Navigating 41 Years of Law Enforcement, Fire Rescue, Politics, and Education w/ Dr. Jeff Gold

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jeff Gold who has an extensive 41-year career in public safety. We discuss his journey through various roles in law enforcement and fire services. He emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning, detailing his educational pursuits and how they have shaped his career. Jeff also addresses the challenges of maintaining balance in a demanding profession, particularly in relation to mental health and coping with difficult calls. He shares poignant stories from his career, including both traumatic and humorous experiences, highlighting the need for open conversations about the emotional toll of law enforcement work. In this conversation, Jeff Gold shares his extensive experience in law enforcement and public safety, discussing the fragility of life, the importance of investing in oneself, and the challenges faced by first responders. He emphasizes the need for ongoing education, the significance of preparing new recruits, and the mental health challenges that come with the profession. Gold also offers advice for those nearing retirement and encourages finding purpose beyond a law enforcement career.

Takeaways:

 ·      He values lifelong learning and has pursued multiple degrees.

·      Maintaining balance is crucial to avoid burnout in high-pressure jobs.

·      Difficult calls can have lasting emotional impacts on first responders.

·      Peer support is essential for coping with traumatic experiences.

·      Humor can be a coping mechanism in law enforcement.

·      Open discussions about mental health are necessary in public safety.

·      Retirement planning is a key consideration for long-term public safety   
       professionals.

·      Life is fragile; pursue what you want to do.

·      Invest in your own education and growth.

·      It's important to find joy in your work.

Jeff Gold

Transcript

Critical Aspects Podcast (00:36.324)

All right, welcome back to critical aspects of law enforcement. I'm your host, Vernon Phillips. And today on the show, we've got Jeff Gold. So what I'd like to do, I'd like to turn it over to him and just give a little background to who he is and his years in the law enforcement first responder community, plus a little bit of background about himself. So sir, I appreciate you coming on.

Jeff Gold (00:57.164)

I appreciate you, Vern. So this is my 41st year in public safety. So it kind of makes me realize how old I am. But, so I've been in Marion County my entire life. I'm born and raised here. start off with the fire department in early eighties, went through police recruit school as a shift swap. ended up, getting selected to do arson investigations, went through the FTO program as a firefighter, which was kind of unique reserved out and done Ellen got a little bit of time on there. And one day the sheriff's office called me up and asked me if I wanted a job and I took it. It was the greatest career you could ever have. So I did that until 2014. And one of the things I always say is, I used to hear everybody talking about retiring all the time and how they couldn't wait to. And I used to tell people, you know, the day I retire them on, back and do it for free. And I sure did.

So I came back, did that till 2016 when I got elected as a county commissioner and couldn't do both. then as soon as I finished up with that, I went full time with Indian River Shores, public safety, and then back to part time. And that's where I'm at now. So, and I still work fire department too. I throw that in there.

Critical Aspects Podcast (02:14.66)

Yeah, so there's a whole lot there. So obviously 41 years is, I mean, that's an impressive span of time there to be working in public safety. And so there's a lot of information that we can glean from you and get from you. so you've also, you are also a lifelong learner. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your education journey too.

Jeff Gold (02:37.809)

So one of my things that changed me in learning was actually going to Fairer Medical School a long time ago. I started seeing what the classes I had there and some opportunities. Eckerd College brought their bachelor's degree to Ocala briefly, I think for like two semesters and I had to drive down there. So I did my bachelor's degree. University of Central Florida came up here to the sheriff's office and I did my master's degree and then went on from there and

Did the ABD route on the disk on a PhD, which means that all but my dissertation and that kind of stuck with me for years. I mean, I spent seven years working on it and didn't get my dissertation through and went back and finally got my doctorate. And since then I've done another master's degree in emergency management, fire science at University of Florida.

Currently, I'm doing the legal studies, law school. also, I'm a glutton. It's like my, if it's something to be addicted to, I guess it's a good thing because schooling is, I'm also doing another graduate degree in IT and, you know, I'm always doing something, but that's kind of my, you know, my thing that I like to do. I don't, you know, throw that out as, you know, I know I very rarely even put it out there, what I have, but it's something that

I like, I enjoy it and learning is just everything. I've taken every class and I think that will kind of relate into my career.

Critical Aspects Podcast (04:11.47)

Yeah. No, and I think anybody who's gone into a doctoral program, a PhD program, the coursework leading up to the dissertation part, that's always very, that's very manageable. But when you start to get into the dissertation work, that's where things really start to get heavy and deep. And by the time you're done with it, you're like, man, that's it, I'm done. Like I'm not doing anything else. But then...

Jeff Gold (04:28.242)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (04:39.992)

you know, you end up finding yourself plugged back into something else.

