ugh welcome to behind the badge where we like to give you an inside look at the men and women of the san antonio police department i'm your host sergeant javier salazar here at the sapd we have many responsibilities first and foremost is protecting the citizens we serve year after year we do this with every tool at our disposal and on many fronts sometimes the issues we face are life and death situations other times it's quality of life issues it's one of these quality of life issues we'll talk about today graffiti is a challenge we face every day across san antonio with a city as picturesque and beautiful as sa it's definitely something we take to heart today you'll hear about an effort to address this destructive crime trend through a multi-faceted approach which we can't wait to tell you about after that you'll hear about how one sapd officer in particular uses his talents and training to give something back to his community and to his fellow officers he's an interesting guy so you won't want to miss it last but not least you'll hear a bit about our annual awards ceremony and one of the top units to be honored our special victims unit we're going to take a quick break but we'll be right back i had to go back to school to get a book i forgot and the quickest way was across a busy highway my dad had to identify my body pedestrians should never be on a highway or expressway shortcuts can kill walk safe san antonio welcome back as you know here in san antonio we pride ourselves on the appearance of our homes and our buildings whether you live in a historic neighborhood or an apartment complex few things detract from community aesthetics as much as graffiti now some see it as an art form but most see it as a nuisance and an eyesore it costs communities millions of dollars in damages every year and has far-reaching effects now here to tell us about the sapd's approach to the issue is captain gus guzman who actually chairs the initiative for the sapd captain welcome to the show thank you for having me good thanks thanks for coming we you know we see it and and it's almost to the point where as a society we we don't see it anymore as we're driving driving to work but if you stop to think how much graffiti is actually out there it's quite a bit yes uh no part of the city is immune anywhere you drive walk work you'll see signs of graffiti and this initiative that we're working on here at sapd in partnership with other city departments we're trying to work our way towards eliminating graffiti all together in our community yeah and we're doing it through an initiative that i guess other city departments have initiatives but we have our own and you're that's the one that you run can you tell us about that initiative what it is sure the sapd graffiti initiative is part of a broader strategic plan initiative that we have here at sapd my focus is on graffiti and we're working in partnership with other city departments as i mentioned development services council district one and we also have some private partnerships with other businesses here in town we have partnership with saws cps and txdot so this is not an entirely sapd initiative we're working with as partners and in the end hoping to eliminate graffiti from our community well and that's the key to anything is is uh cooperation among agencies so uh we've become good at that i you know and and i hope to see that that's gonna bring us some results now when we talk about graffiti you know uh it's going to cost the the average person maybe a couple hundred bucks to to cover up graffiti but if you if you take that amount and multiply it out over the entire city what kind of a dollar amount are we talking about into the millions for example fiscal fiscal year 2012 the city of san antonio spent over a million dollars in covering up graffiti and that's just on city property by itself so private property owners who took the initiative to cover graffiti on their own property uh is well over a million dollars in itself so we're looking at a few million dollars up to five million dollars in my estimation and that's that just boggles the mind to think about that that amount and um here in a little bit we'll show a psa that we did last year with the spurs on the team up campaign and uh that they use a figure in that that it's actually several billion dollars nationwide so i mean you just think about the waste of resources that's going to such a senseless act i just i can't imagine what would what would uh possess somebody to to want to go do that but uh there's that segment of the population out there that just thrives on that sort of destruction and thankfully we've got initiatives like this that are helping to to stop that now aside from the financial side effects what other side effects does does graffiti bring with it okay real quick back to the financial aspect private property owners have complained that graffiti lowers their property value and there is anecdotal evidence that shows that but on the non-financial side we have things that graffiti causes fear of crime we know that graffiti attracts other criminal acts to occur within the same area so it goes beyond financial cost there are other social costs one of those being in san antonio is a tourism town we fear that tourists that are out and about and if they see graffiti they get a sense that our community is not safe so that in itself has an indirect impact on some financial cost for us too sure and in a city that depends so heavily on tourism that's something we need to keep an eye on that that perception and perceptions reality in in many cases as you know uh captain how can the average citizen uh just somebody with