Blue Kevlar

In this conversation with Jason Monteiro, a police officer with 24 years of experience we discuss various aspects of law enforcement, including the challenges of hiring new officers, the toll the job takes on officers' physical and mental well-being, and the importance of staying physically fit. Jason shares some of his funniest and most difficult experiences on the job and offers advice for new recruits and officers nearing retirement. He also talks about his passion for helping officers stay fit through his initiative, Blue Kevlar Fitness.

Takeaways

• Physical fitness is crucial for police officers to handle the physical demands of the job.
• Compassion, listening, and staying ahead of the times are important lessons for officers to learn.
• Officers should take the time to make wise decisions and seek help when needed.
• Blue Kevlar Fitness is an initiative aimed at helping officers stay physically fit.

IG: @blue_kevlar_fitness

Transcript

Vernon Phillips (00:01.685)

All right, welcome back to Critical Aspects of Law Enforcement. I'm your host, Vernon Phillips. And today on the show, we've got Jason Monteiro. Jason, glad to have you on here. I appreciate you taking the time to jump on and be a part of the show today. But I just want to turn it over to you, give you an opportunity to tell everybody who you are and just kind of little background of yourself, kind of what you do and kind of where you're at today.

Jason Monteiro (00:26.606)

Yeah, so I'm a police officer in a small town in North Shore, Massachusetts area. I'm currently a sergeant. I've been on for about 24 years. Married three sons, all under 18, so very busy life. Sports, know, shift work, nights, weekends, all that fun stuff. So, trying to juggle it

Vernon Phillips (00:52.078)

Yeah, so said 24 years you've been in the career. So when did you

Jason Monteiro (00:56.268)

Yes.

Jason Monteiro (00:59.981)

I started right after I got my degree in criminal justice in 2000. I was lucky enough to do an internship with my department and I got hired about a year later. Did a year of what we do like summer help special work. So I did about a year of that and then you know took the civil service exam and got on pretty quickly which was you know timing wise it was good.

Vernon Phillips (01:23.99)

Yeah, so you might have to explain the civil service exam, because not every state has a civil service exam. So what exactly is that? I I know what it is, but just for everybody else, what are we talking about when you say civil service

Jason Monteiro (01:30.508)

Yeah.

Jason Monteiro (01:39.84)

Yeah, so it's a statewide exam that you have to take to not all towns or civil service. A lot are. Usually it's the bigger towns and cities. But basically it's just a basic multiple choice test. It's common sense stuff. And basically the higher your score is how they start to choose who they want to hire, these towns and cities.

We're actually starting to get away from civil service a little bit here, just because the candidate pool is so small. some towns don't have civil service and they can pick whoever they want. But civil service is a way to, originally it was started to try to get away from nepotism and make it a more fair way to hire candidates. But now we're finding that civil service is actually like, it's making it more difficult to find, to hire people because our cannon pool is so small now that not a lot of people want to be police officers anymore. And just it's become more more difficult. I got hired, they said it was like hitting a lottery ticket, you know, because there was 20 ,000 people showed up for the test that day that I took. And they took like thousand people off that list. things have changed drastically in 24 years. that's basically, civil service is basically just an entrance exam.

That's how they pick their people they're gonna hire.

Vernon Phillips (03:10.826)

Yeah, it's interesting how that works too. It's a little bit disheartening when you walk into wherever they do it, an auditorium or a large classroom. I went into one for when I still lived up in New York for Schenectady County and there was 500 people for 15 openings throughout the whole entire county. So you walk in and it's a little bit disheartening because you're like, okay, I've got a score better than

Jason Monteiro (03:31.859)

Yeah.

Vernon Phillips (03:40.713)

485 of all these people here So to even even even get a chance so so does

Jason Monteiro (03:43.87)

Right, yeah.

Yeah, it's competitive. It's competitive each way. mean, a small town next to us, a friend of mine got hired, you know, same time like 20 years ago, and there was 70 applicants for one job. And he got lucky enough to get the job. So, but now, you know, that same town, they're looking, they're trying to fill three spots. And I think they have maybe like four guys, four applicants. So it's tough. It's getting harder and harder to find. Anybody who wants to be a police officer, this is the time to get in. As challenging as the job has become, this is a great time to get in because you probably get a

Vernon Phillips (04:26.857)

Yep, so 24 years on the job and did you say right now you're currently doing night shifts?

