What the Badge Costs: Aaron Hamilton’s Story

Service isn’t a headline; it’s a table conversation. Sitting down with retired Owensboro Police Department sergeant and former Army MP Aaron Hamilton, we unpack the real rhythms of police work: the long stretches of quiet, the sudden surge of adrenaline, and the mental load that comes from never knowing when routine turns critical. Aaron opens up about the moment he chose family over a military career, the habits forged in uniform that shaped his leadership, and the hard-won tools that helped him bring less of the job home.

We dig into the unseen parts of the profession: meticulous paperwork, courtroom whiplash, and the power of discretion. Aaron shares standout training experiences—from Drug Recognition Expert certification with LAPD to weeks immersed in the Kentucky Criminalistics Academy, the “body farm,” entomology timelines, and post-blast investigations with the ATF. We explore how technology, drones, and robotics are changing safety and evidence collection, and why law enforcement can’t afford to lag behind. Yet the heart of the story is human: a city that buys lunch for officers, kids learning archery at Camp Cops, neighbors meeting patrols over coffee, and the Fraternal Order of Police rallying new shoes for school and support at Christmas.

Mentorship threads through it all. The academy frames the house; experience and guidance make it livable. Aaron’s advice to new officers is simple and tough: be fair, be fit, learn fast, and guard your identity beyond the badge. He shares a moment when someone he once arrested stood up for him in a crowd—a reminder that respect outlasts job titles. We close with legacy and gratitude: a call to embrace Owensboro’s “big little town” spirit and to keep building the kind of trust that makes communities safer.

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Transcript

Setting The Table: Service And Family

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Police work is like 85% pure boredom with 15% adrenaline dump kind of mixed in.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

That's retired Owensboro police sergeant and former military police officer Aaron Hamilton. Today's episode is about service, family, mentorship, and the weight that comes with wearing the badge. This isn't a headline conversation, it's a table conversation. And before we jump in, we want to say thank you to the Blue Bridge crew. To celebrate this episode, we're giving away an OYBL basketball jersey. We'll tell you how to enter later in the show. But right now, welcome to All Things Owns, bro. Hey guys, welcome to All Things Owns, Bro. Welcome back. We're so glad you joined us this week. Look, I don't know about you guys, it may be corny. I know I came up with the a word, a name for the followers, Blue Bridge Crew. I think it's kind of fun. If it's not, just let me know and we'll change it up. But you know, today I have a special guest with me today. I say that with every single person I've on here, but I I really mean it. We we do have a special guest with us today, and it is Aaron Hamilton, uh retired from the Owensboro Police Department and in the military. And so, Aaron, thanks so much for joining on to it today with us. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Yes, sir. So, you know, I think the cool thing about having you on is a lot of people don't know what all goes into being a police officer. A lot of times they think, oh, they just write tickets or they're the first ones on the scene. I mean, so we'll kind of go into that, give people an idea there. But you first you served in the U.S. Army. And so what inspired you to what first inspired you to serve in the Army and then later to law enforcement?

SPEAKER_04 1:30

Well, I come from a military family. My dad served in the Air Force, my grandfather served in the Marine Corps in World War II. I mean, I have an uncle that's retired out of the Air Force, another uh cousin that's retired out of the Air Force. So, of course, I had to be the black sheep of the family and kind of go a different route, go into the army. But yeah, but that's uh, you know, a big reason behind why I served.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah, do you guys ever like banter back and forth?

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Oh, most definitely.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Okay, I was I know there's like my brother does is in the army, but he like calls Marine Crown Eaters and Chair Force and Yeah, definitely chair force.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Uh I throw that out there a lot.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Yeah, no, it's cool. Well, so you know, going in, and we'll go more into the military/slash law enforcement thing later, but what made you want to transition from army to law enforcement?

SPEAKER_04 2:13

I think probably the big reason of why I was kind of at a crossroads in my military career at that point. I'd been married about seven years. I had a five-year-old daughter, and uh at that point in my career, I'd been deployed three times overseas. And so my wife kind of gave me an ultimatum like you need to choose, you know, what's more important to you, your family or your career. So I made that decision to go ahead and ultimately get out of the army. And so, you know, I was out for about six months drawing unemployment, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And uh I really missed the camaraderie of the military, uh, the brotherhood, I guess. Okay. And so I felt like law enforcement would be probably the closest thing that could kind of replicate that for me. And I had studied um law enforcement technology at the Owensboro Community College before I went in the military. And I I served as a military police officer and a criminal investigator while I was in the army. So so it was just kind of a natural fit for me to get out and transition into civilian law enforcement.

Habits, Leadership, And Home Life

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Okay, cool. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, you know, you talked about your time in the army, and so, you know, we talked about a little bit before we jumped on, like the military kind of ingrains habits and ticks and whatnot into you. And so, how is the military service really carried into police workforce to daily life? Like, how does that affect your leadership?

SPEAKER_04 3:30

I think it has a lot of effect on me personally. The military really ingrains certain things into you, one being attention to detail. And as a police officer, being in law enforcement, being an investigator, you know, paying attention to the little details a lot of times makes a difference in the outcome of an investigation. Time management's another big thing that the military really ingrains in you. And so, you know, it's just something I've I've kind of always done ever since I got out. One one thing, funny thing, and my wife kind of harps on me all the time about this. She's like, you eat like somebody's going to steal your food from you.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:07

And that definitely comes from the military. Like uh, you know, I I can't help myself. Like, I'll sit down and I'll just, you know, I'll be done eating before like the rest of my family's already made their plate. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

You know, and so like it's just a habit and it's it's hard to you know kind of overcome that break out of that, yeah. Yeah, I got told that too, but I wasn't in the military, so I'm just I just like to eat. All right, so you know, you talked about being a dad, that kind of was a situation of how you kind of gone in the law enforcement was having a daughter and you have a wife, and so I know sometimes like it takes a lot of it takes a lot of intentionality to kind of separate the two. Like you don't bring stuff home, it's hard not to, especially when you're in the middle of investigation, um, especially if it's something that just really kind of tore you up. And so, like, how do you find the balance in like separating home from from work and or it if you haven't, like, what are some things that you've tried to to help with that?

SPEAKER_04 4:59

Uh, I think that's a that's a trap that uh that a lot of police officers find themselves falling into because you know the things that we deal with on a daily basis are things that most people will go their entire life and never see or never have to experience. And so you don't necessarily want to bring that home to your family, you don't want to expose them to the things that you're dealing with on a daily basis, but that causes some hardships in your relationship because when your your spouse and your kids will be like, Well, you don't ever share anything with us, you close yourself off, and and so you you have to find a balance, you don't want to tell them too much, yeah, but you got to be able to talk to them and communicate with them. And I I was definitely guilty of that for a long time in my career until uh I actually was given a book called Emotional Survival for Law for Law Enforcement by Dr. Gil Martin. And after reading that book, like a lot of the things that he talked about in the book, I'm like, man, that's me. He's talking about me. Like, I I do that. And so it that book kind of gives you some strategies and some, you know, some kind of things that you can try to do to like not fall into those traps. And so I I I think it helped me reading that book to have a little bit better relationship with my family and actually be able to kind of open up a little bit about what I'm dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

That's cool, that's cool. So no, that's good. I think finding tools to put in your toolbox for anybody is helpful, whether it's uh whether you're in a law enforcement or if you're someone that works at Burger King, you know, like everybody is either going through something or has gone through stuff. And I know, like you said, there's stuff that you guys will see that a lot of us won't see in our lifetime, which we don't want to, you know. But yeah, so it's cool that you're willing to say, okay, I can add these to my toolbox. You were and the self-awareness too, even of like, okay, that's me. You know, it wasn't you didn't just read the book, put it down, and keep going on. Like that was so kudos. I don't know if that's a really cool word anymore, but good job on that. I'm really proud of you for doing that. And so, you know, what's something about police work that people outside of the hormone department may not realize? And so if we're an average citizen, we think, oh, you just pull people over. Like I see the same guy pull people over every morning in front of Newton Parish when I drop my girls off. We have some fun with it, but we know there's more than just that. And so, so kind of go into what what's it look like? What's a as much as you can, like, what's it look like going beating a police officer?