Jeff Gold (04:44.665)

Well, the oddest thing is I started the other master's degree, the graduate degree, while I was doing my doctoral dissertation. I remember when the opportunity came up, University of Florida's with that, because I knew I was kind of navigating back to the fire service again. And I really wanted to do that. And also I teach. So that's my biggest thing. I kind forget about that.

I went back and did it and it was kind of a challenge. said, the counselor up there said, you can't do both. And then came back and said, there's no way you can finish a graduate degree, 11 classes in a year. I, yeah, watch me. And I did. And I was, yeah, it was good. It worked out good.

Critical Aspects Podcast (05:31.064)

Yeah, and I can relate a little bit on the dissertation part because when I went back and got my Traumatology degree, my EDS in Traumatology, so that's a doctoral program, but it's everything but the dissertation, right? So here I sit and I'm like, I've got this Traumatology degree and like, yes, it's a doctoral degree, but I don't get the doctor title because I didn't do the dissertation.

Jeff Gold (05:33.043)

Thank

Jeff Gold (05:46.834)

Yeah, gosh, yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (06:00.228)

I already did that with my pastoral counseling doctor. So I'm kind of like, do I need to go back and really do that? But much like you, mean, yeah, no, But much like you, I mean, it always kind of sits there in the back of your mind like, okay, I can, it's 30 more credits, but then it's like, oh man, that's gonna be another two years or whatever it is.

Jeff Gold (06:05.746)

Right.

Jeff Gold (06:09.573)

No, yeah you do, you do, yeah, no I under...

Critical Aspects Podcast (06:29.592)

Hopefully my wife's not listening, because I told her after this last one, said, I'm done. I think I've academically burned out. And then obviously, you know this, here I am back sitting in CF. So apparently it's not working out very well for me. But no, there's a lot there. And like I said, there's so much we could probably get into and forsake a time.

Jeff Gold (06:46.418)

No.

Critical Aspects Podcast (06:53.718)

As you look back over your career and just kind of where you're at now, I obviously you've got your hands still involved in a lot of things. You do a lot of teaching, you did a lot of instructing. You're still in the fire service. You're still providing that hands-on. So how do you maintain just your overall balance in life? Your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, how do you kind of keep all that in check just to keep yourself from burning out? Because somebody who's a high drive individual, much like yourself, you've got to find that baseline to where

You can keep pushing forward like you are, but without at the cost of your own self.

Jeff Gold (07:30.074)

And I think because I am, it kind of keeps me mentally tuned with all the education, doing all the different things, because I've always found that when I get bored or I don't have something going, you know, you get that, that feeling of, for me, it's an antsy feeling. I get an antsy feeling, or sometimes you get a depressed feeling like, what do I need to do this? I should have gone back and finished that. But, I think it's something that I've done so long.

You know, and you learn that in public safety. A lot of times you have to work multiple jobs, you know. Uh, thankfully I've seen, uh, you know, mostly as a commissioner, when I became a commissioner, started seeing the changes in the salaries and all. So it's not an impossible thing now to raise the family and be a first responder with the opportunities for the overtime and all. that's, that's a big thing. Cause I think I got so used to it because, you know, starting off making you know, $16,000 a year, which was not bad at the time, but you know, really not making a big salary was really hard. So I was, uh, you know, I've always kind of stayed busy. And I think that's kind of kept me focused, but you know, it does take some, take some tolls and I've noticed that it's taken some tolls family wise. And, uh, you know, one of the things that I sat and thought about it was I did all these things to plan for the future.

You know, I plan for this day, which I think it's going to come someday where I'm finally going to retire to a point. But, you know, I plan for that day when I can't get up and move and I'm going to teach from home. So I've always added things there. But my part is I've had to start saying no now. Like, you know, you're in the, you're out here doing the crossover. You know, I'm teaching academy classes. said, yeah, let me teach a day every once in a while just to keep in, to see the recruits.

And then all at once I've got every coordinator coming over like, have this schedule here. Can you do this day and that day? And, you know, I haven't said no, but it's getting a little difficult. but kind of a long answer, but I'm still.

Critical Aspects Podcast (09:39.49)

Yeah, yeah, no, I think you're covering most of the classes that I'm sitting in.

Jeff Gold (09:45.746)

Yeah. And it's because you're in the one to 10. And so I was able to juggle some work times around, but, know, there again, you know, it was, I'm juggling a full-time job too, which has demands, but I can say, and this will probably be the first time that I'm really getting out there. I have, you know, put in for retirement finally on full-time jobs and, know, I'm finishing out. I think this I'll have a paycheck or two coming up and I'm pretty well done. I'm done with the full-time stuff.

That's what I say now, tells somebody. Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (10:16.462)

That's what you say now. But hey, you never know, something might just offer itself up and you might just be like, hey, I, okay, so. Yep. Yep.

Jeff Gold (10:25.407)

I'm planning out ahead, so I don't break plans. So we've planned a lot of cruises throughout the end of the year and some different trips. So kind of purposely to do, which I've done in one other thing too. Might not be this podcast, but we'll talk about one day. So that's how I keep from doing things.

