Rod Grimes In-Studio with Mason & Starr
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00:00Hi, Detroit. Rod Grimes is here with us. So, Rod, you're a retired police officer. Is that right?
00:10That's correct. I'm retired.
00:11How many years? You're good. How many years?
00:15So, 46 years and counting, actually. I've retired from two police agencies and currently working part-time and a third.
00:24No kidding. All right. So, Detroit Public, Detroit, I always say that. Detroit Police Department was one agency.
00:34Did you go to the state or?
00:37No. After 25 years with Detroit Police Department, I went over to Detroit Public Schools Community District.
00:44That's where I get that from. That's where I get the DPS thing from. Cool. Well, man, welcome to the show.
00:49Yeah. But I know, Rod, because of the Corvette Club. He's the president.
00:53That's right.
00:54And they helped us out this past Halloween over at Mini Mart Meats. They had the Corvettes full of candy.
01:02And I just want to thank them again. Every time I think about that event and all the kids that came out and that we were able to give free candy to, I really, really smile. So, thank you.
01:12That was very powerful.
01:14Yeah, we had a great time with that. The kids just kept coming.
01:17Yeah.
01:17It was amazing.
01:18Yes, yes.
01:19Yes, yes.
01:20So, because I work in the NBA, when I watch a game that has nothing to do with the Pistons, I'm watching the game, but all the things that happen in a game that fans are not aware of are with me while I'm watching.
01:38So, it's hard to watch. I know when a timeout is coming. I don't want a coach to call a timeout. I know when the refs say it's a timeout. When you're watching the news and police incidents, obviously, are all over the news.
01:55Does all of your training and your work just come into play as you're watching the segment?
02:04Yeah, for me, anytime I hear an incident involving police, you know, my ears perk up and I try to pay attention to, you know, what's being reported.
02:13And, you know, I think back and, okay, what would I have done? How was it handled based on what's being reported?
02:24And just kind of.
02:25It's just natural. There's no other way for you to watch it. It cannot just come on and go off.
02:31Not at all.
02:32I would assume that. Rod Grimes is with us, who has written a book called The Blue in Me.
02:40This has to be a fascinating tale. This is a true story, is it not, Rod?
02:46That's correct. It's my memoirs, several of the memoirs over the first 25 years of my career, which was with Detroit Police Department.
02:55There will be a second and third book coming that covers my time at the Detroit Public Schools Community District Police Department.
03:06Wow. All right. So that if this is memorized, that means this is pretty, pretty deep stuff.
03:13One. Give me an example of one of the stories inside the book.
03:17Hmm. Oh, let's see. One that I've shared last week is actually an incident.
03:25It was my first, very first experience.
03:30Once I finished the academy and got assigned to my assignment, which was the 5th Precinct, Lower East Side,
03:38after roll call and then a meeting with our patrol inspector to get our orientation,
03:44he called for a car to come take us new officers out to walk our beat for the remainder of the day.
03:50Okay.
03:51So, officer, come pick us up. We get in the car.
03:55We're thinking, okay, he's going to drop us off at our beat. We'll walk the beat.
04:00In the car, five seconds, he hit the red and blue lights, siren, and we take off.
04:05I'm like, wow, all of this just to take us out to a beat?
04:10Up Jefferson, half a mile or so, hard right turn down a one-way street, the wrong way.
04:17What are we doing? Where are we going?
04:20Whip the car to the curb. He jumped out. He says, hey, come on, let's go.
04:25Okay.
04:26He said, this is a cut-in.
04:29I'm thinking, a cut-in?
04:31You know, we have codes for pretty much everything.
04:33So, I'm thinking, I paid attention in the academy.
04:36What's a cut-in?
04:38That didn't ring a bell.
04:39It didn't ring a bell. It didn't sound familiar.
04:41So, I'm like, well, I'm going to act like I know what the heck's going on.
04:44Oh, my gosh.