SPEAKER_04 7:09

Um, well, the first thing I'll say is I I I always tell people that police work is like 85% pure boredom with 15% adrenaline dump kind of mixed in.

SPEAKER_03 7:21

Okay.

The 85% Boredom, 15% Adrenaline

SPEAKER_04 7:22

But you never know when that adrenaline dump's coming. You know, you it could be the next call, it could be the next traffic stop. You could literally, you know, turn off one street onto another and roll up on something that's you know like happening right then and there, and you got to get out and deal with it. So that's a big that's a big part of it. And uh, you know, so that that causes officers to have to be at uh like a really high level of attention and be like on alert all the time. And so that you know, that can cause some some problems. Like it you're you're almost burnt out at the end of the day when you go home because mentally you've been switched on all day long and you're you know trying to be ready for what's around the next corner. So it it can drain you mentally. You know, I think a lot of people watch movies, they watch TVs, and they they think they know what law enforcement is.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

And cops.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Yeah, like cops. There's way more paperwork involved. You know, it's not all driving fast and chasing bad guys. There's a lot of paperwork that's involved, you know, and that's that's probably the part that most cops hate the most, is just the amount of paperwork that we have to do. You know, a big part of it is the criminal justice system itself, the judicial system. And you know, you fight over your career. I I know I fought over my career for 20 years with the with the judicial system, and you've and it just lets us down. You know, there's so many times where you're arresting somebody, and you know, before you can get the paperwork done and all the evidence logged in, you know, they're letting them out the the you know the front door. Yeah. And so it's real easy to get kind of cynical and jaded, you know, with the way the process is because it's you almost feel like you're fighting a losing battle. Yeah. You know, you you tend to deal with within the community, I would say I would deal with like five percent of the population about 99% of the time.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:05

You know, you know, every once in a while you're gonna deal with somebody, some little old lady who wrecks her car or you know, some kid's had a bicycle stolen or something, but you know, it's the like five percent of the population who you're dealing with all the time. Okay, you know, and so you you almost get tired of dealing with the same people and locking them up, you know. It's like it's a revolving door. Yeah. So it's very frustrating rosters.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yeah, was it is it hard for you again? If you don't answer, it's fine. But if it is it, is it hard for you to go to like festivals events when you're off duty, like with family when you know so much about people just because you're a police officer? Is it is it hard to like enjoy those things?

SPEAKER_04 9:41

I don't I don't know that I would say it's hard to enjoy them. Um but it's it's always in the back of your mind that like, hey, I could be out here with my family and I could I could run into somebody that I've you know that I've dealt with in the past and kind of be put in a in an awkward position. So like my family, you know, kind of early on had a had an understanding that like if I ever told them like, hey, walk the other way, like don't question it. Just walk just take off and let me deal with what I need to deal with and we'll we'll meet up you know later on or later. So those are the little things like a lot of people don't realize that, especially like when you're policing in the community that you live in.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Well, that's what I was thinking, yeah. And like just being able to enjoy the community itself, you know, when you deal with all the other stuff on top of that, I think would be hard. I know it'd be hard for me to try to separate.

SPEAKER_04 10:27

Yeah, and and I've you know, I've I've most definitely had those encounters over the years to where like I would run into somebody that I'd literally locked up, you know, a month ago or been at their house last week on a domestic or something. So sometimes that's those can be awkward uh situations.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Yeah, gotcha. All right, well, yeah, that's interesting because again, like we just assume the the stuff that we see on TV, we don't always go to see the other side of things either. So that was really cool, a cool way to go into okay, what else do you do? Like, I don't know if people realize how much paperwork you guys do. Um, I know that from a few other cop friends I have, like, paperwork is it's it's burdensome, but it has to be done. And so, but people realize that there's not all that paperwork in there. And so it's really cool to hear that perspective. You know, looking back of your career, you retired at the end of January, so you put in 20 years. July. Or July. Sorry, I thought it was January. So, either way, that was 20 years of of police police service that you give to OPD. Is there any particular moments that stand out, like either proud achievement or or lessons learned the hard way? Quick pause here. We want to thank the Blue Bridge crew for showing up week after week. We're giving away a Owensboro Youth Basketball League jersey. And here's how to enter. On our social post for this episode, tell us about someone who mentored you or showed up for you when it mattered. We'll pick one story to send you an adult-sized jersey. All right, let's get back to the table.

SPEAKER_04 11:50

Um, you know, yeah, there's some definitely some some proud achievements uh over the course of my career. I got uh selected to go to some training called Drug Recognition Expert training. Okay. And basically what that is is uh you get training in how to uh spot and determine when somebody is under the influence of drugs. Like so basically it's used for DUI enforcement. Okay. But part of that program, like the last part of it, I had to go out to LA and I worked with the LAPD. Oh, that sounds pretty cool. Doing some field work basically to get my certification. Okay. And so that was a really cool experience. Another cool thing that I really enjoyed doing in my career. Um, I got towards the latter part of my career, I really got into crime scene processing, evidence collection, that kind of stuff. And so the state of Kentucky has a program called the Kentucky Criminalistics Academy. And it's two basically it's two five-week sessions that you go to.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Okay.

Recognition, Training, And The Body Farm

SPEAKER_04 12:47

But like the second five-week session, the first week, I got to go down to the University of Tennessee at High School.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Did you get to see the course, the course under the field?

SPEAKER_04 12:57

Yeah, so I went to what people commonly refer to as the body farm.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

And uh that was a really cool experience learning about the the classes basically designed around like how to, if you have a clandestine grave, like how to process the crime scene, like collect the bones and stuff. But but we had other classes that were involved in that, like entomology, which is the study of bugs and how really okay how bugs and stuff interact with with the corpse and how to how to be able to like basically kind of give a timeline of this person's been here X amount of days or months. Yeah, it's interesting. So yeah. So yeah, that was really cool. It does sound really cool, yeah. I know a lot of people think it's really morbid. And it and I didn't guess it it is.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Well, you just you don't even think about it, like bugs being a crucial part of the crime scene.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

Yeah. So yeah, that was a that was a really cool week to spend down there. Part of that class I did a a week long, it's called post-blast investigation.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

And we were working with the ATF and basically they were explaining to us how to investigate like a bomb. So, like if a car bomb went off, or like somebody put a pipe bomb in a mailbox or something like that. Yeah. Of how like what what evidence you're looking for, how to collect that, that kind of stuff. And that was okay. That was very interesting. It was kind of scary.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:07

And obviously, I'm not gonna go into a whole lot of it, but they basically told us and kind of showed us how you can literally get on the internet and basically order everything you need from Amazon to build a bomb, you know, for the for the most part. Yeah, there's a few little things that you can't get, but yeah, but it's kind of scary how easy it is.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

