00:00:02 ladies and gentlemen you’re rocking with a goat Kow giving you motivation for growth two toes down he keep it realer than most he do it for the culture that’s always the [Music] goal this is [Music] strategic is hey what’s up everybody you tuned in to another episode of strategic moves I’m your host kenal this is a place where we bring art culture colle politics and business all together and we do it every Sunday right here on this channel but when I’m not shooting this podcast I am the owner of strategic resources where we specialize in political campaigns
00:00:42 government and public relations I’ve been doing it right here in the state for over 25 years and met some interesting people along the way and we want to make your next move a strategic move so this program gives me an opportunity to do just that I pick up some of the people that we met along the way we bring them in and we talk about some of our experiences and maybe there something you can get out of this that will help you in your personal or business life so if that sound like some of you’re interested in what I need you to do is hit that like button hit the Subscribe
00:01:12 button and the notification Bell as well so that you will know the next time this program is coming on the air and now we’re going to get started because we’re in the process of doing safety month here we’ve been trying to find out and the title of this series is is Cleveland really safe and what’s going on the summer is getting ready to get started and we know when it gets hot in Cleveland it gets hot in Cleveland so what we’re doing today is interviewing one of the gentlemen who’s rounding out our series and we’ve been really excited for this guy to come on this show
00:01:47 I don’t know why because it’s the last person you want to come after you for real so but for some reason I was really excited for him to come on here so we can talk because what he does is very interesting and we need it in our community and is important and he’s going to share with us some of the things that his office has been doing and what he’s been doing for well over a few decades now to keep Cleveland safe but before I get into that I want to introduce to you the best podcast producer in podcast history we gonna giving that every podcast it goes up a little bit more now
00:02:19 you’re the best podcaster in podcast history oh my goodness check that out why is you putting the Target on my back I literally got a Target on my back they said our show is not controversial enough so here we go he’s the best podcaster in podcast history he’s out here today and he’s out helping us get this podcast together everybody give it up for DJ true what’s up brother what’s up what’s up man you finally wanted to bring me out of the Shadows I see yeah well this is the first program that we actually put a camera in there so y’all can actually see him talking usually he just
00:02:52 be talking everybody like where the hell who the hell is this talking so actually we put a camera in there today so y’all can actually see who he is and what he does behind the scenes as we put this program together so what’s going on brother we ready to get started we got the guy in gotta get going yall don’t want this guy knocking on your door that’s for sure well you might do depending on what the circumstances is because he do he do a whole lot of things and he’s going to talk about some of those things so in certain cases you really might want him to be the one that knocks on
00:03:22 your door so we’re gonna get started with that and without further Ado we want to welcome Mr Pete Elliot US Marshall Mr Pete yeah to the progam so what’s going on thank you very much for having me here oh thank you for coming out man yeah you pull that up a little bit you can always move it or slide your seat up let’s do that there you go I got it there you go there you go thank you all right so man we want to welcome you to the program man thanks for taking the time to come out here and we know that it’s been a uh you’ve been a busy man in the last week or so and um we wanted you
00:03:55 to come in I believe a couple weeks ago and we had to reschedule because you had to leave town on some other stuff that was going on in another town and when you got back almost ran into the same situation here right right you know it’s been a violent couple of months for us in law enforcement really and so I just want to thank you for coming on we people really want to hear what’s going on here in Cleveland I hope you got enough to Enlighten us and tell us what’s happening but before we go there I want you to give us a little background about yourself you
00:04:24 know I talking to you I do my pre podcast and found out some stuff about him and so tell you grew up here in Cleveland what’s your background High School let’s go back I want go back I went to the greatest school on Earth St Edward High School there he is but it’s uh you know born and bred here I’ve been in law enforcement federal law enforcement 37 years here in Cleveland area four years before that I worked undercover narcotics so I’ve been in law enforcement 41 years really I started at the age of six away for the record only was like now what you doing s but it’s been it’s
00:05:00 been an honor it’s um was appointed by President Bush in 2003 and since that I was retained by President Obama Trump and Biden since then so I happen to be the longest serving US Marshal in the history of Ohio wow um so it’s been an honor I follow my dad’s footsteps who was a deputy US Marshal really here in Cleveland and he ran the federal witness protection program uh back in the 70s and 80s here in Cleveland and it all started with my great-grandfather who was a police chief of Alliance Ohio many many years ago so law enforcement is just braded in you yep it’s been in
00:05:35 our family for many many years so so coming out of so you went to St Ed and out of St EDS you decided what I want to be a police officer you went to college what was your yeah not exactly little went through the kind of the Hard Knocks of Life As I said so I was a baseball player at St EDS I thought my future was gonna be playing baseball college Third Base senior year I was up the bat against Lake Catholic and uh thought I had a shot and I had some offers from some colleges I got up there and I hit the best ball ever in my life line drive right off the left field fence off a really
00:06:10 good pitcher but my knee got stuck and buckled and busted wow and I crawled on my hands and knees to first base wow and I can still remember my coach coming out his name was race shider and I still remember him coming out back then this is 1980 and looking down at me and said saying to me son remember everything happens for a reason and a purpose wow and back then as an 18-year-old kid that wasn’t one I wanted to hear when they were carrying me off on a stretcher but I think sometimes in life you know his his words you know still ring clear with me so did so after that I I
00:06:46 know that didn’t defeat you you you still tried to come back right or the need thing was just that bad so I took I started working security at the no I never made a back that was before I scop surgery okay so I still have a scar my knee um oh so you had to get surgery and the whole thing I was on crutches for a while back then and and you know ever since those days it’s better now thos scopic surgery and so on you come back pretty quick but right not back in those days so I was on crutches for a while basically started working security nobody had gone to college in my family
00:07:20 my father my mother never went to college started working security at the old uh higes oh yeah and you remember those from the Cleveland days so on and then started I uh at 21 years old uh became an undercover narcotics agent and I started putting myself through college I did that in Kyle County Lorraine County what force was you on I was on the West Shore enforcement Bureau and Lorraine County Narcotics unit okay back then um and then started putting myself through college and then became a deputy US Marshal those are the people that worked for me today in 1987 where my father
00:07:57 was a deputy run the federal witness Protection Program and then you know finally receiv received my degree uh when I was in my late 20s so you was doing that while you were working working okay so and what did you get your degree in public administration so they gone first I’d gone to triy um and received my two-year degree and then went on to a four-year degree at uh Capital University and okay got that in public administration yeah capital is down there in Columbus right okay so then how long was you in that before you start what was your descent how did you um
