Episode 19

full
Published on:

30th Jul 2025

Police Reversal: From Defund to Refund - America Backs Blue

Citizens Behind the Badge founders Craig Floyd, Dennis Collins, and Bill Erfurth reveal how their 5-year mission transformed the national conversation from "defund" to "refund" law enforcement. After cities slashed hundreds of millions from police budgets following 2020, the devastating consequences became undeniable: homicides surged 30%, officers fled the profession, and response times skyrocketed.

But the pendulum has swung back hard. Minneapolis restored every dollar of their $8 million police cuts. A 53% drop in officer line-of-duty deaths proves increased public compliance. Senate resolutions now celebrate law enforcement instead of condemning it. The hosts expose how media lies about "systemic racism" crumbled against cold statistics: 99% of 62 million annual police interactions involve zero misconduct.

KEY MOMENTS:

  • 2:24 - The moment defund movement triggered CBB's creation
  • 13:17 - How cities went from cutting to restoring police funding
  • 33:53 - ICE agents under attack: 700% assault increase
  • 42:16 - Proof the pro-police culture shift is saving lives
  • 49:05 - The statistical demolition of anti-police narratives

Join the movement at CitizensBehindtheBadge.org and help continue America's return to law and order.

#PoliceReversal #DefundToRefund #BackTheBlue #LawAndOrder #PoliceSupport #CitizensBehindTheBadge #LawEnforcement

Transcript
Dennis Collins:

Hey, a warm welcome back to Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

We tell real stories about real cops.

Dennis Collins:

We expose the fake news about the police and we bring you the truth.

Dennis Collins:

It's Dennis Collins.

Dennis Collins:

It's Bill Erfurth, and it's Craig Floyd once again.

Dennis Collins:

Bringing you the very best there is to offer in the world of law enforcement.

Dennis Collins:

today we're gonna do something a little different.

Dennis Collins:

A as this podcast is brought to you by Citizens Behind the Badge,

Dennis Collins:

and we're gonna talk about Citizens Behind the Badge a little bit today.

Dennis Collins:

Right?

Dennis Collins:

Bill looks very comfortable there, very relaxed.

Dennis Collins:

Craig is always chill.

Dennis Collins:

He is always relaxed.

Dennis Collins:

He is ready.

Dennis Collins:

And today we just thought the three of us would reminisce a little bit.

Dennis Collins:

we wanna go back, it's almost five years ago to the day

Dennis Collins:

that a phone call.

Dennis Collins:

I received a phone call.

Dennis Collins:

Bill Erfurth received a phone call from Craig Floyd.

Dennis Collins:

Craig, tell us about that phone call.

Dennis Collins:

Tell us what the call was about and tell us why you made the call.

Craig Floyd:

I retired in 2018, right at the end of the year, we had just dedicated

Craig Floyd:

the National Law Enforcement Museum.

Craig Floyd:

We had built the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

Craig Floyd:

We became a leader in promoting officer safety and wellness.

Craig Floyd:

I felt like I achieved all the goals that I had set out, and it was time to

Craig Floyd:

relax, have some fun, spend more time with family, and I was doing that, enjoying it.

Craig Floyd:

And then all of a sudden, May 25th, 2020, something happened in this

Craig Floyd:

country that changed a lot of lives, and that was the death of George Floyd.

Craig Floyd:

And as we all know, right around that time, in the aftermath of his death,

Craig Floyd:

there was what was called the defund and defame, the police movement.

Craig Floyd:

All of a sudden, almost overnight, people were hating police officers.

Craig Floyd:

These police officers were told that, they weren't doing a good job, that

Craig Floyd:

we should reimagine policing, we should abolish police in some areas.

Dennis Collins:

Abolish in some areas.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Craig Floyd:

And it, it was appalling to me.

Craig Floyd:

here's a guy that spent my whole life promoting law enforcement talking

Craig Floyd:

about all the, great service, the extraordinary sacrifice put 24,000

Craig Floyd:

names of fallen officers on the national law enforcement officers memorial,

Craig Floyd:

and now people were denigrating.

Craig Floyd:

the officers and the profession they served.

Craig Floyd:

Yeah.

Craig Floyd:

and it upset me.

Craig Floyd:

It made me angry quite honestly, and I thought to myself, who knows more about

Craig Floyd:

police as a private citizen than I do?

Craig Floyd:

Okay.

Craig Floyd:

I've met thousands of them and I wanted to do something in response

Craig Floyd:

to this defund the police movement.

Craig Floyd:

And the first two people I thought of when I said, Hey, let's start an organization.

Craig Floyd:

That would stop this defund the police movement that would counter all the

Craig Floyd:

negativity and all the lies about law enforcement that we were hearing.

Craig Floyd:

So I called my two buddies, two of the people I'd worked

Craig Floyd:

with proudly over many years.

Craig Floyd:

we did a radio show together called Cop Net.

Craig Floyd:

I knew both of you felt the way I did, and I thought we might be

Craig Floyd:

able to do some good together.

Craig Floyd:

So I called Bill Erfurth.

Craig Floyd:

I called Dennis Collins and I said, how about the three of us start a

Craig Floyd:

new organization, ProLaw Enforcement, to stop the defund, the police

Craig Floyd:

movement, and we're gonna call this thing Citizens Behind the Badge.

Craig Floyd:

We wanted to mobilize millions of citizens in support of law enforcement,

Craig Floyd:

and we wanted to become the leading voice of law enforcement, of the

Craig Floyd:

citizenry in support of law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

And I think over these last five years, gentlemen, we've done a pretty good job.

Craig Floyd:

of, meeting our goals.

Craig Floyd:

certainly many of them, and, doing a lot of good, I think, for

Craig Floyd:

the law enforcement profession.

Craig Floyd:

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Craig Floyd:

these five years have gone fast.

Craig Floyd:

We've done a lot of work, but, tell me what you all think about it.

Bill Erfurth:

Here we are five years later.

Bill Erfurth:

It's shocking that it's been five years because it's flown

Bill Erfurth:

by like nobody's business.

Bill Erfurth:

But I, will say, we can definitely take credit for changing that narrative

Bill Erfurth:

that you mentioned about the defund and defame, the police movement.

Bill Erfurth:

There are some exceptions to that rule going on right now.

Bill Erfurth:

We can look at this guy that's running for Mayor of New York.

Bill Erfurth:

Who wants to abolish the police.

Bill Erfurth:

He's saying he wants to abolish the police.

Bill Erfurth:

And the NYPD cops are bailing out of their left, right and sideways.

Bill Erfurth:

And you know what?

Bill Erfurth:

They're coming down to Florida.

Bill Erfurth:

And, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, has been recruiting cops

Bill Erfurth:

from across the United States, paying them $5,000 bonuses to come moving

Bill Erfurth:

expenses in the whole nine yards.

Bill Erfurth:

And you know what?

Bill Erfurth:

Florida's a safe place to be.

Bill Erfurth:

It's all about law and order, and that's one of the things we can talk about.

Bill Erfurth:

We definitely have to talk about some of the legislative

Bill Erfurth:

achievements that, Citizens Behind the Badge has accomplished.

Bill Erfurth:

and Craig, you've done a yeoman's job.

Bill Erfurth:

You have been all over this and, but really good stuff.

Dennis Collins:

He Continued the wonderful work that he did with the law

Dennis Collins:

enforcement memorial and the museum.

Dennis Collins:

And now we have actually helped to make a dent in this narrative.

Dennis Collins:

and if you remember 2020, do you remember how many cities.

Dennis Collins:

Actually did defund the police.

Dennis Collins:

Minneapolis for sure.

Dennis Collins:

I think New York was one.

Dennis Collins:

Who else?

Dennis Collins:

There were numerous others.

Craig Floyd:

Los Angeles.

Craig Floyd:

I could go down the list.

Craig Floyd:

Literally Dennis.