Critical Aspects Podcast (10:42.147)

Yeah.

Yeah. So as we kind of, you know, progress forward, I mean, obviously you've got a long, you know, career history and we oftentimes, you know, kind of look back and say, okay, how, you know, how did we progress through things? How did we get on the other side of things? And, you know, a lot of that comes back to, you know, calls for service. mean, obviously you've worked numerous calls to service and you, and I'm sure you could go through numerous stories of, know, ones that were awkward, ones that were funny, know, ones that were difficult. you're kind of generally what we like to do here is, you know, if you're willing to share one of the more difficult calls for service and then kind of how you got on the other side of that. Because then that kind of promotes that, you know, just that ability for other people to say and express the same thing. Right. Because that's kind of where we're at in law enforcement is people, you know,

Maybe they have a difficult time with a call, but they don't feel like they can voice that. So the more we can talk about those things, think the more we can prompt others to say, yeah, you know what? I had a crappy call too, and maybe I can get on the other side of it.

Jeff Gold (11:40.277)

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gold (11:51.575)

And I think that is a big thing, being able to talk about it. And, you know, obviously me starting so long ago, I started in the generation where in public safety, you didn't talk about it. You didn't talk about the bad calls, but I can remember back and actually, you know, try to limit it down. There are a few, one thing, the calls over all the ways have bothered me is when people pass away alone. I mean, I guess, you you look at now I can start to analyze it, but.

Early in my career, had on a baseline road, had a gentleman who was pulling his three daughters across baseline and he had them on the lawnmower with the little trailers. He had pulled behind and somebody struck him. It was myself and my partner on the ambulance. We got there. She took the one patient into the ambulance and I only thought there was two I'm working on. Both of them were cardiac. You know, they were trauma codes. were in seat. We were doing CPR and all this.

And the father came up with the third child and was just handing it to me, trying to get me to do something, you know, that gives you a feeling of helplessness. And all three passed away and I never followed up on it. And I always kind of wonder, you know, what happened with the father, what, you know, happened with that, but that bothered me. And at the time we didn't have the resources, usually the resources then where you go out to the bar and you talk to other people about it. And it still is, unfortunately today.

And then, um, that one there now, I kind of see the pattern kind of adults children. The second one was, uh, sheriff's office one, um, where I was, you know, middights, I love middights. I was great out there. It was cold. It reminded me of it today. I would sit on South pine and turn off the car, which most law enforcement don't do, but you could hear so much with the windows down and I heard a car crash and it was right around the corner. As soon as I pulled around, I could see it and.

I looked at, think it was something it kicked onto was just now I just actually realized that the car rolled over, caught on fire, had three adults or, you know, people over 18, but like 19, 20 year old children to me were in there. Two, one was unconscious and the other two were conscious. They were trapped. I wasn't able to get them out. I mean, and it's a, you know, it's still a kind of a hard thing to.

Jeff Gold (14:17.689)

think about, but you know, I'm trying to pull somebody out using fire extinguishers that I had in my car doing that. But you know, I'm holding somebody's hand while they burn to death. And that was a pretty hard thing. You know, I walked away from it and notice, you know, my jacket was like crusty burnt, my pants or anything like that. I did have an offer from the department, but it didn't really kick in to me.

Cause one of the other deputies showed up and I thought it was kind of, kind of at the time odd, but, she had a lot of more problems with it. She had a lot of problems with it because she had thought that was her daughter was in the car. Same timing. I remember getting mad about it, which now that you look back at, you know, PTF, PTSD and all these things, anger and stuff comes out. didn't recognize it. I had a detail, had a lucky detail coming up that afternoon, I didn't want to miss that I needed the money. And they were like, we have a critical stress debriefing. I just got off work. It was kind of the way it was set up. I was angry that I was told I had to go to it. I was very uncooperative. I'm like, I'm fine. Y'all leave me alone. And it kind of put a bad thing on there. you know, those are about the worst calls that I think I've been on. I've been on a lot of things that might have bothered me a little bit more, but

I think it was the first one, the feeling of helplessness. then the second one, same thing, three kids feeling helplessness, but then forced into the, into the debriefing part, I think was worse than anything that I had to deal with. It kind of put up a bad, bad part to me, which I think, you know, it just put up where later on people say PTSD or they have that. I'm like, you know, Hey, it put me in a bad light.

Critical Aspects Podcast (15:58.98)

Thanks

Yeah.

Jeff Gold (16:12.256)

it in a bad light to me.

Critical Aspects Podcast (16:13.23)

Yeah, yeah, I mean, and we can talk about at a later time or another episode, we can talk about, you know, the critical, no, the critical incident stress debriefings and, and I've got my own thoughts on those, I'm sure as well as you do, but so what is, what is something that, you know, as you kind of, look back over those ones that you shared, like, you know, what is it that helped you kind of, you know, progress beyond that? I mean, they, kind of get past that and, you know, maybe

Jeff Gold (16:19.223)

Yeah, sorry.