00:08:35 sort of climb up the ladder from well so at 25 going back in time here was a deputy US Marshall did that for five years finished my degree uh the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco firearms and explosives came along and offered me a position in Cleveland and I went with them and did that for 11 years um during that time you know I worked violent crime and carjackings in Cleveland we had the you know back in the day we had the first put together the First Federal carjacking case ever in early 90s when they made that a federal crime um you know it’s crazy we are that old that we can
00:09:14 remember the very first I remember when that started happening people was like man people are carjacking people just like snatching them out their cars and stoping I remember when all of that started coming out and now it’s like an everyday occurrence unfortunately right back in those days just was kind of coming out and is basically back then they called it armed robbery um you know with a gun but when you have a gun and you rob a somebody at a car it’s actually a federal crime really as long as you show Interstate Nexus so back in those days I think it was 94
00:09:47 we had the first had the First Federal carjacking case the individual here um in Cleveland his name was Ellis McKenry um he robbed three people put a gun to their head uh stole their vehicles and then we charged them federally because when you use a gun commit a violent crime and you show Interstate Nexus where a car is manufactured outside of the state of Ohio so that’s Interstate Nexus then it becomes a federal crime and you’re looking at manatory time in his case it was 52 years really for carjacking for yeah for carjacking so so how often do y’all prosecute federally for those well
00:10:25 now things have changed over the years it’s it’s uh and again I’m out of that realm you know we handle missing children fugitives um violent crime in other agencies such as ATF we’ll handle those Federal carjacking cases so I don’t have that’d be something for your us attorney I know Becky luto was in here that’d be a question to ask her how many of those are prosecuted now so that’s what we did at ATF I also worked explosive cases had a very big case here in Cleveland I went was International it was on an individual in 1996 from those that can remember in Bedford Ohio
00:11:00 there was a storage unit there and we had found 200 pounds of explosives and automatic firearms that were stored there for nearly 20 years under fictitious names and then what we able to do during the fiveyear course of that investigation is tie that to an Armenian terrorist organization that headquartered were headquartered right here in Cleveland and use those bombs to block Turkish facilities across the country including in New York Los Angeles and the Boston area wow so we when when I arrested that individual that was in 2001 I believe it was became international
00:11:40 news because he’s a prominent person who was actually a vice president at triy University the Armenians and the Turks you know the history 1915 to this day the um the Turkish government doesn’t recognize the Armenian Genocide since 19 195 so their whole process during the 1970s they were the most clandestin terrorist organization in the country their focus was to bomb Turkish facilities and bring attention to the Armenian Genocide wow and you were part of that team or that was your case yeah it was my case we made the rest on that wow and so how long were you with the force before
00:12:22 you started you became I was on the streets if you go back before I became the US Marshal I was on the streets for 20 years so I work narcotics guns the terrorism cases the bombing cases and so on and that was all with the marshals it was ATF uh for 11 years the dep a deputy marshal for five and undercover archtics agent for four so how long the Marshall agency has been around longest uh oldest Federal agency in the nation created in 1789 when George Washington appointed appointed the first 13
00:12:55 US Marshals so ever since 1789 my position as US Marshall has been appointed by the president so take us through that process of where were you at and how did that go man you know hey now I’m about to be the guy and and and and so let me get this right when you become the Marshall you the only one in Ohio right you got the whole state right or is it broken up well my good friend Michael Black who’s US Marshal in Southern Ohio he begged to differ we joke about that all the time in some states it’s by Judicial District so there’s one Marshall for Nevada there’s one for Arizon
00:13:30 there’s two in Ohio North and South so I have 40 counties for Northern Ohio Michael Black has 48 counties who’s just appointed by President Biden okay uh he has a 48 counties of Southern Ohio he’s a great great guy former Ohio State Trooper um so 94 Marshals in the country depends on the area um Michigan I believe has two Marshals um and again Texas has a number of US Marshals depends on the territory again Arizona Nevada have one US Marshal and so on oh okay all right cuz I thought I was like man that’s a big territory if you got the whole state you know and figuring all
00:14:08 the stuff that’s going on I figured you probably had somebody but we never hear about that guy only person we hear about is you he no he’s he just started about a year ago you’re gonna he’s he’s you’re gonna hear more out of him he’s a great great guy so what’s the process like when you get the nod that hey you know you’re going to go is it a group of people or you yeah well you have to get recommended by the US cers and appointed by the president of the United States and you know my father um you know I’ll tell the story real quick is is my father a tried for the position of US
00:14:38 Marshall number of times in the 70s and 80s he is the most qualified person he never received the possession position never could get it I think it was about uh 2000 right before that I decided that hey why don’t I put in for that position I got 20 years in law enforcement but as I was told by others I was basically laughed at told people like me don’t give these type of positions so uh the best thing you can ever do to me is laugh right wow so I remember going through the process um and I didn’t know anybody politically um ended up in the process and I really wanted to get appointed
00:15:19 because my father always wanted the position my father was in a Cleveland Police bag by ban always wanted to be standing there with me when I took my oath um and I went through the process which is like a year and a half recommendation process and they chose somebody else for the position so left me kind of crushed and 911 happened the individual was supposed to get this position uh withdrew his name so that gave me another shot at it least I thought back then so back then um they literally selected another person for the position so as I like to see today on the last
00:16:00 man standing so there’s only two of us uh you know my my good friend in Alabama is a longest serving US Marshall I think in the history of our nation right now he’s got a little bit longer than I and I’m second in the country there’s only two of us left from the bush days okay um so end of the day it’s been an honor the best thing I was able to do is once I did get the nod and the the appointment I was able to take get my swearing in right here in the city of Cleveland and bring my father up on stage to take I was my oath with me excellent so he did get to do actually stand
00:16:37 with abely and you got that done that’s excellent come to my office I’ll share a great picture of my office of me and my dad together so let’s talk about what it takes to be a US Marshal if you wanted to join the force what one second and Latif can you turn my mic down just a little bit testing one two 3 four five six yeah you turned it down all right that sounds bad so my question what does it takes to be if you want to be a US Marshal what do you do to be a US Marshal so I have a great group of people across the district um I’ve been able to hire