a homeowner how can they protect themselves against becoming a victim of graffiti what we've learned about graffiti is that taggers like to tag or vandalize property when no one is watching them or when it's dark so a lot of our graffiti incidents occur at night so we'll ask private property owners including businesses is uh check the lighting around their properties do they have enough lighting at night uh overgrown shrubs uh vandals will hide behind those shrubs tag a property and nobody sees them so those are just two things that private property owners can do lighting controlling access to their property maybe they have a fence but it's not controlling completely access to their property take a look at those things those are a combination of strategies and some folks may not have the resources to do that but you can get creative as as you want to help prevent graffiti from happening to your property sure and i would imagine you can team up with neighbors to to share sure you know the like the cost of a light fixture and that's going to benefit both and uh it's it's there's really there really are fixes to it and i guess when you're talking about lighting and eliminating uh uh you know the opportunity and the way that these people do it uh you're really just talking about crime prevention in general that that really can help you out to protect your property against theft and other other forms of property damage okay so if a homeowner does become a victim they come out their garage door is defaced their fence has been spray painted in some way shape or form what can they do well first we ask all property owners that are victims of graffiti to call police we're finding out that not everybody calls police when become victims of tagging we need to know that these incidents are happening we need to know where they're happening we need to know what time this way we can collect this data and direct the appropriate resources to hopefully prevent graffiti from happening again if possible we ask that victims take pictures of the graffiti we'll collect it analyze it and see if this particular tag is prevalent in other parts of the city this way we can track the movement of the taggers it helps us deploy the resources that we need to attack the problem okay so it'll actually allow if if they wait for the officers to come and and read the graffiti interpret it collect it as evidence collect evidence of it um that's actually going to help in the prosecution eventually if these people are caught yes if we can prove either by witness or with evidence that a certain individual is responsible for the graffiti all that information will help okay so you mentioned people should call in what number are they going to call to we have three numbers immediately the one i can think of is 207 buff buff it kind of ties along with the graffiti initiative uh private citizens and business owners can call 311 and report the incident and they can call the non-emergency number at san trump police department 207 sapd which is 207-7273 well that's a lot of information and you know it's an issue that uh that worries a lot of people but but hopefully things like this are going to help help take that away absolutely so captain thanks so much for coming on we appreciate it and we'd love to have you back and hear about how the initiative's going thank you for having me and hope to report our progress in the future thanks captain unfortunately this problem won't go away easily but we're prepared for the fight we intend to show these criminals that property damage is something we simply won't tolerate in the alamo city it's time for another break but join us in just a bit i'm danny green of the san antonio spurs and i'm here with chief mcmanus to talk to you about graffiti it's not art when you're vandalizing someone else's property it's just plain disrespectful most importantly it's a crime graffiti can get you big fines and even prison time and it costs american taxpayers over eight billion dollars a year don't be part of the problem be part of the solution devote your time to keeping san antonio clean and beautiful team up with us to wipe out graffiti fema welcome back you know here behind the badge we like to profile units and enforcement efforts but sometimes we profile individual officers and show you a look inside their world officer doug green recently got to talk one-on-one with an interesting character here at the sapd doug why don't you tell us a little bit about it yes sir i got to hang out with uh officer renee solis he's the tactical instructor with uh with the academy and that got to spend some time with him and some of the cadets he was taking through training at the in their day skills and the guy loves his job he enjoys it he takes it very seriously uh but he also loves martial arts and he uses that to invest in our in our local youth here at the here in san antonio oh good deal well let's let's take a look at that package we're at the blue tiger gym where we're going to introduce you to officer renee silas officer silas is a tactical instructor at the san antonio police academy but in his free time he enjoys training and also investing in local kids by being an instructor of mixed martial arts officer renee silas welcome to the show it's a pleasure having you now i always like to have the viewers get to know our officers a little bit better so tell us exactly how long have you been on the department and what kind of units have you been a part of i've been on the department about 14 years i was 14 years back in june and i've been part of the storm patrol did some time on b shift daylight i was on safe for about five years and i