How accessible it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

If you know what you're doing, how easy it is to actually build a bomb. It's it's not that crazy hard.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yeah. You know, you talk about you know the training, and that was all cool. Did you get any like special recognitions during time? I know sometimes they give those out. I was just curious.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

Yeah, early in my career for the DUI enforcement stuff, I won the uh governor's award for DUI enforcement three three uh three different times. So how do how do you how do you achieve that award? So basically each department will submit an officer, and it's based off how many DUI arrests that you made for like a year-long period of time. So three different times I got submitted for that. One year I won the Davis McLean County uh mad okay Mother's Against Drunk Drivers driving, I won won their chapter award one year. Okay. I mean I won later on in my career, I won the governor's award for seat belt enforcement.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

So that year I think I wrote probably 600 seatbelt tickets in a year.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Wow. So yeah, in fact, uh, it was interesting. I this is off subject a little bit, but I was going down oh, it was a four-lane. No, I was doing out that's what it was. I was doing down Frederica, and this cop, the sheriff, was like pull like driving beside me, and there's a car in front of me, and he pulled up next to him, and then when the light turned green, he pulled him over. I think it was a seatbelt just because I'm like it was just kind of really like a random thing, but I'm just like, man, like I don't know. I as a little kid, you you know, seatbelts are frustrating, but now it's like I don't even think twice, you know, and I know that it just surprised me that you had 600, but yeah, it you know, and the strange thing to me with that, you know, a seatbelt ticket, I believe it's still$25 and it's prepayable, which means you don't even have to go to court.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Oh, wow. I would have more people get upset with me about me writing them a seatbelt ticket than they would like if I wrote them a speeding ticket, which really you know, could be a$160,$180 ticket. And it's like I don't know, some people are just so anti-seat belt and I don't understand it. Like I too many times in my career I've worked fatal collisions or been you know beyond the scene of a fatal collision, and you know, most of them, not all of them, but most of them had they been when they're seatbelt, you know, probably would have saved their life.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah, gotcha. Yeah, so I know it's important. And so, you know, you're talking about uh you've been you know been with Owensboro PD for 20 years, been part of the community. What makes and I know you get to see it from different angles, so this might be kind of an interesting take on it, but what do you think makes Owensboro Owensboro? Like what what makes this community special? Like how do you see the spirit reflected in how the officers serve here?

SPEAKER_04 16:50

Man, that's a that's a great question. I think what makes Owensboro Owensboro is that we're we're like, I describe it as like a big little town. You know, it Owensboro is a community where even though you know it's like 60,000 people, it's it's that community where everybody still feels like they kind of know everybody. And because of that, like just the the uh the people you meet, the the partnerships and stuff that you make without you know, with out in the community, it's great. That's honestly like the people and the relationships and stuff are the thing that I miss the most since I retired. It's just the people that like I I've you know worked with for 20 years. Not talking about other topics, I'm talking about people out in the community that I dealt with on a daily basis. It's I miss seeing those people and interacting with them and talking to them.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

But I I will say that I feel truly blessed over the course of my career to have worked in Ownsborough. I cannot tell you the amount of times that I would go into a subway to eat lunch or Chick-fil-A or what, you know, wherever. And I would get up to the counter and I would order and they'd say, Hey, somebody's already paid for your lunch. Oh, that's cool. You know, I had that happen to me on on numerous occasions where I would actually be out with my family. Like maybe I met my family for dinner and I'd be in a uniform or something, and I'd ask the waiter, hey, I need my check, and they'd be like, Yeah, somebody's already paid for your whole phone.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_04 18:07

You know, and so like I feel like Owensborough as a community as a whole, that like the community really supports law enforcement, they really bike them. Yeah, and that that made my job a lot easier, you know. Yeah, it does, yeah. Because a lot of cops across the country don't have that, you know, they work in communities where you know the communities don't do not like the police, yeah, don't support them. And so, like I said, I I feel blessed to have worked where I did.

Awards, Seatbelts, And Frustrations

SPEAKER_00 18:30

That's cool. You know, and you talked about going out in the community and just how the community responds to you guys. I know my wife's over at Cravens and there's SpongeBob uh that does DARE. And I know he used to be here, I can't remember his name. Joe Bob? Yeah, Joe Bob's. Yeah, it's Joe Bob, yeah. So he he worked here a little bit for a little while, but you know, obviously they're going you guys are going out in the community through DARE. There's other things you guys are doing. What steps during your time at OPD was there taking to strengthen that connection in Owensboro?

SPEAKER_04 18:56

I I will say I think that's one thing that that I I give OPD credit on and that they they do a lot of things. I feel like they try to to kind of strengthen those relationships and bonds in the community. Within the within the last couple of years, I'm not real sure exactly when they started it, but they started a program called Police in the Parks. Okay. So like during the summertime, they'll just pick a park, you know, they kind of move it around the city, but they'll go out on a you know on a day and cook a bunch of hot dogs and hamburgers or whatever and just hand out free food and just interact with the community.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

They do the thing with the kids too, right? Where they get to like do a bunch of different activities. Is that similar?

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Well, so they have a program called Camp Cops. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Yes. Yeah, Camp Cops is a great program. Um they take basically they take kind of underprivileged kids and they have uh a week long uh camp that they take them out to. I believe it's Camp Schaefer.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

And they go out there and they do all kinds of stuff with them. You know, they fish, they play games, they teach them archery, you know, they do do that kind of stuff. And that's I think that's a really great program. We have the coffee with a cop program. Program that we do. I think I think they do that monthly where they'll just pick a place and they'll go out and you know a bunch of officers will go out and just kind of hang out at McDonald's and it's a way for the community to come in and you know approach approach an officer and ask them questions, you know. Yeah, or or you know, talk to them about a problem that they may be having in their neighborhood or something.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

So okay. Hey, quick pause. I'm Brad Winter, host of All Things Owensboro Podcast. If you're looking for a church that feels like home, we'd love to invite you to First Baptist Church Owensboro. We gather Sundays at 10 30 a.m. right next to the Blue Bridge. Infos in the show notes, and if you reach out, my family will gladly sit with you. Yeah, I think that's good because again, like you're kind of breaking down those barriers to of like, you know, there's automatic because there's authority there. You're like, oh, I don't I can't just talk to that person like a normal person. Um and so it's cool with the coffee the cop the cop because like it breaks down those some of those barriers there of like, oh, he they're just people, like there's normal people. You know, I've even had Logan O'Brien coach in my upper basketball league and like love Logan, he's a great guy. I know Cody, like he does a great job too. And so, like, you know, it's cool to see these guys who yeah, Logan can't give all his time to the basketball program, but when he's can he's there and just investing in those kids, even though he has such a big job to deal with as well. So it's been pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Another thing you talk about outreach, so not necessarily Owensborough Police Department, okay, but the fraternal order of police lodge section here in Owensboro. Yeah, you're the vice president. So I'm the vice president of the lodge and we do two yearly programs.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

So we do an event usually like the end of July, maybe the first part of August. It's like a back-to-school event. And we've been doing this, man, probably 10 plus years. Okay. We partner and uh and I really gotta give a shout out to Shoe Stop for their partnership. Like they they bend over backwards to help us out. But we'll have an event um at Shoe Stop where basically we'll take, I think this year we did around a hundred kids.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

And uh we do do an event where we take them to Shoe Stop and they get to pick out shoes and that's cool, you know, buy a new pair of shoes and stuff like that to go back to school.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

So that's all the people on the the people that get to kind of participate in that are given to us by the school, uh, family resource coordinators. Okay. They know the kids that are in need and stuff like that. So yeah, they'll basically give us a list and say, hey, you know, we got these families that we really think can benefit from this. Yeah. So that's that's how we get the names.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

I mean, then we would you that would shop with the cop too?

