Retired Toronto & Peel Regional Police officer Scott Mills

[00:00:18] Speaker A: Hi there. Before we get started, a quick word from our sponsor, Vox Mental Health. Vox means voice and we believe something should shifts when you're safe enough to find yours. Based in Barrie and serving all of Ontario, Vox Mental Health offers trauma informed psychotherapy for individuals, couples and families. Whether you're unpacking old narratives, navigating relationships, or working toward clarity and change, we're here to support your growth, your agency and your voice. Learn more @vox mental health.com well, welcome to Awareness Fostering a more compassionate, empathetic and accepting society. Yours truly, Rob Daniels here from a brand new studio here today, which I really hope you like. If you're watching on YouTube, it's a gorgeous studio. So Awareness with Rob Daniels and thank you so much for being here wherever you get your podcasts, really appreciate that. So don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and, and I really thank you so much for being along here. As we continue to break the stigma when it comes to mental health and breaking down barriers. We'll continue the conversation, open conversations about mental health and more here on this platform. So appreciate you being here. So I'd like to introduce you to my next guest here. This is episode number 23 of Awareness and none other than Scott Mills. Thank you so much for being here, Scott. Appreciate it. [00:01:54] Speaker B: Well, thanks for the invitation, Rob. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll have a handshake. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, it's all good. Scott Mills is here and he's. Well, he's a former police officer and I'd like to actually just quickly read to you exactly. Just so I don't mess this up, okay. Just, you know, his exact titles. So he is a retired Toronto and Peel Regional Police Officer, Scott Mills, and he's here to join the podcast to reflect on his 30 years of service. And we're gonna be doing so. Through this open conversation, he'll share stories from the job, including the challenges, the proud moments and the lessons learned along the way. It's gonna be certainly a candid look at what it really means to protect and serve and the lasting impact a policing career can have both on the community and on the officer behind the badge. So let's get right into it today with Scott Mills. And first and foremost, I'd like to sort of open the floor to you, give you the floor to let the audience know what first inspired you to become a police officer and why you exactly chose to serve in both Toronto and Peel. [00:03:17] Speaker B: Well, I think anybody that wants to become a police officer generally does. It because they want to help people. And that's a noble undertaking as far as I'm concerned. My mother kept artwork when I was in kindergarten of saying, I'm a policeman, this is my car. So it's something I always wanted to. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Do ever since you were a kid, like we're talking, geez, kindergarten. And then that became your calling. [00:03:45] Speaker B: It did. I initially wanted to be a Mountie with the rcmp and I didn't fit the criteria for hiring at that time for them. So the only thing I could do to improve was to get a university degree and become bilingual. So that's what I worked on for the next four years. And I ended up meeting a recruiting officer at Carleton University during. During a blitz they were having for Peel Regional Police. Sergeant Lonnie Blackett was his name. [00:04:20] Speaker A: Shout out. [00:04:20] Speaker B: There you go. Great guy. Ended up working on the street with him actually. And he. I ended up getting hired fairly quickly with the Peel Regional Police that polices Mississauga and Brampton and the Pearson Airport. So I spent 12 years there and I decided I was wanting a little bit more in my career and ended up transferring to Toronto Police. And then I worked downtown in number 14 division. And if people don't know policing in Toronto, whatever, it's the most densely populated, most multicultural policing division there is in Canada, I would imagine. And it's quite busy, quite an eye. [00:05:08] Speaker A: Opener, a lot of action, no dull days, no dull moment. [00:05:12] Speaker B: Exactly. So that's basically the long answer to your short question there, Rob. [00:05:17] Speaker A: No, that's okay. And like, I would imagine that was a big part of your decision to go to Toronto is to just have that, like, every day is a different story kind of thing when you're working that you there. Is that never a dull moment? I mean, in policing in general, there must be not many dull moments, but especially in Toronto. [00:05:35] Speaker B: Well, a lot, A lot of Peel police officers, it's not really common to go to Toronto. If you're going to leave kind of a GTA type police service, you usually go to the OPP or something in a smaller kind of place. And it was a