View from 100
View from 100 is the Douglas County Sheriff's Office Podcast hosted by Sheriff Jay Armbrister.
The show highlights both the inner workings and external community partnerships of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Kansas. The goal through these long-form conversations with Sheriff Armbrister is to connect with audiences who might not have as much in-depth knowledge of the Sheriff’s Office and other issues related to public safety and criminal justice in the community.
View from 100
Episode 01 - Foundations & Futures: A Conversation with Undersheriff Stacy Simmons
In the premiere episode of View from 100, Sheriff Jay Armbrister and Undersheriff Stacy Simmons offer an inside look at their careers and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.
With 26 years of service, Simmons shares her journey from deputy to undersheriff, offering an inside look at the challenges and successes of law enforcement leadership. From policies and staff training to tackling systemic biases and strengthening community ties, this candid conversation dives into the several key issues.
They also discuss the Sheriff's Office’s efforts to foster trust, including participation in the Pride Parade and the DGSO Citizen's Academy. Armbrister also addressed his hopes for the future of the podcast, including hearing from members of several community partners the Sheriff's Office works with closely.
Whether you're curious about law enforcement, passionate about community engagement, or just want to hear what happens behind the badge, this episode takes you behind the scenes.
NOTE: The DGSO Citizen's Academy 2025 applications closed before we released this episode, but we kept the information and story about the academy. Take a look in early 2026 for applications for next year's DGSO Citizen's Academy.
Ready whenever you are. Yeah, okay, all right. Well, hey there, Douglas County. This is Jay Armbruster. I'm your sheriff for right now, and this is kind of a foray into a new adventure for us. We're going to start a podcast, because everybody else makes them look so cool and sound so awesome, but also it's kind of a good chance for us to not only talk a little bit more about the Douglas County Sheriff. So Sheriff's Office, which which is your Sheriff's Office, but also we want to spend some time highlighting a lot of our community partners and the people who do a lot of heavy, heavy lifting and hard work behind the scenes. I firmly believe that the best work that that this agency and our partners do goes unseen. And so I think we're going to spend spend a few days in the upcoming year to try to highlight some of those folks and talk about what it is they do and why they do it. But we're going to kind of ease into it today. This will be our very first podcast ever. And so we're both, we're all nervous and a little bit freaked out, so bear with us as we try to figure this whole thing out as a the name of the to the name of this podcast. We really kind of lamented over what we're going to do, but we want this to maybe have the possibility of moving on into the future with any future sheriffs, if they should so choose. And so we chose the term view from 100 because in the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, we have every deputy, every corrections officer has a badge number, but we reassign and assign radio numbers, and the sheriff is always 100 and then they they change from there. So the lieutenants are in the 130s the sergeants are in the 150s or something like that. The detectives are in the 120s so you, as you progress through your through your career, you could have several different numbers. And fortunately for me, I've ascended to the position of 100 and so we're going to, kind of, we're kind of going at this from a view from from where I sit, but also giving me an opportunity to, kind of to showcase what, what I want you, what I would hope you all will take away from the sheriff's office. But as we move into this, today is our very first day, and we're going to start with somebody very special, of course, to me, and somebody very special to you that you may not even know of, but her name is Stacey Simmons, and she is the UnderSheriff. So she is the number two. She's the vice principal, the Vice President, whatever you want to call it. She's always joked for years that that I'm the microphone and she is the clipboard, and we make the perfect pair. It's, I've said it 1000 times, is that you're either a leader or a manager, and leaders lead people. Managers manage things, and you need all you need both of those things, especially to run an agency. I myself am less of a manager, but I am more of a leader, whereas Stacy is excellent at both, a rarity in this world, so to speak. So we're just going to sit down. We're