Craig Floyd:

Hundreds of millions of dollars.

Craig Floyd:

We've documented this.

Craig Floyd:

Hundreds of millions of dollars, was defunded from law enforcement

Craig Floyd:

agencies across this country.

Craig Floyd:

New York probably led the, field, but Los Angeles wasn't too far behind.

Craig Floyd:

As you point out, Minneapolis is where it all started with

Craig Floyd:

the death of George Floyd.

Craig Floyd:

They, ironically, I love this, the hypocrisy, they cut $8 million

Craig Floyd:

out of their police budget within months of George Floyd's death, and

Craig Floyd:

then two years later they restored.

Craig Floyd:

All of that funding to, because of their dwindling police force.

Craig Floyd:

So many officers had left.

Craig Floyd:

So much crime had occurred that the public just, couldn't take it anymore.

Craig Floyd:

And they finally said, okay, we give up.

Craig Floyd:

We're gonna give more money to law enforcement and try

Craig Floyd:

to fix the mess we created.

Bill Erfurth:

And do you remember the whackado that was on the.

Bill Erfurth:

City council there for Minneapolis, and she was all about it.

Bill Erfurth:

She was always outspoken about defund the police.

Bill Erfurth:

We should have social workers respond to homes for these calls and domestics

Bill Erfurth:

and all this other crazy nonsense.

Bill Erfurth:

And then what happened?

Bill Erfurth:

Lo and behold, some scumbag.

Bill Erfurth:

Broke into her home.

Bill Erfurth:

I, and I don't remember the circumstances exactly, but I think was breaking

Bill Erfurth:

into her house or assaulted her.

Bill Erfurth:

And what'd she have to do?

Bill Erfurth:

She had to call the police.

Bill Erfurth:

How about that?

Craig Floyd:

They came, Hey, how about.

Dennis Collins:

She was lucky they were there, right?

Bill Erfurth:

I don't know, who knows what the response time is, but because

Bill Erfurth:

do you remember, here's a good example.

Bill Erfurth:

So Austin, Texas, and I, remember even today, Austin, Texas has turned

Bill Erfurth:

into a massive crime problem there.

Bill Erfurth:

And the DPS, the state troopers had to go in and may still be there and

Bill Erfurth:

are helping to police the streets of Austin because their police

Bill Erfurth:

department, I think is still one third.

Bill Erfurth:

Understaffed, but the crime that they have had in Austin has been

Bill Erfurth:

completely off the hook because of that.

Bill Erfurth:

And We're still seeing that in some places around the country.

Bill Erfurth:

the, states that support their law enforcement, conservative states,

Bill Erfurth:

conservative cities, I think that those places have rebounded and

Bill Erfurth:

recovered, but some other places that are liberal bastions of lunacy.

Bill Erfurth:

Are still reeling from it.

Dennis Collins:

I like liberal bastions of lunacy.

Dennis Collins:

Did you coin that phrase?

Dennis Collins:

That's, is that a Bill?

Bill Erfurth:

I, did, I have that, on my wall as a, as my mantra.

Dennis Collins:

we do know that staffing.

Dennis Collins:

Is still well below, the pre 2020 level.

Dennis Collins:

So we, that, that is something that is a fact about 10%.

Dennis Collins:

That's something.

Dennis Collins:

And we've talked amongst ourselves and Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

What can we do to help that?

Dennis Collins:

I think the most important thing we can do is what we've done, and that is.

Dennis Collins:

Get a, get hundreds of thousands of Americans to support this movement.

Dennis Collins:

And I wanna talk today, Craig, about some of the things that you and we as

Dennis Collins:

a group have done to help defeat this.

Dennis Collins:

'cause there are some really important things.

Dennis Collins:

We asked for contributions, we ask for decorations of

Dennis Collins:

support, and we've gotten a lot.

Dennis Collins:

I think our, fans are, the people that have contributed the wonderful

Dennis Collins:

people who've, who, support this cause.

Dennis Collins:

They need to know a little bit about what we've done to support them

Dennis Collins:

and the people of law enforcement.

Dennis Collins:

I.

Craig Floyd:

Yeah.

Craig Floyd:

And yeah, I bulleted-out a few of those, recently just to remind

Craig Floyd:

myself all the things we've done to help law enforcement and to stop

Craig Floyd:

this defund the police movement.

Craig Floyd:

Let's start with, officers, as you point out, leaving the

Craig Floyd:

profession in droves because they felt, unwanted, unappreciated.

Craig Floyd:

They were literally putting their lives on the line for the public safety.

Craig Floyd:

And yet, politicians were, berating them, crucifying them.

Craig Floyd:

If they did anything, that looked perhaps like they used excessive

Craig Floyd:

force, they'd be up on charges.

Craig Floyd:

some of these officers were literally, charged with crimes

Craig Floyd:

for simply doing their job.

Craig Floyd:

So what we said is, let's send a message.

Craig Floyd:

To the law enforcement officers of this country, some 800,000 plus,

Craig Floyd:

and let 'em know that they are appreciated, that the vast majority of

Craig Floyd:

Americans support them, respect them, and appreciate everything they do.

Craig Floyd:

So we sent literally millions of letters to Americans around this country.

Craig Floyd:

That's the only way you can reach, that many people.

Craig Floyd:

And we got, an amazing response.

Craig Floyd:

literally hundreds of thousands of these Americans have sent back.

Craig Floyd:

declarations of support, oaths of support, letters of support, and

Craig Floyd:

thank yous to police officers.

Craig Floyd:

And what did we do?

Craig Floyd:

We sent those, messages of support and appreciation to some 12,000 law

Craig Floyd:

enforcement agencies across this country, so their officers would

Craig Floyd:

know that the citizens they serve.

Craig Floyd:

Have their backs, forget all the noise from the minority, if you will, the

Craig Floyd:

few Americans who, who make a lot of noise, against law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

And we tried to mute their message and, give them a big thank you.

Craig Floyd:

So that's one of the big things that I think helped to, now we're

Craig Floyd:

seeing an uptick in retention and recruitment of officers.

Craig Floyd:

And the other thing that I'm very proud of.

Craig Floyd:

As we went to Congress and state legislatures and we gave them resolutions

Craig Floyd:

of support for law enforcement, because the biggest problem for law

Craig Floyd:

enforcement, I think, over the last several years has been the lack

Craig Floyd:

of support voiced by politicians, by the local leadership, right?

Craig Floyd:

And federal leadership.

Craig Floyd:

So we went to the United States Senate, for example.

Craig Floyd:

we worked with JD Vance for a couple of years, then he became vice president.

Craig Floyd:

and this year we were able to get a resolution, approved

Craig Floyd:

by the United States Senate.

Craig Floyd:

introduced by, Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana that expressed support

Craig Floyd:

for law enforcement in this country like you've never heard before.

Craig Floyd:

We had all these, resolution clauses that said.

Craig Floyd:

Law enforcement is sacrificing their lives for our safety.

Craig Floyd:

Law enforcement is doing an amazing job.

Craig Floyd:

There's some 24,000 names on the National Memorial and and by the

Craig Floyd:

way, the United States Senate, fully supports and appreciates the

Craig Floyd:

men and women in law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

And they called for full funding, and give them the resources they need to do

Craig Floyd:

their job so that America can be safe.

Craig Floyd:

And I couldn't be prouder of that.

Craig Floyd:

In addition to lobbying for all kinds of other legislation.

Craig Floyd:

At the federal and state level to enact tougher penalties against

Craig Floyd:

criminals and to better protect the men and women who are out there

Craig Floyd:

risking their lives for our safety.

Dennis Collins:

So when you step up.

Dennis Collins:

To support Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

You're making a pretty wise investment, aren't you?

Dennis Collins:

An investment in signing a document to support police and making your

Dennis Collins:

donation so that we can carry on the work as you just, told us about because

Dennis Collins:

this takes one of the biggest thing.

