hello I'm Sergeant Javier Salasar and this is behind the badge it's a whole new world in law enforcement from 20 10 or even 5 years ago there are new developments every day as crime and criminals evolve and law enforcement stays ahead of the game new tools and techniques pop up every day some come and go While others stick around one of these tools social media seems to be here to stay for the foreseeable future here at the sapd we rely heavily on our social media platforms to help help us with a variety of functions today we'll talk about the success we've enjoyed with our social media programs and we'll look into the future a bit to see what we have in store also on the show today we'll talk about another issue that unfortunately is nothing new to law enforcement Family Violence continues to plague us as a society of course this is not an issue we take lying down here in the Alamo City we'll be talking to one of our foremost experts on the subject and we'll hear about an interesting program that helps sapd deal with this very real problem before we get to that we'll be sharing some exciting news for us here at the sapd media Services office it's going to be a packed half hour so don't go away we'll be right back [Music] welcome back as you may already know behind the badge is produced by the sapd media Services office as the Director of the office I'm proud to announce a couple of new developments to our viewers we've added two new public officers or posos to the office now neither of these two people sitting next to me are new faces here on behind the badge however they'll now be playing a bigger part in the media office's day-to-day operations I'd like to formally introduce you to our two new pios officer Misty Floyd and officer Doug green MTI and Doug welcome thank you sir now listen you guys uh of course of course I know why I picked you guys y'all were handpicked and um you bring a lot of experience to the table so I'd like to share with our viewers U what exactly it is that that makes you guys tick what What attracted you to this kind of work and and why you're here today so Misty where are you coming to us from I'm actually coming from Patrol I worked East Patrol Tango okay and you know before your time with with the sapd you you had some some prior experience with the military wasn't is that correct yes sir I initially um I got my experience from college I went to Troy State University in Troy Alabama um and then in the military I was a paralal at 27 Delta with the Army and then on the broadcasting side I was a broadcast journalist for the Air Force um featuring stories and and broadcasting for Air Force now okay so that was a a quite a bit of training that went into that uh it was a it was a school called you help me with that dios was the school and it's um at Fort me Maryland so I had to audition uh do a Voice audition to see if my voice was even trainable to make it to the school and then um it was very extensive training very challenging okay and it was how long was the school the school was four months um bare minimum 4 hours a week and then it was quite a bit of uh time dedicated outside of the classroom to perfect it to pass okay so here in our in our language we call it a p being a Pio but in the military it's called something different it's a public affairs officer and so there's the print side of the house and then there's the broadcasting side and I was really kind of torn initially to see which one I really would be more passionate about and um I figured that the broadcasting side was more of a challenge for me the technical aspect was the most challenging so I picked that side okay well I me as as our behind the badge viewers can attest to you've done well here since your time that's that's why we kept you um so you know we're we love having you here um Doug I know that you you had quite an extensive background before you were a policeman too uh well let me let me let me back up a bit where where are you coming to us from just like Misty I'm coming from Patrol but I'm coming from Central and I also work I work the central Patrol Tango shift okay so those are nighttime hours those are nighttime hours yes all right so you're having a little trouble staying awake I'm still still adjusting well that internal I've been around here for 20 years you'll catch up on your on your sleep patterns before too long and you'll get the Family Life adjusted I can I can tell you it's going to come along can you tell us a little bit about your background before you were a policeman what was it that brought you to this career field well sge I can tell you ever since I was a little kid you know my mom got me a video camera when I was uh maybe six or seven years old and I always love playing with the camera and then uh a uh and when I went to high school in Woodsboro Texas they started a video production team and so that really sparked my interest so I decided to pursue my career in uh my education and Communications so I went to delm Mar College in Corpus Christie Texas got my radio TV and film and my associates there and then I transferred to Texas ANM Corpus Christie and got my bachelor's degree in Communications with emphasis on media and all while along I was going to school I was also working at the NBC affiliate in Corpus Christie Texas as a technical director oh wow okay and then I guess at some point you moved up to the big leagues absolutely then I you know I said if I was going to do this career I wanted to go you know straight to the top and so uh you know my wife and I packed up and we headed to Los Angeles and I and I uh applied out there for a couple of TV stations got hired on with a TV station called LV and work with them as a technical director and as a mass control operator and the digitizer and it was just a lot of fun okay well that both of those uh those career paths that yall took uh got you here and we're happy to have you I'm I'm really excited about some of the things that we're going to do Misty