great move for me because I was able to see a whole different side of. Of policing. And Toronto's a very large police service, so the opportunities there are endless. And I was fortunate to. A lot of opportunities. [00:06:07] Speaker C: Right. [00:06:08] Speaker B: And you know, ended up in a different working environment than in pl, but still the same. There's a lot of great things about being a PL Regional Police officer too. [00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Can you walk us through maybe a Little bit about your first days on the job. If you can remember 30 years ago, type of, type of thing. What stands out, like, when you look back, Any, like, moments that were like, wow, this is something you're gonna remember for a long time. At the beginning of starting out, I. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Distinctly remember doing a high risk takedown with my coach officer of some armed robbery suspects. They'd just done a bank robbery and taken them down at gunpoint here, Ontario street in Mississauga. And that was like within your first week. That was very quickly into it. So, yeah, you definitely open up your eyes pretty quickly as to how things can go from a quiet moment sitting in your police vehicle to pointing a gun at suspects that you believe are armed and trying to arrest them in a high risk takedown situation. [00:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. [00:07:28] Speaker C: Wow. [00:07:28] Speaker A: I can't imagine the adrenaline rush in your first little while with that happening. And that's what I kind of want to, you know, sort of crack the eggshell, so to speak, here. Like, instead of not just what makes the news in terms of stories in policing, but like, what didn't in your career make the news that should have made the news that you think wholeheartedly that we can bring into awareness today. That's sort of like also the purpose of this episode. So you've over 30 years, you must have experienced these wide range of situations. So a particular moment that has stayed with you, either a proud achievement or a difficult call. Can you recall one of those? [00:08:15] Speaker B: One that comes to mind is there is an escaped parolee walking down Dundas street one Sunday morning when I started my day shift and he was pushing a baby carriage. [00:08:27] Speaker C: Wow. [00:08:28] Speaker B: With a little baby in it. And he was kind of throwing the carriage all over the place. And just like, what is going on? I didn't know he was a parolee. And he was wanted at the time. [00:08:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:08:39] Speaker B: For breaching his parole. And that he'd been involved in quite a lot of high end criminal activity. I was just concerned about this little baby. [00:08:48] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. [00:08:49] Speaker B: And when I approached, he ran, put a knife to the baby's throat, said if I came any closer to him that he'd kill the baby. And yeah, that was a crazy moment for me. And he ended up running into a hotel and with the baby. And then I was by myself, so called for backup. And it was quite a scary scene. And we ended up. He came out of the hotel room with the knife to the baby's throat. [00:09:28] Speaker A: And. [00:09:30] Speaker B: I don't even know how we did this, but 12 of us just jumped Them just. And, and we managed to pull the baby out unharmed and wow. And take him into custody. But that was, you know, didn't see that on the news. Yeah, that was just a regular day type. [00:09:49] Speaker A: Just a regular day. [00:09:50] Speaker B: There's a lot of moments like that as police officer that you go through and you get quite introspective when you're not in the heat of the moment. You start thinking back of them and it's like, wow, what could have I done differently? And thank goodness that baby didn't die. [00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:10:11] Speaker B: That's just one that comes to mind as we're talking here, Rob. [00:10:14] Speaker A: And that needs to be brought into awareness because I mean, you can't get enough thank yous to you guys that serve and do what you do each day. And I can't even imagine that scenario. And you have to be so quick on your feet and thinking and for all of you to just be. Was there some sort of like a code that you guys had that were going to be that you were all going to make that same move, charge from or you just kind of know in those situations that's what you have to do. You've trained for those types of situations before. [00:10:48] Speaker B: Yeah. There's many officers with use of force options available. We didn't have tasers that time. We actually had six shot revolvers. [00:10:57] Speaker A: Wow. [00:10:58] Speaker B: So the chances of hitting a baby are pretty, pretty good. [00:11:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:03] Speaker B: And nobody wants to do that. And in my mind what I remember is one of our senior constables on our shift, we just