Yeah, it

was him or the commissioner at the time.

I think David Jude was in public affairs as well.

And I think maybe international associations of chiefs of police, the commissioners had gone to one of their conferences and saw this and thought, hey, we need to – We need to do something a little bit different.

And so that was honestly probably that turning point.

It wasn't me.

It was the agency trying to have a vision to look forward and say, hey, social media is coming.

So how did you juggle the two? Where did it come to you where you're like, this is how I'm going to get this message to the people that need to hear it?

Mm.

And so I, in college, I, I went to Murray State.

I was on a rifle team, and so I thought, "Hey, this is gonna mesh well with, uh, you know, some of the things that I think I'm- I'm good at and things that I've- I've trained at for a long time." Tried out.

Uh, I was getting ready to- to join the team.

Some things were going on personally that I thought, "Now's not probably the best time for me to- to be gone and to go do that." And so it was probably one of the hardest conversations I had.

I, I had to call then, uh, Sergeant Jeremy Slinker and say, "Hey, I, I really appreciate the opportunity to- to come and to j- to join your elite squad of troopers, but, uh, I can't do it right now." And, uh, so I, with about five or five and a half or six years on, uh, I actually transferred to recruitment.

I started helping recruiting, uh, with cadet class '88.

But that's a lot better than the 70.

But, uh, yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, and not doing anything on social media anymore is, has kinda been a, a step back.

It's kinda been refreshing not to, not to have to deal with it.

There are times that I wanna share some things.

But being a road trooper to working in recruitment and back to the road to public affairs, I'd also spent, you know, six years on our state police honor guard, uh, which was a, a incredibly humbling opportunity to be able to hear stories, um, there at the casket of, of our fallen or our, our troopers who served back in the day, and, and now they're, now they're passed away.

And, and frankly, we get to do the last detail with them.

... as captain, has your perspective changed any at all since those earlier Robert Purdy days?