00:17:11 over the last 21 years as a marshall a lot of quality quality people I have a little bit of everything I have a former US Navy SEAL um who was a police officer I just hired three police police officers a border patrol officer um I’ve hired a number of my interns over the years so about 75% of my office right now probably close to our former interns of me of mine um I’ve you know females very honored and proud that the you know two US Marshals that are in my position one’s getting appointed right now by President Biden Randa Holloway that used to run my great program
00:17:50 in Cleveland back in 2003 she’s gonna be the new US Marshall for Alabama and middle Mobile Alabama and Kathy Jones was the first female US Marshal ever in the state of Ohio in Columbus and she came from my my office and she left probably about 24 I think so I have a I I have you know you need to be I like police officers I like people with college degrees and these are I like personal people these are the deputies we talking these are deputies right and uh you know at the end of the day you
00:18:23 know all my people that are going to be able to deal with everything in life at any time and any situation everyone of these interns everybody that’s ever come to my office first thing I tell them is this I don’t care who you are I handle all the federal inmates anybody gets arrested Federal comes in our custody I don’t care if it’s a president of the United States don’t care if it’s an inmate doesn’t care if it’s a cleaning lady like my mother was for 50 years at a church you treat everybody with courtesy and respect not only inside this office but outside this this office
00:18:53 and what I mean on the streets and internally in my office you treat everybody with cour and respect no matter who they are in life and I’ve had Governors and all the Senators and everybody come through my office doesn’t to to me it makes no difference that if you’re cleaning the office or in a high level position I want everybody treated the same how me a pin behind you in that box thank you sir so let me ask you um how many officers in Europe how many deputies work in Europe well so it’s broken down tear I’ve got Cleveland AC and Youngstown too then I have a
00:19:29 task force that is in all those cities along with Mansfield Canton Lorraine lake giag asula and a cold Cas unit so my regular staff probably is about with contractors maybe about 60 if even that and then I have 350 men and women that are part of my fugitive task force across the district we’re one of the only agencies um we have the broadest jurisdiction of any federal agency so right now any any we have the broadest jur jurisdiction so I swear in all the members of our fugitive task force Cleveland police officers once I swear them in we give them the federal powers of arrest which
00:20:08 means they can arrest for anything anywhere at any time within our country so their jurisdiction becomes National so I think I we just sworn a number of other Cleveland police officers so I may have about 20 Cleveland police officers right now part of my task force they were all out with us the other day when the policeman was killed um Jacob Durban and uh u in uid and we work that very hard um so I have about 350 men and women then my court security staff is about 120 retired officers that handle the court security of the building so when you walk in the building which have been the
00:20:44 federal courts before Federal Bill okay you’re going to see the men and women in Blue Jackets and and they’re our first tier of security wow wow so you got a pretty big department of people that you get there right do they go to academy like everyone else we have a we I have five five in the academy right now um three we just sent there five in the academy right now and it is a tough you know F Monon Academy plus you have to maintain physical standards not only in the academy but your entire career okay so that’s everybody underneath me that’s Civil Service um those
00:21:20 standards you got to maintain throughout your entire career if you don’t main those standards you know you’re out the door so we have a pretty you know pretty good group of people that are driven because they’re doing very dangerous work every single day can you work in the Marshall’s office and not be a deputy is there civilian opportunities yeah I have a number of contractors so we also handle asset forfiter so we sees boats houses cars you know few years back it was a 40 what the 43 um Diamond carrot ring something carrot ring it was something ridiculous and um
00:21:59 and we sold that for $2 and half million dollars I think it was back then so we seize those assets that money goes back to Crime Victims and their families so they we have a number of Civilian Personnel that work in those units along with you know different contractors that work in our office so so you can do multiple things there you don’t have to be a deputy if you want to come in you can do other stuff and and most of the other places had that same opportunities right the US attorney’s office FBI no different I know you spoke with them already yeah it’s no different I
00:22:30 think there’s civilian opportunities there for people so let’s get into uh when we talk about joining the force and being a part of your team and um bringing people on how how difficult is it when um when you picking out the um the cases so most of the stuff you do well let me let me back up I’m gonna back up before I get into that I was setting that up the question I want can you tell us what does the US Marshall handles and then we’ll get into to my all the other stuff all right so what what what’s in your office I I get an idea of what you do but for my millions and millions
00:23:05 of people watching what do the US Marshal do so what we do is this you know again I got a very dedicated staff across Northern Ohio uh we run the Northern Ohio valent fugitive task force so that was the first thing I did in 2003 I was appointed in March I created the task force in June of 2003 so those are the men and women out there every single day those 3 50 men and women that are out there making arrests on the most violent out there they’re the ones who are making homicide arrests anything high profile that’s happened the last 21 years might you know my people have been involved
00:23:41 in it um sexual predators um robbery suspects homicide you know violent crime our people are out there every single day making arrests on violent criminales not only in CLE Cleveland but in Toledo and akan across the district so that’s one of the things we handled is fugitive apprehension 2015 Congress gave us expanded um Powers relating to missing children so one of the things I did here we started a full-time missing child unit which my people are on right now um they’ve been on all the Amber Alerts they’ve been and everything that’s happening immediately because that’s what
00:24:17 I want them to do our good Sheriff here who’s a great partner uh Sheriff pel assigned a full-time Deputy to my task force to handle missing kids with us so we have full-time Deputy US Marshals and sheriffs and a Cleveland police officer that’s going to be joining working together every day on every case including the Kean Williams case which we’re just out on yesterday um the young man that one missing last June that’s the one with the mom that’s the one with the mom so missing children fugitive apprehension protection of federal judges I have a number of federal judges in Northern Ohio
00:24:57 with cour houses all there we protect the federal judges we protect the cour houses any threats that come in against those judges we handle okay and the increase has been astronomical just within the last 10 years it’s been like a 300% increase on the number of threats against federal judges really protection of the US attorney I know the US attorney letco was in here we handle threats against the US attorney and protection of them if there’s any situations that arise that’s another thing we handle asset forfeit talked about that season boats cars houses the
00:25:30 federal witness protection program which you’ve heard about through TV the Marshal US Marshal Service runs a federal witness protection program anybody gets arrested terrorism public corruption drug trafficking comes through us we handle the housing of those inmates um and then we handle you know the housing and the transportation those inmates uh we pay I think it’s I think I give Mahoning County where the majority of my inmates are the Youngstown area about $4 million a month to house inmates wow so it’s a yeah it’s expensive um but that’s our responsibility you know again uh