What Makes Owensboro Owensboro

SPEAKER_04 22:30

Or yeah, so it's a little different. It's a little bit different. Um we we do take a lot of like referrals from these resource coordinators. But with the but with the Christmas program, we really like to have officers refer families. Okay. You know, especially because they're you know, these officers out here answering calls day to day, they they see it. Yeah, you know, they know the families that are hurting, the families that are, you know, having financial problems and stuff like that. So we really like getting referrals from an officer saying, hey, you know, I made a call at this house and I really know you know these three kids are probably not gonna have Christmas unless unless we do something. So like we really want to get referrals from that.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yeah, I think it's a good idea. Like you said, they're it's they're they're on the front lines. You know, I even think my my uh wife's a teacher at Cravens, and that's a lower social economic area, and just some of the stuff she tells me, I'm just like it just blows my mind. It's it's hard. It is, yeah. Yeah, I mean we've we build beds here at First Baptist, I know I've had sleep family peace in and have talked, and but we do beds here as well. And I remember going in, there were seven kids that were sleeping in two bedrooms, and there was one bed. And so, you know, it just yeah, I think that's really cool. The officers get to, you know, refer families to that because again, they get to see that every day. I mean, so that's really cool. You know, you talked about fraternal order of police, lodge 16. I know you guys do like a mentoring of the young younger officers coming into the field, which is really cool. And so kind of go into that a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

You know, so the every officer that gets hired, you know, they're obviously gonna go to the police academy. And I tell people that you know, the police academy is like laying the foundation, framing a house, you know. Yeah, you pour the concrete, frame the house up. But it there's no way to teach somebody everything you need to know to be a police officer in like 20 weeks. There's it's just not you can't do it. And so they come out of the, they come out of the police academy and then they'll go into a four-week long or four-month week, uh four-month-long program called the PTO process for riding it with a training officer. And again, like those training officers are gonna do everything they can to prepare that officer to go out into solo patrol, but you know, sometimes they're kind of mercy at the mercy of the calls that they receive. Yeah, true. You know, so that's where the mentoring program comes in, you know, kind of after they get out of the PTO process, just somebody for them to go to that can kind of you know shed some light on some things for them. And you know, policing is a is one of those jobs where you learn a lot through failure. I know I did over the course of my career, you know, there's a lot I made a lot of mistakes. We all do, uh, you know, we're human.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:06

And so you're gonna make a lot of mistakes. And so the mentoring program kind of allows you to teach that younger officer, like, hey, don't don't make these same mistakes that I made in my career. You know, this is this is why I screwed up. Like, do this differently and kind of you try to take people under your wing and kind of teach them and you know, hope, hope that they'll kind of follow your guidance a little bit.

Community Programs That Build Trust

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yeah, and I I've even seen that even in my field. Like, I'm a pastor that went to seminary, and seminary is a great foundationally, but you don't really get uh, you don't, it doesn't teach you everything. And so you go to your first church and you're like, well, they didn't they did not teach me this in seminary. And so I feel like I could probably relate a lot to the police officers who are coming out, and something happens, you're just like, that wasn't in the book I read, you know, like what do I do here? You know, so it's really cool that you guys come in and mentor them and go past just the the mentor of four months for someone to come and talk to you, like, hey, this has happened, how do I deal with this, or how do I not take this home with me? You know, I know there's all kinds of things that could be asked in that relationship, and I think that's key, like that makes better officers for the future for sure.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Yeah, and so like you know, you you talked about not being taught all the things in seminary. That's the crazy thing with law enforcement is like there's not very many things written into the state law that are well, I say black and white. It's it's a lot of gray area, and there's a lot of discretion. You know, so there's very few laws that say I shall arrest somebody for something.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:31

So, you know, a lot of times it's it's up to that officer's discretion. And that's hard. Man, that is really hard for some young 21, 22-year-old kid to be able to wield that power to know hey, you know, hey, this person really needs to go to jail, or no, this person is gonna benefit more from you actually cutting them a break and like kind of teaching them a life lesson. Yeah, you know. So again, that the mentor program kind of helps with that, like helps those learn how to wield, you know, they got a lot of power.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:59

You know, you gotta learn how to wield it.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

And you know, I know I'm thinking that even relating that back to like sports, you know, like you you don't want a referee that's their first year doing the Super Bowl, right? I mean, because again, calls like that can be subjective and it's up to that person, and that's a lot of power, and they're like probably stressing out. Like, I don't I I know what I'm supposed to do, but I but it it's not super clear. So, yeah, that's really interesting. Again, like that's really cool. You can go behind them and say, okay, like this is what I would have done, you know, or or maybe next time do this. So that I think it's cool. Uh again, I think it's really cool you're mentoring because again, it helps officers become better, I think, in the long run when they have someone there. You know, you talk about police work, we talked about we talked just briefly about military service, um, but they can both be high stress environments. Um, and so how what helps you stay grounded? Like whether it's family, faith, fitness hobbies. I mean, you work out, I can tell that, you know, and so like what what are some things that you do to kind of help with that?

SPEAKER_04 27:50

I'd say number one for me is is uh is fitness. And uh law enforcement's a job that can real easily kind of derail that.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Okay.

FOP Outreach: Shoes And Christmas

SPEAKER_04 27:59

You know, it's real easy to kind of fall in a rut, stop working out, start eating fast food every shift, and next thing you know, you've gained 20, 25 pounds and you're you're out of shape. And and so for me, making that commitment to try to get in the gym, you know, five, six days a week and work out, I call it iron therapy. Okay, you know, uh get in the gym and I can kind of take my frustrations out like if I'm stressed out or angry about something, I can kind of take that out on the weights and hopefully like leave it at the gym and not take it home with me, kind of yeah thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

So that's cool. Yeah, I used to have a boss at another gym I worked at, and they always would ask people when they're done working out, like, did the weights beat you today or did you beat the weights? You know? So uh yeah, I can see that being an everyday struggle. You know, you've been in the police force for 20 years, you've seen some really cool uh innovations come out and different approaches to things. And so, like, what do you think are most needed for the next generation of officers?

SPEAKER_04 28:50

Uh you know, I think law enforcement a lot of times is very slow to change or adapt to change.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 28:59

Police officers were notorious for hating change, you know, and so like so are Baptists, so okay. So like I I go back to when I started, and I'm gonna kind of date myself a little bit, but when I started in in I hit the street in 2006, and at the time we didn't have computers in our car. And you know, like a lot of these young officers are like, what you worked without a computer? How how'd you ever do your job? I'm like paperwork, like we wrote everything. Yeah, but uh I remember at the time coming in thinking you know, computers would be great. And when we finally started getting computers in our cars, like the old timers hated it.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:36

Like, I don't want I don't need a stinking computer, just give me an ink pen and an opad, you know, and like they were so resistant resistant to change. And you know, now things that like when I started would take me, you know, maybe a half an hour to do, handwritten, like you know, I can do it in five minutes on a computer. Oh yeah, yeah. And so adapting to the technology that that's out there, you know, I think like our department here, OPD, we're slowly but surely starting to utilize technology a little bit better, but we need to get fully on board with it. There's so much stuff out there with drones and robot technology and a you know, AI, facial recognition, all that kinds of stuff. Like we need to do a better job of transitioning and getting officers trained on how to use that kind of stuff. Because it's you know, that that train's coming. It's it's really already here. Yeah, you know, it's either get on board or get ran over. And and so like we need to get on board with that.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Yeah, I know, and I I'll say this. I know some people don't like the whole AI thing. Uh ChatGPT, I think it's a good resource depending on how you use it. Um, like for me, I use it to help write my questions and to maybe come up with, hey, how do I make this into a better sounding email? So I'm coming off like a jerk, you know. But I know there's always a lines with everything, and so the facial recognition thing, it sounds interesting. I know the robots I've seen, I don't know if it's here, it might have been when I was in Oklahoma City, but they had a robot that did all the bomb stuff. Like they they took it out touch touch a truck, and like it would have the robot, you know, going around while kids are touching the trucks and it would explain what it does. And I always thought that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

Yeah, so so we have one here.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Uh or maybe it was here that I saw it.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

A lot of people don't realize uh the way the bomb squads are set up in the state of Kentucky, they're regional.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

Okay.