real quick can you just kind of tell us some of your plans for the the for the near future what are your what are your plans for this office and for the Department I think right now um just really growing with social media it seems to be uh that everyone is going the social media route and I really want to grow our office and our department in that direction reach out and to the public and do a lot more special projects do Community Partnership with different events um and really take it to the next level okay and we're going to be talking about all of that here in just a little bit a little more in depth uh you know Doug our our behind the badge viewers of course uh seen you on on a prior episode because you're you're a family assistance officer with the department so they heard you talk about that and of course that was what what really first pequ my interest in you as a as a broadcast person because I I I saw that you have a screen presence that's just crazy and um of course our our behind the bad your have also seen your work on PSAs So to that end what do you what do you hope to accomplish here at Pio absolutely you know just like I said I loved being around the camera you know that's that's my experience so uh especially doing projects like that that are going to make a difference in Community uh that's what I'm excited about that's what I want to do you know the San Antonio Police Department has a has a great relationship with the with the community here and and through this I I can take my experience in TV production and and with Pio and and help enhance that uh that relationship uh so I'm I'm I'm very excited you know I wouldn't think from a a kid from little old Woodsboro would get this opportunity and so I'm ready to go right well you guys are both Naturals uh I you know I'm I'm convinced the viewers are convinced I'm excited about the places we're going to go as a team uh we're going to rock the house I I I have full faith in it next up officer Misty Floyd will be talking to a very special guest about Sap's fact program which works with victims of Family Violence stick [Music] around we were on our way to the park and Dad decided it was still safe not to use the crosswalk I was wrong and my son and I paid for it with our lives crosswalks are there to help protect us always cross at a mark crossw walk or an intersection with a signal walk safe San Antonio [Music] welcome back the issue of family violence is something we take to heart here at the sapd it's a vicious cycle that sometimes takes generations to break one of the most remarkable things about Family Violence is that due to the nature of the abuse and the psychological scars it brings too many victims have a hard time getting out of the dangerous and even deadly situation that they and sometimes their children may face thankfully people like our sapd family assistant crisis team or fact workers are there to help ease the way to a better life for these victims here with us today is Miss Jane Schaefer Miss Jane thank you so much for coming on today oh you're welcome I'm glad to be here this is a topic that is just very very important to our community and especially to us as a law enforcement can you tell us what this fact program is yes fact or the family assistance crisis team is a volunteer program that's been in the police department for almost 22 years now wow and uh it started kind of as a Grassroots effort to say Family Violence is part of our community but we're ignoring it or we're just acting like it's not there or there you know there was the battered women shelter but most people hadn't heard of it 20 years ago and so uh we started organizing and saying what's needed one was a a campaign of just education in the public uh part of it was resources began to develop within the community and then we kept coming across people that wanted to help but it didn't didn't want to make it their life career or something you know so they wanted to just volunteer here and there when they had the opportunity so yes they uh so we organized the program and uh first of all it was kind of it was it within the city structure but within a couple of months it became very obvious it needed to be in the police department because that's where people went they didn't go to whatever you other departments they went to the police and so a lot of our volunteers are interested in the area of Family Violence for variety of reasons one some of them have been there and done that and want to give back many of them male and female have grown up in violent homes and said no one should have to live like that and others just say that's not a good way for families to live how can I help and so this is a structured somewhat limited way in that we don't expect you to show up every day for eight hours you know but to give back and use their own skills and talents and how do you give back how do you become a volunteer well uh we as part of the police department of course you have to have a background check so for our purposes you need to be at least 21 or in college because some of the college students Juniors and seniors need you know service hours or internships so we'll if they're in school and it's needed for a class we'll consider that also um they cannot have a criminal background okay you know that's and an automatic disqualifier so outside of that then we get references just CU you want to come in we don't take you right you got to prove because we consider who you're going to be serving and that and the environment in which you well you want them to be a good fit right and it's such a delicate topic being able to intervene with um something like domestic violence and and you want to help and if you're not trained properly it could even hinder that's right because a lot of things are a little counterintuitive you most of us just tell people get out of there well the re research and people's history show that's not the least bit helpful so we have 17 hours of training that they're