all kept kind of converging on him and he just went, went for it and then we all piled in. So it was, it was just a free for all. There's no right answer when you're faced. [00:11:27] Speaker A: With a situation like that. Absolutely. So how do you like recover from something like that? You're, let's say on. Because you had 12 hour shifts. Right. Most of the time. [00:11:35] Speaker B: So in Peel at that time we had three different shifts. Day shift was 10, afternoon was 10 and nights were seven. And you actually did seven nights in a row. That's tough. [00:11:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:47] Speaker B: The shift work, I'm not gonna lie, that takes its toll on you and as you get older it takes more of a toll on you. [00:11:57] Speaker A: I mean like, so when you try and bounce back from a call like that, then let's say that happens like in your first couple hours of your shift. That situation with the baby, how do you just sort of get back into it when you get. Is it mind over matter that you were concentrating on each and every day. Or is it. Did you do some breathing exercises in between calls? How did you sort of recover from that in the moment when you have to get ready for another call? [00:12:25] Speaker B: Well, that's about. That's close to 30 years ago. [00:12:28] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:29] Speaker A: So it's hard to, you know, generally. [00:12:32] Speaker B: A police officer's pretty much expected to be stoic and not respond to a lot of that. The culture has shifted. There's a lot more support. People talk a lot more about stuff like that, debrief a lot more about that, but at the time you just go on to the next call. [00:12:50] Speaker A: Mine ever matter? [00:12:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:52] Speaker B: And some of it becomes part of your dreams. [00:12:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Vivid like. Yeah. Because it's hard to get over. I mean, you probably see these scenes vividly 30 years later. [00:13:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:01] Speaker A: The smell. [00:13:02] Speaker B: The smell is a big thing. [00:13:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:13:04] Speaker B: Like when you go into a situation where there's a deceased body and they've been there for a while and that. [00:13:11] Speaker A: Or even just being triggered, perhaps. Like when you're retired and you. And you end up on these same streets in Toronto and you're just like, oh, man, that situation happened on this corner. [00:13:24] Speaker B: That happens to me when I'm in Toronto. Her appeal. [00:13:28] Speaker A: And you're like, this happened here and that happened here. [00:13:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:13:32] Speaker B: It all comes back to you when you get in the geographical location. And yeah, the smell is the biggest thing for me. [00:13:39] Speaker C: Right. [00:13:40] Speaker B: Like stupid things, like being at a scene where they're, you know, digging for dead bodies and you smell the diesel of the generators because it's frozen ground and they're trying to thaw the ground. Right. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:53] Speaker B: Like things that you'd never expect come back to you. But smell is quite a. Quite a trigger for, you know, emotions and memories to come back for a lot of people, not just police officers, but. [00:14:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:09] Speaker A: So how did working exactly, like into different regions, Toronto and Peel, shape your perspective on policing and community needs? [00:14:21] Speaker B: Oh, that's a loaded question. It changes, it changes your life. It becomes your life, it becomes your working life. One of the big, biggest challenges is don't let it become your personal life as well. You need to keep friends, contact with friends outside of the policing world. You. To keep a balanced family, work, lifestyle, which is very difficult to do when, when you're going to work, when everybody else is coming home, especially on. You miss a lot of holidays, family time. So your perspective can get quake jaded. [00:14:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:58] Speaker B: If you let, if you let it. My advice to anybody going into policing today is, is to look after yourself, be proactive, get yourself a therapist Even though you may not feel you need it, proactively go out and find a good fit with a therapist that understands trauma protocols, because you are going to experience trauma and the earlier that you can attack it, try to deal with it and process it, the less it's going to kind of build up time after time, and the, the more chance you're going to have of having a stable home, work, life balance. Because as soon as you start going down the rabbit hole, it's. It's a tough hole to get out of. And I have gone down the rabbit hole, so I'm quite vocal about looking after yourself. That's the first and first and foremost on my mind for anybody going into policing. [00:16:04] Speaker A: Can you share an example of a time when community connections made a big difference in your work? [00:16:11] Speaker B: Oh, community connections became huge for me. I developed a passion for working with youth, especially gang involved youth or youth that are at risk of becoming involved in a gang. So I'm still in touch with a lot of these kids who are now adults. Yeah, I did, I did a lot of work with graffiti art. [00:16:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:34] Speaker B: And. And BMX bikes. And it was a welcome break from the grind of what we were doing, the work that we were doing. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:45] Speaker B: And it was refreshing and it kept. Kept a balance on me that, you know, kids are. Kids are good. [00:16:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:51] Speaker B: Not all kids are bad because we're. We're dealing with a lot of the bad a lot of times. Right. So some of these murals that we did, and I was just a guy behind the scenes, I was, I was a cop getting permission for them to do graffiti art. [00:17:05] Speaker C: Right. [00:17:05] Speaker B: You know, sometimes finding some funding to buy some spray paint for them. And like, cops just don't generally buy spray paint for kids. [00:17:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:17] Speaker B: So I chronicled it all in social media. [00:17:21] Speaker A: There's. [00:17:21] Speaker B: I've got lots and lots of videos on YouTube. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Oh, for sure, sure. Where. Where can the audience find that? Even myself. [00:17:28] Speaker B: If you just go on YouTube and you. You do a search for legal graffiti art, Toronto Police, Scott Mills, anything like that, you'll. It'll come up to. The videos are on about seven or eight different channels, but. [00:17:41] Speaker C: Nice. [00:17:42] Speaker B: A lot of those videos, they've got thousands and thousands of views. And that led to other kids that might be going down a wrong path. [00:17:53] Speaker C: Right. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Actually reaching out and engaging with the activities that we were providing. And that's amazing. Two of these guys, Bubs and Fade, their paint names. [00:18:11] Speaker A: Okay. [00:18:12] Speaker B: They actually painted a graffiti art piece for my wedding. [00:18:16] Speaker A: Really? [00:18:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:17] Speaker A: That's neat. Wow. Okay. [00:18:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:20] Speaker B: They got up and they did a speech in front of all our guests. [00:18:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:24] Speaker B: And they had this all displayed. It was all surprise to me. And they. Not a dry eye in the house. [00:18:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:32] Speaker A: So is there like some sort of, like, is there graffiti art that you do out there that you can spot that's legal and some. That's not legal? Like, how do you tell the difference there? [00:18:43] Speaker B: Well, it's hard to tell because if the property owner gives you permission to do whatever, it doesn't matter what it looks like. [00:18:49] Speaker A: Okay. [00:18:50] Speaker B: If you see a great looking mural and it's popping. [00:18:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:54] Speaker B: And you. You say, wow, that's amazing. [00:18:57] Speaker A: Like, you want to take a picture in front of it type of thing. [00:18:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:00] Speaker B: Like, a lot of what we were doing ended up becoming policy at the city of Toronto. [00:19:03] Speaker C: Okay. [00:19:04] Speaker B: And they call it the START Program. Street art program. [00:19:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:07] Speaker B: And so a lot of what we were doing without any policy or process involved was it was noticed and people saw the value in it and they incorporated opportunities to do a lot of this legal graffiti art. [00:19:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:24] Speaker B: And the BMX bikes, like the kids on the bmx, one of our. One of the kids that was always at our park ended up getting the world championship in bmx. [00:19:33] Speaker C: Wow. [00:19:33] Speaker B: So I'm still in touch with them. [00:19:34] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:19:35] Speaker B: Yeah. It's just absolutely phenomenal because we were able to reach a lot of kids as. As. As cops. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:46] Speaker B: That we never would have reached before. [00:19:48] Speaker C: Right. [00:19:48] Speaker B: And the friendships that developed over the years. Over the years. And I didn't even realize I was mentoring a lot of times, but we were mentoring. And that, for me, brought a lot of balance into kind of the stuff that we were seeing and dealing. Because I was involved in doing appeals through the Crime Stoppers program for. I tried to count it one day as over 50 homicides. [00:20:14] Speaker C: Wow. [00:20:14] Speaker B: And when you're dealing with families and, you know, kind of face to face, like we are now. [00:20:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:20] Speaker B: And like, you know, trying to find out what happened to their. Their loved child. [00:20:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:26] Speaker B: A lot of times it's hard. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:20:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:30] Speaker A: I mean, you're only human, so it's. It's understandable if you crack once in a while, like, I don't know how. Like, it's. It's difficult to be like you. That word that comes to mind. Stoic, like all the time on every case. So you're only human and you're forgiven. If anything, you know, if you did show emotion at times, what would you say are some of the toughest challenges, though, that you, that you face both on the job and personally, while you. [00:20:58] Speaker B: Were actually serving toughest challenges, was I hit rock bottom, ended up getting apprehended, ended up in a psych ward. [00:21:08] Speaker A: And that was just because mental health was derailing or just certain kind of. [00:21:12] Speaker B: The stress of the job, you know, the accumulation of the trauma, the work life balance kind of working too much. A lot of us as police officers have a tendency to be workaholics. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:21:27] Speaker B: And we don't have that balance. So, yeah, I found myself basically in handcuffs and in a, in a psych ward and locked up. [00:21:41] Speaker A: And how did you get out of that? [00:21:44] Speaker B: A lot of support. [00:21:46] Speaker A: Support? [00:21:46] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of support. And I don't know, I, I, I feel I want to share the whole story, but the biggest message that I want to share is that if you're a police officer and you find yourself in that situation, you've let it go too far. Well, there's no going back and it's not the end of the world. You can fight out of it and listen to the professionals and work hard at it. So for me, I, I just developed this mentality that I was useless now because that had happened to me. And despite going through intensive inpatient therapy and programs which I was fortunate to have access to, I still like felt the stigma that, what are everybody gonna think? Because I'm not that strong cop anymore, not that guy, I'm not the go to guy anymore. And what, how are people going to receive me and how am I going to move on with anything in my career? Like, I'm done. I got to tell you, in my experience, that was a myth and I had so much support. And that's good. When I came back, people like, so glad to see me. And then as I grew kind of end and the end of my career, like I was getting close to 30 years and potential to have a full pension. I developed a kind of a hip issue and I had some, some like I, I couldn't run anymore. Like, it was just, I was pretty much done. And I'm like, nobody's going to hire me like in a retirement job or anything like that. Sure enough, people were coming to me offering me jobs. [00:23:54] Speaker A: That's amazing. [00:23:55] Speaker B: I think you should retire. We want to use your skills and your expertise mostly in social media and communications, because that's where I developed an expertise. Basically celebrating all the good stuff with the kids on YouTube and channels like that over the years. But I ended up being the social media officer in corporate communications for Toronto Police. So we pioneered social media in law enforcement. [00:24:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:21] Speaker B: So even Chat. GBT says that today. [00:24:24] Speaker A: Well, congrats on that. [00:24:26] Speaker B: Pretty interesting. So. And. But my mindset, my personal mindset was that nobody's going to hire me. I'm a broken toy. [00:24:37] Speaker A: And I'm glad you were wrong about. [00:24:39] Speaker B: That because, you know, I have managed to land a job and in the law enforcement profession, which is wonderful as a retirement job. [00:24:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:50] Speaker B: And a lot of my experience comes in really handy. [00:24:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:54] Speaker B: Every single day. Because we're in my role. I'm dealing with members of police services that are facing similar challenges to what I did. And I'm now in a space due to a lot of support, a lot of therapy, a lot of counseling that I can actually tell somebody my story. I did it yesterday. [00:25:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:25:19] Speaker B: And they are locked up in a mental health institution at a hospital. Can't get out. And they say, okay, you did it. You got out of that. I can do it, too. And my career is not