Mentoring Young Officers

SPEAKER_04 31:11

And so, and I I was never involved in the bomb squad, so I don't know exactly where they're all where they all are. I know Lilville has a bomb squad and I think Paducah, but Ownsborough actually is one of the regional bomb teams. Okay. So we have a fully functional, you know, hazardous device unit here. I mean, I and I know they've got several robots that they use to do you know certain things within the within their bomb stuff.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

So yeah, that stuff just kind of blows my mind that like you you can make a robot to where it would help diffuse a bomb, or you know, or if it doesn't work it uh you're not killing a human life. I mean, I guess I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 31:46

So you know, we we uh we used it a lot too at the department. I was on the tactical team at Owensborough, the SWAT team for about 13 years. Okay. And so we we would use it from time to time to actually go in a house and kind of search the house, like if if we weren't for certain whether somebody was in there. Or there were times where we maybe be out on a what we would call a criminal barricade.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Okay. And that would be what you send in.

SPEAKER_04 32:12

Yeah, like you know, especially there were there were times where we'd have somebody that you know was maybe threatening to harm themselves, that kind of thing, and you didn't really know whether, you know, are they are they in there? Did they escape? Did they maybe you know hurt hurt themselves and maybe they're not alive anymore? So sometimes we would use the robot to go in.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

That way you're not putting an officer at risk of getting hurt. So that got uh that makes sense. Yeah, that's interesting. I feel like I'm learning a lot of stuff today. It's cool. And so, you know, when people look back at your career, you've been there, I know you're retired, there might be another next step coming soon, but you know, what do you hope your legacy will be both in the Owensboro police department and even broader in like the Owensboro community?

SPEAKER_04 32:51

You know, within the department, like I I I hope that I kind of left a legacy of being a top cop, just being being somebody that you know worked hard, dependable. You know, I showed up to work every day when I was supposed to, I did my job and and I tried to take care of the people that worked with me to the best of my ability. Within the community, you know, I hope that the I hope that the overall the community looks at me as somebody that, you know, even even if I had to lock you up, even if I had to take you to jail, that that I was fair, you know, that I that I applied the law fairly and you know didn't didn't, you know, police a certain community one way versus you know that I was consistent across the board with how I did my job and that I treated everybody kind of the same way.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Yeah, no, that's good. I always tell people all the time, I guess that dash that means the most, you know, we're all gone. That's a guarantee we're all gonna die at some point. And so, like, how do we want to be remembered? Number 12, uh, this is the last question before we go in rapid fire, is if you can go back and talk to the younger version of Aaron Hamilton as the just starting off at OPD 2006, what advice would you give him?

SPEAKER_04 33:59

Uh, first of all, I would tell younger Aaron to think more before you speak. Okay. I have a have a tendency, especially when I was younger, to be very opinionated about things. And I wasn't scared to share my opinions. And so I probably made some enemies along the way within the department of uh kind of sharing, you know, my feelings on things. And and I would say that a lot of times I was probably right, but people just didn't want to hear what I had to say. And so I would I would say most definitely I'd go back and tell younger Aaron to you know kind of keep his mouth shut a little bit more. Another thing I I I wish, and you know, looking back on it, especially this kind of really hit me when when retirement was was knocking on the door, and I started kind of going back and looking at my career, and I realized that a lot of times I put the job before my family.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

And it's an easy trap to fall into, especially like anywhere you work, yeah. Starting out as a young police officer here in Owensboro, we weren't making the greatest money. And like so many other cops and so many other first responders, I fell into that trap of to provide for my family financially. I would work a lot of overtime.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Okay.

Tech, Drones, And The Next Wave

SPEAKER_04 35:11

And you know, obviously when you start doing that, you it you you sacrifice your time for the money. And so I feel like there were times where maybe I wasn't as present in my marriage. You know, maybe, you know, I definitely wasn't as present like in my kids' lives as I need to be. And, you know, I I hope they understand at the end, you know, at the end of the day why I did what I did. You know, I tried to be there as much as I could, but you know, there I did miss out on some things. And so I would I would tell younger Aaron, like, try to have a little bit better work life balance. And that's something I I try to tell these younger guys, like, yeah, you know, don't let the job consume you. Um, don't let it be your everything, don't let it be your identity. You have to have an identity outside of work. Yeah, yeah. And so I know that was something that I was definitely guilty of at times. And so I wish I had a little bit better balance.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Yeah. And I think honestly, that that could be any career for sure. And so if you're listening, you're like, man, I that's something I struggle with. You gotta take some steps forward, right? I mean, unless you just like you did, you read that book, and you're like, all right, I'm gonna make some changes. You know, I think everybody can make changes, you just gotta do it. I know, yeah. We can go a whole nother episode in that. But we're gonna go into our 270 seconds of fame rapid fire questions. I don't record time, it could be four and a half minutes, it could be two minutes, I don't know. Uh, but it's it's fast, it's playful, uh, it's fun, uh, no, it's positive. So no overthinking, it's just quick answers. Are you ready? I'm ready. All right. So the first one is what's your go-to breakfast spot in Owensboro?

SPEAKER_04 36:37

Um, I would say my go-to spot used to be JD's. Oh, yeah. Um, but uh unfortunately they closed and went out of business. Um, but uh nowadays I would have to give it to Old South, the buffet. Oh, yeah. Breakfast buffet.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Yeah, the crispy bacon. Yeah, man, that's it's uh that's a good place to go. Yeah, Greg, you're doing a good job there. Just keep it up. All right, so uh before you go on a shift, is it coffee or energy drink? Uh oh, I'm team energy drink. Okay. You have a you have a certain brand.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

I do, Ghost. Okay. Um and my wife's probably gonna kill me for saying this. Like she's on she's on me all the time about I need to stop drinking those things.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

Yeah, I've gotten into bloom lately and I'm always like, it's probably still a problem. I mean, I know it says it's healthy, but probably still not good for you. Yeah. So all right. Uh, you know, you've you live in were you born and raised in Kentucky?

SPEAKER_04 37:20

Uh so I was actually born in Covington, Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

Um, but uh I basically grew up here. I think my my my family is all from Owensboro.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:30

Uh my dad just happened to be working in Covington at the time. And uh so I think they moved back here when I was probably about six months old. Okay. So really, I mean, Owensboro. Yeah, it's home.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

I grew up here. That makes sense. So because you grew up here and you grew up in Kentucky, uh, are you a Wildcatch? Are you a cards fan? Oh, bleep blue, baby. Bleep blue, okay. Big blue nation, all the way. Gotcha. So out of curiosity, because you did you were born in Covington and you were just there for six months. Are you a Bengals fan?