Critical Aspects Podcast (16:42.53)

Maybe it wasn't a great coping strategy that helped you do that, if that was the case, how would you change that now?

Jeff Gold (16:51.478)

I think it would be a later call, which I did have a few people call me later, but you know, we need to, we need to decompress after something like that. Mostly somebody working at night. they have to decompress. They have to come back to it. What helped me the most thought was finding out that the other deputy, think, had the issues and what they were. And I think that made me because I reached out to her, didn't, I knew her from shift. I reached out to her the next shift we work and said everything good. She talked about it and everything. It was, it helped me to listen to somebody else, if that makes sense. But to do anything else, I guess just, you know, I think an individual one-on-one is, is a better part. And I've also had that with a couple of shooting incidents where, you know, I've had, one of my FTOs would reach out and say, Hey, are you okay? This, you know, doesn't happen. You know, this is rare. So, yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (17:50.338)

Yeah, and that's kind of the model that we've kind of adapted moving forward, you know, with peer support and things that we're doing now is it's just, especially with, you know, with law enforcement, you just find that you get better results when there's more of that one-on-one peer-to-peer exchange, you know, versus, let's everybody get in a circle and, you know, kind of talk this out. Now, I know there's advantages and disadvantages to both, but...

Jeff Gold (18:12.379)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (18:17.866)

Like I said, we can talk about that in later episode. So to kind of transition out of that, mean, obviously, yeah, talking to somebody, of defusing that and kind of breaking that down definitely helps to being able to talk about it. But when you look back, obviously, you've got lots of call for service, but what is one of the funniest or maybe the most awkward ones, calls for service that you had?

Jeff Gold (18:19.513)

Yeah.

Jeff Gold (18:42.652)

Probably the funniest one that I tell when it's actually kind of a traumatic one if you think about it was, well, I was a drug unit supervisor for a while. It was like my favorite job I had. I covered on Christmas Eve, the guys were on call, they were like, they had a Christmas Eve call and was a person was a doctor shopping. It was a person worked at a doctor's office was calling in fake prescriptions.

She was supposed to pick them up in the afternoon, never showed up. Well, the agents that were there, had had their kids and everything. I said, I'll go ahead and sit there. You know, was near my house. So I sat there, didn't think 10 minutes before the Walgreens, I think it was Walgreens, 36th and Mary Camp. Before they closed, they called me and said, hey, she just called. She's our way. I knew the lady at the time. I could say she was old, but she's my age, almost 60 now. So.

But she went through the drive-through. My officer said she was terrible because I was expecting, this is a nice lady. know her. I her, looked at her background. She works in a doctor's office. She's a grandma. Went up to the car, stopped her, walked up in regular clothes, tapped on the window, called her by her name and first name. I was like, hey, Sheriff's Office just let you know. We know you're getting the prescriptions next thing I see is a gun pointed at me. It shocked me more than, you know, your normal reaction. So I stepped back, I drew my gun, I looked in and kind of looked back because I'd left my portable in the truck, you know, and look back real briefly and left my door open. had my canine with me at the time, which I didn't have secured. I looked back and I looked back and our hands are up. I'm like,

You know, that's that brief second where we had to make that decision. I'm like, did she really have a gun or did I see that correctly? I ran back to my truck, called it in. said, then I go, I said, think the subject signals here, was like that subject has a gun, which you know, the kind of response you get on that. So mostly right in the city. And, I go back up there and then she's locked, put her window up. She won't come out of the car. She still got her hands up. I break the window to the car.

Critical Aspects Podcast (20:41.23)

Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (20:52.451)

Yeah.

Jeff Gold (21:04.143)

I reach in with the adrenaline, she probably weighs 80 pounds. I grab her, she flies out of the car. My dog, you know, he was been patrol trained, he's a drug train. He comes out, I didn't mean for him to come out, but he went through seeing that. He runs up, immediately grabs her by the head. And, you know, this isn't like a funny story, you're looking for a funny story, but he grabs her, she grabs by the head, I'm calling her off, calling him off.

Critical Aspects Podcast (21:24.676)

I

Jeff Gold (21:31.614)

And she had a wig on, so he grabs a wig and takes off with the wig. And I don't even know where he went. So I'm sitting there. get her handcuffed. Everybody, everybody gets to, I said, yeah, she had a gun. They're looking, Jeff, we can't find a gun. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I think this or whatever. And I'm there. There's OPD Sergeant found it come back. was a 38 that she had had. And, uh, it had actually just didn't set the primer off. It misfired. Um, I.