Jason Monteiro (04:32.784)

I do a split shift, I do two nights, two days.

Vernon Phillips (04:35.464)

Okay, so being 24 years into the career, you're probably working in several different areas. What have you done for yourself to, because we know that the law enforcement profession really takes a toll on the individual. It really takes a toll on you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. So what is it that you do to keep all of those areas in check, to kind of just maintain just your overall wellness and just who you

Jason Monteiro (04:59.463)

Yeah, well for me and where you know my blue Kevlar fitness came into play I just always found that physical fitness has helped me get through those stressful times Keep my keeping my physically in you know and fit is huge for police officers Keeping you in game, you

The job can be 90 % just sitting in a car and then 10 % running and doing physical things. So it's very stressful on the body. So that kind of yo -yo effect of physical activity to sedentary lifestyle can be demanding on the body and the mind. But that, and I believe education, I just got my master's degree last year. So I think staying up to date

know, education and keeping yourself mentally, you know, I see a lot of people just kind of get stagnant in that department and just every day is just a routine, you know, do the same things. But I feel like this job was especially with the, you know, the technology advancements and stuff, you really got to stay ahead of the game. And I think education is huge in that department

Vernon Phillips (06:18.8)

Yeah, so what'd you just get your masters in?

Jason Monteiro (06:21.427)

Criminal justice, public administration. Yeah, it took me like four years.

Vernon Phillips (06:23.693)

Awesome. Well, congratulations to you on that. I know that that's not easy, especially working full time, having kids, doing all that. It's not easy, if that's something that you want, that's something you desire, mean, it is absolutely worth it. Not everybody desires or is cut out to go and get

Jason Monteiro (06:32.012)

yeah.

Vernon Phillips (06:50.117)

You know, their bachelor's or their master's or even beyond that, you you have to have that motivation, you have to have that desire. You have to have that, just kind of that, that fortitude to be able to kind of push through, especially, you know, there's a lot now that's online. So you also have to have the ability to be self -driven and self -paced and self -disciplined to actually stop and put in the work and not, you know, kind of fall back. So, well, congratulations on that. So, you know, being 24 years in the career,

Jason Monteiro (06:56.225)

Yeah.

Vernon Phillips (07:20.398)

I'm sure there's a lot of things that you could kind of go through and talk about, experiences you've had, but if you're willing to share, what is kind one of the ones that maybe was the most difficult for you and then how did you kind of get on the other side of that? Does that make sense?

Jason Monteiro (07:38.997)

Yeah, you know, I've had a few. Fortunately, we're a small town and you know, it's we don't get that we don't get the gangs. We don't get shootings. We've had one murder in our in our town since I've been on. So fortunately, it's a very safe town. It's a very quiet town, but we still get the accidents. You know, you get the tragedies, calls that for me, that's that's the hard part. You know,

the ones where it's a small town so you kind of know a lot of people. So you take a lot of these tragedies to heart because you actually know the people involved. It's more on a personal level, I guess, than maybe a city. I mean, it's still difficult either way, but I had one where a younger kid got killed riding his bike home.

That one's been the most challenging for me because the kid was the same age as my son. So that was tough, just because I see my own kid. For a while now, it's been hard to watch my kids drive off the driveway on their bikes and think, you can't stop them. You what mean? You gotta live your life. But this kid did the same thing my kids do.

And just to see that family and the family had to come to the scene when it came to the scene. it was a very, that one will stick with me forever and I'll never get over it. And I just, there's nothing to do, it just comes with a job.

Vernon Phillips (09:25.152)

Yes, what is it that you do that kind of helps you kind of separate that to be able to kind of step away from the job and kind of table that so you're able just to continue, you know, taking care of yourself, but also taking care of your

Jason Monteiro (09:38.857)

Yeah, again, you you can't dwell on these things. got to you got to stay active. You got to like I said, for me, it's physical activity. I try to work out every single day. If I don't work out, I definitely start to I could feel my mind start to race and start to think about things too much. You know, so for me, physical activity has been a huge, you know, I play hockey. I did you just do a few times. I got hurt a few times. That's been kind of tough as you get older. You know, some of these things are difficult, so.

