Two Men Who Help Safe Call Now Save Lives...

Chris Bohnemeier & Mike Radosevich - Code 3 Spices

Our Mission: To bring the highest quality, award-winning seasonings to your home. A portion of each sale is contributed to organizations that support Police, Fire, Medical, & Military.

Chris Bohnemeier, a BBQ enthusiast and grill master, teamed up with his friend Mike Radosevich, a Police Officer of 12 plus years, joined forces to create a BBQ competition team. Located just outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area, they soon realized that their style of spices they designed and utilized were well received in the BBQ community.  The team has received multiple awards in local BBQ competitions. 

Chris and Mike developed 5 highly satisfying, award winning, professional based seasonings to make the perfect BBQ!  After teaming up with a local manufacturer to replicate their special blends, Chris and Mike are now able to introduce to you the perfect products through their Rescue Rub, 5-O Rub, Backdraft Rub, Grunt Rub and Sea Dog Rub. Not only will you love the outcome of your BBQ and various other foods, but you will find it to be an everyday staple in your spice rack.

  Chris and Mike didn't create this company solely to bring you the best blends. They also share a great passion for the men and women who serve as first responders and in military services. Chris's father served in a private sector of law enforcement and his sister currently is a law enforcement officer in the Midwest. They have seen firsthand what first responders and the military contribute to all of us and decided they needed to give back through their own passion.  

Portions of each Code 3 Spices sale will be donated to organizations that support Police, Fire, Medical and Military Personnel. 

   They invite you to join in their mission.  For every bottle purchased, $.50 of the proceeds will be donated to those qualifying programs.

Signs & Symptoms of #1stresponder Substance Abuse...

If you or a loved one needs help... Reach out to Safe Call Now 206-459-3020

There are many telltale signs that can suggest that a first responder is abusing drugs and/or alcohol. Depending on the substance that is being abused, the amount of the given substance or substances that is being consumed, and the length of time an individual have been struggling with substance abuse can all affect the obviousness of a substance abuse problem. If you are concerned that you or a loved one is battling an addiction, it is a good idea to take note of the following signs and symptoms:

Behavioral symptoms:

• Lethargy
• Declined participation in things that were once enjoyed
• Engaging in risky behaviors
• Poor coordination
• Increased conflict with others
• Social withdrawal or isolation
• Change in peer group
• Unwarranted outbursts of varying emotions
• Missing days of work
• Inability to fulfill roles or responsibilities
• Hyperactivity

Physical symptoms:

• Headaches
• Poor hygiene
• Injection sites
• Shakiness / tremors
• Diarrhea
• Weight loss / gain
• Insomnia / hypersomnia
• Bloodshot eyes
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Slurred speech

Is Orange Really the New Black???

By Safe Call Now Peer Advocate - Captain Tammy Norton

The public watches many new TV episodes these days of “Orange is the New Black” or “Prison Break” and they wonder, what is it really like to work in a prison setting? Sean prompted me to write a piece for the blog and intimidated I was, not because I didn’t have plenty to say, I have worked in prison settings for the past 21 years-I just didn’t know how to say it.

When you hire on as that new Correctional Officer you never know until you walk through those gates that lock you in-and THEM out-how you are going to feel about this new career choice you have made. I have seen many new recruits turn around and head straight back out the gate once they heard the sounds of the locking mechanisms that are prevalent in my work environment-slam shut. T.V. can’t describe that feeling you get when you are outnumbered 200 to 1 and all you carry is a set of keys, a radio, and if you are lucky, a small canister of pepper spray.

In our profession, we manage the worst personalities that society has deemed unacceptable to maintain in a free environment and we place them all together. We are expected to act in a professional and non-judgmental demeanor to deal with individuals who have committed atrocities against children, other law enforcement officers or members of their communities and maintain safe and secure yet humane environments for them to reside-protecting them and us from each other when necessary.

A Cop, PTSD, Suicide & Treatment...

By Kevin Hagen

You could say my story with my mental illness began several years ago (maybe 15?), but I chose to ignore the signs and figured it was just me. I was bullied in high school and that had an impact on my self-esteem as I was growing up and even in my adult years. I was married for 20 years and for most of those years I was told what a bad person I was and that I was not a very good man. After hearing such things for that long, I started to believe them! I have had tragedies in my life like most people, and some that affected me for many years, like the death of my mother. I believed that I was not worthy of being happy and that I was meant to just be that way so I should live with it. I managed to struggle through life like that for most of my adult life.