I remember looking down the barrel. later said that she tried to kill herself and everything, but where it gets to the funny part was because, you know, I always have that kind of weird sense of humor. I'm sitting there, all this has gone bad before we'd even found the gun. And this guy walks up and he goes, Hey, did you have a police dog with a badge on its collar? And I was like, yeah. And I'm figured 4 64 and 36th Avenue. He's been hit by a car or something.

He goes, well, I got a dog in the front seat of my car with an animal in its mouth and I can't get it. So I walk her to what was the Shell station. might still be. I look in there and he's sitting in the front seat. The guy had left his window down. He's sitting in the front seat with this lady's red wig in there and growling and I'm trying to get him out and carry him back and everything. And I'm just like, that's great. You know, I just took this nice little lady out through to the ground. At least hopefully it was the right person.

She got scalped by my dog. Everything went bad and we can't find a gun. So, but in the end, you know, it came out good. You know, I was fine. Um, she ended up, you know, getting the help that she needed, which I was fine with later. And that's one of the things I've never taken cases personal, you know, whatever was going through her mind was traumatic enough to either hurt somebody else or to hurt herself. And, know, I left in my mind that she was trying to hurt herself and then she got help. So not really a good.

Happy funny story, but it's different. Yeah. Yeah, I do.

Critical Aspects Podcast (23:25.604)

I mean, it is entertaining. I mean, you can look back at it now if you can find it entertaining. I mean, I'm just trying to picture all this go down and seeing your canine sitting in some random person's front seat and thinking, I got a sheriff's canine in my car and it's killed somebody's cat or something. Yeah.

Jeff Gold (23:45.438)

And growling just and looking forward growling. So when I pull up, he's just growling. Wouldn't even look at me. I open the door. go to grab him by his collar. He didn't have his lead and he's still growling. my gosh. I like wanting to snatch him, but everybody's looking at me. So I actually ended up picking him up and carrying him and getting them back for a little way. So it was just like everything was bad, but in the end it worked out. So.

Critical Aspects Podcast (24:12.228)

Yeah, this would have been, you know, in the last several years, that would have been all over social media, know, YouTube, Yeah, yeah, it would have been video all over. So as you look back over your career, you know, what are three of the most significant things that you've learned, you know, throughout your career?

Jeff Gold (24:17.255)

Because there wasn't a video yet. Thank goodness.

Jeff Gold (24:31.059)

that's actually... I guess one of things I've always learned was that just how fragile life is when you go and you... just a traffic accident or, know, Brian Litz when he got killed was very talking to him the night before and then the next day he's dead, you know. Just in general, life is just fragile that you got to do things that you want to do.

Like what you said, you still have that urge in the back of your mind to finish something. You know, I always finish stuff. I finished stuff or go back and try. I try my best. I failed at lot of things. And, you know, you go back. next is on a different subject. Just, our people, I guess our culture is so used to seeing things on television that, you know, they think they don't have a really good grasp of what law enforcement is. And then finally, you know,

People are really untruthful at times and it's sad because, you it's just, you look at, but, mainly people don't understand what we do in criminal justice. They see TV and you know, it's an entertaining show, but people love Chicago PD. And it's like one of my least favorite ones because, you know, they show where the officers are beating people and doing things to get confessions. And I've actually had recruits come out and tell me at the college that that's what they want to be and that's how they want to do things. It's kind of sad.

Critical Aspects Podcast (26:06.798)

So on that note, mean, going into kind of our next question is, obviously we know that law enforcement is public safety, first responder, whatever you get into, whether it's fire, whether it's paramedic, whether it's law enforcement, we know that's a demanding job, right? And it takes a toll on the individual. And obviously you do a lot of instructing at the college, so you have a heart to invest into those coming in.

Jeff Gold (26:26.229)

Mm-mm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (26:36.408)

So do you feel that we are doing a good job or we're doing the best we can to prepare those who are coming into the career, those that are in the academies, in the recruit schools?

Jeff Gold (26:51.306)

And that's what I love teaching the academies because I think that's where we get the biggest touch on people, know, where we get to make the biggest difference and hopefully we do. I think we're doing good as the instructors. They're so worried about just passing the test right now. And you'll, know, you see it too, going back and looking, you're so worried about that test because no matter what I can get up and tell you at the end of that.

period you have to pass that test or you don't go on. there's some, that's everything's test-based. And I guess that's the world is like that. But, you know, we're doing a good job. I talked to the class yesterday about the difference in hours that, when I went it was 300 and some hours now it's 770. I think we're doing the best that we can to do it. know, you know,

Critical Aspects Podcast (27:22.297)

Yeah.

Jeff Gold (27:47.157)

Beach College at Central Florida. I they've got an excellent academy that I've had one and they're doing a really good job. I mean we get people from all over there so I think we're doing the best we can.