00:26:17 anybody because of our broad jurisdiction we swear in everybody on the joint terrorism task force locally we swear in them uh typically ATF task forces um and I’ve you know sworn in thousands over the last 21 years wow how many people you think you arrested I know that because we’re we’re closing in we just did our uh this June will be our 21st anniversary we’re closing in 60,000 arrests and your career you think what we’ve done as a task force within the last two decades is almost 60,000 wow that’s a lot of people man that’s a lot of people who’s your most memorable
00:26:58 one well I just uh you know the case that I just spoke about with another station was a good case for me to close because it’s a case my father worked in 1969 and it was a individual that lived in Lakewood a couple streets over from where we lived and he had robbed a bank stole from a bank in 1969 $215,000 um and was never seen again and and you know my father passed away in 2020 it was his lifelong case and about 2021 I think it was uh we get some right information right time went to the Boston area we’re able to close that case and bring closure after five decades there’s
00:27:41 another individual named hold on let go back how much money did he steal 215,000 another individual real quick his name was Bobby Thompson uh his real name is John Donald Cody he had built everybody out of in this area kog County across country out of $100 million wow he set up a fake Navy veterans association they’ve since written books I think they’re doing a movie on it he’s hundred million dollar and uh my people tracked him down um to Tampa to Oregon and we made the rest on him in Oregon he had 19 fake identities including while he was on the Run he was taking
00:28:21 pictures with him in the president of the United States what so uh yeah you do that donate lots of money and uh in fact the book is called they wrote individual wrote it out of uh out of Kentucky it’s called call me commander and it’s really it’s it’s interesting but 19 different identities including you know staying and living under his fake name when we arrested him he had a million dollars in a storage unit so and then you know we have all the cases that come up every day and and we’ve been on so many over the years from the Anthony soell case right over here to you know
00:29:03 people that murdered their entire families to you know case after case after case so and again it’s my people that are out there doing it and our Partnerships here locally and across Northern Ohio that make a difference so who have in your career and we gonna get to the serious stuff who’s your um who’s been on the run the longest you’ve been like I’m yeah one one we want and you can go to the US Marshals uh we site usmarshals.gov his name is Lester Eubanks he uh he raped and murdered a 9-year-old girl and he was out of Mansfield Ohio and he um after he raped and murdered her you know
00:29:44 he went back after he had shot her went back and beat her over of a brick she was nine years old wanted to be a nun her sister still alive lives in a mansfi area he went to death row back in the 7s early’ 70s the state of Ohio fured him for a day to go shopping in a shopping mall and he’s never been seen who hold on are you Kidd how in the world did he get a Furlow day Furlow for a day so he was never seen again so hey he’s number one on our list right now my list that’s a guy we I want to bring closure to that family it’s been a long long time right who granted him for who granted I
00:30:25 still ain’t got over that let him go to the mall you said shopping all by himself by himself yeah why he them off the door and let him go inside the authorities did yeah they prisoned it yes whoa I bet they changed those rules they changed those rules that was 1973 that is wild that that’s got to be about the wildest Story I Heard on this show you you bought one today that is wild and he’s still he’s still how old would this guy be right now you would think 81 I think um i’ have to look at his date of birth I think he’d be about 80 you think he’s still around I think he’s still
00:31:01 around I think we know where his family is um we think he’s still Al alive y’all still watching him and you gonna find him D we’re gonna we’re gonna get him y’all gonna get him I’m confident in that so let’s talk a little bit about what’s going on in Cleveland we got so many things to talk about as relates to that we I’m gonna start with the um the missing children and stuff that’s going on that seem to be a big one that’s happening here and it’s not just children it seem like uh lot of people is just being coming up missing and and and that kind of thing what’s your thoughts
00:31:33 about what’s going on as it relates to Cleveland well I I don’t think you know and i’ when you know Wayne drumman was a police chief we had conversations on this um and there was a certain point in time where I think certain people made it look at one person is too many to be missing but I think what’s going on in this city is no different than what’s going on any other city they’re not just coming out missing for the most part um we’ve have a lot of kids that we’ve been looking for from 13 to 18 that are usually abused neglected um abandoned or trafficked and they run from the you
00:32:15 know run from their places we’ve we’ve recovered the same kid sometimes three times so um and sometimes even more than that so you know we’re on that right away we’re on it with our partners here in Cleveland and the County sheriff and across Northern Ohio whether it’s Toledo or youngst or Mansfield or Lorraine um Iraq or you know we’re on it so I think there’s a number of cases here but I don’t think it’s any different that I don’t think people are getting snatched off the streets like it was made to believe a while ago um but again some of the you know unfortunately some of the
00:32:52 situations these kids are running to are better off than when they’re where they’re running from and that’s pretty bad right right um so you know we’ve seen a little bit of everything kids disappear run away from the East side the west side we have caught a number of people especially recently um and we other thing we enforce which I forgot to mention is sexual predators we have a full-time unit that does that we have caught a lot of 14 to 15 year old girls with 50s something guys um that you we take these kids and be in a hotel room with them somewhere we’ve had kids that
00:33:32 are lured I’ve had one kid that was from um the Lindhurst area the Mayfield area that was lured down the Mexican border when we recovered that child you know they were tied up on with chains um we’ve had a little bit of everything we just had the Amber Alerts C them recently um one where someone stole a car and you know the baby was in the backseat the car and they took off with the car we were able to recover the child and and arrest the person that did that so you know we the good thing is US attorney’s office has been great at at Prosecuting our cases on sexual predators
00:34:15 that take these young kids and we find them you know with very young kids and they’re Again full adults you know and it was messed up what you were saying was in some cases run into the situation is better than where they were coming from in every and and and what you’re saying I guess is in some of these young girls and even maybe guys that you know if they find an older person that’s taking care of them they might feel that’s better than the abuse that they’re facing at home and I’m not saying none of that’s right and that’s not what we’re saying we’re just saying that abuse is abuse
00:34:51 and you know is is truly messed up out here what’s going on what what about the young lady who’s been on the new with her son she’s been all over the place and I I I see her heart goes out to her cuz she’s she’s really pushing at heart I imagine your office is working with her well right you talking about Kean yes yes we are in fact we were just out on there again yesterday but my office along with the Cleveland Police Department of the sheriff’s are working that um we are doing a lot of searches
00:35:20 we’re on it uh with our partners in the Cleveland missing um they’re on it also so you know we’ll bring closure at one point we don’t have that closure as of right now today um you know we want those we have a lot of money to pay uh we I think we’re up to 22,500 if not a little more for any information that someone may have out there that knows what happened and we know for a fact that somebody in the community knows what happened and you can call our Mr child hotline at 1877 um 377 usms hold on one second hey Kennedy um he’s going to give you this number again I want you to
