hello welcome to this episode of behind the badge i'm your host sergeant javier salazar in this day and age it's important for any large metropolitan police department to stay abreast of current issues and be ready to evolve with those issues as needed here at the san antonio police department we pride ourselves on that very thing we make every effort to constantly reevaluate our approach to everything we do make improvements wherever needed and even make wholesale changes if necessary today we're going to talk about two units who always manage to stay at the forefront of their respective fields and we'll talk about the positive impact that has on service to the public at large in our first segment we'll talk to sergeant russ van geffen with the sapd robbery task force unit sergeant van geffen is going to tell us at length how the robbery unit has adapted its approach to the investigation of robberies how his detectives use teamwork and technology to maintain their edge and the outstanding results they've been able to produce thus far in our second segment we'll be speaking with two recruiters from the sapd recruiting detail who will tell us about some recent changes to the requirements for applying and being accepted to the sapd we're going to take a short break but we'll be right back so stick around it's easy to tell if you've had way too many but what if you've had just one too many driving is drunk driving welcome back as i mentioned earlier we have a special guest on behind the badge today sergeant russ van geffen is here to tell us a little bit about our robbery task force unit sergeant van gethen pleasure welcome to the show thank you for having me great thanks for being here listen we've got i know we've got a lot to talk about today and uh this this unit is just something that's very intriguing even the members of the police department so i'm sure san antonio would love to hear all about the robbery task force and some of the stuff you guys are doing out there can you tell us about it sure the the robert task force unit had some major changes back to pre-2009 uh prior to 2009 the every substation which serves the geographical areas of the city had detectives embedded in that substation to handle robberies now i can only speak on the robberies per se right now in 2009 the the leaders of the department got together and figured the better way perhaps would be to centralize our unit and they brought that unit together and what they did is they really did three main things that i think changed the way robbery detectives do our our business those three things were centralizing which i'll talk about in just a second changing our appearance and then being more aggressive the centralization was obviously bringing in all those substation detectives bring them together housing them under one unit much like you would homicide special victims units something like that and what that allowed us then is to share that information that is going on because criminals don't understand geographical boundaries and so we were isolating these detectives potentially preventing them from knowing some things that were going on on the other side of the block per se from from having that knowledge so by centralizing we eliminated that we get our guys together the detectives together with officers as well and we hold daily briefings on the crimes that are going on trends serial cases what have you in order to better solve them so that centralization immediately made an impact and allowed us to have more information and better information not only for us but to put out to the patrolmen the second thing we did as a unit as a robbery unit was to change our appearance we did the typical wear the suit the coat and the tie but as you see how i'm dressed now it's kind of how our detective's dress they look like your average san antonian wearing different clothings different hairs and things of that nature so we don't stand out so much as police officers and what that allows us to do is better blend in our community to not so much be just reactionary but to also be proactive in what we do which is the third thing that we changed as far as how we do business is we became more aggressive police as an as a police business as a nature is reactionary there's an accident or someone gets assaulted they call police police respond that's reactionary police also has a proactive side of things like the greatest example i can come up with is traffic officers aren't out there writing tickets when they're working traffic because they actually enjoy doing that or that's something that we get a kick out of they're doing it to hopefully get citizens to voluntarily obey speed limits seat belts things of that nature to reduce the number of traffic accidents and things of that such so we as a department as a unit said how can we be more aggressive how can we be more proactive and that's changing our appearance and actually putting us in businesses putting us in places where we might expect robberies or we might expect criminals to be hanging out in order to be a more proactive and not wait for those calls to come in so that that person standing behind you in line at a uh convenience store or at a bank could be a robbery detective could be a robbery detective and i noticed that some of the some of the vehicles you guys drive aren't necessarily cop cars so to speak right there's uh you know obviously the marked units are always well nowadays we're going to nice explorers and explorers and suvs and things of that nature but there's always kind of a traditional detective car and that's out the window for us we drive