Critical Aspects Podcast (27:57.976)

Yeah, no, that's good. mean, and along that, mean, obviously you interact with a lot of recruits and then you also interact with just, lot of, you know, individuals who are in the first responder community. But, you know, what is your advice to those just starting out, right? Those who are just entering into, you know, not in the academy anymore, not in any of the recruit schools. They finished that and now they're out on their own. You know, what is your advice to those individuals?

Jeff Gold (28:25.986)

Do things on your own, get your education on your own. Don't expect the department to do it for you. One of the biggest things that I saw even when I was there and I still do, people go, well, I want to do everything you did talking about me. Because I was lucky enough to bomb squad, had K9, the drug unit, was on SWAT, did all the kind of things that you're able to do. But it took a lot of work. I teach all the time.

And the majority of things that I did early in my career were my own time, my own money. And I don't think the, you know, our group or our culture or whatever it you want to refer to it now has that it's what, what you can give to me. And, I, you really got to put out and start doing that. You got put out for yourself to do it. And it's just something that I think people really, I realized you really got to work for what you get. And, you know, that because.

You you're in a good position right now. Um, and I didn't really realize until we talked that, you know, how long you've been at the sheriff's office, you've been there a long time, more than most of the people there. And, know, you're getting some advantages now for what you're doing to help people and everything, but it's been a hard road. You've got to take a lot and do a lot of things. Um, I don't think anybody probably paid for your doctorate.

You you paid it by working overtime, you know, that's how we all do it or by loans or whatever it is. But, you know, you've got to go through and just work at, and there's so many, even now when I see the ones they'll, they'll ask recruiters, you know, will you pay for this? Will you pay for that? And, you you got to do things on your own.

Critical Aspects Podcast (29:49.38)

Nope.

Critical Aspects Podcast (30:08.526)

Yeah, I I think that, and I think that's a great point because you have to be willing to invest in yourself, right? I mean, you're always continuing to be better, to do better, to just further push yourself or advance yourself. like you said, mean, yeah, my education, I'm paying for all my education myself. Obviously there's things that you can put in for and you can go to different classes and different training and things like that, and that can go through.

Jeff Gold (30:14.765)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (30:38.436)

the agency or wherever you work for. if you're looking to go beyond and invest in yourself, then that's going to be on you. I saw the need and I had the desire to continue my education. So I just kept pushing forward, pushing that door, going to the next step, the next step, because that was important to me. And it's because that directly relates back to what I'm doing and then how I can invest back into individuals.

Jeff Gold (30:47.939)

Mm-mm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (31:07.384)

I'm investing in myself so that I can adequately invest in other people. But if you're not willing to do that or if you're just looking for somebody to come and do that for you, you know.

Jeff Gold (31:10.934)

Hmm.

Jeff Gold (31:18.379)

Yeah, there's no self satisfaction either besides helping people. Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (31:23.938)

Yeah, mean, you know this, mean, you getting your education, mean, is for one, it's not for everybody, right? There are individuals who are, you know, are happy to, hey, like I went through the academy, you know, I went through, you know, the basic recruit or, you know, I've got into, you know, I'm a line level deputy or I'm a firefighter, whatever it is. that's, and they're happy doing that, right? And that's the extent of the schooling they want to do. And that's great. And if that's you then, but there's other things you can do to invest in yourself, right? There's other.

Jeff Gold (31:45.742)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (31:53.476)

trainings and specialty courses that you can take to hone in on those skills wherever you're at in your career. But if you're somebody who likes to challenge yourself and enjoys that, I want to say enjoys that academic aspect, because sometimes you don't, sometimes you get done and you're like, I'm going to burn that book. I don't want anything to do with that one. Right? Yeah. A good old book burning. probably get censored for that.

Jeff Gold (32:14.116)

I just did that there and I yeah Yeah

Critical Aspects Podcast (32:23.074)

But investing in yourself, like you said, it costs you money, right? There are grants out there and financial aid and things like that that you can take advantage of, at some point it's going to cost you financially yourself. You've experienced that, I've experienced that, but I didn't do it to get anything back. I did it because I wanted to further myself. And I think that's what's the important thing.

That's what anybody can and anybody should take from any of this conversation is like, look, you have to work hard to get yourself opportunities that you want. So the more you invest in yourself and the more that you show that, the more likelihood that's gonna happen.

Jeff Gold (33:10.533)

And trust me, you'll find somewhere in your life where it will work. Somewhere you'll be able to reach back to that. And I always tell people if I take a class, even if it's not a great class that I took, at least I learned even something about how I wouldn't do a class again. Yeah. I wouldn't do this, you know, something that I wouldn't do. So yeah, it's, it's, always pick up something and it keeps your mind going.

Critical Aspects Podcast (33:34.958)

Yeah, and it's funny because when we talk about this with my wife and I talk about just education and academics and things like that, when we first got married, I had only had my associates at the time. That was it. That was kind of my parents' big push. Like, hey, look, at least do your associates. At least finish that. So I think I got my associates in criminal justice administration or something like that. And I mean, that was back in early 2000s.