But I'm really into I've taken a real love to sandbag training and I'm actually a brand ambassador for Brew Forest training and So I have a bunch of sandbags and I I just I work out at home. I work out in the backyard I started filming videos on my Instagram and I mean I get a lot of abuse from my family because they get you I think they're embarrassed by what I do, but for me, it's, I don't know, it's been, it's been kind of therapeutic. just showing people like I'm trying to reach out to other police officers, particularly, but anybody, just showing that, you know, a little sandbag, 60 pounds sandbag, a 35 pound sandbag in your backyard. can, you can really get a good workout. And, know, as we started this, you know, I said, you know, we have busy lives juggling family lives and stuff. And so all I need is 20 minutes, you know, I'll wake up early before shifts get a workout in the backyard. And I've done all kinds of exercises. I've done the Peloton, which I love. Like I said, hockey, a lot of different things. But the sandbag, really, I think it's great for what we do because of the, they call it unstable load, which is similar to a human body, right? So in our profession, whether you like it or not, sometimes you have to go hands on with people and people...

Struggling with another human being is one of the most exhausting things you'll ever do. If you've never done it, you won't understand, anyone that's done jiu -jitsu or you've had to arrest somebody that's uncompliant, it's exhausting. It really takes a toll on you. I just found the sandbag is the best way to prepare myself, other than jiu -jitsu, lot of the martial arts. But something that you can just do where you don't have to go to a gym, because that's time consuming. Not a lot people have time to go to

Jason Monteiro (12:04.062)

to a Jiu Jitsu gym or any of stuff. for me, that's really been huge and I can do that stuff on my own and I love it. And I never felt, I probably feel, I'm 47 now and I feel about as strong as I ever have in my life. So I think I attribute that to the sandbag training, I really do. Whether it's mental or not, I don't know.

Vernon Phillips (12:28.702)

Yeah, mean, that's an important aspect to me, especially working law enforcement is maintaining some type of physical performance throughout your career. And we'll talk a little bit more about that here in a minute, but the blue Kevlar, but to kind of jump to it, I got a little bit lighter of a topic. What is one of the funniest, your funniest calls or your funniest experiences while working the career.

Jason Monteiro (13:00.341)

well, as you, as you know, there's a lot of funny things that happen. mean, you deal with all, you know, front row seats to the greatest circus in the world. But I think probably one of the funniest ones, we had a chase and the guy was a slow speed chase and it goes back many years ago when we actually used to chase people. And, so the guy was going slow and it was a mental health thing. So he, I didn't even think he realized what was going on, but we went up to the, but he finally stopped willingly and walked up to the window and he had a Burger King, one of those Burger King hats on. And I don't know why it just cracked me up because here you go from like, you don't know what's going on. You're chasing a car that's not stopping and you're thinking the worst, right? You're thinking, what is this guy, just murder somebody or why is he trying to get away? And then you get up to the car and he's completely crazy. I mean, just mentally ill. And then wearing this Burger King, you know, one of those cardboard Burger King, I don't think they still give those. But and he was completely fine with it. Like he just thought everything was normal. So I mean, that's just one story I can recall right now that was just kind of it went from really crazy to me and my backup would just kind of and let's roadside, you know, and the guy ended up being harmless. You know, he just was suffering for mental health. So that ended up.

Vernon Phillips (14:24.539)

Yeah, well, and that's a big switch, right? I mean, from you to you, you're kind of amped up, you're going to this not knowing, you know, who you're going to interact with and you get up there, you know, and it's, you know, it's it's the dude from Burger King, right? And yeah, so then you're that then you're kind of trying to switch it back to all right, what what do we do with this situation? So when you kind of look at your your 24 year career,

Jason Monteiro (14:40.852)

Yeah.