required to go to and part of that is what we call domestic violence 101 is like telling people to leave doesn't help anything in fact it may be putting them in Greater danger than if they stayed right and people don't always think of that well why is that and what are the things you should consider what are other resources to call in so we need everyone to have that basic understanding because we don't want to do any harm right you know and there's different avenues that you can um that you can volunteer and that's through the Family Justice Center as well as the substations is that correct we have uh the majority of our volunteers are full-time workers so they need something to do uh volunteer evening time so we have volunteers that work in the six substations on Friday and Saturday nights from 7 in the evening till 2 in the morning okay um it's partly to enhance Services because most people go home 4:30 or 10: or you know 5:00 except for the hospitals and PD and the batter women shelter everything else closes down uh so there sometimes people want to talk to someone that's not a police officer yes so that's you know that that's available so they're there basically to listen to give information uh to refer to resources and always we talk about doing a safety plan for people well when is the next training class our next training class is coming up in July okay it's the last two Saturdays of July I think that's the 21st and 28th okay and uh it's from 9: to 4: both Saturdays it's at the police department and like I said if you meet the qualifications 21 no criminal background we'd be glad to well this is a a great Avenue for them to to learn how they can go out there and become part of the team I o want to talk just briefly um with you about October October is known as um domestic violence awareness month and I've heard that you guys are going to have training um October 20th and 21st is that correct that's correct we're having uh the sapd is sponsoring a two-day violence intervention conference okay building Community a United Community response so it'll be at uh the El tropicano downtown those two days full days we have Keynotes speakers one is uh Mr Ted Bunch from a call to men to look at this isn't a woman's issue per se right we all have to be part of and men if men aren't part of the solution it's not going to be solved well I think this is going to be um just a fantastic conference and um we'll post more on Facebook for our viewers so that they know how to uh sign up and then I look forward to having you on a a future episode before the actual training to talk a little bit more about that that' be great thank you Miss Jane unfortunately Family Violence is something that has been around for ages and our fact volunteers stand ready to help victims break the cycle of violence fact is a valuable tool that we hope to expand as we're able to up next you'll hear us talk about another great tool that we have at the sapd social media and namely Facebook Sarge Doug and I will be talking about our Facebook page and go over our top five reasons for our social media [Music] success I was headed to the hospital to meet my brand new granddaughter I stepped off the bus and tried to cross the street without looking I was so excited that I didn't notice traffic hadn't stopped I never made it across I never met my granddaughter crosswalks are there to help protect us always cross at a mark crosswalk or an intersection with a signal walk safe San Antonio [Music] Sap's Facebook page has been in existence for the better part of two years on day one when the media office took it over there were 17 followers or likes that number has grown to surprising levels today we're going to tell you just how surprising and we're going to give you our top five reasons for that success over the past two years now S I know you were there at towards the beginning of getting the Facebook going can you give us kind of like how the the then and now of the Facebook page absolutely Doug um you know when I came into this job uh Chief mcmanis had given me several uh points that he wanted me to to really hit hard and uh to to expand on one of those was social media so of course uh being being a 40 something that wasn't something I was uh I was really schooled in uh but I just kind of learned I started calling around to other police departments that were already doing it and we're meeting with some success and uh drawing on their their ideas their what they were doing and and trying to emulate that to some extent I think it's paid off for us as you mentioned it's risen to surprising levels wow that's great my goodness I know as far as demographics go um we've got about 63% that are female followers and with our biggest age group being somewhere between 25 and 34 and then the second um set would be the 35 through 44 right and that that doesn't really surprise me one bit to to tell you the truth and what I think I can attribute that to is I'm sure you guys can attest to this you know it was it was the case for me of course the internet wasn't around when I was trying to become a police officer 21 years ago 22 years ago uh but for you guys anyway you know when you're when you're looking to apply for the police department you're you're trying to take on a career in law enforcement you're dealing with all the all the input from your family you're researching everything that you possibly can right so that demographic there is is probably attributed to um a lot of people that are that are trying to figure out more of what the San Antonio Police Department is all about and that's great we encourage that you know do your research come to us make with an educated decision and uh and you know start your career so that's what I think that that demographic is attributed to and really we have followers of all age groups worldwide right yeah like Sergeant I know you know we have people from you know from everywhere watching but like what are the top like five countries that uh