going to have a conversation with your UnderSheriff, learn, figure out who she is, why she's here, why she stays, and what she wants us to know about what she does in the agency that she and I have dedicated so much time to. So Stacy, thank you for joining me on our podcast. Thank you. Good morning. Yeah, Sheriff. Said, My I'm your under sheriff. I am appointed. The position is a little bit different than than any other position in the sheriff's office. The sheriff is elected and appoints just like the President would appoint a vice president. So that is my that is my role. So I am, you know, I can come and go anytime, whether that's my choice or not, but I think, I think, since we got through the first term and and he asked me to stay around for the second, I think I'm doing all right. So, so yeah, four years in, got that next, next term that we're working with. I've worked for the sheriff's office about 26 years now. I started out as a deputy, doing what deputies do, just like what they do now, working patrol, working courtroom security. I've worked at jail, worked lots of different positions in the sheriff's office, and as a sheriff and I kind of came up together. We did take different roles. Him being detective, I was more jail. So as we came up, we just kind of
Stacy Simmons:got together, I guess, in a way that he did say it's the clipboard, and he is. He's the megaphone. So my comfort level is not exactly what his comfort level is. Today. I'm more making sure policies and procedures are that we're following those that we're having the correct policies and procedures for what we do, making sure all of our staff is appropriately trained that have the right equipment that they need, they get the things that they need. So, you know, I'm I take my orders from the sheriff, and so He leads me in the right direction, and I'm hoping to lead the sheriff's office in the right
Jay Armbrister:direction. Perfect. Well, I think one thing I think a lot of people know about. Law enforcement is that we do have policies and procedures, and while you mentioned it, we'll just cover it here real quick. But what I don't think a lot of people understand is it's a bit like the Constitution in the fact that it is a living and breathing document. We alter, we change, we we see what what our community wants or demands, and we try to make the changes appropriate that keep us, obviously, well within, within the law, but also keeps us within the, the ethic, ethical confines of our business, but also we we just really try to do what's right by the people. So a lot of people talk about, oh, they violated policy, this, that and the other. And sometimes that is the case, sometimes it's not but policies are fluid. They vary from agency to agency. We are very happy with where ours is, but we also know that ours is continuing to improve and move so Stacey is the one who really is in charge of that as part of her statutory duties as UnderSheriff, she is the keeper of all records for the Sheriff's Office. So that's not just, you know, fingerprints and pictures and reports. That's also all of our internal records as well. So that's a big part. And then she didn't mention that she's, she's basically in charge of our budget, she's, she's, yeah, she's the checkbook, and I'm the pin. And so it's, it's, it's a an annual duty that we have to the two of us have to sit down and decide how it is that we're going to spend the money, that the that the commissioners allow a lot to us, and that that's been unique over the last four years, but, but today I want to talk more about, so you talked about coming up through the sheriff's office as a deputy, but tell us more about, I mean, where, where are you from? Who are you? Why are you here? Originally? I'm from Manhattan, Kansas. That's, there's a university there, right? It's a technical, yeah, ksac, Kansas, Kansas, Agricultural College.
Stacy Simmons:Even in my youth, I was a day Hawk fan. So
Jay Armbrister:beautiful beautiful campus. Don't get me wrong. Love aggieville
Stacy Simmons:Absolutely. So yeah, I I knew early on that I wanted to be in law enforcement. We used to have a an officer sit in a parking lot by our house, and all the kids would would ride bikes to that officer and get royals and chiefs cards, which is what they used to give out a long time ago. And so yeah, we'd ride up there, and that officer would get out, and he would lay all the cards out across the hood and let us pick, because we had some we didn't have some. And so we'd swap and trade. And it was just it, just there was something that just stuck with me. And so now, knowing that he was sitting there, probably just trying to get his reports done so we could get home on time. But, yeah, I mean, that had an effect on me, just that little, those little instances.