SPEAKER_04 37:55

I am not.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Okay, who are you who's your NFL little DC?

SPEAKER_04 37:59

Uh unfortunately, I hate to admit it, I'm a Miami Dolphins fan.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

And um Yeah, maybe not this year.

SPEAKER_04 38:05

Credit to Mark Higgs, you know, Mark Higgs graduated from high school and uh looking to get him on went to uh UK and then ended up getting drafted by the Dolphins. And so um I had an uncle that went to high school with him. Okay, so I just kind of started following the Dolphins because of that. And uh, you know, early, early in my life they were pretty good at Game Marino. You know, they're yeah, it's been a it's been a long 20 years, man. It's been it's been brutal.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

So yeah, I say it's been kind of tough since you had like Jason Taylor and Sean Taylor. And yeah, so all right. Uh first things you do when you get off like what's the first thing you do when you get off duty?

SPEAKER_04 38:37

Uh you know, the first thing, I guess it really depends. Like early in my career as a patrolman, uh first thing I couldn't wait to do is get off, get the the body armor, the gun belt off. Um a lot of people don't realize like just how uncomfortable that is. And so like that was the first thing, like just that uniform's gotta come off.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

Um, and then, you know, probably guilty of like just plopping down into what uh uh Dr. Gil Martin in the emotional law enforcement um he basically refers to as the magic chair. Okay. Going home and just plopping down in the you know in the chair and turning the TV on and kind of zone and out.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Yeah, escape. Yeah, gotcha. All right, so if you weren't a police officer, what would you be doing?

Robots, SWAT, And Safety

SPEAKER_04 39:17

Uh if I wasn't if I wasn't a police officer, I probably would have stayed in the military to be honest with you. Um you know, like I said, I love what I was doing in the army. Uh I love you know being service to my country and consider myself to be very patriotic. And so yeah, I'd I'd probably still be in the military.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Gotcha. That's cool. Uh so you worked a lot of Owensboro events. Uh, what is your one that you're like you can't miss every year? Is it the barbecue fest, Friday after five, porch fest? Like what what what is your like I I love working that event. Looking for a place to get active, connect with others, and have fun as a family? Then come check out the rec at FBC Owensboro. From open gym and a weight room to upward sports and community events. There's something for everyone. Memberships are super affordable. Just$2 a day,$10 a month, or$60 a year. And get this, families, you only pay$120 max for the entire family for the whole year. And if you're a senior, college student, or one of our city heroes, like a teacher, first responder, or healthcare worker, you get a discount too. The rec is more than a gym, it's a place to belong.

SPEAKER_04 40:28

Man, that's that's a tough, that's a tough question because we do we have so many great events here.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

We do, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:34

Um, I'd tell you like for me, like if there was one thing, it's probably the barbecue fest.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 40:39

Um, you know, I I I started going to that like early as you know, early in my life as a kid, and it's just kind of always been something that um that I went to, you know. The last 20 years as a police officer, uh, it was more working the event. Yeah, true, yeah. Um, but uh, but I it was one of those things, like I would sign up to work every year because I just loved being there. Um to me, it's almost like a reunion. Like you go to the barbecue festival, you walk around, and I would see people that I hadn't seen all year.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

Oh, cool, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

People, you know, and just it was just I just think it's a cool event. Um Porch Fest is a great event.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Yeah, that's that's been a popular one on the show.

SPEAKER_04 41:15

That's a great event. Um, I I've gone to that several times and I enjoy that.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Yeah, yeah. I don't I like the air show somewhat a little bit more because I work downtown, so when they're flying around doing their testing, I don't know. I I love I love the sound of it. It's just I know it's loud, but yeah, for whatever reason I always thought it was cool.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

This would probably be a hot take, and I'm probably gonna catch some flag for this. But yeah, you're good. But uh, you know, the air show, like, I love planes, yeah. But to me, it's kind of one of those like you've seen it once. Oh, I can see that, yeah. You know, because the planes are gonna do the same thing every day.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

They are, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:46

It's a cool event. I know it brings in a lot of people, but um that was a that was kind of always a tough event to work as an officer.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 41:53

Um uh it it pikes so many people. Well, that's what I was wondering.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Yeah, there's so many people.

Legacy, Balance, And Hard Truths

SPEAKER_04 41:58

Getting everybody out after the show is over, like directing traffic was always a headache.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Yeah. So out of curiosity, uh, have you got did you guys have to go to Illuminate when it was down here? I did not. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 42:08

Um, I didn't get a chance to go. Uh I heard some kind of mixed reviews. I heard I heard you know, some people really liked it, and it heard some other people. I think honestly, it's probably more of whether or not you're into the artsy kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah, that's cool. But yeah, I would agree. Owens were a great job with events for sure. Um, what's one piece of advice you'd always give new recruits?

SPEAKER_04 42:30

Uh, great question. Um, I think the number one thing that that a brand new police officer needs to remember um is to treat everybody fairly. Um and like it goes back to what I told you about. You deal with the same uh 5% of the population like 99% of the time. And so that person who's your suspect today could be your witness next week. They could be tomorrow's victim. And so what I say that to say that you're gonna need them again at some point during your career. Um and I have a I have a really good story about that. Uh early in my career, um, there was a gentleman. Um, I'm not gonna name names. Yeah. If he hears this, he'll probably know that I'm talking about him, and that's cool. Um, but I arrested him. Uh he was he was young, he was probably 21, 22 years old, and uh made some bad decisions. And I arrested him. And uh evidently my interaction with him was was good enough that he remembered me and like respected me for how I treated him. Um fast forward several years, and uh I was at the old bowler room um over there at Cigar Factory Mall working night shift, and we had a very large uh fight break out in the parking lot, and so I found myself in the middle of probably about 10 people fighting, and there was probably a crowd of 30, 40 people around. And uh I was by myself initially, and uh so I'm trying to break this fight up, and you know, basically just trying to like keep my head on a swivel so nobody came up behind me. Yeah, and that gentleman stepped in and basically told everybody else that was there that like if they were coming for me, they had to go through him first. Oh wow, and like that was that was a very cool experience that yeah. Here's a guy that you know several years before I I'd put in handcuffs and took to jail, yeah. And uh he was willing to stand up for me. Yeah, that's and it goes back to how I treated him when I rescued and so um very big thing to treat everybody right because you're gonna need them at some point.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

That's true, yeah. That's really that's a really cool, powerful story. Um, you know, you've been in Owensboro for a long time, you've been able to see the nooks and crannies being a police officer. What's a favorite local hidden gem in Owensboro that most people tend to overlook?

SPEAKER_04 44:45

Um, I don't know that I would necessarily like point to one thing. Um, but I would I would say the the uh food truck scene here in Owensboro. Oh, yeah, it's great. Um is great. Like, and if you're if you're not out there taking advantage of of that, like you're missing out, man. There's so many. Um, I know you've had Jay's good grub on.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Yeah, and we've had uh Mancock, like the Four Nations.

SPEAKER_04 45:07

Mancock, the Filipino food truck is fire. It's so good. It is and man, there's several great uh Mexican food trucks out there, like uh Frogtown foods.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

So I haven't had them yet, but I've heard a lot of people say they're good.

SPEAKER_04 45:18

Yep. Uh the uh the lady that owns that uh used to work at the police department.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 45:23

Uh she does a great job. Um her daughter, I think, has kind of branched out now, the uh uh black flame cartel or something like that. So yeah, there's a there's a lot of stuff out there. Like if you're not trying it, man, you're missing out.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

You are. I would 100% agree with that, and I think Jay would agree with that as well. Um, you know, you've raised a family here, so what's the best thing about raising a family in Owensboro?