just about anything that you see on the street we could be in it okay and now what sort of um attributes when you're interviewing for a new detective coming into the unit what sort of attributes are you looking for in that detective well the the biggest thing for us is it we're a team and you have to have someone who's team oriented someone who believes in not just accomplishing their own personal goals but putting the team's goals in front of them i liken our unit much to you about a football team or a soccer team as far as a football team not everyone can play quarterback not everyone can be the wide receiver not everyone can be the running back getting the ball you got to have some of the big brunt grunt linemen that are going to do the blocking so that the running back get all the glory that's exactly what we're looking for in a unit as far as a detective we have needs of you know multiculturalism here in san antonio so i have to have people i can speak spanish on other languages i have to have guys that know cars i have a guy in the unit that how i know baseball statistics he knows cars he can look at a car and tell me what year it was and why the headlights are different two years later whereas i'm clueless on that he knows that and so everyone brings something different to the table and together we're a team much like a football team comes together it's about variety then well speaking of which you and i had talked about about that case involving the officer that knows cars like nobody's business correct um and that came into play pretty big in that case correct we actually had two cases i'll speak of on that one the first one was a a black female using her young child to lure elderly victims to open the door she was going to retirement type communities and she had victims as old as in the 90s and as young as if you want to call it young but it's in the 70s and what she would do is use her daughter to gain access into their house to use the restroom or buy girl scout cookies or what have you and then once inside their home she would violently attack them take their purses cell phones personal items the interesting thing about that case is it spanned four substations here in san antonio in other words it wasn't just in one location it was four different geographical areas that she was hitting in the old days that might have been difficult for one detective to understand what's going on miles away but in our unit it was very easy seen because we had that central and centralized information and knowledge and so we were able to take all those pieces of that those separate cases together and make one big picture and in doing that we learned that she was using a car this particular detective i spoke of looked at it and said that's a 2001 buick lesabre and we knew it had front end damage from one of the surveillance pictures that we had we had surveillance pictures of her they weren't that great and one day a few of the detectives were going to a totally different call and they saw her car and that seeing that car and going that might be her car ultimately led to her arrest and it led to the arrest and recovery of property that was taken in multiple robbery cases so you're able to clear several robberies just on just on that that just the fact that the officer was able to recognize uh that car as being a buick laser and then another detective spotting it just in traffic correct the one detective in the unit looked at the surveillance picture and he said i'm pretty sure that's gonna be a 2001 buick lesabre because of the way the tail lights are the way the fenders are what not and you know using that great tool called google and kind of confirming his thoughts but then see the another detective actually seeing that car on a way to a different call going i think that might be it and returning to it lo and behold it wasn't okay so when we say robbery uh you know we're not just talking about somebody stealing uh golf clubs out of a garage with an open door i mean these are violent folks you guys are going after unfortunately they are you know the the definition of robbery is you have a theft and then you have some form of force involved and for an aggravated robber you have you know deadly force or serious bodily injury things of that nature a lot of times it's easier to say they have a gun or a weapon and so a lot of the vast majority of these guys they're felony crimes there's no misdemeanor robbery so they're obviously heinous if you will crimes and very dangerous for the citizens and the people involved and so a lot a lot of the things we're dealing with are you know guys taking guns and going into convenience stores going you know we san antonio pd handles bank robberies um guys taking guns or taking cell phones excuse me at gunpoint from people from meeting up on craigslist all those types of things would fall under the course of the robbery okay and you had mentioned another case it was really kind of interesting when we were talking about it uh something about there so was something interesting about the what the what these robbers were taking in the course of the robbery right we it was a little while now and we had a course of i believe it was 10 or 12 i can't remember the exact number cases where these guys were going into convenience stores real small not valeros not you know shells nothing like that real small mom-and-pop convenience stores and they were pulling guns and robbing the clerks of the cash register but they were also taking transmission fluid and a couple times oil and it didn't really didn't make sense didn't make sense and it was occurred