Jay Armbrister:I'll give you two Deron cherries for one buddy, Bianca Lana and a Jim eisenwright. That's right,
Stacy Simmons:that's right. And so yeah, and you know, who knows where those cards are now. I mean, they were on my bike at one point, right in that little clicking. Yeah, he has a huge impact on me. And so that's all I've ever wanted to do. And so that that's what I did. I went to college in hutch, got a two year degree there for criminal justice, played softball, played softball, did some did some college softball, then decided I wanted to get into the workforce. So here I am. Douglas County Sheriff's Office was actually the first place I ever applied. I didn't even get I didn't even get a letter back saying, No, thank you. But I applied again when the jail was opening around 1998 it opened September 99 but I was hired in 98 to work that jail, so I did that. Came up to the ranks and,
Jay Armbrister:yeah, yeah, here's it. So you hired September of 98 I hired
Stacy Simmons:January of 9899
Jay Armbrister:99 Yeah, because I hired August of 98 so you were just right behind
Stacy Simmons:me. So I was actually december 28 gotcha of 98 Yeah, yeah. The sheriff for that time, Lauren Anderson, asked me when I wanted to start. I told him, You know, today, for a couple reasons. One, I wanted to get started into my serving sense badge. I didn't want it to say, you know, 99 for the entire year. If it said 98 then it wouldn't look like the the new person all year long. So
Jay Armbrister:it's safe to say the two of us have been serving since the late 1900s Yes. Okay, perfect. A lot of knowledge there. Yeah. So, so as your career moved through the sheriff's office, you mentioned it that that you had worked patrol, but then kind of ended up more in the corrections side. How? How did that come about? Was it welcome? Was it unwelcome? You know, how did that work out for you?
Stacy Simmons:You know, it went really well. I guess looking back at the time, I went kicking and screaming on both sides. Actually, I wanted to be on patrol, but I knew I was hired for the jail, and so I worked about a year and a half on patrol, and then once that jail got got kicking, then then they sent me. And I thought even to the day that I woke up, that they they were going to call me and tell me, just kidding, that I was going to stay on patrol, but that didn't happen. So yeah, I spent some years in the jail. You know, that's where you learn to actually handle situations and de escalate and all those things, because you didn't really have any tools on your build other other than some Bill keepers and a radio. And in actuality, when we started, we didn't even have radios. So, so yeah, I mean, I did that, went back to patrol, got promoted, went back to the jail, spent some some time over the booking area. I spent time in training, which was my passion, and I loved it. Spent time back as a lieutenant, as a shift supervisor, and then they were going to kick me back out to patrol again. And then I went kicking and screaming. I didn't want to go to patrol again. So yeah, I went to patrol and so, yeah, I've spent about half my career on each side. I will say I think my passion is more the correction side than the operation side, although they're equally just as important. But, but, yeah, I think what the what the jail does is one of those, one of those areas that it's even less known than the actual law enforcement side. People don't even know where the jail is, which is a good thing. Yeah, it's a good thing. It means, you know, we're doing the right things, staying out of the news, you know, not getting sued all the things. So that's good for the taxpayers, but it is very expensive. It's more than half of our budget. It takes a lot to run. It takes a lot of knowledge to run it. We've got some great folks in there right now. But yeah, and we get sued all the time. We get sued and, and I don't think that the I don't think the public understands what we get sued for. Sometimes, yeah, we get grievances, often, so much as even a cold biscuit. They didn't get a warm biscuit, they got a cold biscuit. Or that person's cake was bigger than than mine. They will, they will literally file grievances a whole bunch of
Jay Armbrister:hoops. That's a that was one of the things I didn't realize as becoming the sheriff, was that I was going to get my proverbial pants sued off. And it didn't take long for it to happen. But luckily, there's a lot of things in place. Unfortunately, you know, we can't talk about them because there are a lot of more ongoing and active but, but it happens. I mean, that's all there is to it. It's just, it's a fact of life. You're going to get sued for something or another. But so far, there have been no successful lawsuits against us because our folks just really do a good job. Just really, really do a good job. But again, like you said earlier, the the very best work that our jail staff does is at best never seen because it wasn't bad. And so it's a, it's kind of a, it's a, it's kind of a sticky situation where we wanted, we want to be to talk about all the great things that they do in there. But also, on the other side, we just don't want don't want to bring any attention to it, or, you know, draw any, any ire so it's a it. We've got, we've got some amazing people working out there, and they've dedicated their careers to law enforcement through the corrections division,
Stacy Simmons:right? It's, um, it's a great, it's a great jail. It really is. Really is
Jay Armbrister:it's, which is kind of an oxymoron, but if you have to be in jail, you want to be in ours, right?