Jason Monteiro (14:49.39)

Right,

Vernon Phillips (14:53.836)

thus far and where you're at, what are three of the most, you you would say are the three of the most significant things that you've learned throughout your career?

Jason Monteiro (15:05.881)

The biggest thing is compassion. Just having compassion for other people's lives. Because when you're younger and you get on this job and you feel like there's good people and bad people. It's kind of like black and white. And I guess after 24 years I've learned that some people that may look like they're bad people, they just had a real rough life. Nothing's gone their way just maybe had bad, bad experiences as kids. Maybe just had a rough day that day, you know, everything went wrong. So just like having compassion and giving people the benefit of doubt that they may, maybe they are good person to just having a bad day. You know what I mean? So that's been huge for me because when I first, you know, when you're young and you're a rookie cop, it's kind of like, all right, this guy's just a jerk. You know what I mean? And you just label them right away. Well, this lady's a jerk. She's just, you know, just the way she

Vernon Phillips (15:52.536)

Yeah.

Jason Monteiro (16:05.633)

But then you find out their life story and it's like, you know, maybe they had a child that died, you know, something crazy like that. Or maybe they were abused as a child or maybe they just got done, you know, and they were in a domestic situation at home. So like these are things that you got to think, like if I, when I teach my younger guys, it's officers, just think about what this person may have went through before we had to meet them, you know? And some people are just downright just evil.

You what mean? And you'll figure that out pretty quickly, you know? But I think a lot of people are good, they mean to be good, but maybe just don't know how to handle stress, you know? Had a tough go, you know, a couple weeks of just bad things. So that's one thing that I, you know, that's my number one thing.

Vernon Phillips (16:35.992)

Yeah.

Jason Monteiro (16:57.014)

Secondly, just listening, know, listening to people. And I guess that kind of goes along with compassion, but I also think like listening when it comes to being a supervisor with your colleagues, you know what mean? Listening to what they have to say, listening to what people, when you go to calls, again, as a rookie, you don't listen, you you kind of go there and you're trying to be authoritarian and like just tell people how it's going to be instead of just taking a minute listening to what, you know,

do they have to say? Just give them a couple minutes. know what mean? Just to, it really, that goes a long way when people just want to be heard, you know? And that can deescalate things, you know, when, you know, someone's, I've just learned that when you just give the person a minute to talk, you know what mean? You're not losing power, you're not giving up your authority or anything like that. You're just giving them that minute to unload what's bothering them.

And again, that kind of goes with the, you know, companionship. And thirdly, just again, you know, thirdly is just staying ahead of the times. You know, just it's really important. I see too many officers getting stuck in the past, getting stuck in how we used to always do things. You know, it's a very traditional traditionally burdened job where

We've always done things this way and this is the way we're always going to do them. And I just see like successful departments are really good at staying ahead of the times and being, you know, forward thinking, anticipating what's going to happen tomorrow in this profession, you know, and that's, that's for me, it's really important

Vernon Phillips (18:46.581)

Yeah, and all three of those are good I mean, you know just the the compassion to listening and then you know staying you know, stay staying ahead of the times being forward -thinking because Like you said, there's a lot of agencies where there's a lot of people who are not compassionate who do not want to listen but especially there's a lot of agencies that Do not change the way they've done things right especially because it's like hey, this is this is the way we've always done it or You hear the old well if it's if it ain't broke don't fix

Well, just because this is the way we've always done it doesn't mean that that's the most efficient way to do it now, today. And there's a lot of agencies, there's a of departments where there's a lot of people that kind of fall into that. I think there's a little bit of a shift now because you're getting younger people coming in and they expect things to be more fluid, they expect things to be forward thinking, they expect things to just be kind of more driven based off of where we are today, just with technology and just the way we're able to interact with people and find things out. So I think those are great takeaways for anybody to just kind of grab hold of, especially going into a career. when you, we've got a lot of new people coming into the career.

Jason Monteiro (19:53.266)

Yeah.

Jason Monteiro (20:03.347)

Yeah.

Vernon Phillips (20:13.806)

So what is one main factor that you would tell them, new recruits, new rookies, new people just starting out their careers? What is something that you would tell them to say, hey, of all things, make sure this is the one thing that you're doing.