ruined as. No, your career is not ruined. [00:25:37] Speaker C: No. [00:25:38] Speaker B: Just stay positive. Listen to what the professionals are telling you. [00:25:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:42] Speaker B: And you can. You can bounce back and you can live a productive life and your career is not over. [00:25:47] Speaker C: Right. [00:25:48] Speaker B: So that'd be the biggest message. That's why I. When somebody like you reaches out and says you want to join a podcast and talk about your journey. [00:25:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:56] Speaker B: Do I really want to talk about it in a public forum? I'm not going to give you all the details, but I'll give you enough to give somebody else who might be in that situation some hope that you can come out the other side and. [00:26:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:10] Speaker B: And do well. Thrive. [00:26:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:12] Speaker A: That's good on you for doing that. The phrase to protect and serve is often used in policing. From your perspective, what does it truly mean? [00:26:24] Speaker B: Truly. Truly Protection. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Serve. [00:26:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:29] Speaker A: If you had to. [00:26:29] Speaker C: I know. [00:26:31] Speaker B: Truly protect and serve is just every single day treating whoever you're meeting on the job with respect. And that could be the biggest criminal ever out there. It's the little things. Your mannerisms. Please. Thank you. Respect. Everybody deserves respect, regardless of who you're dealing with. And treat that person as you would treat yourself. And that's truly serving and protecting and. [00:27:02] Speaker A: And you feel the role of a police officer in terms of the role of it. Has it changed from when you first started to when you retired? [00:27:14] Speaker B: I think it. It changed. Like, times change, procedures, policy changes, but in the end, you're still doing the same job. You're out there trying to, like you said, truly serve and protect. You know, I guess the bittiest, the biggest maybe change is video yeah. You know, a lot of police officers, not everybody in, in the province, but most police officers and more and more every day are wearing body worn cameras. So. And no matter what you do, if you get involved in an incident, there's, there's a phone, there's a camera, you're, you're basically in the spotlight. I think that's probably the biggest difference from when I started in 1990. [00:28:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:01] Speaker A: And probably just dashboard cam everywhere. Like that's what I see like you guys ask for now in, in traffic incidents. You guys are just using that more for evidence. [00:28:13] Speaker B: Yeah. The video evidence is just the, the volume of video evidence enhanced over the. [00:28:18] Speaker A: Years since when you started to now. [00:28:21] Speaker B: Oh, 100% like you, you actually need video evidence facilities and you need video evidence staff that's just focused on video evidence because videos evidence is obviously very powerful and needs to be collected properly analyzed properly and, and done in a timely way. The public demands, you know, the investigations to be, to be finished if, if you can finish them in a timely way because they want to feel safe. [00:28:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:52] Speaker A: So I imagine that's even a job you could have probably taken too if like because of when you had the hip injury that, if that was an opening, you could have probably stepped into that if you had interest, I guess. [00:29:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I do know of1,1 opp detachment that actually, you know, they had a number of members that, that were not able to do frontline duties for one reason or another. And they actually started up a unit like that at their detachment level and it gave the members, the officers a feeling like they were back in the game. [00:29:28] Speaker A: Right. [00:29:28] Speaker B: A sense of purpose, feeling good and they were actually helping their colleagues because you know, a lot of times getting that evidence, you know, you go off shift, you're sleeping when the person's available to give you that evidence. So they were able to kind of follow up on things like that. Like that. [00:29:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:43] Speaker B: Get the, get the video evidence. They made partnerships with the entire community. [00:29:49] Speaker C: Wow. [00:29:49] Speaker B: Like the, the town and things like that. So they had access to their cameras as well to be able to search for things. Because searching for things on cameras is, is a lot. You need to know the timestamp and it's very time consuming. So yeah, certainly that is a, it's a great opportunity for somebody that for. [00:30:07] Speaker A: Whatever reason, injuries, let's