Rapid Fire: Food, Events, And Music

SPEAKER_04 45:44

Um, I I think it's the the ability to to know that you you can basically let your kids go out and and and uh be a kid, yeah, and uh go out and be involved in you know sporting events and different things and and not really having to worry about them. Um you know, we Owensboro is like any other city. We we have our problems and we do have some violent crime and stuff, but um, you know, for the for the most part, like if you're not putting yourself into bad situations, like you're probably not gonna be a victim. Yeah. And so like I just I feel grateful that like my kids got to grow up in an environment where they could they could be kids. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Yeah, I would say like where we're at, we have like there's it's it's kind of rare if we don't have 12 kids in our backyard. They're all at the same age as my daughters, and they're all playing, and I could sit there and be like, okay, I can go read a book, and I don't have to sit there and stress too much about because we're an owing, bro. I mean, and again, I know things happen, but it is nice to have that kind of peace of mind of like, hey, like we're in a good area to where I don't have to sit there and stress, you know, what's what's gonna happen. Um, and so yeah, or like a random stranger, all that stuff. Um, and so yeah, so uh your favorite military memory that still makes you smile?

SPEAKER_04 46:54

Um, that's that's easy. Uh December 2004, it's kind of a two-part thing, but uh I was flying out of um LSA uh Anaconda, which was a big airbase in uh about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 47:11

And uh so I was coming home. That was my my flight out of country. And uh so the pilot put on um uh mama, I'm coming home. Oh, okay. And kind of played it over the intercom. And so that was that was kind of that was kind of a cool, you know, moving moment coming home after being gone for a year.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:30

Um, but uh the thing I guess that makes me smile the most was like coming home and actually being reunited with my family.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

Yeah, I mean like being present and see well, no, like getting off the place.

SPEAKER_04 47:39

Oh, getting just seeing them. Like being able to see them for the first time you know after coming home.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

Yeah, that's cool. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, I would I think I'd be overwhelmed by that moment. Um, all right, so be honest, who is the best barbecue in town?

SPEAKER_04 47:50

Oh man, that's that's not even a question. It's uh it's old hickory. Yeah, that's like anybody that tells you otherwise, they don't know barbecue.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

They don't know barbecue, okay?

SPEAKER_04 47:58

No, I'm not trying to throw shade on on Moonlight. Moonlight's got a great buffet. Oh, they do, yeah. And if I want the buffet, you know, if I want a buffet, that's probably where I'm going. Like I go there for like dinner buffet. I told you earlier, Old South, the breakfast buffet is amazing. Yeah, I go there for breakfast, but like if I want barbecue, I want mutton and nice.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

All right. Yeah, it's been a pop, it's been a popular one. Uh, what's your favorite quote or motto that keeps you motivated? Do you have anything like that?

SPEAKER_04 48:23

Uh yeah, so there's a um there's a guy uh named Lieutenant Colonel uh Grossman.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

Um he's written a bunch of books and stuff. Um, but uh there's a quote that he has, and I'm probably gonna butcher it. But basically it's um something along the lines of I'm a sheepdog, I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf. And so like, you know, kind of like a kind of a look into the mindset of a police officer is like, you know, the majority of the population is is the flock, the sheep.

SPEAKER_03 48:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:54

And they kind of walk around all day long, kind of clueless to the evils that lurk around. You know, and so the sheep dog is there to protect you from that wolf that's lurking. And uh so because of that, like we we gotta get a little dirty at times. You know what I mean? And um, I had a conversation with somebody earlier today. Angels don't make the best police officers. Like you need somebody that's got a little bit of a background that's maybe made some mistakes. Okay, you know, and so I see I didn't even I wouldn't even thought about that, but yeah, you know, and and over the years, training, I I trained people for a long time at the police department. Um I know you know, you we I would get some kids in that were completely oblivious to how the world worked, like didn't realize that people would lie to them, didn't realize that people would try to take advantage of them, that kind of thing. And so when you're when you're that sheltered, sometimes it's hard to step into a loss of it. Well, because you can't pick up on cues. Yeah, you don't know when people are lying to you, you don't know when people are trying to get over on you, that kind of thing. So you need somebody that's kind of got a little bit of street smarts, I guess, would be a good way of putting it.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

That's a good way to put it for sure. All right, so you're on patrol, you're sitting in your car, uh, you got the music on. Is it is a country, is it classic rock, is it hip-hop?

SPEAKER_04 50:04

Uh man, that that's a tough one. Uh, I guess it would really just depend on what kind of mood I'm in because you know, I listen to a wide variety of music. Um, you know, I'd I'd say country is probably my go-to. Um, but uh, you know, I I love my 90s, my 90s rap. Yeah, Tupac, Biggie, there you go, Dr. Drace, Noop, all that stuff. Yeah. Um, and I do I do like some older um, you know, Led Zeppelin, okay, uh, Rolling Stones, the Eagles, you know, that kind of stuff, rock wise.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 50:34

A little bit of everything. It kind of you know runs the game.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

Yeah, it just depends on what's going on that day, I guess. All right, so uh, is there anybody in Owensville you really look up to?

SPEAKER_04 50:42

Um, I don't know that there's any like one person. I had a lot of great mentors at the police department.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

So that's what that's what came to my mind. Guys that you know that I really kind of tried to model myself after coming up as a cop. Um somebody that that uh I actually learned about here recently that I didn't know anything about. Um, but Dave Roberts here from from First Baptist Church is telling me about a gentleman gentleman named Lieutenant Spalt, okay. Um, who was actually present um at D-Day, World War II, Normandy. Okay. Um, and uh he he's actually referred to as one of the angels of Normandy.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:23

And so like he was uh he was a lieutenant and he led a group of soldiers that actually broke through the German lines and like were able to like basically blaze a path for the rest of the landing forces to come through.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

Okay, so like they were like the first crew out.

SPEAKER_04 51:36

Yeah, so this guy's like legitimately uh a hero. Yeah. Um he I think he got the silver star for his actions that day in Normandy. Um right here, you know, born and raised right here from Owensburg, Kentucky. Okay, uh being a military guy, like I'd never never heard of him, like didn't know anything about him. And that that's kind of a shame that that we have a legitimate war hero, like right from right here in our hometown that really doesn't get the credit that he probably deserves.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

And is he out of curiosity, is he do you know if he's still alive?

SPEAKER_04 52:03

No, uh, from what I was told uh by Dave Roberts, and it's kind of a sad story. He survived, you know, the invasion at Normandy, was actually part of the Battle of the Bulge. Oh, wow. Okay. Lived through all that stuff and then came back um to civilian life and was actually shot and killed by his wife here in Ownsborough. Wow. And I think that was like in 1956, some mid-50s, somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_00 52:27

Wow, okay. That's crazy. All right. Uh, so uh what is one skill from the army that still helps you every day? Uh it's probably time management. Time management.

SPEAKER_04 52:37

Yeah, time management and just um the ability, and I've had to rely on this a few times over the years, but I mean, I can literally wake up like five minutes before I need to be somewhere and pop in the shower, shave, shower, brush my teeth, all that, and be out the door dressed in five minutes. Like I'm you know, that's something that they beat into you in basic training. Yeah, yeah, you can't just take your time. Yeah, so there's been there's been several times over the years where I like overslept and woke up like, oh man, like I gotta be at work five minutes and like was able to, you know, to make it on time because of that.