Craig Floyd:

one of the biggest things I think we've accomplished is we, launched

Craig Floyd:

a national public education campaign that was directed to the American

Craig Floyd:

people, but also to the legislators in this country, reminding them of

Craig Floyd:

all the troubling consequences of the defund and defame, the police movement.

Craig Floyd:

All the, lives that have been lost unnecessarily.

Craig Floyd:

All the officers who left the profession in droves.

Craig Floyd:

we, talked about, the.

Craig Floyd:

Defunding hundreds of millions of dollars that, have gone elsewhere.

Craig Floyd:

and public safety suffered terribly.

Craig Floyd:

Okay.

Craig Floyd:

We saw a major rise in crime the first year of, defund the police movement.

Craig Floyd:

We saw nearly a 30% increase in homicide.

Craig Floyd:

In this country, all right, there's no coincidence there.

Craig Floyd:

Fewer police, slower response times, fewer homicides and violent crime

Craig Floyd:

cases being closed, and cleared by police because there's fewer officers

Craig Floyd:

who are out there to doing their job.

Craig Floyd:

all of this was a very important part of our effort.

Craig Floyd:

To turn the pendulum so it, started, swinging in the other more positive

Craig Floyd:

direction because without that education, without that information

Craig Floyd:

about the troubling consequences, I don't think people would've

Craig Floyd:

reacted nearly as positively.

Craig Floyd:

and as strongly as they did, and especially our

Craig Floyd:

legislators in this country.

Craig Floyd:

And we saw it in the last election, pro law enforcement, legislators,

Craig Floyd:

elected, anti-police, soft on crime district attorneys replaced.

Craig Floyd:

and I think we're seeing the results of, that election.

Craig Floyd:

We're now seeing the pendulum swinging in the right direction.

Bill Erfurth:

And don't you remember we were reading about response times?

Bill Erfurth:

I remember reading like New Orleans.

Bill Erfurth:

The response time to an emergency call sometimes in New Orleans was an hour

Bill Erfurth:

response times in some other cities.

Bill Erfurth:

I'll go back to Austin, Texas again.

Bill Erfurth:

It was 25 minutes or some crazy thing like that, as it should be.

Bill Erfurth:

It's always been one cop per 1000 people, give or take the communities,

Bill Erfurth:

and the response time would be within several minutes on an emergency call.

Bill Erfurth:

The, problem that was happening was there were so few cops, it was such

Bill Erfurth:

a brain drain too, also, right?

Bill Erfurth:

It was a brain suck of, all of the knowledge, experience, and

Bill Erfurth:

backgrounds that so many detectives.

Bill Erfurth:

Special operators, cops, everybody that was working.

Bill Erfurth:

And, that was all gone because those people left.

Bill Erfurth:

And, just the response time to get to places and whatnot,

Bill Erfurth:

ha has been ridiculous.

Bill Erfurth:

But I'll tell you what's going on right now.

Bill Erfurth:

We've, really come a long way since the defund thing started, and we've come a

Bill Erfurth:

long way as an organization in these five years because we had to prove ourselves.

Bill Erfurth:

First of all, it's not that easy to prove yourself with other

Bill Erfurth:

cops because cops are question questioning and jaded and whatnot.

Bill Erfurth:

And then just your average citizen.

Bill Erfurth:

And, for the first few years there were a lot of people, what is this organization?

Bill Erfurth:

Are they legit?

Bill Erfurth:

Who are they?

Bill Erfurth:

Whatever there's been.

Bill Erfurth:

Great strides made in that particular area, especially with you, Craig, and

Bill Erfurth:

your outreach to all the, you've been able to now get databases of every

Bill Erfurth:

law enforcement agency, every chief, every congressman, every senator.

Bill Erfurth:

You're in touch with all of those people.

Bill Erfurth:

But, a TA that we work with, they've sent out millions and millions

Bill Erfurth:

of mailers and flyers over these five years, and I think people are

Bill Erfurth:

starting to really get to know us.

Bill Erfurth:

What everybody's backgrounds are.

Bill Erfurth:

And we've done all those things now.

Bill Erfurth:

And now we're doing this podcast.

Bill Erfurth:

I guess we're about, what, six months into doing this podcast, right?

Dennis Collins:

Yep.

Dennis Collins:

Think too.

Dennis Collins:

And we actually have two pod, we have two podcasts.

Dennis Collins:

Craig.

Dennis Collins:

That's right.

Dennis Collins:

Tell us about not only this one, but the other one.

Craig Floyd:

Yeah, heroes Live Forever, is a podcast.

Craig Floyd:

I started over a year ago now, I think it was May of last year.

Craig Floyd:

And, basically I, for 34 years at the National Law Enforcement Officer's

Craig Floyd:

Memorial Fund, I, honored the sacrifice.

Craig Floyd:

Of more than 24,000 officers who've died in the line of duty.

Craig Floyd:

And one of my favorite parts of that job was telling their story, not just

Craig Floyd:

how they died, but how they lived.

Craig Floyd:

All right, let's get to know some of these men and women so that the

Craig Floyd:

American people can appreciate their sacrifice a little bit more perhaps.

Craig Floyd:

And I told those stories and speeches and articles and, anywhere I went.

Craig Floyd:

And so I said, you know what?

Craig Floyd:

I'd like to continue doing that.

Craig Floyd:

that was a passion of mine to honor these fallen law enforcement heroes.

Craig Floyd:

And every week on Tuesday morning, 9:00 AM you will receive, if you're

Craig Floyd:

a supporter of Citizens Behind the Badge, you'll receive a, podcast in

Craig Floyd:

your email, that tells the story of a fallen American law enforcement hero.

Craig Floyd:

And I just love telling those stories yesterday.

Craig Floyd:

For example, I, put one out.

Craig Floyd:

I was talking about the Haymarket Riot in Chicago.

Craig Floyd:

Eight law enforcement officers were killed when a bomb was thrown

Craig Floyd:

by an anarchist at a pro-labor.

Craig Floyd:

Rally.

Craig Floyd:

and they targeted police.

Craig Floyd:

there were officers there in, in droves trying to help, keep the, peace.

Craig Floyd:

And, this anarchist threw the bomb.

Craig Floyd:

Eight officers died.

Craig Floyd:

It was the third deadliest, incident in law enforcement history, back in 1886.

Craig Floyd:

how many people are, talking about.

Craig Floyd:

Incidents that happened in the 18 hundreds where eight law enforcement officers died.

Craig Floyd:

We are all right.

Craig Floyd:

And we're gonna remember and honor those fallen heroes just as we honor,

Craig Floyd:

the heroes who, we lost this year and last year and, more recently.

Craig Floyd:

So that's a very important part of the job.

Craig Floyd:

And then obviously, heroes behind.

Craig Floyd:

The badge.

Craig Floyd:

I love this, podcast because we get to bring on the true

Craig Floyd:

heroes of law enforcement and introduce them to the public.

Craig Floyd:

Let them get to know who our law enforcement officers are, what

Craig Floyd:

they're willing to do, the heroism, the courage, the compassion that

Craig Floyd:

officers in this country have.

Craig Floyd:

And, I think all of that is, is really helping to generate more support, more

Craig Floyd:

understanding, more appreciation for the men and women in law enforcement.

Bill Erfurth:

Let me Craig, talk about the, just let's put, tell everybody

Bill Erfurth:

Substack and, the lo and the places where they can find this, though.

Craig Floyd:

Substack is a great way to communicate.

Craig Floyd:

I know it's new to a lot of people.

Craig Floyd:

I've learned how to use it through my son, who was using it for his organization.

Craig Floyd:

And the bottom line is Substack.

Craig Floyd:

It offers anyone the opportunity to, communicate with a large number of people.

Craig Floyd:

so basically we do op-eds, we do press releases, we do newsletters.

Craig Floyd:

And we do our podcast on Substack, and we send that out to our thousands of

Craig Floyd:

supporters, people that have said, Hey, I wanna hear more about what you're doing.