Stacy Simmons:We know we treat you with respect. We are the only, I believe we're the only program in the state of Kansas that actually has a corrections Academy. It's not required by by law, but it's a eight week classroom and then a six week with a child training officer. So the days of just handing somebody your keys and saying, you know, walk over here with with Jim Bob, which is what we got, what we got right? And those days are gone. It's a profession now, and it's treated like
Jay Armbrister:that, absolutely, absolutely, and our jail operates on those folks, especially who have who've certified, who've gone to the academy and become a deputy, but don't want to actually go out into the public and do the law enforcement on the streets that you see their their heart and their passion is inside that jail. And so we absolutely strive to find people who are ready to do that, because we need them. Because we need people who can do transports. We need people who can serve warrants. We need people warrants. We need people who can write reports, file arrest affidavits, and that kind of stuff that a certified law enforcement officer has to do. But it also takes the burden off of our patrol folks or Operations Division to have to do that within our jail. So it has become kind of a self subsisting ecosystem within there for our staffing. But we, I mean, of course, anytime you talk about jail, I would rather our jail population be zero, and that's something that that we will probably never get to, but I will say that our our jail population is at a manageable maximum rate right now, and it's stayed there because of the hard work of, you know, our the district attorney's office as well as our courts. As far as keeping we we can, and we can talk about this in future episodes about the pandemic and how it affected our jail especially jail population, and our criminal justice system as a whole, but we were kind of right, stuck right there in the middle with all of that. So we'll cover that in a future. One if you want to hear more about it. Yeah, just let us know. But so, so Stacy, tell me when. Tell me what's the biggest difference for you from where you are today, as to where you were on december 28 1998 or whatever? What? What is the biggest, A, the biggest change you've seen. But also, what if you could go back? What would you tell her?
Stacy Simmons:I would say, Keep fighting. So when I started the academy that I went to, it had books and it said things like, make sure you eat what your wife packs for you for lunch and not eat out with the boys, because she works really hard to do that and then not to gossip, or not to come home and tell your wife what happens while you're working, because she will gossip with the with the rest of the neighbor ladies. Yeah, I'm a little shy in some ways, but yeah, but in some ways, you say something like that to me, and you're gonna know about it. And so, you know, it was difficult. And when I started at the jail, the It wasn't much different, in a way, because women weren't allowed to work in other housing units other than the women's housing unit, and we have one women's housing unit and multiple male housing units. And so it was difficult, you know, how am I supposed to promote? How if my supervisor supposed to see me as something more than just working in this one area for my career, if I'm not able to be exposed to those other areas and to show what I can do? So there were several of us that that I got hired in that area or that era, and we were very outspoken. So there's only a few of us around now. Some of them just were like, I can't do this anymore. But there were some of us that stuck it out. And so I would say, Yeah, I keep fighting. That was a big change. Now it's, it's the issue isn't so much where they can work and who can work, where it's just a matter of staffing, yeah, but it, it doesn't matter if you're male or female. Now you can work anywhere, and you're expected to work anywhere, and that's just how it should be, absolutely
Jay Armbrister:and I don't want to say that. I wouldn't say that we that our agency was rife with toxic male masculinity. That wasn't the case, but it was. It was a systemic bias against females in the in the line of work that absolutely existed. And even as a male deputy and corrections officer, I found myself being overprotective of my female colleagues when I didn't need to be. They were perfectly fine. They don't need me. And in fact, if anything, I needed them a whole lot more than they needed me. And so it's been, you know, and you talk about the way things are written in that, in that patriarchal speak, so to speak. But it wasn't until this past year that we've we got a huge change to the Kansas jail bill, the big statute that covers jails. And in that jail bill, up until this past year, it had a couple of just unbelievably archaic things. But one of them, a is, it only referred to the sheriff as him or he, but it also had things in there that would say, like, if you had a male and female prisoner in your jail who were legally married, you had to, you must. You shall house them together. We hadn't been doing that for a century. I mean, I don't know that we've ever done that in the history of Douglas County, but so it had some very nuts and bolts. Needed changes, but also it gave us the opportunity to finally rewrite it in the way it should have originally been to where the sheriff can be anybody as it as it really should be. So so I'm sorry you had to live through that, but thank you for being a part of that change. I
Stacy Simmons:think that in my younger days, too, I saw that as just, you know, the males not wanting the females in those areas. But and like you said, it took me a while to kind of realize that it was more of a protective situation for some even when I was on patrol, some of my, my best friends on patrol, we would come up to a call and you know there was it was going to cause some trauma later. And they were even like, Hey, stay here. Like, I don't know what you're talking about, stay here, but they were just trying to protect me. And sometimes it's not always just about that aspect. It's just about just wanting to protect
Jay Armbrister:Absolutely. No, I I get it so well. So now as as the UnderSheriff, so how have, how have things, I mean, what's, what's the view for you?
