Dre: <\/strong>I always wanted to be a cop since I was a little kid. So, I wanted to be in NYPD but doing the recession, they weren\u2019t hiring so Baltimore took me in as their son to become a cop in this wonderful city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ralph:<\/strong> Same thing for me, I\u2019ve always wanted to do the law\u2026 I\u2019ve always wanted to play football, which I did. And after football, you gotta choose what\u2019s next in life to be a professional. So, being a policeman is always something that I was inspired to do because I saw the bad side and I saw the good side. So, I wanted to be a part of the great law enforcement brother and sisters that do the job the right way. Like with Dre, New York had a hiring freeze, and a friend of the family who was a detective told me about it. And I took my talents down to Baltimore. They hired me in six months and we\u2019ve been here eleven plus years, seven in protective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, you both quit policing to become detectives. What made you do that? What do you love about what you do now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dre: <\/strong>Well, we\u2019re still active; we didn\u2019t quit policing, we just got promoted. We went from a uniformed officer to a detective capacity. So, H (Ralph), he\u2019ll tell you more about it. He\u2019s in a unit where he provides security to city executives. So, that\u2019s like what he specializes in. Whereas, I specialize in investigating non-fatal shootings. But we\u2019re both detectives. So, we\u2019re still in the same role just with more specialized skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You have a podcast called, Silverback Chronicles Podcast. What is the significance of the name and what is your mission?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ralph: <\/strong>Well, the significance of Silverback Chronicles, that was the name of our squad when we patrolled in the streets. We had a squad of ten to fifteen people including females. And we looked at ourselves as silverbacks; we all protected each other. We love what we do. We held each other accountable. We worked out after work. We worked a lot of overtime. And we carried ourselves the way officers should carry themselves. And everybody in the neighborhood and the departments loved us. They gave us recognition worldwide for how we carried ourselves, as far as a big family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Dre got hurt almost three years ago, and his brother Manny came up with the concept of doing a podcast. He said, \u201cYou guys have so many stories. You guys should go to this platform so the world can know about what you do.\u201d And Dre brought that to the attention and he was like, \u201cWe should do this.\u201d And me, him, and Triple C, we sat down and put a game plan together, and it just got extremely successful. And here we are. You know, the Silverback Chronicles Podcast is for the world to know. Everybody has an opinion. Yes, it\u2019s law enforcement based but it\u2019s not just law enforcement, it\u2019s about everybody. We\u2019re all about bridging the gap between law enforcement and the community; letting the community know that there are real, true, genuine officers out there that serve and protect and do the job the right way. We hold those bad officers accountable, those bad seeds in the department. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re about, we\u2019re about change. We\u2019re about bridging that gap, we\u2019re about laughing and having fun and letting people know police officers are still amazing. We do our job thoroughly. We love what we do, and we just love having fun while doing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dre: <\/strong>Triple C is our engineer. H (Ralph) is my best friend and we were partners in patrol. So, when the seed was planted, I knew out of everybody I know, it would have to be H to do this with me. Triple C is my neighbor who\u2019s also in the federal government. He growing up was a DJ. So, he was very technically sound with the equipment. So, it was just a beautiful collaboration. You know, we have H who\u2019s very outspoken, and we have Triple C who\u2019s very good on the technical side, and it just became this beautiful thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes you invite police officers to tell their stories on your podcast, what is it you want to accomplish by doing that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dre:<\/strong> We invite like H said, it\u2019s for everybody. We invite first responders you know because that\u2019s the first resource that we have\u2026 first responders across the country. So, we invite them because we like to show everybody that\u2019s listening that we are human beings. You know, like H before this had a football career. You know there has been plenty of officers that fight professionally. There\u2019s plenty of officers that are amazing cooks. There are plenty of officers in communities putting sneaker drives together, or you know, putting coat drives together in the wintertime and doing Toys for Tots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know, the news media doesn\u2019t follow these first responders that are doing this on a daily. The news media only portrays us when we make a mistake and then they exploit that mistake to make it seem like we did this maliciously. When you know, in the line of work that we do, we play this game if we lose, we don\u2019t go home or someone else doesn\u2019t go home, unfortunately. But at the same token, while we\u2019re not playing that game, we\u2019re in the community reaching out trying to help people because first responders\u2026 we care. We have big hearts regardless of what everybody will say, we don\u2019t do this job to get rich; we literally help people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ralph: <\/strong>Sometimes, it can be a thankless profession and we\u2019re okay with that. We wanted to give ourselves and every office and any person that\u2019s leading on the front lines a voice because everybody has a voice. You know, some people can\u2019t deal with the job, so the outlet is they come on our podcast and they feel great because they get all that out. We\u2019re more than just policing. You know, policing is what we do as a profession. We bring more than just policing to this world with our personalities. And we just want the world to understand, listen, we\u2019re not robots and a lot of times police are not going to talk like we talk. And that\u2019s what\u2019s attractive and appealing as well, that the world can see, oh these guys are not just regular police, but they\u2019re amazing police. Their great personalities are a recipe for greatness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result of your podcast, what impact has it had on people? What feedback have you gotten from other police officers and your listeners at large?