Craig Floyd:

I, wanna be more involved.

Craig Floyd:

and I want to hear these great stories about American law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

So you can sign up on Substack, you go to their, website, substack

Craig Floyd:

dot com, and basically you look for Citizens Behind the Badge.

Craig Floyd:

And when you do a search, you'll come to our substack page and

Craig Floyd:

all you have to do is subscribe.

Craig Floyd:

click a button that says I wanna be a subscriber.

Craig Floyd:

And, and you'll be added to our list and you'll get everything that we send out.

Craig Floyd:

usually I try not to overdo it.

Craig Floyd:

we're talking about maybe one or two emails a week you might receive from

Craig Floyd:

us, including, the Behind the Badge.

Craig Floyd:

Heroes Behind the Badge Podcast, the Heroes Live Forever podcast, and any other

Craig Floyd:

communication, pieces that we put out each week, in support of law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

So I'd encourage people to go there and they can always go to

Craig Floyd:

our website, that's behind badge.

Craig Floyd:

Or CitizensBehindtheBadge.org.

Craig Floyd:

And, they can sign up for our Facebook.

Craig Floyd:

they can be a follower on Facebook, a follower on LinkedIn, Twitter, or X now.

Craig Floyd:

And, Substack, and YouTube, we all always put our podcast on YouTube and we're

Craig Floyd:

getting a lot of viewers, going to our podcast, using our YouTube, website.

Bill Erfurth:

As well as LinkedIn.

Bill Erfurth:

As we've got LinkedIn as well.

Bill Erfurth:

So go ahead Dee.

Dennis Collins:

No, I wanted to pause for a moment and if you're

Dennis Collins:

new to this podcast, I invite you to go and look at the archives.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Dennis Collins:

The guests that we have had.

Dennis Collins:

Wow.

Dennis Collins:

What a lineup of true heroes.

Dennis Collins:

we've been, and Craig.

Dennis Collins:

If Craig doesn't know this person in law enforcement with his background at

Dennis Collins:

the, museum and at the law enforcement memorial, if ER doesn't know him

Dennis Collins:

with his 26 years of service in Miami-Dade, retired as a lieutenant.

Dennis Collins:

if these two guys don't know him, they're probably not knowable.

Dennis Collins:

And so we've been able to attract an amazing list of guests and they tell

Dennis Collins:

their stories right here for you.

Dennis Collins:

To hear and some of the stories you may already know.

Dennis Collins:

And some may be new, but here's the difference.

Dennis Collins:

It's in their words.

Dennis Collins:

It's their words.

Dennis Collins:

it's not written somewhere.

Dennis Collins:

It's not some reporter interviewing them.

Dennis Collins:

They're talking in their, we let them talk and they tell

Dennis Collins:

what they're really thinking.

Dennis Collins:

I highly encourage you to go back and look at the archives.

Dennis Collins:

I also wanna remind you that this podcast, Heroes Behind the Badge is

Dennis Collins:

sponsored by Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

That is another outreach.

Dennis Collins:

We do to reach out and get the message, the right message, the

Dennis Collins:

right narrative about law enforcement out to the American people.

Dennis Collins:

And that's the whole purpose of this.

Dennis Collins:

We, tell real stories about real cops.

Dennis Collins:

We expose the fake news about the police, and we bring you the real truth.

Dennis Collins:

That's the commitment that we have.

Dennis Collins:

So remember, CitizensBehindtheBadge.org, I call it ORG, I guess it's a org.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah, either way.

Bill Erfurth:

Either way.

Bill Erfurth:

Hey, can we talk about some current event stuff right now?

Bill Erfurth:

I want to throw this around.

Dennis Collins:

no.

Dennis Collins:

We don't wanna talk about that.

Bill Erfurth:

I, I, think that this is pretty important and,

Bill Erfurth:

we talk about this, Dennis,

Dennis Collins:

I'm gonna talk about it anyway.

Dennis Collins:

Billy's,

Bill Erfurth:

Dennis, you say this in your openings all the time about, we give

Bill Erfurth:

you the real truth, not the, Bs that the, media, the fake media is thrown out there

Bill Erfurth:

and the right, and, so let's talk about.

Bill Erfurth:

Let's talk about ice right now.

Bill Erfurth:

Let's talk about what's going on with them.

Bill Erfurth:

we talked earlier about, the defund, the de defame, the police thing is coming

Bill Erfurth:

back and, it's, getting better every year.

Bill Erfurth:

But, I just watched something the other day.

Bill Erfurth:

It was 700% increase in assaults.

Bill Erfurth:

And attacks on law, on, ice, on ice agents.

Bill Erfurth:

Right?

Bill Erfurth:

And this is being, and this is being organized.

Bill Erfurth:

I think it's really important for people to understand this isn't just some

Bill Erfurth:

organic, freak show of blue haired.

Bill Erfurth:

nose ring nut bags that are running around doing this, shit

Dennis Collins:

Just offended half the population.

Dennis Collins:

Go ahead.

Bill Erfurth:

Hey, those aren't our, that's not our population, right?

Bill Erfurth:

Those people are being supported behind the scenes.

Bill Erfurth:

there was an arrest made in LA where this guy was actually distributing masks.

Bill Erfurth:

He had a car load of masks and other guys riding around with a carload

Bill Erfurth:

of bricks and passing them out and, they're being funded, right?

Bill Erfurth:

They're all showing up.

Bill Erfurth:

Same time, same place you do realize you don't see these people.

Bill Erfurth:

protesting at, eight in the morning or nine in the morning because they've,

Bill Erfurth:

they smoke so much meth and cocaine that they, they can't, get functioning

Bill Erfurth:

that fricking early in the day.

Dennis Collins:

Wow.

Dennis Collins:

We really, but anyway, these people haven't we?

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

So let's, so besides those scumbags, how about the thing in

Bill Erfurth:

California at the marijuana farm, this is something that really.

Bill Erfurth:

Pissed me off that I want to talk about.

Bill Erfurth:

and it'll be funny, Dennis, because I'm, when I tell this story, and Dennis, you

Bill Erfurth:

used to ride with me multiple times when I was running the tactical narcotics team.

Dennis Collins:

I did, yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

Tactical narcotics team, we'd make 35 50 arrests.

Bill Erfurth:

And we didn't put up with anybody's bullshit, but anyway, you can chime in

Bill Erfurth:

and see how you think we would've reacted.

Bill Erfurth:

Oh, so they're at, I already know.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah, they're at this marijuana farm.

Bill Erfurth:

Okay.

Bill Erfurth:

They arrest 300 illegals, I think it was nine or 10 children, underage children.

Bill Erfurth:

All kinds of craziness went on.

Bill Erfurth:

And I think one of the points that everybody really needs to know

Bill Erfurth:

is, you know every, everybody's going, oh, they're migrant workers.

Bill Erfurth:

They're this and that, or whatever They may be okay it, it's still

Bill Erfurth:

illegal to come into this country.

Bill Erfurth:

But more importantly, I think digging deeper and digging down, people need

Bill Erfurth:

to know this: those people that are in this country illegally, whether they're

Bill Erfurth:

working on that marijuana farm, which in fact was the case or other places,

Bill Erfurth:

those people are supporting the cartels.

Bill Erfurth:

Those people are all sending money back to the Mexican cartels, and

Bill Erfurth:

it's an underground organized crime ring and that's going on.

Bill Erfurth:

Whether you believe it or not, that's happening with all of these

Bill Erfurth:

people because every one of them that crossed the border had to either pay.

Bill Erfurth:

Or are continuing to pay the cartels that smuggled them.

Bill Erfurth:

So those people are directly and indirectly affecting

Bill Erfurth:

crime and the cartels.

Bill Erfurth:

So that's a good point.

Bill Erfurth:

I wanted to say, here's the other thing.