Stacy Simmons:You know, it's a, it's a whole different view from this level, even as a captain, which is what I was before, before the Sheriff asked me to be, to be as UnderSheriff, it was more of, you know, you're thinking about running your own house, and you know everything about your house and inside and outside of your house, but now it's more about my neighborhood and what's happening in my whole neighborhood, and how my house affects other people's houses, and, you know, that kind of thing. So I get a. A I get a bigger view now, and I realize that the sheriff's office isn't in this alone, in just what we do. There's so many factors and so many stakeholders and so many other entities that have a direct impact on what we do every day. And we have to have those conversations with those folks, and we have to have we have to build a bridge, build a bridge, build a bridge with those folks, and work with those folks and be all on the same page, or, or nothing is going to get done.
Jay Armbrister:Yeah, yeah. No. I and the way we're built as an agency, I think, to use your reference of houses, we're really two houses, because we have, we have two very separate, but very distinct divisions in our Operations Division, which is like patrol and our investigations, our courtroom security, our warrants, and then we have our corrections division, which is the jail. And they we were split. We were broken in half in 1999 when they opened that jail that you and I both started in. And since then, we've been fractured agency like our our jail staff doesn't know our patrol staff, our, our, our, if we want to have a meeting with everybody, we all have to travel to one place. At least half the people have to make it, make a move. And so, you know, obviously we're, as the newspapers probably talked a little bit about where we're in the beginning stages of trying to rectify that with a new building that will be right nestled right up next to our jail, which will put make us basically whole again. But it's, it's really that to kind of latch on to what you're saying. It's really hard to know not only what's going on on the day to day in a building that's that you're not in, but also all the time. But also, it's hard to know the people and what they're see the good. Because unfortunately, at times for me, I only see the bad. I only hear about the bad when somebody's made a mistake. But it will be, it'll be really, really nice to to become a team and a family again once we get that finished up. But we can, that's for a later date. So, so, so as we move into the future, what do you kind of, I mean, first off, can we just kind of assume, you know, maybe I'm kind of projecting here, but the first four years was kind of a tire fire that we mostly put out. It was, it was really more of us learning what it was that was going on. But I feel like, I feel like we came to a good place where we understood at least what we were up against. We weren't able to tame it, but we were able to get there. But as we look into the next four years, you know, what's where? Where are you thinking? Where are you hoping to get what do you want
Stacy Simmons:to see? Yeah, I think within the last few years, because we got a pay package, increase, raise for for our staff. It's actually allowed us to, it's been amazing. Yeah, it has. Thank you to the county commissioners for that. It was, it was it was needed. So, yeah, we're coming up full staff now, which has been, it hasn't been for four years, because we couldn't, you know, we're competing with everybody around us, yeah, and so we were getting full staff, and now I'd like to see the sheriff's office be able to do more things in the community. That's always been a priority, but it's always been what do we have for staffing? And so now we're going to be getting we're going to get to the point where we're going to be able to do more things, not only just out in the community, but actually going out maybe, and trying to work on this fentanyl problem, putting some more people in some different areas to combat some some serious things that are going on in our community. And so, yeah, I think that with what's happening in our our community as a whole, there's a lot of activism, there's a lot of nonprofits. And, you know, we, we are tied in with those quite a bit, with different different agencies asking us to do, not the
Jay Armbrister:activism so much as,
Stacy Simmons:yeah, let me, let me. So yeah, I think having that opportunity to be more impactful in our community, I know I'll just, I'll just throw this out at the Pride Parade last year, we actually weren't welcome. Yeah, we weren't. I got flipped off, yeah, and they didn't want us in the parade at all, and they didn't want us wearing certain things, and they and so, you know, just like that, it's we need to, we need to go out and have more conversations, yeah, and what we're about and what we're willing to do, and how people are, just people,