04:45So, us four rookies, we jump out of the car, and we walk up porch of this house, and we go inside.
04:52And on the living room couch, there's a guy laying there bleeding from the chest area.
04:59And I'm thinking, oh, he was saying this is a cutting.
05:06Right.
05:06Okay, it's a cutting.
05:08So, we go in, and we're talking, and he's taking the lead, and he's trying to figure out what happened.
05:13So, he's interviewing the victim.
05:16And he says, so, what happened here?
05:17And the victim says, my lifetime friend of 30 years did this to me.
05:27Wow.
05:28Well, why would he do that?
05:29You know, what happened? Why did he do that?
05:30We were arguing over who was the rightful owner of a bamboo fishing rod, and he cut him 14 inches or so down his chest into his belly.
05:45Oh, my gosh.
05:46And at that point, I thought, very first call, I'm telling you, very first call, nothing I see or hear in my career will shock or amaze me.
06:01Yeah.
06:01Because that was just an eye-opener.
06:05That is an amazing story.
06:07Wow.
06:08Mm-hmm.
06:09A friend of over 30 years over a fishing rod.
06:14Yes.
06:16Boy, oh, boy.
06:18And the stories and the – so is – no, go ahead.
06:23Well, you know, I was –
06:24Because I can ask him a million questions.
06:26Yeah.
06:26I was looking at the book.
06:28It seems that your mom, when you made the announcement that you were going into serving the public as a police officer, she grabbed your hand and was kind of concerned, saying that's a dangerous job.
06:41Can you speak to that?
06:43Absolutely.
06:43So as a young man, I had an aspiration to play a professional sport, baseball, you know, and then through the years, you know, growing up, most people thought, yep, Rod's going to play professional baseball.
07:01I also had this love for numbers.
07:04So once I graduated high school, I started my secondary in accounting.
07:10So those are two things that I always had a passion for, playing baseball and numbers.
07:18Wow.
07:19But there was a third, and this came from way back as a very young kid, being a police officer.
07:27And what inspired that part for me was there were two people that was kind of dear to me in my life as a young kid that were tragically killed.
07:38And I always thought, what can I do to make a difference, to stop this kind of activity?
07:46So that was always a part of what I might want to do with my life.
07:50But when I shared with my mother that I wanted to become a police officer, you know, it really, it touched her.
07:59It scared her.
08:00Obviously, her youngest want to go off and take on this type of a career.
08:07But one thing my mother has always instilled in all of us, all of her kids is follow your heart, follow your dream.
08:20And whatever that dream is, be the best that you can be at it.
08:27So she would not stand in the way of me following that dream.
08:31Right.
08:32But she always encouraged me to be the best I could be in that career.
08:36Yeah, I would imagine that's like sending a son off to war.
08:42And when it's the baby, that's even tougher.
08:46That's a tough call.
08:49We're speaking with Rod Grimes, The Blue and Me, a pretty deeply detailed account of being a police officer.
09:00And we don't do, there aren't any names, but you speak of partners and some of their emotional breakdown in the book.
09:10I know in the book, there's a simple traffic stop and an officer doesn't treat the person who was stopped very nicely, asking about registration and license and stuff like that.
09:25A lot of these stories go deeper than just a natural stop.
09:30Yes.
09:30Yeah.
09:30For sure.
09:31Some of these incidents, the officer knows the person.
09:35For sure.
09:37Yeah.
09:38That's a crazy thing.
09:40I never think about that, that they might know the person they stopped.
09:46So what made you want to write this book?
09:49So here's the thing about the book.
09:51I never in my 40 plus years of police service thought of writing a book, even though the career was truly amazing.
10:00And I got to go places to see people, meet people that most people will not ever have the opportunity to.
10:06And I'll share those.
10:07I get deeper into some of my writings.
10:11But what inspiration was my granddaughter.
10:16My 15-year-old granddaughter at the time was 12 when I started writing.