over i would say about half of the city from the far east all the way through the south onto the west side and then kind of through the middle through investigating and taking pieces from each individual case and comparing them and putting them down the detectives were kind of able to figure out i think this is that guy's home base and in driving through that home base one day the detective saw a car with a bunch of cardboard underneath it leaking transmission fluid unbelievably they sat up on it for a grand total of seven minutes and the guy who was the end of actual robber came out wearing the same clothing that he was wearing two nights before in a robbery that we had surveillance pictures of other detectives went out there kind of went through some garbage and whatnot and saw tons of bottles of transmission fluid that are probably what he had taken from during his robberies one thing led to another the arrest was made he actually was in possession of the gun that he had fired on city employees the night before and uh the great case was done and i can't remember if it was 10 or 12 robberies were solved that's that's excellent work i mean you we've talked about it a little bit of luck goes into these cases always a little bit of skill on the part of the detectives always and just being being centralized and being able to cross those those lines from substation to substation that allows that information sharing and the thing you're leaving out is citizens of san antonio's cooperation as well sure police work is a partnership i mean i i can speak from the robbery unit we can only accomplish so much without the citizens and all those cases i spoke of those two cases we did get tips and informations from citizens and without that and of course the work done by the detectives and taking all that information on each individual case that one case probably would have led to nothing but because we had multiples and we're able to recognize that because we're housing one unit and one entity we're able to take each little bitty piece stack that up have a great looking case of course citizen help and get a salt solution so a lot of these cases are like a puzzle i guess so to speak very much and uh so these detectives are just maybe maybe one day they they get one little piece added to their case while they're helping somebody one of their teammates collect a couple pieces for his his or her own there's not a day goes by that i probably don't hear it's not it's never a complaint because the guys love it but they have their own case load but they're doing exactly that they're looking at someone else's case for that corner piece because i don't that's how i build the puzzles i look for my own pieces and work towards the middle that's kind of using that analogy that's exactly what those detectors are doing so they have their own 500 piece puzzle sitting right over there but there's three other tables that they're going to and helping plug in little spots and that's that's a daily event for our unit and it's all about teamwork it sounds like 100 and that's why we know when we're picking guys you can't just worry about what's going on on your case that's important no doubt and today might be the day we we deal with just sergeant salazar's case but tomorrow you know we're gonna have to work on somebody else's and that that's all about teamwork sure sure i mean and i worked in a covert unit for many years you know before before i came here and and that is it's just you've got to have people that are that are sharp with with surveillance and and sharp with interview skills so there's it's it's good to know that you guys are able to to select from a wide array of detectives that have those skills and are able to make them all work together to solve it and that goes right back to what i said earlier about a team you know ev the guys with the interview skills he's the quarterback whatever the guy with you know the surveillance skills he might be the wide receiver you know and then you have the grunts that are doing the lineman work that's exactly what what it takes and it's a blessing that san antonio has a large police force to choose from and a lot of heck of a talented tool to choose from sure and it's that again that just that teamwork that we've tried to foster and all of our officers as they're going through our academy that that makes it all work uh come together nicely and it's right to everyone's advantage no one no one does it by themselves it's a it's always a team effort you know and everyone's contributions are always you know some might be a little bit more in one case or another but it's it's the teamwork and it's the the overall working together as a unit which makes the difference excellent well i just i love hearing about these these stories and i could certainly hear about them all day long and you know quite frequently we are posting you guys the results of you guys work on our on our facebook page and you can always always come to the sapd facebook page and see anything that that as the robbery detectives are putting together these cases and they're leading to arrests we do for we do uh put them on our facebook page and that's at facebook.com san antonio pd you can always uh check in there with uh with updates on anything the san antonio police department does but units just like the uh the robbery task force unit i mean that certainly is an eye-opening look at what the robbery task force unit did and i think sergeant van geffen for giving us that inside look today i think we can all sleep better knowing that this group of dedicated detectives is out there taking the