that follow us on our on our Facebook page well of course you know we've got the US um but surprisingly uh you know as you get into these are just the top five uh you got Mexico uh Brazil and then Believe It or Not Italy and Germany round out the top five for for fall it's it's it's just interesting that you know when we put something on our Facebook page somebody in Germany or Italy is reading it you know and and it's just that's just uh it's something that just Never Never Fails to amaze me um we've actually got fans as far away as as India uh turkey Japan the Netherlands and and every day we're hearing about new countries that people are following us you know uh as you mentioned earli I'm a family assistance officer and uh you know I I had I had the honor of helping the Deckard family and one thing you know I I recall is that someone from the Netherlands posted their their support uh showing their support for officer Decker and for the police department but the the Facebook page was also a way for the family to connect with the community and to communicate with them and also to kind of be you know uh kind of receive some kind of therapy from um observing all the support from all over the world through the Facebook page right well and and Bobby's Bobby's uh case there uh was something that our our Facebook page went through the roof just in that that was really the the the family's only way of communicating they they were really uh concentrating on on spending every minute that they could at Bobby's bedside so our Facebook page just really served as their their main channel for getting information out and and again as you mentioned people were making comments and and sending well wishes to the Deckard family from as far away as Europe the Middle East I mean it was it was all over the place so our worldwide reach is is again what just what makes this thing just blow up absolutely and one of the um best things that I love like is is when we do the First Responders Road call I love that I love to hear First Responders from all over the world um call out where they're from where they're serving from what hours they work and that sort of thing sge you started that right right um an Gales she's from the Stafford PD and and we'll we'll talk to her and I I'm sure in a future episode but but an I would see that on her personal Facebook page would would post uh to First Responders and Military uh hey where are you following from Roll Call call it out and so I started doing that on ours and it was surprising to see that we were getting uh you know Marines from Kandahar and and people that are were were in you know the Korea uh people in Europe you know First Responders we had London Metropolitan Police sounding off Royal Canadian Mounted Police were sounding off cool it's neat to be able to just bring everybody together as a as a Brotherhood you have some local some of the local agencies that would would respond right yeah yeah I mean I'd see some hey I'm Leon Valley you know Leon Valley Fire Department balcone Heights Police Department people sounding off from all over but it was kind of neat to have that that all come together on worldwide reach it really is a worldwide reach and with that it it it's really nice that it also allows to network correct um you know let me one of the features that we do on our Facebook page from time to time is our Throwback Thursdays which as you know as everybody that that does Facebook is familiar with Throwback Thursdays a lot of people put baby pictures of themselves or pictures from their military days or whatnot well on the sapd we started following suit and and you know we're a historical department we go back well over a hundred years and so what we do from time to time on Thursdays is we'll we'll post a throwback Thursday pick it might be a motorcycle officer from the 19 20s or uh you know the SWAT team from the 1970s when they very first started uh one of these these throwback Thursday picks that we did was a March of Dimes um collection that was doing taking place in in alal Plaza and there was a clown in it and uh pretty soon KJ from from the March of Dimes reached out to me and said hey why don't we reenact that that photograph and it started this this partnership with the March of Dimes that we got together we we even got a clown and and Misty you were part of it that was a lot of fun we we reenacted this and those were sapd offic right they were sapd officers and then there was a clown that we did some research and we found out that uh that the clown in that in that original photograph was a police officer oh wow and so here this time we we actually got a clown that's actually believe it or not he's a prosecutor with the DA's office U but he dresses up as a clown on his time off and so we reenacted this Photograph but that started out this this network that that uh makes us more approachable to to other organizations so like any baby can is is one that um just invited us to the march of of uh the the walk for autism oh you got to attend that right yeah yeah the fiesta deos he pretty good right very good uh yeah that was a great opportunity to uh to do a lot of networking I mean we and um we also got to to communicate with our with our uh our brothers in red also we networked with them uh with with Chief hood and so forth and lots of uh nonprofit organizations came out as a huge success a big turnout very big turnout and then as well as um The 100 Club of San Antonio and um Big Brother Brothers Big Sisters and even the military so oh yeah the military was huge they reached out to you through your they did I actually um uh helped coordinate um one of the Hava events the honored American veterans of field um we did a uh with Wounded Warriors the the San Antonio Training Academy hosted that uh with the military at Fort Sam and we had all these uh Wounded Warriors come out and we have these Pro Shooters come out and help them shoot and do kind of one-on-one and big barbecue prizes families