Bill Erfurth:

This is,

Dennis Collins:

I've never heard that, that's a theory I've never heard.

Bill Erfurth:

It's been discussed and I've seen it and read it in, in a

Bill Erfurth:

number of forums and it's, a problem.

Bill Erfurth:

So that's one way to,

Dennis Collins:

Does Tom Holman agree with that?

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

As a matter of fact, Tom Holman was discussing that just the other day.

Bill Erfurth:

Okay.

Bill Erfurth:

And Tom Holman was discussing, this is about what I'm gonna say.

Bill Erfurth:

And even, Trump jumped in and said, the ICE agents gotta get out and do what

Bill Erfurth:

they gotta do to take care of business.

Bill Erfurth:

They have his full 100% support to take action against, lawlessness and crime.

Bill Erfurth:

So those people, those ICE guys are leaving the farm.

Bill Erfurth:

And those sons of bitches are out there throwing boulders and

Bill Erfurth:

rocks and bricks at their vehicles and exploding their windows.

Bill Erfurth:

And the one guy was wa running right alongside one of the vans.

Bill Erfurth:

And, they had tried to put a human roadblock and some bicycles there

Bill Erfurth:

to slow 'em down and ambush them essentially with these rocks and, bricks.

Bill Erfurth:

And the one guy ran right, along the side of that van and threw a massive rock.

Bill Erfurth:

into the passenger window.

Bill Erfurth:

Now, in Florida, at least it's called, hurling a deadly missile into a moving

Bill Erfurth:

vehicle, which is a felony and people are killed easily by people doing that.

Bill Erfurth:

Like stupid people throwing those things off of bridges on

Bill Erfurth:

highways or just throwing rocks.

Bill Erfurth:

Can you imagine that?

Bill Erfurth:

Here's my thought, and I know some people are gonna be, oh my God, this is so

Bill Erfurth:

over the top, but I'll tell you what, if I was driving that fricking van.

Bill Erfurth:

Ah, and somebody just threw a big boulder into my passenger window.

Bill Erfurth:

I'd have jumped out and shot him right in the face.

Dennis Collins:

Wow.

Bill Erfurth:

And then the next ones that are throwing the, rocks and the,

Bill Erfurth:

bricks at the outcoming vans, they should have jumped out with a shotgun.

Bill Erfurth:

And blown their shit up.

Bill Erfurth:

You know what?

Bill Erfurth:

And that would've been the end of it because quite frankly, you would be

Bill Erfurth:

justified because that is lethal force being used against those ice agents.

Bill Erfurth:

And in return, a law enforcement agents agent can use lethal

Bill Erfurth:

force in defense of themselves.

Bill Erfurth:

Had they done that?

Bill Erfurth:

Of course the liberal lunacy media would've lost their minds, but

Bill Erfurth:

I'll tell you what, it would've ultimately been justified.

Bill Erfurth:

And what message would that have sent?

Bill Erfurth:

What message would that have sent, do you think?

Bill Erfurth:

That would've probably put an end to that because the SC

Bill Erfurth:

of the earth would see that.

Bill Erfurth:

And that would be like, I don't want that to happen.

Dennis Collins:

I'm not so sure that they, care about consequences,

Dennis Collins:

I can't speak for those people.

Dennis Collins:

I don't think like those people, but I'm gonna guess they expect trouble and

Dennis Collins:

they know they're gonna get confronted, and perhaps some of them could be.

Dennis Collins:

Arrested and, killed.

Bill Erfurth:

they've been empowered.

Bill Erfurth:

They've been empowered because there hasn't been a lot of action

Bill Erfurth:

taken if they were getting their asses whooped, left, and sideways.

Dennis Collins:

No, I've seen a lot of arrests.

Dennis Collins:

I have not been at any rally, but, just watching tv I've seen I and local

Dennis Collins:

authorities make a lot of arrests.

Dennis Collins:

I don't know how many, but more than one.

Bill Erfurth:

when there's lethal force being used.

Bill Erfurth:

That's it.

Bill Erfurth:

That's the,

Dennis Collins:

but, alright, let me ask you a question.

Dennis Collins:

Let's say that you were in charge and you did what you just said.

Dennis Collins:

What do you think the consequences of that would be?

Bill Erfurth:

first of all, I'm not even sure that it would've gotten

Bill Erfurth:

that far because if I was leading the charge, I'd have been shooting

Bill Erfurth:

tear gas, like rain, it would tear.

Bill Erfurth:

They were,

Dennis Collins:

you noticed those films, there's tear gas

Dennis Collins:

canisters all over the floor.

Dennis Collins:

All over the ground.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

and there were like out in the.

Bill Erfurth:

Farm.

Bill Erfurth:

But you know what?

Bill Erfurth:

You gotta have your recon people, you've gotta be ready.

Bill Erfurth:

If you've got an exit strategy and you're leaving there with people in custody

Bill Erfurth:

and you know that those guys are gonna be assaulting you, you gotta have your

Bill Erfurth:

forward advanced team and do the little bit of a recon and you gotta get out.

Bill Erfurth:

So those guys that were sh throwing rocks, you should have had a a, van load of guys.

Bill Erfurth:

And like I said, either you get out and they're throwing those rocks,

Bill Erfurth:

you shoot them or you just get out and you whoop their fucking ass.

Craig Floyd:

Couple key points here.

Craig Floyd:

One, bill, you've hit on something that, that I've always been amazed

Craig Floyd:

at, quite honestly, and that is that police in those potentially deadly

Craig Floyd:

situations show amazing restraint.

Dennis Collins:

Absolutely.

Craig Floyd:

All right.

Craig Floyd:

These ice agents certainly would've been justified to use force against

Craig Floyd:

the people that were throwing rocks, through their windows of their vehicles.

Craig Floyd:

I saw it, on TV as well, and I was outraged and I was amazed that

Craig Floyd:

the, ice agents didn't jump out.

Craig Floyd:

And as you said, use.

Craig Floyd:

Some kind of force, maybe lethal force, because they were trying to harm them.

Craig Floyd:

There's no question about it.

Craig Floyd:

But the other thing that I, think this hits on, and we saw it for

Craig Floyd:

five years during the defund and defame, the police movement, and

Craig Floyd:

that is the liberal voices who were more or less allowing and encourag.

Craig Floyd:

Non-compliance with law enforcement, to somehow suggest that it's okay to throw

Craig Floyd:

rocks at ice agents because, somehow the illegal aliens shouldn't be arrested,

Craig Floyd:

and sent back home from where they came.

Craig Floyd:

and these liberal voices are encouraging that type of violence.

Craig Floyd:

Against police, against law and order, protest and disrespect

Craig Floyd:

for the laws of this land.

Craig Floyd:

And it's outrageous to me.

Bill Erfurth:

And they're complicit.

Bill Erfurth:

They're complicit legislators.

Craig Floyd:

Yeah.

Craig Floyd:

political leaders, people that, supposedly, have some responsibility for

Craig Floyd:

the welfare of our nation are somehow encouraging this level of violence

Craig Floyd:

and these attacks on law enforcement and disrespecting the laws of America.

Craig Floyd:

And this has been the problem for the last five years.

Craig Floyd:

it's getting better.

Craig Floyd:

But as you're pointing out very clearly, we have a long way to go

Craig Floyd:

because there's still a lot of nut voices out there that are somehow

Craig Floyd:

allowing for this and, seemingly saying it's okay, to attack police officers.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

And, you know what, and those people are totally complicit.

Bill Erfurth:

The media's complicit in all this, and they've encouraged this as,

Bill Erfurth:

have many of the politicians and some of the things they've said.

Bill Erfurth:

But let's say this, unless you're some meth head zombie.

Bill Erfurth:

most people have at least half a brain cell or some common sense to

Bill Erfurth:

know that if you throw something at a cop or you assault a cop or you

Bill Erfurth:

resist, something's gonna happen there.