Jason Monteiro (20:32.739)

I think that the number one thing is we always want to rush into things, you know, they want to rush into a call, they want to rush to make decisions, they want to rush, rush, rush. It's like so many times you don't have to. Sometimes you got to make a quick decision, you know, and you learn that. But so many times you have time. Time is your best is probably like your best ally in this job if you have it. And fortunately, a lot of times you really have more time than you think, you know, and I

I see like a lot of the younger officers, inexperienced officers just rushing and make mistakes because, know, they didn't take a couple minutes just to, you know, separate yourself from the call for a minute. Take a breath. Think about what you're doing. You know, that's one thing that I teach my younger officers, like just slow down. Everyone wants to make the decision quick because it makes you look smarter or it makes you look like you know what you're doing.

I've been doing this for 24 years and I guarantee you my next shift, something's gonna happen that I've maybe haven't seen this way or, this is the type of job that things just change so drastically. And I'm never quick to make a decision unless it absolutely has to be a quick, you know, and that does happen at times. And that's where you hope you make the right decision, you know? You hope that your experience and just keeping up with your education and legal updates and.

You just hope that and keeping yourself physically fit so that your brain is, you know, ready to react and you just hope that you make the right decision. But too many times guys just, you know, officers just rush into things. And that's to me, that's like the kiss of death a lot of times for officers. And afterwards, you're like, that was a bad decision. You it could have you could have just waited a minute, you know, and it goes back to empathy and listening. Right. Because a lot of times.

You go to a call and you may not know what you're gonna do right away. So you give that person time to talk. That gives you time to think. You know what mean? And that gives you time, that gives you a little breather in why they're talking. You're listening, but you're also thinking, right? You're thinking about, all right, how am I gonna handle this? mean, for me anyways, I'm not the quickest decision maker and that's probably one of my downfalls, but I

Jason Monteiro (22:52.95)

I like to make a wise decision because we have the authority to take someone's rights away. And even worse, have the right to take their life away if they're about to harm somebody or hurt you. Those are major decisions that I know a lot of times is split second. But sometimes I think people have more time, more time to think about this, what's going to happen and what you should and a lot of these shootings, know, these shootings you see on the internet and stuff, it's like, I never liked a Monday morning quarterback because if you've been in one of those situations, it's difficult. You know, it's going a thousand miles an hour and we have the luxury of sitting behind a TV screen to say, what did you do that for? What'd you do that for? Where, you know, so it's just having that extra minute. If you have time to make, make just get distance, you know, take cover instead of rushing into things.

Like if you have that option, that's always like, for me it's always, I'm always in the back of my mind. I'm like, can I take cover somewhere? Can I make distance? Just to give you little more time to think about what you gotta

Again, easier said than done, right?

Vernon Phillips (24:07.949)

Yeah, that is true. It is. know, because sometimes you're offered that opportunity to take time and make that decision and sometimes you've got to rely on your training and your knowledge base that you've gained throughout your career to then make that quick split second decision. that's where you hope that all of the prep time that you've put in, right? The time you've prepared yourself you know, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and, and, you know, just making sure that you're up to date on everything. That's when you hope all that comes together, right? And you're able to fall back on all that training and all that education and knowledge that you have to be able to make that sound decision. when that time does come, but, but we hope and pray that that time doesn't come, right? That's

Jason Monteiro (24:40.128)

Yeah. Yeah. I also think the flip side of that is I think I see a lot of officers that are getting killed because they're waiting to make a decision, you know,

It really is like a catch -22. I do think a lot of officers are trying to make the right decision and that extra time sometimes hurts

So that's why this is one of the most difficult, in my opinion, one of the most difficult jobs. And it's the only job I've really, any real job I've ever really had. So I can't say, but I think given the powers that we have, it is one of the most important, one of the most challenging jobs that you could have.

Vernon Phillips (25:45.545)

Yeah. And that's why it's so important to maintain and to be, you know, to be sharp, to be able and ready to, you know, to step into whatever the situation is and be capable to step into whatever the situation is. You know, I think that that's where just a lot of preparing yourself and doing all that prep work beforehand and, you know, preparing yourself, you know, to be able to actively engage, but hoping that you never actually have to,

Jason Monteiro (26:15.592)

Yep.