say physical, mental. [00:30:10] Speaker B: Injuries that just aren't in a position to be frontline, they can actually do things like that. That's a huge change from 1990 when I started. [00:30:21] Speaker A: That's good to hear and in terms of misconceptions, do you think the public often, like. In terms of, like, what misconceptions do you think the public often has about police officers and their work? [00:30:39] Speaker B: Well, traditionally, media, they're looking for a hook. Right. They're looking for something that's controversial, negative, and that often shines a bad light on policing. Yeah, there. There obviously is. In any career there. There are people that are not as ethical as others, and so that needs to be kept in check. So I think, for the most part, it is kept in check. And the fact that a lot of the bad thing goes out on the media waves everywhere, it kind of taints a lot of people's perception. But I think there's a silent majority out there, and I'd say it's over 80% that are very supportive of what the police do every day. They just don't go out and say it. So as a police officer yourself, when you hear all that negativity, it can get to you. [00:31:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:31:37] Speaker B: So I think you have to really keep perspective that there are 80% of the people plus out there that are supporting you and it's just not being heard. [00:31:47] Speaker C: Right. [00:31:48] Speaker A: This has always interest me to figure out whether or not. And if you can't answer this, I completely understand. But if you're, say, vacationing in Mexico and isn't the police in Mexico? I don't know. Sometimes it's just like if you give them a certain amount of money that they're looking for, they just let you go. If you were to go a little bit over the limit in terms of speeding, so if that happens to you, let's say, and you're in Mexico, is there some sort of hidden code that you guys have as police across the globe that if you were to flash your badge or just say, hey, I'm Toronto police from Canada, and you show something that they would let you go, does that. Can that happen? [00:32:32] Speaker B: Well, there's definitely a camaraderie amongst law enforcement worldwide. It all comes down to the individual situation. The bottom line, if you're a police officer and you've committed or alleged to have committed a criminal offense, you're probably going to get arrested. The rules aren't different for police, especially here in Canada. There's a lot of accountability out there. But, you know, carrying a badge is a privilege. [00:33:03] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:33:04] Speaker B: And most police officers, they acknowledge that it's a privilege and they're, you know, there is some professional courtesy that's given and that would, you know, as soon as you're on the Phone with somebody and you say you're a police officer, sometimes the tone of the conversation changes. You know, things like that. [00:33:32] Speaker A: What's an example of, say, a crooked cop? Like, people hear that term all the time. Or what is it that a crooked cop may be out for? What's the leverage to them being crooked? What's an example of someone being crooked? [00:33:49] Speaker B: I would say there's. There's a number of examples, unfortunately, but just greed. [00:33:57] Speaker A: Greed is most of it. [00:33:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:58] Speaker B: Agreed. [00:33:59] Speaker A: Comes down to the mighty dollar taking. [00:34:01] Speaker B: Advantage of your position. You just can't do that. [00:34:04] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I've heard of that in. [00:34:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:08] Speaker A: Like, countries like Mexico or wherever it is. And I mean, it's. Yeah, it's sad that that exists, but greed, I would. I would imagine, is for sure the number one reason now in terms of life after service, it is your retirement. How has retirement shifted your identity after three decades behind the badge? [00:34:30] Speaker B: Well, I've come to realize everybody sees me as a cop. [00:34:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that's just it. In the family, it's like, yeah, there's Scott the cop. [00:34:38] Speaker B: It doesn't matter where I go, what I do, I'm seen as a cop. So I've just embraced it. [00:34:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:43] Speaker B: A lot of times I. Especially when I was retiring, I'm like, oh, get away from this. You never get away from it. You've been a cop in law enforcement now for over 35 years. It's a part of you, whether you want it to be or not. And, you know, I am proud of my service. I'm proud of my colleagues, and I'm willing to help law enforcement out any way I can. [00:35:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:35:10] Speaker A: And looking back, what would you say you're most proud of your career? [00:35:17] Speaker B: I think I'm most proud of the