Jeff Gold (33:49.711)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (34:03.428)

I don't remember, like 2006 or something like that, right? And that was it. And I had no desire to go any farther than that. So when we got married, that was it. So she's the one that went to college and she had a bachelor's and so she was the one that was the educated one at the time. And I had no desire. And then as things kind of progressed on and I started to get older, then I started to have that desire like, hey, maybe I should go.

Jeff Gold (34:21.7)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (34:32.546)

you know, and it's like, all let me just finish my bachelor's, you know, right. And then that turned into, you know, jumping into my master's and then, you know, it's funny because we'll talk about, she's like, you had no interest in education at all. And she's like, and I was the one that had the degree and now here you are, you you just completed like a second doctoral degree. She's like, I don't, she's like, who are you? Right. And that's funny because I look back and, know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I would have, I would have been like,

Jeff Gold (34:35.642)

Yeah.

Jeff Gold (35:00.592)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (35:02.166)

now. I would have not anticipated myself jumping into something like that. But as you get older, as you progress through your career, things change. Your desires change, your motivation changes, the need to continue to challenge yourself changes so you want to invest back into yourself. So think that's a huge important thing is to always continue to invest in yourself and work hard to achieve the things you want.

Jeff Gold (35:28.7)

Yes. And hopefully everybody else starts to realize that a little bit younger than we did. So that'd be good.

Critical Aspects Podcast (35:36.107)

Hey, don't let my, you know, my salt and pepper fool you.

Jeff Gold (35:40.199)

I'm waiting for mine to turn, everybody. It's gonna turn.

Critical Aspects Podcast (35:45.092)

It's funny, I had a meeting with somebody there today and they said, you know, you struck me as being older than you are just because of the salt and pepper hair. And I was like, I'll take that as a compliment. I'm choosing to take that as a compliment, right? But as we kind of progress on and we talked about recruits, we talked about the academy, we talked about those just getting into the profession. Now, when we look at the individuals who are into this, the 15, 20, 25 plus years and those who are embedded,

Jeff Gold (35:46.937)

you

Jeff Gold (35:55.121)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (36:13.956)

and probably starting to get into that staunch mindset, right? Maybe they're starting to get a little salty. Yep. What is your advice to them?

Jeff Gold (36:20.784)

comfort zone.

Jeff Gold (36:25.127)

Well, the biggest thing is everybody looks forward to retirement and retirement is not easy. I haven't completely done it. I don't know when I'll do it. I mean, both financially and just to themselves, that's kind of hard because you're going to go, go, go. And then all at once, it's going to be kind of a stop. You're going to lose your identity. see that a lot with law enforcement officers. They lose their identity. They're not really sure what they want to do or some of them just go away.

You know, they're just like, I'm done with this. But I think for, if we're looking like at the, you know, the 10 year officer or something like that, it's about midway in their career where that kind of starts. You know, if we're very lucky with the Florida retirement system, you can go do something somewhere else. If you really hate your job, you've got 15, 20 years left. Go, go look somewhere else and rejuvenate yourself. You know, do something that feels better for those that.

You know, I understand that 20 years, you've got five years left. You don't want to go back and start as a new patrol officer, a new CEO or anything like that, but start the plan for your future. Um, find the best parts of the job that you can. There's no reason that, that you can't, you know, I, I love my job. I did, but also was wanting to retire. Um, I knew, you know, it was that time to retire and, you know, look forward to the future and do the things that you want to do. And as I said, there's no time to stop learning, but find a hobby, find something little in that. But, you know, just being miserable is a terrible thing. Misery is just being negative, being, I hate this place. I can't wait to retire. Find something that makes you happy, you know, but, definitely plan for the future because, you know, it seems to be more expensive, mostly children are more expensive after 18 than they are earlier. So, but it's something I just, hate seeing people are that negative and that's why I always used to do it, you know? And then what's funny is the ones that are the most negative are always the ones that end up coming back after a few years. It's kind of weird. So that's kind of strange.

Critical Aspects Podcast (38:41.764)

Yeah, that's kind of funny. So as you kind of look at the law enforcement profession, just first responder, public safety in general, what is a challenge that you think that they're going to be facing here in the next several years?

Jeff Gold (38:45.128)

you

Jeff Gold (39:00.329)

Well, on the law enforcement side, it's just kind of the general negativity towards law enforcement. think that's coming back up. We've been very lucky in our area that we're a pretty pro law enforcement type community compared to other parts of the country. Florida is pretty pro law enforcement, but I think there's going to be more challenges to the laws that we're seeing. A lot of the...misconceptions still of what we do. I do see the hiring coming back. It's starting to get better where we're able to start recruiting and able to start hiring people. but in general, I think, you know, we'll look at the, the salaries are different. You know, I've always told sheriff woods, you know, Hey, I support you as long as you support the deputies and get the raise, get the money to them. And it's been a tremendous thing to where.

