I think my experiences as a local patrol officer, a detective, a patrol sergeant, and a detective sergeant are the baseline for everything I’ve done in my 37 years in law enforcement. That work taught me how to work with people, how to talk to people, and how to treat people. The things you do as a patrol officer or as a frontline supervisor carry through to any part of your career, whether you’re going up the ranks in local law enforcement or taking another avenue toward state or federal law enforcement. What I learned as a local cop followed me through my entire career, whether I was recruiting sources within right-wing extremist groups or left-wing extremist groups or talking to international terrorists in a detention facility in Iraq. I always went back to the basics on how to treat people that I learned from senior police officers and detectives who I had the honor to work with throughout the years.