Jay Armbrister:yeah. And I think that's a perfect example where at first it was, it was hurtful. It really hurt. Because I know you and I's heart when it comes to especially initiatives with our LGBTQ community, but they didn't know us and and to your point is like, Well, we haven't really done a lot of engagement. They didn't really have a reason to know who we are, what our heart is all about. And so I was able to eventually get over myself, because they weren't mad at me, they were mad at my uniform. And it was I looked at it as an opportunity for us to to earn that trust back, to build that relationship. And and this year's, that was the first year in this, this most recent Pride Parade, we were welcomed. And it was just fantastic. You know, great. Everything was great. And, and. So we, we want to continue that partnership, not only with them, with with that community, with everybody. And so Lawrence is an absolute anomaly, I guess is the right word. It's unique. You know, it's, you know, like, when somebody's somebody's child is a is not the best behavior. You say, Oh, they're really spirited. You know, Lawrence can be pretty spirited sometimes, and but it is where I was born and raised, and it there's outside of my family. It's probably my deepest love is for this community and for for LFK, but, but at times, we can't get out of our own way, and so we're trying to, as an agency, try to bridge that gap, to bring us back into the conversations about, what can we do to make things better locally. Act locally. Think, look, think globally. And I feel like we're starting to really move the needle on a lot of those things. Not that, not that we were doing a bad job previous to our our administration. I just think that we weren't, we weren't active, we were just, we also weren't defensive. And so we're trying to get out there and do more. We've got an extremely strong and and deep and wide Native American population, this community that I've I've felt for years, that I personally and us as the sheriff's office, have failed to engage with and try to re establish those lines of communication that were broken by generations ahead of us, rightfully so. And so it's, it's really part it's kind of on us to get out there and do that work. So I'm looking forward to it in the next four years, because at least now we're going into it without our hair being on fire to start with. And a little bit more of a clear vision and goal, so to speak. So, so, if, if you could, if you could tell it, what is the one thing you would want the community it Lawrence and Douglas County to know about the sheriff's office that you think that they just don't know. What would that? What's that? One thing you wish everybody in this community knew about us. We
Stacy Simmons:are not the national narrative. Absolutely not the national narrative. It pisses us off just as much that's cussing, okay? Yes, we see until we see it's other law enforcement agencies, other law enforcement officers, doing things that are just absolutely not acceptable, because every time somebody does something like that, it just brings shame onto us, 100% of the time. And we are. We are. We're not that national narrative. We are professionally trained. And I'm telling you we we hold each other accountable. If we were to somebody, were to step out of line before we would even know it at this level, the other the other officers, other deputies, would already put a stop to the very hand and basically told them, You can't work here anymore, right? I mean, that's just the way we are. And I wish that that, you know, there's 800,000 law enforcement officers across the United States, you know, so when people say things about the police, please, you know, please, that's Which one, which police department, which Sheriff's Office, which officer, which deputy, please, don't lump us all in together with those 800,000 100%