Bill Erfurth:

When I went through the police academy and back in the day, back in the day,

Bill Erfurth:

when we, when, we were in the police academy, they literally taught us

Bill Erfurth:

if somebody puts their hands on you.

Bill Erfurth:

The rule is they go to the hospital and the thing of it is, and we used it, it

Bill Erfurth:

used to be like, there's this matrix use of force matrix kind of thing, right?

Bill Erfurth:

And, there was also this understanding that, if you were a cop and you let

Bill Erfurth:

some scumbag come up and verbally abuse you, and you tolerated that, okay,

Bill Erfurth:

you've just empowered that person.

Bill Erfurth:

So the next cop that they encounter now, they go and they spit on that cop.

Bill Erfurth:

if somebody spits on you, they should get their teeth knocked out and and if

Bill Erfurth:

you've just empowered that person that spit on you and you didn't do anything,

Bill Erfurth:

then now that same guy is empowered again, and now they go to the next cop.

Bill Erfurth:

So now what are they gonna do this time?

Bill Erfurth:

now they think, oh I've been able to verbally abuse, I've

Bill Erfurth:

been able to spin on him.

Bill Erfurth:

I'm gonna punch this guy in the face this time.

Bill Erfurth:

Each time because these people are being empowered.

Bill Erfurth:

It's the same with these SROs that are running around, at that

Bill Erfurth:

farm and the ice and whatever.

Bill Erfurth:

They just got to throw those rocks.

Bill Erfurth:

Hopefully those guys are being hunted down.

Bill Erfurth:

My only thought is the reason that The ICE agents didn't jump

Bill Erfurth:

out of the van at the time was because they didn't have sufficient

Bill Erfurth:

personnel in those vans to get out.

Dennis Collins:

He had prisoners in those vans

Bill Erfurth:

And they had the prisoners that they had to secure.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

and they probably only had one or two guys, and then in the

Bill Erfurth:

back of that van is the jail.

Bill Erfurth:

So anyway, my, my, point is, not, only is it seeming like policing is

Bill Erfurth:

coming back around, but it's, it's, The empowerment now, and, thank God that

Bill Erfurth:

Trump got on and said, I give a hundred percent full support and authorization

Bill Erfurth:

to take whatever action is necessary.

Bill Erfurth:

And that's what you need.

Bill Erfurth:

You need this.

Dennis Collins:

Wouldn't, wouldn't you believe though, don't you believe?

Dennis Collins:

I, think anybody who knows you, knows your views and they're very

Dennis Collins:

strong views and you're saying them like it is right here, right now.

Dennis Collins:

But wouldn't you also agree that policing.

Dennis Collins:

Has changed.

Dennis Collins:

Wow.

Dennis Collins:

Clearly, dramatically, clearly somebody, curses at you or

Dennis Collins:

something, or if they spit at you nowadays, that's not policing it.

Dennis Collins:

You may say it should be, but it isn't.

Dennis Collins:

That's not policing in the modern day.

Bill Erfurth:

And, unfortunately that's because of politics, politicians, and

Bill Erfurth:

liberal lunacy, because I still think the.

Bill Erfurth:

Vocal minority or the vocal minority is, or I'm sorry.

Bill Erfurth:

How, do we say this?

Bill Erfurth:

it's the vocal.

Bill Erfurth:

Minority that are out there that we're hearing from the silent majority are

Bill Erfurth:

the people that support the police.

Bill Erfurth:

You just don't hear from them as much.

Bill Erfurth:

But I, just, the people I was even with, this weekend, some people

Bill Erfurth:

that are ranchers and farmers, they, everybody wants the police to go

Bill Erfurth:

out there and take care of business.

Dennis Collins:

Of course.

Dennis Collins:

But taking care of business has been redefined.

Dennis Collins:

You would agree with that?

Dennis Collins:

and it be, and it has, it happened back in the eighties and the

Dennis Collins:

nineties isn't gonna happen today, and maybe that's a good thing.

Dennis Collins:

Maybe that's a good thing.

Bill Erfurth:

Maybe it's a good thing.

Bill Erfurth:

you can argue about that, about raising your kids.

Bill Erfurth:

Remember, it was like, okay, you got the belt or you got spanked or whatever, and

Bill Erfurth:

then all of a sudden we went through this, time period of, oh, that's child abuse

Bill Erfurth:

and it's this and that and the other.

Bill Erfurth:

But you know what?

Bill Erfurth:

There has to be a little bit of corporal punishment, and there

Bill Erfurth:

has to be a little bit of fear.

Bill Erfurth:

we talked about this all the time.

Bill Erfurth:

the people that are criminals, the scum of the earth, the scumbags, they don't have.

Bill Erfurth:

Any respect there is zero.

Bill Erfurth:

Zero respect for law enforcement.

Bill Erfurth:

You know what?

Bill Erfurth:

They respect violence, and it's, the respect of fear.

Bill Erfurth:

And fear is the only thing that they care about or that they're going to respect.

Bill Erfurth:

Because if they think that they're gonna get a beaten, if they

Bill Erfurth:

think they're gonna get shot.

Bill Erfurth:

That's the only thing that's drawn the line before between

Bill Erfurth:

the lawful and the lawless.

Dennis Collins:

That's a pretty interesting line that you just.

Craig Floyd:

I wanna shift gears just for a moment.

Craig Floyd:

It's somewhat related, but, recently the National Law Enforcement

Craig Floyd:

Officers Memorial Fund announced the mid-year fatality report.

Craig Floyd:

How many officers died in the line of duty during the first half of this year?

Craig Floyd:

And the news was rather positive.

Craig Floyd:

All right.

Craig Floyd:

42 officers died in the line of duty.

Craig Floyd:

That was the bad news.

Craig Floyd:

The good news is that was 53% less than the same time last year, and

Craig Floyd:

it was one of the lowest mid-year fatality figures we've seen in decades.

Craig Floyd:

Yes.

Craig Floyd:

All right now.

Craig Floyd:

Let's talk about the reasons for that.

Craig Floyd:

All right.

Craig Floyd:

Obviously, better training, better equipment.

Craig Floyd:

We're now putting more money back to help protect and, allow our officers

Craig Floyd:

to do their job safely and effectively.

Craig Floyd:

But, bill, bill Alexander, who's now the CEO at the National Law Enforcement

Craig Floyd:

Officers Memorial Fund, my successor.

Craig Floyd:

He, he had an interesting spin on those numbers.

Craig Floyd:

I saw him in a recent interview and he's saying that there has

Craig Floyd:

been a shift in the culture here in America, which we've talked about,

Craig Floyd:

which I think we helped generate.

Craig Floyd:

All right.

Craig Floyd:

and that is that now there is more respect for law and order, to your point, bill.

Craig Floyd:

Whether it's because we are getting tougher on criminals, there's

Craig Floyd:

definitely tougher laws now in place.

Craig Floyd:

we saw California voters, one of the most liberal states in America.

Craig Floyd:

Vote for tougher penalties for those that commit drug or, theft crimes.

Craig Floyd:

Yeah.

Craig Floyd:

in the last election, we, people are tired, sick and tired of being

Craig Floyd:

criminal victims or being preyed upon by the criminal element.

Craig Floyd:

And now, this shift in attitude has, maybe discouraged, some of these lawless

Craig Floyd:

figures that you're referring to.

Craig Floyd:

From disobeying the laws because there's no, they know there's gonna be penalties.

Craig Floyd:

there's more respect for law and order, and for the police officers

Craig Floyd:

out there serving, and as a result, there's more compliance.

Craig Floyd:

All right?

Craig Floyd:

Because you, you know better than I that every time you, do a

Craig Floyd:

traffic stop or a pedestrian stop.

Craig Floyd:

there's always a chance for this, unforeseen, volatile,

Craig Floyd:

potentially violent moment to occur.