fight to the criminals we're going to take another short break but next up officer roger zuniga will be speaking to two of our sapd recruiters who are tasked with finding and processing applicants who want a career with the sapd we'll be right back hi 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 scenes like this are alarming but preventable i'm san antonio police chief william mcmanus and i'm here to remind you that it's possible for cars and bicycles to coexist but it's vital to do so safely according to the san antonio safe passage ordinance vehicles must provide vulnerable road users like bicycles with a safe buffer zone of three to six feet when passing bicycle riders should know that all rules of the road apply to them just as they do cars all traffic signals and signs apply to bicycles let's work together share the road and look out for each other san antonio it's the right thing to do it's the smart thing to do it's also the law welcome back to behind the badge i'm officer roger zuniga join us now are officers chris cordell and ivan padilla from sapd recruiting officers welcome to the show you guys are with recruiting detail and are always actively trying to get the best prospects for the sapd and i understand recently there have been some changes to the policy as far as tattoos and the physical fitness aspect of it correct um part of the policy states that in regards to tattooing his body art shall be defined as tattoos piercings branding intentional scarring and intentional mutilation yvonne can you talk to us more about that and explain to the person out there who wants to apply what this means to them and how it's going to affect them what that basically means is if they have any body art below the wrist or anything above the collar they would be deemed ineligible so the regulation uniform which is a long sleeve should be able to cover any body art on the body basically you know the military is transitioning to this many law enforcement departments are transitioning and we just want to present ourselves in a professional manner okay now besides tattooing is there anything else that this covers uh that people might want to know about if it's going to affect them when they do apply piercings um you know we're we did define the piercings in there uh you know the gauges those are going to deem someone ineligible and it talks about branding intentional scarring mutilation can you talk a little bit more about that basically if it's on the body it needs to be covered by regulation uniform so if they're going to come in and they're interested in applying and they have these concerns if it can be covered with a long sleeve if anything on the net can be covered with a caller they would be eligible okay office cordell physical fitness plays an important role in applying for the sapd because the job demands uh required to be somewhat physical so with these new policies in place can you explain and elaborate to the people watching if they're interested in applying what what are they going to expect now basically the old test was separated by age and gender each of our applicants would have to complete a test which was that consisted of a mile and a half run sit-ups and push-ups differentiated by age and gender recently the department has transitioned to a more job-related physical assessment test or p-a-t as we refer to it we don't have any uh different expectations regardless of age or gender anymore it's one set standard across the board which is four minutes and three seconds a couple of other things that have changed too is the way that the first three steps of the process occur it used to occur is when the application was submitted we would accept your application and schedule you for a written test and then you would complete your physical assessment test the way it works now is you still complete your application first and submit it to the applicant processing detail but we're going to go ahead in front of the written test and go ahead and complete the new physical assessment test priority or after you pass the physical assessment test then we will go ahead and schedule you for the written test everything else beyond the physical assessment test and written test stays the same okay now as far as preparation if you want to give some words of advice uh what would you tell people how to how can they get ready for this how can they be ready to to apply one of the biggest things is when people come into the office they don't know what to expect take the time go through our website look over the new physical assessment test myself officer padilla and officer taylor we put on a demonstrational video for you to know exactly what to expect if you after you've looked at that video and you still think that you're not quite sure what's going on come out to one of officer taylor's pt readiness programs we hold those tuesday thursday and saturday tuesday and thursday they're held at 6 30 in the morning and on saturday they're held at 8 a.m those typically last for about an hour hour and a half no need rsvp just show up those are held out at our training academy 1200 southeast loop 410. and typically they actually have an opportunity to go through the obstacle course on saturdays so saturday's a great day especially you know they can check in with officer taylor periodically he'll do a run through of the obstacle course so they know exactly what to expect thank you officers cordeline padilla they've brought about some interesting and excellent points on how to apply for the sapd coming up after this going to be a video that explains step by step on how the new physical