Vernon Phillips (26:16.362)

So what is one tip that you'd give to those who are kind of 25 years, 30 years into their career, getting ready to maybe retire? What is a piece of advice you'd give to

Jason Monteiro (26:33.664)

For me, it's again the physical fitness. I mean, I think a lot of officers around 20 years, they kind of start to let themselves go. We have this in our culture, it's kind of like, well, you're getting older, you you don't need to play hockey anymore. You can't do jujitsu anymore. You can't do these things. And I just think that it's so wrong. There's always something you can do to keep yourself in shape. And I just see too many officers that let themselves

And I think, you know, it's a correlation, but a lot of times, you know, officers that aren't physically fit, I see them struggle the most. You know, I see them start to struggle with depression, you know, kind of just their attitude, you know, being miserable.

And it's not only just I'm not just saying physical fitness as far as like your body also like your minds. Making good decisions with finances. Like you said, spiritually, you know, they start to lose that. So all those things, the whole body, everything is it starts, they start to break them down. And I think that's like the one thing that's like just because you're getting older doesn't mean those things go away. Like you got to keep working on

Vernon Phillips (27:51.718)

Yeah, absolutely. So, and you've kind of touched on this a little bit, but so tell us about Blue Kevlar. Tell us, you know, kind of how that came about and kind of just a little bit of the back, the backstory of that and like what's your, you know, what's your goal and your plan is with

Jason Monteiro (28:08.102)

Yeah. So I mean, Blue Kevlar exactly is what I said is, it's basically, I'm trying to just, I'm not like an influencer, but I feel like I'm trying to help officers stay fit. And, because I run the physical fitness program at my department. And when we first started like 10 years ago, I'd get like one or two officers to show up to the test. And everyone else, and it's a simple test. I mean, you're talking 10 pushups, you 20, maybe 20 sit ups, mile and a half run. It wasn't groundbreaking, but a lot of officers couldn't do it. And I'm just thinking, this is bad. We're expected to be physically fit on this job, and we're not. so I don't even remember how Blue Kevlar came to be. just kind of, I don't know, from God came down, just kind of just, I do feel like it's like a divine intervention

I'm trying, it's something that I'm trying to push through. It's a message. because I just, it is, it is like a crisis right now. And it's not only just the older officers, there's younger officers that having a real difficult time. At least in our, in our state, the physical fitness test, we can't get officers to pass the test anymore. And it's in a job that we're already struggling to find people that want to do it. The ones that want to do it can't pass the physical fitness test. It's, it's, it's crippling. our industry. can't find officers anymore. So Blue Kevlar, it's kind of evolved over the years. I've been doing it for a few years and I basically just kind of started local with my own department, just doing something like physical fitness challenges amongst the guys in the offices. And then I moved it to Instagram and I started kind of branching out with that, just trying to reach out to our officers all over the world really. And then I started a little business trying to train officers how to stay in shape. And it's really kind of evolved more towards the younger officers trying to teach the younger officers how to prepare them for the physical fitness test. But it's been difficult because we're all cut from the same cloth. We don't like to get help. I had a couple younger officers and I say, hey, I'll help you

Jason Monteiro (30:34.017)

And I've been doing this for mostly for free. I really haven't charged any. I've had a couple clients that charge because I was working with them pretty regularly. But a few officers, I knew they weren't going to do it unless I did it for free. And I was like, well, I enjoy doing it, so I'll work with you for free. And even then, was hard. was like trying to get them to show up, trying to get them to get in. And it was just, and I'm this is, and I'm doing this for free. And I'm trying to help them get on the job because we need people.

We're just a tough bunch. We're a tough bunch to help. We love to help other people, but we don't like to receive help at all. And that goes... And it's real problem because we need help too. we... You see it all... You know, I've seen a lot of officers that just... They lose their jobs because of mental health issues, physical fitness issues, you know, just start to escalate. They start to drink alcohol more.