00:36:06 go ahead and put that in the tick or take so while we’re playing it can go across all right um give her a number real slow so she gonna write it down 1877 377 usms for US Marshall service excellent if you don’t mind going there make sure she got that number you KN you know it right the number you just said you guys got aan she got it okay okay cool all right we can keep going okay so yeah we’re working that um and uh yes so we are working that so you know when do a person call the US Marshall because and I understand because in essence I I figured out the Marshall is basically
00:36:47 the sheriff for the United States if we were to go in hierarchy we know we have our police chief here and we know we have our prosecutor and we have a sheriff and in this particular case it seemed like the Marshall is actually the sheriff for the United States is that fair to say yeah that’s fair to say it is kind of I guess you can equate that to being the sheriff of the United States in a lot of ways so when do I call the US Marshall be other than calling those other lines of things to get
00:37:16 up there to you well actually anytime so we have a tip line set up for fugitives we have tip line set up for missing children we preview a fusure of the week every week um of those that are the most wanted out there you know we work in Partnership and again I have 350 local officers assigned to our task force on top of our Deputy US Marshals so every day when something happens right in Cleveland or every day something happens in line or happens in Toledo or in Canton or Mansfield and so on we get those cases right away because we’re working on partnership with them for instance
00:37:53 this you know it’s been a bad couple weeks but with a police officer that was killed correct um you know we had our whole task force there within one hour uid has been a strong partner of ours for 21 years they may have been our first partner on our task force and have had an officer assigned for 21 years so as soon as that happened we were on it right away and um within an hour you know we were there um we handled the situation and we were we my men and women were able to track down that fugitive to Shaker Heights and so on so so Pete was going on in uid man I mean you that’s
00:38:30 your guy out there he on the TV seemed like once a week I mean I’m getting this point that I know him now it’s like that sherff I mean that Chief is constant is some what why you think what’s what’s the switch is more people that migrated out there why is uclid turning into this powder keg of everything yeah he Scot’s a really good guy Scott Meers a police chief out really I was really impressed by his leadership when this whole thing happened um so I I don’t have the answers to that you know you know I got my own theories on a lot of things that you know we can talk about
00:39:08 but I’ve seen a breakdown with a lot of things including the family environment over the period of time you know one of you can talk about it Pete well one you know one of the programs that I started right here in 2005 at Mount sin Baptist Church my good friend CJ Matthews who I just spoke to community Safe Surrender as fugitive Safe Surrender you know in that program we we started right there close to here on 75th in Woodland you know we gave PE people the ability to come and surrender and I remember me me and CJ and the prosecutor and a couple others at the
00:39:41 time we didn’t know if the program was going to work or not we had no idea people looked at me like you’re crazy this is never going to work but what happened during that 4- day period is we had 850 FES peacefully and voluntarily surrender and come through the doors of that church so including 300 that wondered for felonies we put judges in the churches we put prosecutors in there public defenders we brought in re-entry and job places I was part of um CJ’s team help you guys do that for years I remember that probably uh so you remember it again it was highly exess
00:40:16 you know successful it gave us another tool in our to toolbox to utilize since that day we took it all over the country went to Phoenix next went to New Mexico and Detroit uh my good friend Marsh fudge you know was a big supporter of it as the mayor of Warrenville then as US Congress and so on and so on and you know we we’ve had over 70,000 fugitives peacefully and voluntarily surrender I want to do that again here in Cleveland we’re gonna be doing it in some different areas across Northern Ohio but it gives us another tool in the toolbox and you know during that I found out that
00:40:51 you know look people don’t listen to people like me I get that I I but what we they do listen to people like the minister and the ministers in the community because that minister is there birth marriage and death and they’re often the most important person in that Community I’m big on utilizing ministers in the community and the clergy in the community I really do believe they make a difference uh you know past of mission has been a great you know partner of mine over few couple decades and you know we need to we need to again again CJ just called me yesterday
00:41:26 trying to figure out what else can we do how can we make things better I’m all for trying to do that right but it’s things are getting to me the violence against our profession within the last 10 years has got so much worse went to North Carolina got sent there when the four officers were killed including the deputy US Marshall you know saw the families saw everybody came right back here and then we had the UK police officer killed and two weeks before that one of my officers was stabbed in the neck and uh attacked and then two weeks before that n of my officers um you know they were
00:42:03 had a gun pulled on them so it’s just you know is it is it violence against the officer is it just the level of violence and people have gone to the point of their I think there’s a lack of respect I I think I I think there there’s increasingly becoming a lack lack of respect um and this is only my opinion that’s I’m just telling you the way it is but you know again we got to come up creatively with new kind of strategic opportunities and Partnerships and continue to do what we’re doing um but we need to come up with some different things too is it’s it’s it’s
00:42:42 like you say it’s a a respect thing also I think people and and it’s not just one person I I see enough videos it’s women it’s everybody it seemed like people are just and when we say the level of violence get there that’s one thing but like you say just the general respect and everything else is just not there for law enforcement anymore and I think that that is a reason why it elevates to the level of that type of thing it seems easier for people to shoot people now than it was back in our day right when you got argument argued f f right right no not anymore it’s just becoming
00:43:24 I I I I haven’t seen nobody fight I really have I heard seen people argue and after argument it gets so bad that you just hope nobody’s going to shoot anybody at the end of it but like you say where guys would like you know what come on we going outside and that don’t happen anymore or any of that and it’s just really bad so that’s a really a good analogy of what’s going on in our community right now and you know it’s it’s a thing that um you guys G to have to try to figure out y going to fix it because we we on the back end of we’re trying to figure out how to change it
00:44:02 but for the future man I I’m really kind of scared man I I don’t know what it’s going to look like man with just everything not just this man I don’t even have I should have B the numbers with me but the amount of people just within the last 10 years we’ve arrested for homicide alone right here in just the Cleveland area has been off the charts right off the charts and and one of the things that om Ali had came in and um that we are really working in the reason I’m doing this program is to try to bring light to some of the stuff we’re talking about a lot of