fitness testing is going to come through i'm officer chris cordell with the san antonio police department and i'm officer yvonne padilla this video is intended to familiarize you with the sapd physical assessment test also known as the p-a-t which you must complete as part of your application process our pat takes the form of a timed obstacle course you will also have to complete a handgun simulation test immediately after finishing the obstacle course you must pass both tests to continue in the application process in today's video we will do a walkthrough of the obstacles on the course and show you how the handgun test is administered after you apply you will be scheduled and notified when your pat test will be administered it is your responsibility to prepare yourself physically for this test do not wait until you apply to begin working out start early and train hard for both this test and the much tougher physical exercise you will be doing once you are appointed to the sapd training academy check our website for applicant pt classes that will help you get in shape you should arrive early for the pat wear appropriate clothing and bring a water bottle so you can stay hydrated after checking in all applicants will be briefed on how to run the course and testing will begin it is important to pay attention to the test proctors both during the briefing and while you are running the course you will be given a 10 pound weighted vest to wear that will simulate the equipment you will carry as a police officer let's move to the start point and work through the course i'm officer andre taylor with the san antonio police department today's video is to familiarize you with the san antonio police department physical assessment test which you must successfully complete in order to move on in the application process our p-a-t which is taking on the form of an obstacle course which you will run for time and a handgun test which must be completed immediately after the obstacle course the p-a-t will begin with you being handed a 10-pound weighted vest that will be secured to your body once you're handed the vest you will then have a seat within the vehicle placing the seat belt around your body and placing your hands on the steering wheel once your seat belt is secure place your hands up on the steering wheel and the test will begin when the whistle blows once the whistle blows you will exit the vehicle head to the back pick up a 40 pound kettlebell place it inside the rear of the vehicle and close the trunk ready the next obstacle will be the storm culvert you will need to crawl through as fast as possible and once you exit you'll know you take an immediate left head towards your next obstacle next you'll be approaching the 5-foot horizontal beam which you will need to successfully clear next you're going to follow the calls and encounter another storm cover upon entering and exiting the storm cover you're going to immediately take a left to the back of the strong culvert and bound over the storm culvert three times next you will proceed to the vertical storm cover where you will jump inside cross down completely conceal yourself stand up exit and proceed to the next obstacle the next obstacle is a series of six stones which you must successfully weed through starting to the left of the first cone that you come to after exiting the cones you will then run or sprint approximately 40 yards approaching the 5 foot wall you will then have to jump to 5 foot wall after successfully clearing the faucet wall run directly towards the stairway to heaven so as you exit the stairway to heaven you will approach the final obstacle which is the 165 pound dummy drag you will pick up the strap and drag the dummy 25 feet where your time will stop time after completing the p-a-t in four minutes and three seconds or less candidates will proceed to the gun simulation station the test proctor will hand a candidate a training gun the proctor will instruct the candidate to place the gun through the seven inch ring using the strong hand and dry fire the training gun five times the candidate will repeat the exercise with the weekend at no time should the candidate's gun wrist or arm touch the seven inch ring following the aiming portion the candidate will be asked to grip the training gun point the training gun to the ground and pull the trigger 10 times repeating the exercise in the opposite hand it's a never-ending quest to find recruit and accept only the best applicants to be members of the sapd those are some interesting changes being made to our selection process so we love to hear from the sapd recruiters again in a few months to see how things are going for them for more information on how to become a san antonio police officer check out www.sapdcareers.com or look up sapd careers on facebook as we bring another show to a close we'd like to thank the robbery unit and the recruiting detail for coming on today we'd also like to thank our behind the badge viewers for their support and suggestions keep those emails for story ideas and feedback coming to behind the badge at san antonio.gov until next time i'm sergeant javier salazar and i'm officer roger zinega thanks for watching behind the badge two out of three people with diabetes die of heart attack that was his wake-up call this is yours the good news is you can lower the risk of heart attack or stroke ask your health care provider how to learn more go to diabetesactnow.org one in eight americans is struggling with hunger who's the one and eight in your life you can help today visit feedingamerica.org one and eight to find your local food bank