Vernon Phillips (31:10.337)

No, and that's absolutely true.

Jason Monteiro (31:31.566)

And the officers that I've seen that we've lost has come down to those reasons. Because they were good people. I worked with all these people and they were good people. But they went into a downward spiral from multiple reasons, from stress, from just repetitive, seeing bad things, dealing with tough characters. It wears on you. And if you don't seek help, eventually some people just can't make it.

Vernon Phillips (32:02.016)

Yeah, and that's the big thing. mean, you know, we in the law enforcement profession, you're like you said, we desire to help other people. You got into a helping profession, right? Where you're serving, you're serving your community, you're serving your fellow brothers and sisters in law enforcement. And we know that everybody, you know, experiences different things from the profession, that they experience them different ways, it impacts them different ways.

So we all know this, we all have this idea of a brotherhood, a sisterhood, right? Like, I got your back, I got your six. there is that tendency to isolate. But then what happens in that isolation is then you get to this place where you feel like I'm the only one that's dealing with this, right? And then you don't seek out help and you don't want people to perceive you as being weak or you're not able to do the job.

The very thing you don't want to happen generally comes around and happens because you're unwilling to kind of step up and say, I need some help. But I think a lot of that, and I say this often, but think a lot of that comes down to two reasons. They believe that they're all alone, which they're not, right? But it comes along with the second one, which is that the devil's a liar, right? And he'll feed

Jason Monteiro (33:12.704)

you

Jason Monteiro (33:20.85)

Okay.

Vernon Phillips (33:30.386)

that idea, he'll feed that thought that you're all by yourself and that you're isolated and nobody cares, nobody wants to help you and look at you, you can't even do your job right because you can't think clearly or you can't get out of the car fast enough. So all these little attacks, these things that just continue to plug into your mind over and over, my thing is like the devil's a

Jason Monteiro (33:31.185)

Okay.

Vernon Phillips (33:59.933)

And he's gonna utilize that and he's gonna speak the untruth into your mind. And he wants to isolate, especially those who serve, because if it cripples them, then it cripples who else? The community, right? So my thing is we need to start doing a little bit better job of like, hey, circling up after a bad incident or something and just saying, hey, we all agree that that was pretty crappy, that kinda sucked. You don't gotta,

Jason Monteiro (34:08.04)

Thanks.

Jason Monteiro (34:11.912)

Yeah.

Vernon Phillips (34:29.572)

Stop midstream in the middle of a situation and say, can we talk about this? Like, no, know, still do what you need to do, get through the call. But then afterwards, you know, download that, talk to somebody, get that out. And then next thing you know, then somebody else is more willing to talk about it than somebody else. And then, you you don't have people that get to the point where they feel isolated and they feel alone and they feel, you know, it's just such an it's such a complicated profession because everybody says they want help or they'll reach out if they need help but there's a lot of times where that doesn't really the follow -through on that doesn't take

Jason Monteiro (35:08.213)

Yeah, no, that's and I'm seeing that right, you know right off the bat right, know the younger officers They just don't want help, you know So it's a shame because you got to pass this test once One time right now and then once you get on the police department You don't have to work out another day in your life at least in Massachusetts, you know Like the state next to us in New Hampshire. They maintain you have to work out You have to do it pass the test to stay on the job every year, which I agree with I think they should do that but it's not, right now, it's not mandatory in Massachusetts, except for our state troopers. Our state troopers do

Vernon Phillips (35:43.056)

Yeah, so if somebody wanted to find out more about Blue Kevlar and like, know, kind of what you're doing and, know, just this, this mission that you have, how can they do

Jason Monteiro (35:52.716)

Well right now I'm just you know, I think Instagram is probably my my biggest platform It's just blue Kevlar fitness blue underscore Kevlar underscore fitness I also have I put out multiple letters to all the local chiefs I'm just letting them know that I'm available if they have any officers that are struggling I've received nothing back so far absolutely nothing Again trying get help. know, I think a lot of the chiefs are, you know, they're at that mindset that if these officers want to be a police officer, they need to do the work themselves. But that goes back to the old school of thinking where it's like, well, they're not going to do it. They're going to just go off and do something else. And we need to help these officers. We need to push them and get them in the job. Because if we just keep pushing them away or expecting them to do it themselves,

They're not coming. And we're gonna be in crisis mode in the next 10 years. mean, we're not gonna have anybody. And it's kind of scary, because I mean, think about not having police officers on the streets, not having enough of them. could be, it's one of those things, you don't really think about it until you actually see that we don't have anybody coming up.

