know are very reluctant to go to one, in fact they avoid it like the plague. But I want to encourage you to attend these events. And I also want to figure out how we can make these events more effective at helping first responders and veterans. To that end, we'll be talking to my friend from California, Mat...

Send us a Text Message.Today I'm talking to Paul Kurtzweil, better known on YouTube as QRoo Paul. Paul is a retired deputy who moved to Mexico but now finds himself teaching Spanish on YouTube. I wanted to talk to Paul for multiple reasons. First I think he genuinely can help those of us who are stuck in learning Spanish. But secondly, I wanted you to hear from a retired LEO who is very successfully navigating his second chapter. You might not want to teach a sec...