My job as a police officer added to the issues I already had. I have seen some very terrible things in my career, and some of them stick with me no matter how hard I tried to forget them. Because I chose to ignore my problems, they just got bigger and bigger: the 800 pound gorilla in the room, if you will. I managed to stuff my feelings and tell myself, “Hey, this is what I deserve, so I just gotta suck it up.” I ended up getting divorced, and I figured that was the answer to all of my problems. Obviously it was not. I went from bad relationship to bad relationship, always finding women that needed help; that way I could be the hero and fix things for them. It never worked that way. I just ended up taking on more and more problems, more and more debt, and finally I could not find happiness in anything, but I figured that is what I deserved.

I felt I had successfully stuffed my problems, but then all of the sudden, I was not ever happy. I lost interest in most things I enjoy; I ignored my children who I only see every other weekend; I pushed my friends away and just isolated myself in my home. 
One night everything came to a head. The hopelessness overwhelmed me. The nightmares came every night, so I was scared to go to sleep some nights. All I could see in front of me was a black wall, and in my mind it was all hopeless and I was lost.

Jay Dobyn's... He's No Angel

Safe Call Now Supporter - Jay Dobyns

I want to introduce to you my dear friend Jay Dobyns, retired ATF Agent.  I’m fortunate enough know him and always enjoy speaking at conferences with him.  His story is remarkable and he’s lucky to still be on this earth.  Most people know him one way, I know Jay in a totally different way.  Today he is dedicated to serving others and is one of Safe Call Now’s biggest supporters.  The man helps us save lives!!! 

Jay Dobyns is a federal undercover agent and a New York Times Best-Selling author. He achieved worldwide notoriety as one of history's most daring undercover operators during high-octane covert operations targeting the world’s most brutally violent criminals and organizations.

For over twenty five years, Jay successfully infiltrated and brought down scores of the deadliest criminals and illegal enterprises in existence. He operated amongst vicious street and prison gangs, gun running groups, drug trafficking organizations, bomb makers and home invasion crews. He routinely played the role of a shrewdly-calculating professional hit man during federal "murder-for-hire" investigations.

Jay is perhaps best known for his landmark infiltration of the notorious Hells Angels biker gang. He was the first-ever law enforcement officer to successfully defeat the gang’s multilayered security measures and become a full patched member (of the legendary Skull Valley charter), a fact that club’s leadership vociferously denies to this day.

A defense attorney once described Dobyns as:

"...a government-trained ‘Predator’ repeatedly sent on seek and destroy missions in search of drugs, guns and violence, with instructions to succeed at any cost and without regard for the agent himself or those he crosses paths with.”

Jay’s 2009 memoir, "No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels" quickly became a New York Times bestseller that has been published in twelve languages and seventeen countries.

Organizational Stress & the #1stresponder

By Safe Call Now's Dr. Laura Brodie

Something that is not recognized by many in the civilian world is that our First Responders as a whole are more psychologically healthy than the general population at the time of hiring. How can I say this?  Well, very few careers require the psychological screening and assessment that First Responders have to pass in order to obtain their job.  In doing such a screening, the hope is to protect the public from someone who is unsafe, but the hidden benefit is to hopefully protect the individual doing the job from many of the psychological disorders that can develop from this type of work.  So, if we use the premise that First Responders are more psychologically healthy than their civilian counterpart, why are we seeing the psychological problems we are seeing within First Responders?   Problems like substance abuse, high divorce rates and suicide?  Theoretically, this should not be happening, but it is rampant. Why?

Mental health professionals are very familiar with issues such as depression and have many tools in their therapeutic toolbox to help. What they are not nearly as educated in understanding is the environment of the First Responder and the issue of burnout.  Research has shown that the leading cause of stress in First Responders is not the day to day rescues and arrests they perform.  Those chores are why the individual signed up to do the job and there is clear understanding of those tasks through the academies and ongoing training.  What is not spoken of is the organizational stress that is killing First Responders. Yes, it’s the slow, ongoing, and constant organizational stress that is doing more damage to our First Responders than any other factor within the job.  As a professor, I have chaired several dissertations that have shown this stress and the gradual breakdown of the individual does not depend on the age, sex or rank of the individual. It appears that the seven-year mark is where the stress can eventually become the most significant issue for the individual and coping breaks down.