worked up on the chief's office for a couple and i'm also part of the executive protection team excellent excellent so now here recently you are a tactical instructor at the academy yes sir uh since may i've been doing it for about three years and uh i really enjoy the teaching aspect and it's a lot of fun i really enjoy it now what exactly do you do as a tactical instructor what are you teaching the uh the cadets out there the cadets we're teaching them everything we teach them from a to z when it comes to tactics when we get them during skills week we teach them from the initial approaches that officers make all the way to clearing a house the best way to describe is we're pretty much teaching them how to read we teach them the letters of the alphabet how to progress forward until they're finally able to clear rooms and do felony traffic stops on their own awesome awesome now uh we all have our own reasons for becoming a police officer yes what is your reason why did you choose this career of law enforcement my father was on the department he retired as a sergeant probably about 10 years ago now and i've always just enjoyed being outside uh doing things being active i couldn't see myself sitting in an office from nine to five and i really enjoy being out there helping the community and doing what i can to help people san antonio excellent now next thing i'd love to talk to you about is your passion your passion for mixed martial arts mixed martial arts how long have you been involved or had this passion for this field uh it's been for for a long time for as long as i can remember i remember being five or six years old and my dad taking me to my first karate class over on the southeast military behind the whole solo serving kmart those old gym back there that's where i first started and i've kind of dabbled with it back and forth a little here uh i've taken kempo looking a little keto some krav maga until uh to find my love here with tangsudo awesome awesome now how did you kind of get involved how did you find the blue tiger gym um uh years ago they were having some police games here in san antonio and i thought that would be really cool to try and uh i know the grand master with animal was going to be the the director of it heading it up and i knew that he had a school so one day i just called him up and said i'd like to participate in the games and i'd also like to kind of get ready for it uh if i could start training it at school and uh he said not a problem so i started training i did pretty well at the police games and uh man i've just been kind of coming ever since excellent excellent so being out here you have an opportunity to teach not only as you're a student but you also get a chance to invest in these kids lives uh tell us a little bit about you know the discipline and the different characters different students different kids that you're meeting and what you're getting what you guys are doing out here to help them in their everyday life well we're not only teaching them martial arts but we're also teaching them about discipline and respect i think sometimes a little long way that sometimes gets lost in translation so we're trying to bring it back trying to reforce uh those old school principles that should be taught today uh we not only worry about their their martial arts here at the school but we also make sure that we stay involved with their school make sure they're making good grades making sure that when they get the report cards that not only the grades good but they're uh that they're providing a good a good example for the other students and making sure that their behavior in class is just as important excellent now what kind of backgrounds do these kids have they come from a variety of backgrounds you know single family homes or oh yes sir we've seen it all from single family to uh stable homes unstable we come in here and we do our best we can to work with them and uh do we can to make sure they're other good productive people out there and kids at school excellent that's great yes sir uh well i know that a lot of guys who have this passion for mixed martial arts they also have a mixed martial arts hero you know that they grew up inspiring to be and who's motivated them who who's your hero uh milo of course would have to go bruce lee the all time but i'd have to say the one that's right up there would probably have to be chuck norris awesome awesome now i know and i've heard from your friends and the guys and i've also seen in the office you got the chuck norris uh poster up and everything so what tell us what is your favorite chuck norrism i'll probably have to say that on chuck norris computer there is no control button because chuck norris is always in control awesome brother hey officer silas thank you so much thank you dude appreciate it thank you for the investment that you're making in these lives and we thank you for being on the show all right thanks for having me sir all right we're gonna take it back in the studio to you sarge well that was interesting stuff uh i've known renee for years and i actually learned a few things from that from that segment so i guess with renee you know not only does he work with those kids but he's actually doing stuff to help his fellow officers out there at the academy that's correct i mean the uh the the tactics that he's teaching these cadets he has to make sure that they are prepared and ready for to go out to the the streets and serve our community and that's why i mentioned at the beginning that he takes it very seriously but he enjoys it at the same time so you know you can tell that he bonds with the cadets and he has good relationship