could come it was really really a fun event to kind of bring us together with the military being that this is military City USA and so one of the things that we use our our social media platforms for a lot is crime fighting it's a crime fighting tool um we've seen that on cases and the way it started out is we would have these Crim Stoppers alerts that come out fugitives um you know unsolved crimes cold cases that we would put out and we would ask people to to come forward and give us information on it and that thing just took off on us I mean we've had all kinds of interesting stories happen to us since then cuz it worked MH The Catch Me If You Can is the first one that comes to mind correct okay the The Catch Me If You Can uh that started out and what it was is I was at home on a Saturday morning bored and got on the sapd Facebook page and started uh monitoring it somebody sent us a private message of a it was a video obviously a helmet cam of of a motorcycle rider uh just shooting through traffic and just showing complete disregard for for safety uh I as I do with with tips that come in I I forward it to cak our intelligence Center they did some research on it they found out who this guy was uh they tracked it to a Facebook page uh and found that the the person associated with that Facebook page actually had some felony warrants or a felony warrant um we put it out on on social media media ran with it next thing you know that thing went World worldwide you know I woke up in the morning and I saw it uh on CNN you know I didn't see it on any of the local you know news I like wow this this happened in San Antonio so I didn't realize that and it spread fast you know it's a big story yeah it took off on us and you know that's just that's just one of the aspects so I know that one of the things that attracts people to us is we're actually interactive okay we've got like for example on our front page we've got a a a submit a tip button but you can go on there and you can submit a tip and remain anonymous it goes to our Intelligence Center and even the detective taking in the information has no clue who that is they're just giving their information remaining Anonymous that's something that they can they can do additionally they can send it to us as a private message and people are surprised to know that those are read those messages are read we reply to them and then we submit it up the chain for uh for investigation so it's a way for citizens to connect with us as human beings correct and again that takes us to our fifth fifth point of of why we're successful is our human element you know some of our most successful points and and just in talking about it before this we were talking about some of the more successful posts one that Springs to mind for me anyway was an officer that just answered a 911 call it was a it was a panic alarm on a on an alarm uh he showed up and it was one of the children that had pressed the button and the officer took the time to to take some pictures with the uh with the kids showed him his patrol car and it was it was a little 2-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother and mom was so impressed with that that she she forwarded his pictures and we put it on Facebook and it blew up on us it took offet you know one of my favorite ones that got I think it was what was 1.3 million hits was officer till officer till Tilson and uh and the Pitbull Mac that he that he rescued and uh gave him some food and took him to Animal Care Services and followed up with them after his shift was over you know that was that got a big response uh you know we we've we talked heavily about Facebook today and we could probably devote two whole shows to our to our social media uh platforms you know we've got our YouTube channel that that uh people don't don't realize that we have one but we put our PSAs on there we put our shows on there um we'd like people to check out check that out uh is additionally we've got a Twitter feed that is linked to Facebook so this show here behind the badge as you know can can be seen on on our Twitter feed on our Facebook page uh and our YouTube channel we you know we just asked the public to check it out uh thank you guys uh for today this was interesting talk we're going to have to do this again great yeah stay there we'll be right [Music] back once again I thank Doug and Misty for helping me get the word out about this successful and valuable social media program here at the sapd being that social media looks as if it's here to stay we hope to expand into other platforms similar to Facebook and Twitter to continue to help us fight crime and keep the world informed in coming months we hope to bring you more news about other programs available to us and to you the citizens we serve no doubt we'd also like to mention our world champion San Antonio Spurs our home team fought hard to take the championship series in five games as fate would have it they got to win the series here at home the entire team contributed to the championship season but the true MVPs of the Season were our San Antonio fans they took to the streets and celebrated in true San Antonio fashion although the crowds were large and Loud they were very well behaved and as usual here in San Antonio we know how to celebrate responsibly the celebration saw no major mishaps and it was just a great time of course it was the honor of the men and women of the sapd to protect and serve as the celebration carried on into the morning hours and once again thanks San Antonio for giving us the privilege to serve you hopefully we'll be doing it again next year and showing the world yet again how we Spurs fans celebrate go Spurs go until next time we'd love to hear about how you think we're doing send us ideas on what you'd like to see and hear more of at behindthe badge sanantonio.gov as always check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ sanantonio PD from all of us here at behind the badge thanks for watching