By Matt Kyle | Staff Writer
Waco PD has started releasing a weekly podcast called “Waco PD on the BEAT.” The first episode came out on Sept. 24, and the department said it hopes to release four episodes per month, on Fridays.
The podcast is hosted by Cierra Shipley, the public information officer for Waco PD, and AJ Smith, the crime stoppers coordinator for McLennan County. Topics on the podcast include crime statistics, humanizing officers, different units within Waco PD and different aspects of the Waco community.
Shipley said the podcast began with Chief Sheryl Victorian wanting to have Waco PD talk about increases and decreases in crime. Multiple mediums were considered, but Shipley said they settled on a podcast because it would allow Waco PD to talk about more topics than just crime and it would enable the department to connect with the Waco community.
“Instead of just talking about crime increases and decreases, we said, ‘Let’s do a podcast that not only talks about crime, but introduces us as a police department,’” Shipley said. “That would be having officers come on and talk about what got them into policing but also what they do outside of the job, what makes them human and also talking about different units within the department.”
Shipley said the department hopes the podcast is able to inform listeners about what is happening in their community.
“We just wanted to — as a department — to let the community know what’s going on in [their] neighborhood,” Shipley said. “If we see a significant increase in thefts of a motor vehicle, which is what we saw in the month of August, we want to let the community know that this is happening. When we’re able to let the community know about the crime that’s happening in their neighborhood, they can do a better way of preventing themselves to become victims.”
Smith said he hopes the podcast allows the department to connect with Waco residents on a human level, humanizing the badge.
“We’re more than just the badge,” Smith said. “We have feelings. We go home with baggage from the day. We’ve got our lives. We’ve got our families. So just kind of peeling that curtain back a little bit.”
Smith also said he wants to introduce listeners to units within Waco PD they might not know about. One of the units Smith said he wants to showcase is the Career Criminal Apprehension and Supervision Team (CCAST), which is a unit that works to find underlying causes of crimes for repeat offenders and helps them break these patterns of crime.
“If somebody keeps stealing from a gas station, OK, why are they doing that?” Smith said. “Instead of just taking jail and being done with it, they follow up with that person and make sure that person is on track to have a stable career and get a house for themselves. They’re preventing crime by taking care of that person.”
Smith said he wants to showcase different aspects of the Waco community both to support local businesses and to show listeners everything Waco has to offer.
“Whatever fun things there are in town, we’ll go do it and show people there’s fun stuff to do,” Smith said. “I feel like there are numbers that make it look like Waco is a really scary place to be, but that’s why we’re breaking down those numbers. We go out to these places and show people this isn’t Gotham City; this is a really cool place to live and build a family.”
Smith said listeners can email beat@wacotx.gov to give feedback about the podcast or suggest topics to be discussed. He also said residents can submit anonymous tips about crimes to wacocrimestoppers.org or call 254-753-4357 to receive up to a $2,000 reward.
Shipley said the name “Waco PD on the BEAT” has multiple meanings, referring both to areas officers patrol and to different units within the department. She also said “BEAT” is an acronym for the goals of the podcast.
“We gave ‘BEAT’ a little bit of an acronym, and that is building relationships, engaging the community, actively working to keep you safe and teachable moments for all,” Shipley said. “The teachable moments for all is a really big one that we like to touch on because we’re teaching the community about Waco PD. But in this time, we’re also learning about the community as well and the police department is also learning — we all are. So it’s not just teaching the community, but the community teaching us as well.”