with them and they trust his is built between them and uh you know we we're you know very confident in in and officer renee siles and what he's doing with our cadets and those skills are going to go on and on and on as officers take cadets become officers and they take that knowledge out of the streets with them absolutely they're going to be taking actually officer renee silas with them you know they'll hear his voice through their training you know they'll hear his voice when they get into a situation out there in the streets that's it's good stuff doug thanks for bringing us that segment it was it was great stuff thank you thank you officers like renee salas are the backbone of this police department although it's all about teamwork here it's refreshing to see the life-saving fruits of individual achievements sometimes now speaking of life-saving next up officer misty floyd will bring you some information about some more brave men and women of the sapd whom we're proud to serve with join us after this next break if you want your children to be winners it's important for them to attend school every day i'm dr sylvester perez and i count on my staff to be at work each and every day their regular attendance is what it takes to contribute to a winning community for more information about how you can help your kids have regular school attendance log on to the p16 plus council website for assistance let's all support sa kids attend to win welcome back as sarge mentioned before the break we're definitely in the business of saving lives at least once a year the sapd honors the heroic efforts of officers and citizens alike and this year's annual award ceremony dozens of local heroes received a variety of medals and certificates some of these awards went to private citizens for stepping up to help others in a time of need some went to officers for their actions in individual events and others went to units like the one you'll hear about now the sapd special victims unit took home the prize for being the top unit in 2013. here to talk to us about that honor is lieutenant renee gallegos the unit director sir thank you so much for coming thank you thanks for having me today well as you and i both know awards are not something that are just given they're definitely earned every single year so what are some of the things that made your unit so successful well i'm gonna have to start off with my detectives uh my detectives are they work hard we work the cases in our department that nobody wants to talk about we we deal with child abuse we deal with family violence we deal with sex crimes these are not the glamorous crimes you see on tv as law and order svu right real life is a lot different there's real life victims real life kids that we have to deal with and families that that they go through a traumatizing event and so it's more than just the case to us it takes a dedicated individual to come in and and it to be a calling more than a job uh the empathy that that must be present when we work these cases is a big factor in being able to work these cases you got to understand the perspective of the victim that's one of the reasons that our unit is really actually really unique we have sex training we have family violence we have sex offender registration we handle all child abuse cases in the city of san antonio but we also have our victims advocacy that's attached to svu which gives the victims in our cases somewhere to go to that's right connected with us years ago the command staff founded a need that svu and the victims out because he was a great fit and it has been for when families and and children go through things and you have to understand cases don't get tried within the first six months it takes a year two years sometimes for a case to go to trial and what we need on the victim's advocacy they're our lead with all our partners in in in the community that we deal with uh to create some kind of healing for the for the victim because eventually they're gonna have to testify in court so they're going to have to to be strong they're going to have to face uh the suspect who hurt them so it becomes a really big important part of our case sure and what are some of the obstacles that you guys had to overcome to win this award well one of the things that that makes us unique and and the obstacles is that we don't run on the island by ourselves uh our cases is truly a teamwork effort not only within our unit when we're dealing with crime scenes dna evidence witnesses statements interrogations we're talking about all our child cases we we work real closely with child protective services we work joint investigations uh with them on the child abuse cases we work closely with the rape crisis center with child safe our forensic interviewers are located there we also have the federal justice center where we have to detective station uh where protective orders are issued in the family violence oh okay so we're kind of spread throughout the community we are not centrally located we have partners that we rely on in order to to to make strong cases you know the last thing we want to do is go to court and not win a case so you know we are really being on establishing our probable cause and getting our facts together because the last thing we want to do is submit a case that's not going to be filed on or we're going to lose absolutely and another unique thing that really stands out about sdu is the fact that you guys are offering training i'm actually signed up for a human trafficking class that i'm really excited to go to but you're offering it not only for officers within the department but also for other agencies yes we one