10:22I was thinking about her one day and I was like, I want to leave her something that she can know what her granddad did with his life.
10:31And she can have that for years and years.
10:35So I decided I'm going to tell my story of what I did to try to make a difference in our community.
10:42The book sounds like a movie or reads like a movie, I should say.
10:47The Blue and Me, they can easily take like four or five things out of this book and make a movie.
10:54One of the things, you gave us one incident.
10:57Give us something that's in the book based on someone you met that you probably wouldn't have met if you were not in uniform.
11:06So can we speak about the Queen of England?
11:15Whoa.
11:18Are you saying you met the Queen of England?
11:21I have.
11:22And there are so many others.
11:27Nelson Mandela.
11:29He had his first visit here after being released from incarceration.
11:33He came to Detroit.
11:34I had an opportunity to be a part of a detail that protected that delegate that came in.
11:41And that's in the book.
11:43Yeah, speak to that.
11:45You also, in the book, do you talk about former Mayor Coleman Young?
11:52No.
11:54So I did serve on a detail.
11:57I know that part I knew.
11:59But I mainly focused on Rod Grimes and the events of Rod Grimes.
12:07And no.
12:09So even though, you know, Mayor Young was our mayor for 20 years and I feel did a great service for our community.
12:18I did not serve on his detail.
12:20I was hired in under his administration.
12:23Do you talk about the chiefs that you worked with?
12:27I do speak about a couple of the chiefs that I worked under and served under.
12:32Oh, this is fascinating.
12:34Yeah.
12:35Rod Grimes.
12:36So look.
12:36The blue in me.
12:37I heard him say, you know, the motivation was his granddaughter.
12:42And he wants her to have something.
12:44A legacy.
12:45A legacy.
12:45But the thing that I heard was serving the community.
12:50He has, I can just feel the energy.
12:53He has a passion for serving the community.
12:57And in excellence.
12:59Not just kind of like, oh, I do that.
13:01Like, he gives 110, like, percent of himself.
13:05And I know that, again.
13:06And I will speak to, you know, the Corvette.
13:09They didn't come with no cheap candy.
13:11Them kids was like, oh, this is a real deal.
13:14And the other thing that I loved was the kids, the expressions on their faces.
13:18And they saw these sweet Corvettes that were just, like, perfect.
13:22But these people who were just quality people and just giving back.
13:27So, Rod, I appreciate your dedication to Detroit.
13:31Because you could have been a lot of other things.
13:34But you chose, like your mom says, seriously?
13:36You're really going to be a police officer?
13:38How do you get the book?
13:40So the book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, either or.
13:46Or, then I will be, you know, having a supply of books on hand.
13:51You can reach out to me through my website.
13:55Which is either going to rodgrimes.net.
14:00No space in it.
14:02Or theblueandme.com.
14:05Great.
14:07Rodgrimes.net or theblueandme.com.
14:14Excellent.
14:14Before you go, any closing thoughts you want to leave us with regarding the book?
14:21Sure.
14:23As I said, the whole purpose of writing the book was to share with my granddaughter.
14:30But as I wrote the book, I would like to think that that book will hopefully inspire younger officers to really reach for their dream.
14:42Hopefully, they'll read that book and see things that I tried to do to represent the badge with integrity and dignity and honor.
14:54So hopefully, it'll be an inspiration to officers that are currently on the job or those that may be thinking about becoming a police officer.
15:02It's always going to, for me, be about giving back and helping support our community.
15:08You became a police officer at what age?
15:11I had my 22nd birthday while I was in the academy.
15:16Wow.
15:17Rod Grimes.
15:19Amazing.
15:19The Blue and Me.
15:20Thanks for stopping by and sharing.
15:22And again, you can go to rodgrimes.net or you can go to theblueandme.com and get the book.
15:29Good stuff, Rod.
15:31Thanks for stopping by and sharing with us this morning.
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