00:44:32 the homicides and Cur things that’s taking place are taking place in the African-American Community a lot of these crimes are crimes that we’re committing on ourselves and so with that that’s why you know this conversation is to be talked and Pete I’m a a I’m an open guy like that so I I’m not afraid to have those discussions and talk about those things but yes we have to do better in our community in order to change some of these things that’s going on right you know and for us in law enforcement you got to continue to think outside the box like f to Safe Surrender you know
00:45:04 the gang resistance education training program I brought here in 2003 and Miranda Holloway who is going to be the next US Marshall in Mobile Alabama was ran the program for me but what we did with Miranda is we partnered the churches together with the schools and diverse don’t worry about that we partner okay we good we partnered diverse districts together like Chagrin Falls and Cleveland and Parma and Warrenville Heights and then we brought all those kids together and then partnered with the the um the Cleveland Center for Arts partnered with this and partnered with the
00:45:39 Cavaliers the Browns the Indians had celebrities come in and talk to the kids had them go out to shagrin Shin go out to East Cleveland partner everybody together and work together and it was a phenomenal program and Miranda was so good at it we put her in the schools for a 13we per period and just had her be the the face of law enforcement which is non-combative correct combative and to this day she just told me recently not that long ago she still has kids calling her from 20 years ago that are still her friends because they trust her we got to
00:46:15 continue to do things like that you know with the school systems um have a different approach again try to partner together with as many different things as you can put together give kids hope because really a lot of this is let’s call it what it is I mean there’s a lot of kids that don’t have a lot of hope there’s a lot of kids that have you know never been outside of Cleveland before that’s correct oh there kids who haven’t even lived on part of town who never been to the lake so there’s a lot you know there’s different views from different places in life and you know again
00:46:51 I think you know we in law enforcement you know again I’m big on the churches big on the ministry you we got to continue to partner together with you know diverse groups to come up with programs are going to work and make sense well what happened Pete why why did they stop and and and are is is there any hopes of bringing some of those back yeah I’d love to bring back the great program different you know money over the years funding was cut on a couple different programs um yeah it just got it got CAU over over the years and kind of left us you know
00:47:28 kind of look I think we should try to fight Pete to try to bring back the U the fusure of Safe Surrender I I I like to help with that and see what we can do uh you know I was Marsha’s political director for 15 years I didn’t know that yeah so me and her I’m her political director I was talking to her this morning M of fact before I was gonna call her I was gonna that’s funny I’m gonna call her when I leave but she was a good friend so she was the first one of the first mayors that partnered along with the mayor Parma um with us in Warrenville I’ll tell you a great
00:48:01 thing so Marsh is the if you remember this Marsh is the mayor Frank B is a police chief correct who became our Sheriff probably still to this day one of the best five cops I’ve ever met in my life former Cleveland cop former Sheriff just a great guy um but I still remember this so they partnered with us in all those different things when Marsha and Frank started a Midnight basketball league yeah if you remember that they had no shootings W prior to that when they didn’t have that basketball league they were shooting it shooting a Warrenville Heights when they started that
00:48:33 Midnight basketball league there was no shootings W and I’ll still never forget that so Innovative thinking on their part you know strategic thinking um and that’s what I think you know makes a difference in life we got to continue to try to do different things this isn’t easy you know we’ve been around a long time these young men over there they they’re going to think things are going to be easier correct you know good saying in my in my office I use all the time success is going from failure to failure with great enthusias ex ex so I said that all the time especially on cold cases
00:49:11 man exactly remember those words exactly and you know that’s the story of my life I tell everybody I definitely learned more from my failures than my successes the same way man some of us have to crawling our hands and knes in first place all the time and even with your kids and stuff now I’m in my 50 I’m 56 and I’m getting there and everybody looked I’m like y we make it look easy now but trust me it was never easy getting there and everything so well I’d love to work with you on helping you to put that together maybe now that she’s back home we can possibly get her to
00:49:41 lend some um voice to this thing because I’m with you and that’s part of what we’re doing this show we got to do something and part of how we can make our community safer and those things is what we’re talking about so let’s run through some things because I do had some good questions I did take the time to ask what about operation 216 216 we’ve had a number of operations over the years 216 was kind of like operation clle so some of these W national awards but what we do it’s no different than what’s happening now is we bring everybody together from um from you know different facets
00:50:16 of law enforcement whether it’s state troopers uh local agencies and we partnered together and kind of saturate areas and is that program still in effect right now well every day we’re doing the S kind of the same thing but when we put these programs together we focus and we kind of Blitz things together if that makes sense so there’ll be a number of things we’re going to do this summer over the city of Cleveland that’s going to be same exact thing U you know operations CL Mike penic who now like safety uh director we put together operations CL which is the same thing bringing
00:50:54 everybody in together saturating areas bringing federal agencies at fdaa my agency together doing warrant tweets bringing the state troopers and when we do that we actually started that in 2003 uh with vgrip u in Youngstown Ohio and what I found out back then you know once we did that we saturated that area for we did two-month period we had they used to average 10 homicides when we did that program they had one homicide over that period of time so we know make a difference when we focus together and bring resources together the question is we need to have find a way to
00:51:34 sustain that every day my task force is out there arresting the most violent that’s across Northern Ohio when we focus and we do it in Cleveland and we focus here we focus in Lorraine and akan and so on but when you focus and saturate with those 350 men and women it makes a big difference and when they go away you want to keep it going so you got to keep it sustainable let me ask you then speak of that the the big thing in our neighborhood that these carjack and these stealing the Kia boys and all of that um is that like a thing where you say this task force would come in and you look
00:52:07 at an area like that gangs and that kind of thing yeah a little bit of everything so we will focus in areas it’s up really up to that local police chief or that sheriff in that area so if they’re having an issue with something they may call us in to handle that whether it’s you know a number of robberies happen in a certain section of town we could go saturate that area so we kind of listened to our local Partners on that to figure out strategically what we need to do and how we need to do it why also um one of the other things I definitely need to mention to you we talked a
00:52:38 little bit about it was human trafficking and sex Distortion and that kind of thing your office we have one of I had um Tia and tamama and um James um Woods on and their son died of sextortion crimes and things of that nature human trafficking though I know will be something how significant is that playing a role in our area up here well again there’s other agencies at hand we actually have a human trafficking task force that’s set up here in kyoga County we’re we’re hand in hand with it does