Vernon Phillips (37:10.235)

Yeah.

Jason Monteiro (37:21.146)

We have a couple of people, then out of those couple of people, a lot of them can't pass this test. So we got to help them, you know, some way, somehow. And that's where that's what I'm trying to do. You know, with the physical fitness piece of it is just help them out, help them. And I'm also trying to start a business because I'm not going to be a police officer forever. And I'm going to retire when I'm, you know, 54, 55. And I just, this is my passion. And I would love to do something.

I would love to continue on with my own business and obviously make some money when I retire because I can't just stop working when I'm 55. But also, it's just my dream to have a job that I love doing. Continue on with the same thing that I'm doing now. But just change gears and turn. Stay fit myself and help other officers stay fit. I also want to work with veteran officers if they're having trouble.

I can meet up with them. But it's been really slow going. And again, trying to start a business when I'm working 40, 50, 60 hours a week myself and then have three kids and a wife. It's hard to focus on a side hustle. But it's slow going, but I know it's there and it's growing. And hopefully by the time I retire, it will be full blown and I'll be able to.

Give back to the communities that way and get more people in here because we need

Vernon Phillips (38:54.948)

Yeah, absolutely, for sure. So yeah, that's a big thing. mean, especially because you talked about earlier, it's keeping them not just physically fit, but just that whole aspect of the whole person, right? On every level of that. So as we kind of start winding down, as you kind of look at your career and where you're at, and you kind of touched on it briefly earlier, how much has your faith played into where you're at today?

Just being able to work through your career and get to where you are now, wanting to just invest in other people through Blue Kevlar and all

Jason Monteiro (39:33.71)

Yeah, yeah, so I mean I wasn't really raised religious, you know, I wasn't forced to go to church or anything like that. I always been spiritual though. I always you know, for some reason I've always kind of felt like I believed in a higher power. I believe like that, you know, we're not just here like dust in the wind, you know. But that's something that has grown. My faith has grown since I've been a police officer because I've seen too many things. see many things to believe to not believe, you know.

And I've relied on faith because there's been times when nothing else will work. Nothing. You know, not even going to work out in my backyard. Like I need to just, I need help from above. And he's come through for me every time when I ask for it, you know? So not to sound like all like, you know, weird, because I'm not a religious guy. I mean, if you ask me anything about the Bible, I don't know anything.

So again, I guess I'm more like spiritual and I have my own kind of beliefs, but I do believe that there's a higher power that's looking out for us and wants the best for us. I listen to a lot of podcasts now and that's how I got into these. Almost all the people I gravitate to are very religious people and they talk a lot about religion and I just really like it. It just gives you like a comfort to know that, you know,

Does somebody have a higher power that's rooting for

Because when you're up against the wall, when everything else fails, you know you got that, at least. And if that doesn't work, it is what it is. And you do what you do.

Vernon Phillips (41:21.604)

Yep. Yeah. And that's, you know, and I've had a lot of conversations with a lot of people and it always comes back to, you a lot of people are like, I don't know how you do the profession without having some type of faith component. Just because it's such a demanding profession, it just takes such a toll on you as an individual. But Jason, I I appreciate you taking the time and jumping on and I'll plug in your information there in the show notes, you know, to your Instagram.

You know where people go and see some of your videos and you see some of the the sandbag routines you're doing and you know how you're trying to you just impact the you know, the law enforcement culture by you know in trying to encourage people just to stay fit So I appreciate your time and I thank you for jumping

Jason Monteiro (41:54.852)

Yeah.

Yep.

Jason Monteiro (42:09.522)

Thank you for having me on. really appreciate it.

Vernon Phillips (42:11.716)

Yes, sir.