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ralph:<\/strong> Everything we\u2019re getting back is positive. We\u2019re getting back, \u201cThis should have been done.\u201d The feedback is amazing. We have A-list celebrity actors that love what we\u2019re doing and they want to come to join us in what we\u2019re doing. And we\u2019re changing the landscape of policing. We\u2019re letting everybody know, we\u2019re serious about this, we\u2019re having fun, and we\u2019re bringing a realness to the police that nobody has seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is your opinion about the relationship between police officers and the black community? How do you think it can be better?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dre: <\/strong>I think there\u2019s a miscommunication. In this city of Baltimore, the majority of the police officers are black and we\u2019re serving the black community. I think the news media tends to blur the lines a little bit because we\u2019re in communities and we\u2019ve been told, I can\u2019t count how many times, \u201cThank you for being here. Thank you for bringing a little bit of safety to the neighborhoods.\u201d So, the communities want us there, but the media has run with this agenda so far that now everyone believes there\u2019s an issue with law enforcement and the black community, and it really isn\u2019t. If you look at every major city, the majority of those police officers are from black communities and we just decided to serve them. So, like H was saying with this podcast, we\u2019re the first ones to state this. Like, we\u2019re in communities and what the media is saying is wrong. Because the media shows up for an incident, we\u2019re here day in and day out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ralph: <\/strong>Just to piggyback on what Dre said. We\u2019re out there, they love what we\u2019re doing. If there\u2019s any confusion, I would say overall, we speak for us, we speak for a lot of the officers on the job and there are some of our counterparts that are intimidated by these inner cities. And my biggest thing with that is it\u2019s okay to be intimidated. But what way can you bridge that gap than by going out and speaking to them and having those uncomfortable conversations? Because that\u2019s the only way you really bridge that gap and let the people know who you are, because let\u2019s face it, some of our brothers and sister are not from inner cities, which makes our building a rapport a lot easier because we\u2019re from them. That\u2019s why we getting better with that and letting our counterparts know it\u2019s okay to be intimidated because you\u2019re not from that culture. So, it behooves us to get out there with them to let them know who these people are, and in return, you build that rapport; it starts with a conversation. That\u2019s the only way we\u2019re going to get better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of your experience and the great work you\u2019re doing on your podcast, you\u2019ve been hired to be consultants on the new HBO show, We Own the City<\/em>. What was it like to be a part of that show?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dre: <\/strong>We were blessed with this great opportunity through Justin Fenton who actually wrote the book. I came on as a consultant. And I felt like my job there was to make sure we (police officers) were portrayed in the right light. You know because sometimes, nothing against the writers\u2026 the writers were amazing, the producers were amazing. Everyone was super, they loved first responders but I also understand that Hollywood, the camera, and the audience like overdramatized police work. So, I was so happy they brought me on to keep everything honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And of course, through that, H has his debut coming up on episode 3. You gotta make sure to watch it. One thing about H is when the camera comes on, he knows what to do. He was given a role and he knocked it out of the park. So, we were just blessed with the opportunity. And I want to mention the director, Reinaldo Marcus Green, who also just won an award for King Richard<\/em><\/strong> starring John Bernthal and Will Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ralph:<\/strong> It was an amazing opportunity. I want to give a huge shoutout to John Bernthal. He\u2019s just an amazing man, he means so much. It\u2019s deeper than the business, it\u2019s the brotherhood\u2026 the foundation. And we had him on our podcast, he asked have I ever acted, and I told him no. And he told me I was a natural. When they asked me if I wanted to do it, of course, you gotta go through the interview process, and I passed it with flying colors. And just seeing me and him acting together and watching him, I mean he’s an amazing worker. I watched how he performed and got pointers from him and the likes of Jamie Hector. I\u2019m going to continue to do it because it was phenomenal and I can\u2019t wait for it to come out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ralph: <\/strong>Ah man, me and Dre, we like just masterminds of our future and we love policing but we just know it\u2019s more in store for us. We\u2019re taking advantage of any opportunity given to us. We\u2019re going to continue podcasting and the movie thing, we definitely want to continue that. We met so many wonderful people and groomed so many wonderful relationships\u2026 the sky is the limit. And we\u2019re going to take control of any given opportunity. And make this city a better city for everybody to come and enjoy it. Getting that bad element out of here and always keeping smiles on people\u2019s faces; that\u2019s what we\u2019re here to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catch up with them by clicking these links: <\/strong>Website<\/strong><\/a> \u2502 <\/strong>Instagram<\/strong><\/a> \u2502<\/strong> Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/femimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/3846163064629310041-ASJ-01-1-682x1024.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n