Craig Floyd:

But if citizens that are stopped by police for whatever reason, are compliant and

Craig Floyd:

basically obey whatever instructions they're being given by the officer.

Craig Floyd:

There's less likelihood of anyone getting hurt or killed.

Craig Floyd:

and as a result, we're seeing fewer officer fatalities.

Craig Floyd:

I hope that trend continues and I think it, it, helps to, reinforce

Craig Floyd:

your point, which is if there is a fear of consequences when you commit

Craig Floyd:

a crime in this country, then I think there's gonna be fewer people

Craig Floyd:

that are willing to commit crimes.

Craig Floyd:

And hopefully there they will be, deterred.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah, let's quote exactly what Alexander said.

Dennis Collins:

Bill Alexander, he said, I believe his quote or something like this,

Dennis Collins:

pro-police culture is making it safer for officers, right?

Dennis Collins:

The message is clear.

Dennis Collins:

If you step outta line, there will be penalties and persons stop by police.

Dennis Collins:

There will be penalties, sorry.

Dennis Collins:

And persons stopped by the police are becoming more compliant,

Dennis Collins:

preventing potentially volatile encounters from occurring less

Dennis Collins:

frequently, less frequently.

Dennis Collins:

I think the ice thing that Billy brought up, it's real and it's wrong.

Dennis Collins:

There's no question.

Dennis Collins:

Okay, but let's also remember this.

Dennis Collins:

The media is taking those little slices of things that

Dennis Collins:

happen and blowing it up as if.

Dennis Collins:

The whole, world is attacking police when it was one incident.

Dennis Collins:

In one place.

Dennis Collins:

I know it's been several places, but let's not overreact to that.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Dennis Collins:

I think the bigger message is that the culture is becoming safer.

Dennis Collins:

Unfortunately, the ICE thing is a very emotional issue for people.

Bill Erfurth:

It's the, the ICE thing is maybe a bit of an outlier.

Bill Erfurth:

It doesn't affect law enforcement across the board, but I think it's you.

Bill Erfurth:

You still can't say it's just a couple of incidents because.

Bill Erfurth:

A 700% increase in assaults on federal law enforcement is pretty significant.

Bill Erfurth:

But, let's just dig deeper into this.

Bill Erfurth:

Craig, you mentioned about okay, there's more, respect

Bill Erfurth:

and, all those kind of things.

Bill Erfurth:

I think there's, you gotta look at, 10% of the population

Bill Erfurth:

roughly commits 90% of the crime.

Bill Erfurth:

It's the, recidivist and the recidivist crime.

Bill Erfurth:

Those people need to be hammered and put in jail and put in prison.

Bill Erfurth:

the no bond, these repeat offenders, you hear these stories time after

Bill Erfurth:

time about, people that have killed other people, rape, robbery,

Bill Erfurth:

whatever, and they're still out on the streets and they get their shots.

Bill Erfurth:

One other thing that plays into all of this, and maybe that

Bill Erfurth:

we're getting more respect.

Bill Erfurth:

Law enforcement or people are more compliant, as you say, Craig is.

Bill Erfurth:

There are cameras everywhere now, and the cops are wearing the

Bill Erfurth:

body cams, the dashboard cameras.

Bill Erfurth:

You can't walk down a street in a town or a city and you're not on a camera.

Bill Erfurth:

I think not only has that helped the police significantly solve crimes and

Bill Erfurth:

arrest people because of the cameras, but it's also made people a little bit more.

Bill Erfurth:

Compliant and aware.

Bill Erfurth:

And the funny thing about this is, when the cops first

Bill Erfurth:

started to wear the body cams.

Bill Erfurth:

All the liberal groups in the ACL U, they were all saying, this is gonna be great.

Bill Erfurth:

'cause now we're gonna be able to catch all of these cops

Bill Erfurth:

doing all the wrong things and unlawful unlawfully, brutalizing

Bill Erfurth:

people and all this other crap.

Bill Erfurth:

And you know what?

Bill Erfurth:

It didn't show that.

Bill Erfurth:

It showed just the opposite.

Bill Erfurth:

It showed how abusive, obnoxious, and outrageous that the people were to

Bill Erfurth:

law enforcement, and it completely flipped the script on them to the

Bill Erfurth:

point that now they started advocating to get rid of the fricking body cams.

Bill Erfurth:

what kind of hypocrisy there?

Bill Erfurth:

But you know what?

Bill Erfurth:

They work now.

Bill Erfurth:

It's become a fabric of law enforcement and it's made a big difference.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Craig Floyd:

I think too, one of the things I'm proudest of, with

Craig Floyd:

CBB is that we have countered the media lies, and the, myths, the false

Craig Floyd:

narrative, if you will, that's been put out there about law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

And I think that's one of the reasons why we're seeing more respect for

Craig Floyd:

the men and women serving today.

Craig Floyd:

Because, all those, accusations of, police being, brutal, racist.

Craig Floyd:

we've totally debunked with the, data that's so clear that, just

Craig Floyd:

the opposite that you know, of the 62 million interactions, between

Craig Floyd:

police and the public, every year in this country, a force of any kind

Craig Floyd:

is used less than 2% of the time.

Craig Floyd:

It hardly ever happens.

Craig Floyd:

All right, to Dennis's point, deescalation.

Craig Floyd:

police aren't out there, using force, with any regularity.

Craig Floyd:

it seldom happens.

Craig Floyd:

And when it does, it's because a person that they're, that they've

Craig Floyd:

stopped is not being compliant.

Craig Floyd:

Okay.

Craig Floyd:

the other issue of race, the defund, the police movement and Black Lives Matter.

Craig Floyd:

Predicated on the idea that police are somehow racist.

Craig Floyd:

systemic racism was charged by a lot of the liberals, in policing and,

Craig Floyd:

the fact is that there is no evidence whatsoever that police are racist.

Craig Floyd:

In fact.

Craig Floyd:

When you look at the, all the data, it shows that, of all the people that are

Craig Floyd:

stopped every year by police, initiated contacts with the public, they call it,

Craig Floyd:

whether it's a traffic stop, a pedestrian, stop that 10% of whites, 10% of blacks.

Craig Floyd:

10% of the Hispanic population are stopped.

Craig Floyd:

All right.

Craig Floyd:

There is no, statistical difference between the races or ethnicity.

Craig Floyd:

police are blind when it comes to, whether the person I'm stopping

Craig Floyd:

is black, white, or Hispanic.

Craig Floyd:

it doesn't matter.

Craig Floyd:

and all the studies have proven that out.

Craig Floyd:

And, I think now that we've hit on that point over and over again, over these

Craig Floyd:

last five years, it's made a difference.

Craig Floyd:

Now people are willing more often to give police the benefit of the doubt,

Craig Floyd:

in part because of what you said.

Craig Floyd:

That we're seeing how they conduct themselves.

Craig Floyd:

Of the 62 million people that were, that had an interaction with law enforcement,

Craig Floyd:

they were surveyed by the Department of Justice, and it was determined that, 99%

Craig Floyd:

of the people that interacted with police said, the interaction was conducted.

Craig Floyd:

Properly, there was no misconduct at all involved.

Craig Floyd:

and I think that says it all.

Craig Floyd:

99% of the time police are conducting themselves professionally and honorably.

Craig Floyd:

they're doing an amazing job, and we've finally been able to convince

Craig Floyd:

the legislators, the public, the, even some of the liberal naysayers.

Craig Floyd:

That, police are, doing a pretty darn good job for this country.

Craig Floyd:

And that's why crime is starting to go down again, because we're giving

Craig Floyd:

them the respect and the resources they need to keep America safe.

Dennis Collins:

You'll never see, it's, you'll never see that stat in

Dennis Collins:

the media, the stat, ah, never all

Craig Floyd:

that's why we had to put it out there.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

And that all is where the cops screwed up.

Dennis Collins:

And Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

There are some bad cops, guys, sorry to say it.