00:53:10 a really good job uh you know we’ll handle the missing kids leading in that human trafficking sometimes they’re tied together obviously right so sometimes we’ll we will have those cases um it’s going be no different than any other area across the state and across the country I think you know we have those cases they go hand in hand with what we do with the missing children I got another one for you Pete we legalized marijuana in Cleveland um and it’s still a federal crime correct yes how you deal with that I’m talking to my brothers and everybody out there who now think that oh it’s
00:53:50 legal and I can do that is still a federal crime people it is still a federal crime look at I don’t know if it’s being enforced or not being of course that is not something we would have handle you know good guy to have on or good people have on this would be the Drug Enforcement Administration DEA that handles that um you know they have a local boss here in Cleveland you can ask them that question so good question technology how does technology play a role in what you guys are doing now um well it plays a big role in it you know uh there’s nothing that we I tell kids all the time
00:54:25 you you think these pictures go away and a second they don’t um there’s nothing that you know at the end of the day we can’t Monitor and um and go and look at uh what about when it comes down and we talked about the public trust I think we’re good with that one how do you prioritize your cases Pete well by that local Department that brings them into us so you know what’s important in the rain it may not be important in akan that’s not important in Cleveland what may be important in County so it’s up to those local officers that bringing those cases to us basically prioritize
00:55:02 it by violent crime so the number of people we go after is usually for a very violent crime from homicides to rapes to robberies to those sexual predators I was talking about and so on when there’s a missing kid case that comes in we’re on it right away I want my people be on it right away so we prioritize it you know at the end of the day by those local departments bringing it to us and and P does mental health been playing a big well that’s a big thing that’s going on now in our community and still your task for us how you guys are dealing with that yeah great great
00:55:33 question because I just task my people with coming up with a plan you know a better plan to deal with people that are that have uh mental health issues right we have a full-time doctor psychiatrist as assigned to our task force which I think is pretty good we have Medics assigned to our task force to help out on that I want something a little bit more I a whole plan in place that you know on how we’re going to deal with the mentally ill when we approach them if they’re wanted on a warrant I’m
00:56:04 going to let you ask this last question into the camera and that is looking ahead what goals um do you have for the um Marshall service in the next five years what goal would you like to accomplish yeah I mean goalwise you know I going to continue to partner with people in the community come up with programs like future say surrender and and what we did with a great program come up with other ideas partner together with everybody and and hopefully make a difference look it we don’t want any violent crime anywhere period we want Safe Streets you know we’re going to continue
00:56:35 to work at at that um I want dedicated men and women that are GNA be committed 100% of the time I believe I have that in Northern Ohio and you know we’re going to continue to partner with everybody go after the missing very quickly and go after those that are wanted very quickly no matter where they run or where they hide so Pete these my last three questions for you these SE are my personal questions right if you could trade places with anybody for a day to do whatever you wanted to do who would it be or if you could talk to anybody if I can trade places with anybody yeah come on CJ
00:57:10 Matthews he could be he could be on the Titanic it’ll be sinking and he’d be talking what a great ride it was CJ rever CJ Matthew I love that guy I told him yesterday I told him that told him I said CJ I go you could be on the Titanic and be sinking You’ be like this is the greatest ride of my life let me ask you another one then uh what is if you could let me get it right the question is what do you wish you could do better oh that’s a you know I want to do a lot of things better in my life I
00:57:44 want to be a better husband a better father I want to be a better boss I’m never ever satisfied with anything in life so you know I always move on to the next thing and it’s saying in our office we don’t arrest on anything we’ll go out and arrest the killer of Jacob Durban which we did which is very you know we found the killer of Jacob Durban and um and many others but we don’t rest on that we don’t jump for joy um give high fives it may feel good for a minute but we move on to the next one because there’s always gonna be a next one so a great question you know if I can
00:58:20 do something better probably be satisfied so I’m never satisfied it’s always gonna be continue to move and continue to do something better um what’s the best advice you ever got my father um you know back a long time ago never quit never ever quit no matter what continue to drive continue never quit what’s the best compliment anybody ever gave you best compliment um let’s see on that let’s best compliment best compliment best compliment someone told me a couple weeks ago I look like Nick Sabin you kind of do that you talk about kind of do but someone did tell me that Charlotte
00:59:14 like didn’t tell you you look just like Nick Sav what to you I said Nick Savin or some some kind of actor like a Robert daero or yeah there go oh so he Hollywood you should be in California yeah yeah look it I don’t accept compliments very easy at the end of the day and again we continue to move forward I’ve got great people Nothing is about me at the end of the day it’s all about them I’m very very proud of them they just worked you know I have Annie Murphy who runs by task force that’s a mother of two young kids that spent her whole Mother’s Day she was up 24 hours to try to
00:59:50 catch the killer of Jacob Durban and you know I’m just very proud of them and and proud of all the people that work for me and the work that they do they’re committed I love watching young people grow I love to be able to hire young people um from all different facets that just merge together and I’m really proud that there are family and they treat everything like a family with each other which I really like what’s the worst advice somebody ever gave worst advice um yeah remember this is nothing but a job I think that’s you know this is nothing but a job and that’s look you’re
01:00:32 called to this profession um I’m I believe in God you know I pray every day and every night um don’t mind sharing that with you um you know the worst advice is is again that treating this like you weren’t called to do it we’re all called to do different things in life and we got to carry that out um you know you’re put here for a purpose you know at the end of the day and it’s not about you it’s going to be about somebody else and you know try to do something good for somebody else every single day that’s not going to expect it if you can do that one little thing that make a big
01:01:12 difference that makes a big difference in life and the other thing is I think you have all the you know people that want this and want that the greatest key to happiness in my opinion is being grateful for what you have you have to have gratitude every day whether was my mom clean a church for 50 years you know she was happy every single day I’ve seen so many people I know so many people from all different things they they think they’re this because of their title they think they’re that you know they want more they want to be higher they want this they’re never happy yeah
01:01:46 they’re never happy and it’s not so much about you know them serving others sometimes it’s about them serving themselves right that’s correct so you know we’re called I think called to this profession for a reason and a purpose and I think we should be here in law enforcement to help other people every day what’s your guilty pleasure what you do with nobody what you like to do Peete ride my bike I’m gonna do that tonight the only thing I do you know my age I’ve got a few years on you but I’ve got I’ve got you know a bike and I love R riding in the summertime how long you what’s your