Jay Armbrister:I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a form of prejudice, you know, and I don't it's, it's not the perfect analogy, and it'll get used to get into me. But people see us at times, and the uniform we wear, and they they have a perceived notion this person is racist, this person is aggressive, this person failed out of high school. You know, was bullied. He was bullied. Yeah, yes, yes. And I'm not saying I graduated with great grades out of high school, but I did not fail. But, you know, and they, they, they can even up into the point of they can hate that person because of the work they do, and it's really no different than seeing somebody wearing a yarmulke and assuming that they are a certain way, seeing somebody wearing, you know, Native American accouterments and and believing them to be something that they are not based solely on that, but it's also the same as seeing somebody's color of their skin and assuming that they are a certain way that is, it's just pure prejudice. And so again, it's on us to rebuild that in and and to take it a step further is that, you know, with the with the murder, and I say murder, of George Floyd, it created not only a very difficult working environment for law enforcement, but it also created it, and I don't want to say that anything good came out of the the murder of that of that poor man, but it created a vacuum where law enforcement had to finally stop and reckon with the with their past and reckon with their future. And is this who we are? And is this the Is this what we want to be known as? And so I. Like in the post George Floyd era, which happened to also be the time where you and I were running for for office, the officers, the specialty administrators were get, were granted an opportunity to change and say, You're right. We have to be better. We have to hold each other accountable. We have to put measures in place to where bad cops cannot just move from agency to agency. And while that work has not been done completely or perfectly, it has been done to some degree. And I for one, applaud it, and I welcome it, and I've been doing we've been doing our part to make sure that that happens, but we still have a long ways to go, and and racism absolutely still exists in this community that we live, love and work in. But I feel like as we begin to shine the light in the dark little corners and expose those things, I feel like we are creating not only a culture for law enforcement in our own little community, but nationally. I think it's beginning to move to where the good cops are starting to speak up the bad cops realize they have nowhere to hide. And that is exactly that's the best case scenario. We may not be able to force them out, but they may, they may take themselves out. And so that's something that I feel like. I actually feel like I've seen a tangible change in the last four years towards but us, specifically as an agency, you know, we've had some incidents with with staff where they have made severe mistakes, not only ethically and with their judgment, but legally, and we've taken a strong stance against that. And so now in somebody be like, well, you know, people are afraid to work for you because you're just going to fire them. Nobody's afraid to nobody's afraid to work for us. People that work for us right now are glad to be there, but they are also. They also know that if they put, if they if they put us in the position where we have to make a decision, we're going to make the decision based on the facts and what it is that we believe is right on what the community tells us they want and what we believe is right for the future of this agency. And if that means removing somebody from the agency, we do it, and we've had to do it. It's, it's the personnel part of being the sheriff is the worst part. But I feel like we've taken, we've used these bad situations to create change within a culture. And so sorry, that's, that's me going on a bit of a diatribe there. So, and
Stacy Simmons:if I could just, I could just say this one thing, which is just for me, whenever I meet parents, and, you know, they come up and with little kids and they're like, Oh, you better be good, or they're gonna take you to jail. Please stop
Jay Armbrister:telling your kids I'm gonna kick that parent right in the shin if they say that,
Stacy Simmons:because you've already said for law enforcement. I mean, you know it's, I know you're gonna come and take you away. Stop saying that, please, right off the bat, and then it grows,
Jay Armbrister:yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they're not going to get their buddy Bianca on a card
Stacy Simmons:patrol car.
Jay Armbrister:Okay, well, I think we've covered quite a bit here today. Of course, I'm gonna, I'm gonna end it with a question that I always ask everybody, and I'm gonna ask all of my guests this, but what was your first concert? What was your favorite concert, and what was your last concert? All right? And they can't one concert can be all three things, but I will be disappointed.
Stacy Simmons:So I'm gonna date myself here. Richard Marx was my first concert.
Jay Armbrister:You're not dating me, because I totally know who that is.