of the things that we realize because we work with so many partners is we we created training within the rape crisis center for example is every new advocate that comes to the rape crisis center has a special victim's unit training that either i or sergeant davis will do on saturdays to go in and give them an idea of what we do and why we do the things we do you know specifically on sexual assaults we have to ask the tough questions because unlike tv where dna is a big part we're looking at consent we're looking consent's a big thing on our sexual assaults and so we have to let our advocates know what we're doing and why we do it and you mentioned earlier it's a calling and i think that during the short period of time that i was able to work with your unit that is one thing that i noticed repeatedly is the passion that they have each of those detectives have and also the civilians that work alongside them for really helping the victims it's all about helping them recover and helping giving them the tools that they need to lead a really healthy life after such an event it takes a special breed to do what you guys do and i'm so glad that you could come here today to talk about this great honor winning this award was something that was not just handed to you guys but earned every single day so thank you so much for coming on thank you for having me appreciate it we're going to take a quick break but stay tuned when we come back we're going to take out a few minutes to recognize sapd's officers of the year the annual violence intervention conference will be here soon register online participants will gain a better knowledge of how to help victims of domestic violence each year the san antonio police department recognizes officers that display exceptional acts or service in an annual awards ceremony award recipients are nominated and then selected based on their ability to distinguish themselves as the best of the best in the police profession this year the sapd had the privilege of announcing officers alfred lopez and david padilla as 2013's officers of the year their dedication to the overall good of the community greatly affects all walks of life as they diligently work daily to improve community conditions for the citizens of san antonio for officers lopez and padilla their day began as any normal day would in the intelligence unit where they serve with the southwest texas fusion center a major component of their job includes collecting coordinating and researching suspicious activity and threat information this information is then shared to assist other law enforcement officers in multi-agency investigations the only difference on that particular day was a phone call from a homicide sergeant that just didn't sit right with officer lopez he was inquiring about an individual who had been missing for many years and he wanted us to see if there had been any activity on his social we had a access to that information i looked it up and realized that there had been no no activity under that social for about 20 years i was curious now never seen you know someone fall off the radar like that for that long and asked him what it was in reference to and apparently this individual had been missing for 20 years and the family had been calling every year the homicide unit asking if there was anything new on their missing loved one i turned to my partner officer padilla and asked him you know hey you know can we look into this it didn't set well with me that this family's been looking and calling every year for 20 years and the same answer was always given unfortunately and here i am in a unit now where i know that we could uh look into it and possibly you know with the new technology and and information we have now that maybe we could do something else and that's exactly what they did over the course of the year both officers put in an extensive amount of man hours reaching out to every possible resource they could to help identify a young man who on the surface appeared to just vanish overnight officer lopez describes the moment he was able to share the news with the victim's family that he had been positively identified as one that was hard to put into words i probably one of the greatest feelings i've ever uh really lived through i uh i had never i never thought that i'd have that kind of opportunity to truly do something that almost seemed impossible officer padilla agrees and stated that his number one goal was to help the family find closure overall uh you know just felt a great sense of relief for uh more for the family uh than for us uh yes we had a sense of accomplishment but uh more so for the sense of uh the family getting some closure and finally knowing what happened to their son their their brother their relative both officer lopez and padilla went above the normal call of duty and remind us all that great police work can be done whether your boots are on the ground or behind a desk officers like these two embody all that the sapd stands for and for that reason we are proud to recognize them as sapd's officers of the year any large organization cannot fully function without the individual and collective efforts of each and every one of its members the sapd is no different today we saw the objectives rewards and inherent risks of those efforts we hope it gave you a bit more information as to what it is that makes this department the quality organization that it truly is of course no police department can function without the support of the citizens it serves that's something we enjoy here in the alamo city and we thank you for it until next time from all of us here at behind the badge thanks for watching uh you