There's hardly any, mean, that was, I originally ran for County commission just because I used to hear all the time, the County commissioner won't commission won't give us a raise. And then once I became a commissioner, I found out it's a sheriff who sets them out and just has to get that budget from the commission. But, you know, I think it looks good. The future law enforcement mostly looks good because I think that,

They're starting to get paid what they, what they need, you know, and I think it would keep an equal there with the corrections and with the law enforcement, with the officers out there. think it's good. And think they're starting to get finally seen with the value and the risks they put because it's not just that physical risk of, know, you could go out and get shot any day. You could get in a car wreck and get killed, any of these types of things. But it's also that mental part of just constant, you know, constantly worried about stuff or worried about a complaint or even being in that factor all the time. But I think it's looking forward, looking a little bit up. I'll be a better question maybe a couple years to when we see how our change came back. COVID was hard. It was right after the George Floyd incident where everything was negative. When you can't have Paw Patrol on, come on.

Critical Aspects Podcast (41:19.214)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff Gold (41:19.564)

You know, we couldn't even put that, you know, they took cops, cops off TV and everything like that. but people still want to do it. People want to do jobs. So can't really give you an answer about, I think it's going to get better.

Critical Aspects Podcast (41:32.388)

Okay. Yeah, I think as you know, Ty, like you said, we're pretty fortunate with where we're at in Marion County and, you know, and the people here, you know, they're very much, you know, pro law enforcement and they seem to, to back law enforcement. So, I mean, obviously there's other places in the country that, you know, that's a whole other conversation. and, that would be a very difficult place to work and try to start a career or even be finishing a career. So,

Jeff Gold (41:38.759)

Excuse me.

Critical Aspects Podcast (42:01.864)

That's difficult for those individuals. as we kind of wrap up, there's a lot of things we covered, but we know that this job is very demanding, right? And it just comes with a lot of pressure. And a lot of people get to a point where they just feel like there's no out, right? Like, hey, because of this stuff I've seen, I've heard and just been a part of, I don't have anybody to talk to. And maybe they're at a point where they're just like, you know what, I'm done.

Jeff Gold (42:19.979)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (42:28.376)

done, I'm done with law enforcement or maybe they're even done altogether and they're even contemplating taking their life. What is something that you would encourage them from your years of service and having 41 years in public safety? What is an encouragement that you would offer though?

Jeff Gold (42:46.919)

there is a life after first being a first responder, but the biggest thing is, is you look at it as, you know, firemen, it's a little bit more evident, but in law enforcement, anything we're helping somebody, you're going to touch somebody's life. you're going to touch them. You know, the majority of times you're going to, you have the most ability to go out and help somebody of any job there is because.

You know, you can feel good about yourself and donate thousands of dollars to, know, your favorite charities and stuff like that. And you can feel good about, you can go volunteer at Christmas and hand out dinners and do all the things that make you feel good. But you have such an opportunity in law enforcement to reach out and just, you know, find something and to help somebody when nobody's looking to where you feel good about where you're not actually doing it. And that's something that, you know, you.

That's your satisfaction out of it. If you're at a point where you don't care about others and stuff like that, that is an issue. there are people, the peer support groups are great. Now I've seen that, as I said, there'll be a discussion later where it's not the round table of circles of people you don't know that are, please tell me your feelings and why do you feel bad about that? And this isn't normal for you to be mad to be in here. But it's a person that can reach out and say, hey, are you all right? Yeah, I'm good. Okay, good. They can reach out to your, you may only have one or two friends or even one or two acquaintances and they'll be like, hey, check on them. Make sure he's good. Hey, are all right? A text message or something. But the biggest thing just to keep up for a future is there's so much after. There's so much that you can do afterwards. You can help so many people and that's a great thing.

Critical Aspects Podcast (44:12.035)

Yeah.

Jeff Gold (44:39.822)

Even if you don't think about it, have to go back and go, hey, I remember buying these kids Christmas gifts. I remember paying for this at one time. I remember not taking this person to jail. Or, you know, sounds weird, but you gave a little bit of discretion. Or I remember taking this person to jail, the price saves lives from others. So it's good you set it. That's the way your outlook is. That's way it is.

Critical Aspects Podcast (45:07.246)

Yep. Well, we're just a bit out of time, but I wanted to, I appreciate you taking the time to jump on here and just share some of your experiences and share just your history in law enforcement and just public safety and just give some tips and some pointers. So I appreciate that. so, and I think we'll probably have some conversations in the future.

Jeff Gold (45:13.504)

Anytime.

Jeff Gold (45:23.468)

Yes,

Jeff Gold (45:29.291)

Yes sir, well I appreciate it very much and thank you.

Critical Aspects Podcast (45:32.12)

Thank you. We'll see you.