work my colleagues have done. Oftentimes just tireless work that's not seen. I'm proud of all the work they've done. Personally, I'm really proud about the youth engagement. So stuff I'm really proud to be. Graffiti BMX cop. [00:35:40] Speaker C: That guy. [00:35:41] Speaker B: That guy, you know, who's that guy? What does graffiti BMX copy. That's my online name. [00:35:46] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:46] Speaker B: So I'm never giving up that because I think it says so much about. About what I tried to do and what needs to be done. [00:35:56] Speaker A: That's what I was going to. Probably what I was going to ask you next was what you hope your legacy is. And then you want to be known for that mostly. And, well, also. And protecting and serving and I would imagine. But let's say both in the communities you served, because this was Peel region and Toronto. And among your colleagues, what would you. What do you hope your legacy is beyond the. [00:36:18] Speaker B: The graffiti, bmx, social media, Internet. Law enforcement. [00:36:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:24] Speaker B: Using social media for good. [00:36:25] Speaker A: For good. [00:36:26] Speaker B: And, you know, we. We piloted a program in Toronto police for social media, Internet and law enforcement, where we empowered other officers to do kind of what myself and a few others were doing. [00:36:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:43] Speaker B: Which was being a cop online and. And doing. Just celebrating what you do every day online. [00:36:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:50] Speaker B: And. And creating that trust and transparency that ultimately results in information coming to your ears where you can actually save somebody's life. Life. [00:36:59] Speaker C: Right. [00:36:59] Speaker B: Many times. So if that's. If I go down in the chat, GBT bots as the social media Internet law enforcement guy, I'm happy with that. [00:37:10] Speaker A: That's good. You had mentioned earlier about how you would. If, you know, there's a police officer listening or someone thinking of getting into law enforcement, that you would recommend getting a good therapist ahead of time before, you know, throwing yourself into the profession. And I think that is truly important. And I'm just wondering if those are. Is that your stamp of advice fully, or is there anything else in last words you'd like to share with, let's say, new recruits entering policing today that you would give in terms of advice for new recruits? [00:37:52] Speaker B: Just work hard. [00:37:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Treat the public as. As your family and look after yourself. Yeah, that's the three. Three things. [00:38:04] Speaker A: And I would imagine the studying, though, to be. Is there a lot of. There's got to be a lot of written exams to become police, too. It's like the physical. There's physical tests and the, and the written exams. [00:38:15] Speaker C: Right. [00:38:16] Speaker B: There is, there's, There's a lot of written. There's a lot of. There's a lot of laws to know. You're enforcing the law, so you need to know the law. So there's definitely an academic portion. There's definitely a physical fitness portion. [00:38:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:28] Speaker B: It's really important to maintain your physical fitness. Eating well, proper diet, proper sleep. Sleep is so huge. It's really hard to do when you're on shift work. [00:38:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:41] Speaker A: You and I were talking before about Major League Baseball and all we have. Our passion is baseball we share together. But I know in the, in the clubhouses there, they take care of their major leaguers like there's no tomorrow. Like, you know, there's food spreads everywhere and they're all nutritious and healthy to make sure that the players are all following the regimented, regimented diet to play well, to be a good human. And do you think they do the same thing or did they do the same thing for you where there's spreads of food after a difficult call? I would hope so, because you guys deserve it. [00:39:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:14] Speaker B: Timbits and coffee. [00:39:15] Speaker A: What? No, Come on, we got to change that. Something we gotta work towards. Listen, Scott Mills, thank you so much for doing this today. I really, really appreciate your time and just your honesty and vulnerability. It shines through. And vulnerability is strength. So thank you. [00:39:32] Speaker B: Oh, thank you very much, Rob. Appreciate all that you do for the community. [00:39:36] Speaker A: Appreciate that, too. This has been awareness episode number 23, brought to you by Vox Mental Health. Yours truly, Rob Daniels here. And yeah, thank you so much. Wherever you get your podcasts for watching, for listening, for producer Mike. My name is Rob Daniels and we'll see you in the next episode.