SPEAKER_00 53:08

So that's cool. Uh all right, so here goes a few more. If Owensboro had a mascot, and I don't mean like the senior, I don't mean senior high, but it just had a mascot, what would it be? That sounds I don't know, I don't know. That's kind of an interesting question.

SPEAKER_04 53:21

It's tough, but like to me, I guess the one thing that like I really picture or visualize when I think of Owensboro, like, and I don't know why, but it's the blue bridge.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:31

You know, I don't I don't know what about it is. I guess it's just kind of iconic. It's part of part of the skyline or whatever you see it. Um so yeah, maybe the bridge. Okay. It's kind of a weird answer.

SPEAKER_00 53:40

Yeah, no, no, there's you can make a mascot on anything, uh I would think. Alright, so uh you're on you're on the long shift. What's your go-to uh pleasure snack? Uh that's that's easy.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

It's probably Dairy Queen. Go through your drive-through, get a blizzard.

SPEAKER_00 53:54

Yeah. Alright, so what's your favorite blizzard?

SPEAKER_04 53:57

Uh it's a toss-up. Okay. Eminem or Reese's.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

Okay. Oh, yeah. I love Reese's. I'd yeah, Eminem's good, but Reese's, yeah, peanut butter, mm-hmm, so good. All right, uh, what's one word you hope people use to describe you years from now? Uh dedicated. Okay. Uh, favorite way to unwind? Is it gym fishing or Netflix?

SPEAKER_04 54:15

Uh I would say probably unwinding for the most part. It's probably Netflix. I I try to, and not always, but I try to get my workout in before I went to work. Okay. You know, so I'd get up early in the morning and go. So at the end of the day, it's probably Netflix.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

Gotcha. Do you have like a go-to show on Netflix or one that you would you would uh suggest someone to watch that they haven't watched it yet?

SPEAKER_04 54:35

Uh trying to think of something I just watched. Um, not on Netflix, but on Amazon Prime. I just finished The Runarounds.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 54:43

Which was uh I didn't realize at a time. It's it's basically the the gist of the show is it's a group of high school kids that are trying to form a band.

SPEAKER_00 54:51

Okay.

Advice For Future Servants

SPEAKER_04 54:51

And uh, but I didn't realize it when I started watching it that like all the actors, all the people that are on the show, all the music is actually them.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_04 55:01

So like they're they are legitimately a real band. Okay. That I guess the producer got together and kind of threw them in the show, and now they're not now they're acting, but they they play all their own music, they sing all their own songs, they write all their material stuff. Yeah, what is it called? The run around? It's called the runarounds. I think it's like eight episodes, it's on Amazon Prime. It's a it's a pretty cool watch.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

Okay, cool. That sounds neat. All right, and then the last one for Rapid Fire is if you can give one message to Owns Royal kids dreaming of serving someday, I'd always say even military or police force, what would it be?

SPEAKER_04 55:29

Um, I think the biggest thing is you need to find something you're passionate about, you know, whether that's the military, whether it's law enforcement, whether that's being a you know, a fireman, um, you know, being a paramedic, whatever, because I don't I don't care what you choose, like which career path you choose, there's gonna be a lot of hard, hard things that you're gonna have to, you know, to overcome, a lot of adversity. And so, you know, if you if you pick something because of um I think this is gonna be cool, or I think I'm gonna make a lot of money doing this, um, you're definitely not gonna survive. Like you wouldn't survive in law enforcement if you just did it because you thought it was cool. Yeah, like you gotta really like live it, you gotta love it, you gotta like want to help people. Um, you know, you gotta be basically invested 100% because it's law enforcement's a job that you got to spit you out.

SPEAKER_00 56:15

Like if you're not in it to win it, like it's yeah, and I've heard that from someone from those who work in the fire department too. I yeah, like they're for they're usually first responders, and I've had I've known some people who say they couldn't handle just the stuff they were coming up on, and so they had to do something else.

SPEAKER_04 56:29

But fire firemen and I'll catch some flack over this firemen are a different animal.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:34

And you know, I give a lot of credit to firemen. Um I've heard the I've heard the the basically the quote that like everybody wants to be a fireman until it's time to go fight a fire. Yeah. And I'd say there's probably a lot of truth to that. There probably is, yeah. I don't know that I want to go running in a building that's on fire. So I give those guys a lot of credit for what they do, but like what they do versus what a police officer does is a totally different dynamic. Oh, yeah, yeah. For sure. And I I tell people all the time, like, everybody loves a fireman. Like, everybody loves a fireman, every kid loves a fireman, like people see firemen, they we refer to them as America's heroes. Yeah, right. You don't always have that with policing. Like there's a there's a negative connotation behind police officers and so I agree with that, yeah. So we deal with a lot a lot a lot more stuff than what they have to deal with because the media is always attacking us. Yeah, you know, people in the community sometimes attack us for what we do, and so it's it's their job's special, and I like I said I give them credit, I respect what they do, but it's it's a totally different job than what we have.

SPEAKER_00 57:29

Oh, and I and I know it's totally different. I think for them, even because they're again their first responders, if you're not used to it or prepared for that, it's a lot of summing too. And I know there's differences for sure in that.

SPEAKER_04 57:39

And so you know, you know why God made police officers, right?

SPEAKER_00 57:43

I do not.

SPEAKER_04 57:44

I do not even firemen need heroes.

Final Takeaway: Gratitude For Community

SPEAKER_00 57:46

There you go, even firemen need heroes. There you go. I like that. All right, so just to kind of wrap it up on on one last note, I ask this to every single guest that comes on, and I like to not ask to tell it to put this in advance because I always think it comes out better uh on the spot. But if there's like one piece, like you're like, hey, if you listen to this whole episode, this is like one thing I hope you walk away with. It could be uh challenging, it could be encouraging, it could be inspirational. Like what's one thing you want to leave the audience with?

SPEAKER_04 58:11

I I just leave the audience with with how blessed they are to live in this community. Again, I go back to my career here, policing. I couldn't have done it without the community. And we have uh you know a great community here every year when we we raise money for for our Christmas shop with a cop event and the back to school event, like the community here, man. They just they donate, they get they get behind us, like they give money and stuff, and it's always cool. Like we live in a great community, don't forget that. Like, yeah, be are thankful that you get to live here.

SPEAKER_00 58:44

Yeah, and of course, there's always things that we can add to the Owensboro and do different things, but yeah, I would agree. I think the way Owensboro is, it's a kind of it's uh it's underrated. You know, I didn't know when I was just a quick little snippet and we'll we'll close out here is when I was reached out to Nokoma City, like, hey, you want to come to Owensboro? I'm like, where's that? You know, like and they're like, Well, what about Evansville? I'm like, I don't I've never heard of Evansville, right? What about Follen Green? I'm like, okay, like I'm north of Nashville, okay. And so, you know, for me, like I didn't really know anything about Owensboro, um, but it's a great town, and I I've loved every bit of it. I loved raising our kids here when they're still young, and so we got plenty of time, but it's been it's been a great city. Um, and it's been really cool. So, Aaron, thanks so much for coming on today. Uh, it's been great kind of getting an inside look of what it is to be a police officer and serving and and just the challenges that come with that, but also the rewards that come with that as well. And so, and I I love you know your your question, your answers to the rapid fire. There, that was fun. And so, Aaron, thanks so much for coming on today. Thanks for having me, yes, sir. Thanks for tuning in to All Things Owensboro, where we celebrate the stories, people, and places that make our city special. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves this. town as much as you do. Until next time Owensboro, keep loving local, supporting one another, and making Owensboro a place we're all proud to call home.