Stacy Simmons:I think pink was probably my favorite, and was most recent, most recent
Jay Armbrister:pink, yeah, say that was just last year within the last year. Yeah. Okay, Richard marks, Richard Marshall, Was that your first concert that you chose to go to? Or is that where you drug there? Nope,
Stacy Simmons:I chose. I got a brand new pair of Z cavarici jeans that, you know, buttoned up past your belly button and with
Jay Armbrister:42 belt loops, 15 buttons. Off I went and George shirts. Well, that's it. So I spent I grew up in a home with people who loved music, they couldn't play music, which they passed that on to me. I love music and I cannot play it, but I got drugged to a lot of concerts as a child. In fact, looking back now, I saw some great shows. I got to see like Roy Orbison and Leslie gore and the Four Tops and that kind of stuff. But, but nobody's ever going to ask me this question, so I'm just going to get my answers. Now, the very first concert that I ever I saved up my mowing money and went to was in like, probably 1987 it was poison, and Brittany Fox opened for him at sandstone. I still call it sandstone. And one of our we had to three, me and three buddies put our money together, and we had to buy four tickets because we had to take somebody's dad to drive us. So my ticket was like 19. Dollar, but I had to pay like 28 or whatever it was, and it took me most of the summer to do it, see my most recent show, man, I went, Oh, I know I went and saw sturdy Simpson or Johnny blue skies, probably sick five months ago down in out in St Louis. And so that was amazing. If you ever get chance to see a show at the Fox Theater in St Louis, it's amazing, favorite concert. Summer of 94 I summer after my senior year, graduated high school playing baseball and had an opportunity to go see a it was a it was a big show at sandstone. Again, it was white. Zombie opened up for Pantera, the original lineup with Dimebag Daryl, and then they opened up for Megadeth. And so we, mean, two buddies hijacked a mom's car and we rolled up there. It was a long night, and we had a great time, but that was the greatest show I've ever seen, for sure, especially being a young man. So that's it. Anything else you want to tell the good the seven people who are mostly related to us that are going to be listening to
Stacy Simmons:this, come talk to us. Yes, come up to any deputy anywhere, anytime. Yeah, you're going to see exactly what kind of folks we hire and what kind of personalities they have. You'll be surprised. And more available. Yeah,
Jay Armbrister:and as well. And come take a tour if you want. I say we open that to anybody, but that's a lie. There are certain people who cannot come. But I'll also add in a shameless plug for our Citizens Academy, which is the application is going on right now, and it will close on March 12 or something, yeah, something like, I don't know it's on, but dgso, dot O, R, G is our website, if you want to, if you want to learn more about us and what we do. Why we do it? Come and do this Citizens Academy, because we're going to fling the doors open. You're going to come in. You're going to eat jail food with us. You're going to learn defensive tactics. You're going to drive our cars, you're going to you're going to go out. We're going to have a day at the range. You'll get to see the drones and the dogs and the in the get to shoot our guns and everything. We're going to give you an all inclusive experience into what it what it takes to be a member of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. And I tell this story all the time, but I had a good friend that I grew up with, played baseball with all the way up through high school. And it was, it was, I don't it wasn't George Floyd, but it was one of the horrible ones of the Philando castiles or Freddie Grays, whichever one at Michael. And so he was very openly vocal on on the Facebook about law enforcement and the need for change. And so I just reached out to him and said, Man, I would love for you to come through this, because A, you would bring a great perspective for us, but also B, we I want, I want you to see and have the opportunity to ask questions, the hard questions about why we do things the way we do them. And even after that, what seven weeks, I think, is the at the end of that, you may not have walked out change, but at least you'll know what you're angry about. And he took me up on it. He came in and did it, had an amazing time. And when it when he left, he he basically said, I've learned a lot, but I still think there needs to be changes. And I said, Okay, well, what are they? And he says, You guys have got to be better about taking care of your officers mental health, because you could be sending somebody on the streets who is not well and and I absolutely agreed with him on that, so that that that was one of that's a success story for me personally, because he and I still to this day, are very good friends, and if I have a question or a concern, I would never hesitate to reach out to him, but I feel now that he would do the same for me. And so just, I just want to tell you how open and open ended this, this will be for the for the Citizens Academy, and also, if you're afraid to do some of those things, but you want to be a part of it. You don't have to participate in everything. You can just sit and watch it is a play at your own speed kind of program. So I think that wraps it up for us here today, I can't think of anything else silly to talk about. We're going to be coming back. We're going to try to do these once a month. The next one, I'm going to hope to get one of our community partners, maybe Katie Fitzgerald, who is the in charge of our criminal justice coordinating and coordinating council, get her on here to talk a little bit more about it, but also, I hope to have a little bit of fun, bring some folks in who can explain some things, but maybe, maybe have a laugh in between. So that does it for us. Today, I want to thank Stacy for coming in. You know, she was only 10 minutes late because she was in the wrong spot, but it worked out perfectly. And I just want to thank all of you for for tuning in. If you did, hopefully this will, this will be something you've, you've, you've listened to and enjoyed and are looking forward to the next one. So signing off for now. I'm Jay Armbruster. I. Your Sheriff here in Douglas County. Thanks a lot for listening, folks. You.