Dennis Collins:

There are.

Dennis Collins:

And they should be punished and they should be taken out.

Dennis Collins:

They don't need to be policemen anymore.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Bill Erfurth:

But you know that's, oftentimes, and nobody really understands

Bill Erfurth:

this, that's policed from within.

Bill Erfurth:

I was surprised myself when I was working and I was told by a friend of mine that

Bill Erfurth:

was working in, Internal affairs, 60% of the complaints that they got per year

Bill Erfurth:

in internal affairs, or whether it was just that year, I'm not sure, but 60% of

Bill Erfurth:

the complaints received came from within because, if I'm wearing that badge.

Bill Erfurth:

I don't want that badge to be tarnished or discredited by somebody that's.

Bill Erfurth:

A criminal, those people are washed out of those, out of the, ranks.

Bill Erfurth:

Hopefully they whatnot.

Bill Erfurth:

And it's pretty well policed.

Bill Erfurth:

It's, much more policed than the general public realizes it is.

Bill Erfurth:

And I wanna go back to something that Craig just said about.

Bill Erfurth:

About the statistics and stuff like that and go back to the media.

Bill Erfurth:

'cause this was another misnomer and it was basically just a lie.

Bill Erfurth:

So they did these studies, during the Obama administration.

Bill Erfurth:

I remember that.

Bill Erfurth:

everyone had to fill out a form.

Bill Erfurth:

Every time that you did a traffic stop, whether you gave a ticket, whether it was

Bill Erfurth:

a verbal warning, whether it was whatever it was, you had to fill out a form.

Bill Erfurth:

And it was a, basically, it was a racial profiling form.

Bill Erfurth:

I don't know how long it lasted.

Bill Erfurth:

It didn't last more than maybe a year or something like that.

Bill Erfurth:

It was just another bunch of.

Bill Erfurth:

Red tape, time consuming forms that you had to fill out.

Bill Erfurth:

And it was all about, it was all about ethnicity and race and all

Bill Erfurth:

this kind of stuff like that.

Bill Erfurth:

And they tried to, the media and everybody else tried to skew those numbers because

Bill Erfurth:

let's, face it, think about this.

Bill Erfurth:

If you're a cop in Memphis, if you're a cop in Detroit, if you're

Bill Erfurth:

a cop in any inner city area, right?

Bill Erfurth:

And it says, oh, 90%.

Bill Erfurth:

The traffic stops that were made were stops against black people.

Bill Erfurth:

Don't, 90% of the people that live in that area aren't nine, aren't those 90% black?

Bill Erfurth:

same in, Miami.

Bill Erfurth:

Okay.

Bill Erfurth:

Miami, I think Miami proper is something like 65 or 60% Hispanic.

Bill Erfurth:

So isn't going to make sense.

Bill Erfurth:

Probably the vast majority of the people that you're gonna stop

Bill Erfurth:

within Miami are gonna be Hispanic.

Bill Erfurth:

So they never used that to say, okay, what are the demographics here?

Bill Erfurth:

So how, you know if, you're, in lily white neighborhoods, who are you stopping?

Bill Erfurth:

You're stopping white people.

Bill Erfurth:

it just, there was so many things that were misconstrued and misunderstood there.

Bill Erfurth:

I think.

Dennis Collins:

Well guys, as always, we end up, we could talk.

Dennis Collins:

On and on about this.

Dennis Collins:

there's no end to, some of these topics, but there is an

Dennis Collins:

end, and this is our police.

Dennis Collins:

the, there is an end to the pod, this podcast, and we have come

Dennis Collins:

to that point where we must end.

Dennis Collins:

But guess what?

Dennis Collins:

We have unearthed a bunch of topics, haven't we?

Dennis Collins:

We've unearthed a bunch of topics, particularly one that's, that

Dennis Collins:

I'm fond of getting into is the media narratives about police.

Dennis Collins:

And we've talked about that at Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

What can we do to be a watchdog?

Dennis Collins:

And that's part of the job that we do.

Dennis Collins:

We look for the inequities.

Dennis Collins:

We look for the fake news, and we expose the fake news.

Dennis Collins:

So that's one of the things you can help us with by joining

Dennis Collins:

us CitizensBehindtheBadge.org.

Dennis Collins:

CitizensBehindtheBadge.org.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Dennis Collins:

On there you could find all, all about Bill Erfurth and his interesting career.

Dennis Collins:

It's all there, all about Craig Floyd and how he, has been a, an advocate

Dennis Collins:

for law enforcement for many, years.

Dennis Collins:

And you can subscribe, you can like, and follow our podcast because

Dennis Collins:

when you do that, you get notified.

Dennis Collins:

When the new episodes come out, you're the first to know.

Dennis Collins:

Okay?

Dennis Collins:

So make sure you follow, subscribe.

Dennis Collins:

We'd love to have you as part of the family and hit there's a donate button.

Dennis Collins:

You now know a little bit more about what Citizens Behind the Badge does with the

Dennis Collins:

money that's donated by the generous.

Dennis Collins:

American people.

Dennis Collins:

Okay.

Dennis Collins:

Help us continue this mission.

Dennis Collins:

It's starting to work.

Dennis Collins:

We've been a part of it, but there's more to do.

Dennis Collins:

We gotta keep the watch.

Dennis Collins:

We gotta keep the watch.

Dennis Collins:

As Craig says, we're one election away from possibly

Dennis Collins:

going in the wrong direction.

Dennis Collins:

We've gotta be vigilant and we will be vigilant.

Dennis Collins:

So I'm going to say on behalf of Bill Erfurth and Craig

Dennis Collins:

Floyd, I am Dennis Collins.

Dennis Collins:

I'm going to say thank you for listening.

Dennis Collins:

this was a little different show.

Dennis Collins:

May, maybe we should do this again.

Dennis Collins:

What do you think?

Dennis Collins:

Give us some comments.

Dennis Collins:

maybe, not.

Dennis Collins:

I don't know.

Dennis Collins:

What do y'all think?

Dennis Collins:

Give us some comments and we'll, listen to your comments.

Dennis Collins:

But this has been Heroes Behind the Badge, we tell real stories about real cops.

Dennis Collins:

We expose the fake news about the police, and we bring you the real truth.

Dennis Collins:

See you soon.

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About the Podcast

Heroes Behind the Badge
We tell REAL stories about REAL cops.  And we expose the fake news about police and give you the REAL truth.
From the front lines to the final call, Heroes Behind the Badge brings you the untold stories of America's law enforcement community. Led by Craig Floyd, who spent 34 years working alongside police officers across the nation, alongside veteran facilitator Dennis Collins and law enforcement expert Bill Erfurth, this podcast cuts through misconceptions to reveal the true nature of modern policing.

Our dynamic trio brings unique perspectives to each episode: Craig shares deep insights from his decades of experience and relationships within law enforcement, Dennis guides conversations with meticulous research and natural flow, and Bill adds engaging commentary that makes complex law enforcement topics accessible to all listeners.

Each episode features in-depth conversations with law enforcement professionals, sharing their firsthand experiences, challenges, and triumphs. Drawing from extensive research and real-world experience, we explore the realities faced by the over 800,000 officers who serve and protect our communities every day.

From dramatic accounts of crisis response to quiet moments of everyday heroism, our show illuminates the human stories behind the badge. We dive deep into the statistics, policies, and practices that shape modern law enforcement, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of what it truly means to serve in law enforcement today.

Whether you're a law enforcement professional, a concerned citizen, or someone seeking to understand the complexities of modern policing, Heroes Behind the Badge provides the context, insights, and authentic perspectives you won't find anywhere else. Join us weekly as we honor those who dedicate their lives to keeping our communities safe, one story at a time.

Presented by Citizens Behind the Badge, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for law enforcement professionals across the United States. Join over 126,000 Americans who have already signed our Declaration of Support for law enforcement at behindbadge.org.