01:02:22 distance where you go I’m not that good I’m 45 if I’m lucky to an hour oh okay well you’re getting that in yeah if I’m able to make it but I get the tougher it is but it’s like I I love to ex I gotta work out every single day and uh I love riding my bike that’s what I like doing and my last one for you P what never ceas to make you smile when you think about it have a hard day and this like this damn job or this case you come home or you sit down in your chair what makes you smile man oh good question probably nothing everybody accuses me all the time of not smiling so no that daughter
01:02:55 definitely you smile than shebly thought she was like he he’s like he’s gonna be really like that’s what what makes me smile what makes you give you that good feeling what makes you know I’m having a bad day and you could think about this experience or something yeah by the reaction of others so especially with my employees when I tell them something good like they’re getting a promotion or they’re getting a raise or I’m bringing them here I’ve had so many people that have wanted to come back here for years and I’ve been able to bring them back to be with
01:03:23 their families wow that makes me happy when I see Mom that’s so happy I’ve got a young kid I’m bring back and he’ll be back with us next month or July he had to go to Arizona and worked there for three years but when I got to call him and tell him you know the good news I could hear his father in the background okay okay young kid another young kids same thing um you know they’re they’re this is a family environment so you know it’s about F family at the other end of the day so what makes me smile
01:03:51 is our happiness happiness DJ you got anything before we let him out of here yeah I got I got two questions um question number one if you have multiple agencies on a a a scene of a crime or you know investigating some something who who’s the leader who who takes control of that um that scene or that crime well good question because I’ve been there before in those cases uh sometimes it’s the first one who has the evidence you know at the end of the day such as in that case in Bedford as time
01:04:26 anybody with all the explosives in 96 sometimes that’s the case ultimately look the power and law in the federal system we should be I don’t care what agency you’re with we should be there as a support mechanism for local law enforcement your most powerful law enforcement officers at local policemen I don’t care if it’s in Orange Ohio or Pepper Pike or claven Ohio they’re the ones that are the most powerful Law Enforcement Officers out there sometimes it gets very chaotic when you got a number of different agencies that are coming together as one
01:05:02 um but you know here in Northern Ohio I think overall we work pretty well with each other um and there’s for the most part sometimes there’s territorial disputes but sometimes you know at the end of the day um you know who recovers the explosives has a case first but often you know it’s about those Partnerships too with those local officers and who that Department’s going to rely on um and so on so we never go in an area and take over a case without it coming to us first being referred by the local Department okay uh and my second question is since you guys had
01:05:43 handled the witness protection program is has there ever been a case where you had to turn somebody away like we don’t have any room for witness protection like is have you ever been like hey I knew you look familiar you were in the program weren’t you I got out so I actually we’re full yeah we’re full no nothing like that so say sorry we’re full we’re sorry we’re full you can’t so uh you know over the years I worked the Gotti trails in the 90s in New York City I worked those Mafia trials and witness protection um so I I know a little about the witness protection program the
01:06:23 number of people were able to hide out from the Cleveland area other places and so on you know we never have lost anybody in the witness protection program when they they’ve adhered to the rules of the program over all these years no matter what you’ve heard but what has happened is this they don’t adhere to the rules of the program because they can’t talk their sister their mother their brother their mom their dad their grandmother Aunt Uncle all contacts gone whole new identity they can’t do that and then they leave the program and that’s when issues happen
01:06:56 so witness protection y’all really do that you I thought that was TV y’all really can give a person a you know a whole new identity and everything is I’m gonna call you CJ Matthews right I’m like here call me Reverend Matthews re Matthews I didn’t know that yeah so we do it we get a full-time unit that does it it’s very secretive wow obviously they do a very good job um at the end of the day but yeah that’s that’s my f father ran my father ran that program during the the Danny Green days M um and all those he’s the one that the mob days um you know yeah so my father ran they keep
01:07:35 him in the United States yeah yeah and you could you leave the country if you wanted to though don’t know that part so that’s classified all right so you know what I I really want to thank you for coming on the program man I think you did an excellent job I want everybody to understand this that you know I’m just been podcasting for the last couple years in doing so and trying to pull this thing together and I ask some pretty influential folks in the law enforcement to come on our program and they without hesitation did it so part of this thing we talk about community and
01:08:10 trying to have uh dialogue with folks I say that to all the organizations and other folks that are out there that’s in that and in the activism world that maybe you ought to take that note to do that talk to some of the folks that are out here in these communities that’s doing atas try to build a better relationship with some of the folks we got there get some understanding and figure out how we can collaborate on it I know that our community is a community that is a law- Abiding and a uh what we would call uh uh we really want Justice and and a safe community and in order to do so we
01:08:47 have to work with the folks in our community to do that so I don’t want y’all to think oh ken is done became a snitch oh ken is done working with the oh ken is bringing no Ken is trying to bring some understanding for you guys to do better because I’m not trying to get robbed and I’m tired of seeing what’s going on in our community so again I want you guys to take this opportunity to look at these specials we did I appreciate you coming on our program and my daughter called you like I said out of the blue and you answered our call man and not just you but everybody else we ask
01:09:20 to do so so I know the doors are open for that so we’re going to end our program like we normally do and I’m gonna give you this camera just one last time to just tell the people what you would like to do make sure you let them know where they can contact your office at that’s important and also if there’s anything you feel that our community should do or could do to help bring things or breach or or build a better relationship can at the end of the day just be there for each other look at this is a team effort the end of the day um no tip is too small if there’s something that
01:09:52 doesn’t feel right out there make the call you know the local law enforcement order my office we handled you know the fugitives that are wanted our hotlines 18664 wanted 1866 the number four wanted we have a missing child unit that’s full-time with our sheriff and our police officer uh police department here in Cleveland we have a number of missing child cases you know we have lot of money out there to pay for information you know that hotline is 1877 377 usms for US Marshall service continue to you know to um continue to make calls give us tips you know let’s figure this whole
01:10:33 thing out together hey that is US Marshall Pete his name is US Marshall Peter is your real name correct Peter Elliot and he is our US Marshal and like I said in the beginning he’s a guy you may not want knocking on your door but depending on what it is you really might want him knocking on your door because he got some resolve for you so US Marshall Pete thank you for coming to our program and we will see y’all the next show [Music]