“Motivated and Dedicated” were words that Robbie would display on the screen during every class that he taught.   He would say “guys I am gonna tell you right now – the only way to be successful out there is to be motivated and dedicated.”  The words always reigned true when we think about the type of officer that Robbie was.  When he worked at Woodstock Police Department, he set the records for the most DUIs in a single month.  When He worked out on I-75 he knocked off 11 Kilos  – the most north of Atlanta at the time. In Butts County, Georgia he hit 85 kilos that was the second highest seizure in a car in Georgia. Then, after knocking off $935,000 in Lowndes County, he went to I-20 (which was believed to be the hardest road in Georgia at the time) and he hit three tractor trailers in 10 days totaling over 4,500 pounds in Marijuana – one seizure was on Super Bowl Sunday.   These were just some of his accomplishments.

He really worked hard at being “The Best of the Best.”  Robbie won all of his cases – local, State and Federal.   The number reached over 500. Robbie Bishop worked hard to take criminals off the streets.   He spent up to 20 hours in a patrol car running up and down the road.  Some days he would refuel his patrol vehicle 3 times in one shift.  During a shift, He would say “ I am just going to pull one more over.” This usually meant that there was still another couple of hours of that shift remaining.

Training Law enforcement officers around the country became another of Robbie’s passions.   He wanted to hit the road and assemble interdiction classes in jurisdictions that may not get trained to look beyond a traffic stop.   He taught in classrooms with holes in the floor, where there was no air conditioning,  and at times where only seven people showed up.  None of that discouraged him or lessened his presentation.   There were times when he and his partner, Bruce Parent, would not make any money at all, but were able to train officers and promote officer safety and display trafficking trends.

To make classroom presentations exciting, he used Motivational videos including “Living Life on the Edge”.   Instructors around the country that took his class or respected his teaching, would provide videos that he would show during class and methodically explain the stops.  He also did that with his own stops.  “Cantaloupe – Tomato man” was excellent video that he used because it illustrated every aspect of a traffic stop – start to finish, including the interview after the arrest. Today, we see in-car police video on social media and the news every day.  Before 1999, very few police agencies had in-car cameras.  Robbie and Justin started to assemble his training videos in “walk around” format.   Robbie would walk around the seized vehicle, mention the indicators and then show the contraband.   The first training video was “Drug interdiction Part I and II”.  If you attended an American Public Safety class, you would receive this training video, and Living Life on the Edge.   We still get emails from law enforcement officers that watch Living Life on the Edge before walking out the door to begin a shift.  Many of them exhausted their VHS tapes and would call or email to get another copy or just to get a DVD copy.

American Public Safety always included officer safety.  Robbie discussed the importance of a back-up weapon.  He was not worried about his main duty weapon malfunctioning – he was preparing for a close quarter fight where the back-up gun would save his life.  Robbie carried a back-up weapon in his weak hand cargo pocket.  In the event he was fighting the perpetrator for his primary weapon – he could reach in his pocket and stop the threat.  

         Robbie also taught to “NEVER SEARCH ALONE”.  During his classes, included traffic stops videos where a back-up officer would save the primary officer.   He would have demonstrations in class explaining where to stand and how to handle being a back-up officer if working in a 2-man team.  He would include demonstrating the responsibilities of the back up officer with positioning and indicators to watch for during the stop.

Another part of his class would concentrate on defending the case in court.  Robbie wanted the students to understand that a court case begins when you step out of the car.   He emphasized that once the drug smugglers and/or dealers were arrested, the court preparations would begin and he or she would be required to face a defense attorney and defend the arrest.  To win the case and put the criminal in jail, Robbie discussed building a case methodically and included the totality of the circumstances.  He used the image of a ladder and each thing learned during the stop were rungs on that ladder.

Robbie truly wanted everyone to do their part to rid the country of illegal narcotics.  Secondary crimes that entered communities – theft, domestic violence, child neglect, are a result of drug abuse. He believed that one of the best ways to combat these crimes was to stop the smugglers.

In the weeks leading up to Robbie’s murder, He and Bruce Parent were planning an American Public Safety class in Villa Rica, Georgia in February, 1999.   They assembled a 2-day class and had many people commit to attend the class.  Robbie was on the phone inviting as many officers as possible so that he could be proud of his home state of Georgia.  Unfortunately, the planned class did not take place as planned.  On January 20, 1999 Robbie was killed at the 18 mile maker on I-20 west bound in Temple, Georgia.

At the funeral, talk started about how Robbie was “the interdictor” that LEOs in the southeast learned from and who networked non-stop.   Friends of Robbie discussed how future interdiction officers would not have the chance to get this knowledge and wanted to find a way to carry the torch.  We, the founding members of The National Interdiction Association, focused on continuing his vision of creating a group of interdiction officers that worked together and networked traffic strops across the country.

Bruce Parent asked me if he could still hold the class in Robbie’s memory and I did not even hesitate to say yes.  This class was the beginning of NDIA / NCEA. The first class had approximately 130 people and almost all of those that attended joined the organization. Within days of the class, Eddie Ingram finalized the process of setting up the National Drug Interdiction Association.  Eddie Ingram formed this organization with Chief Maddox, Brian Flemming,  Bruce Parent , Justin Webb and Tim Ingram.    In the summer of 2000, I accepted the position of Executive Director.  In September of that year, Eddie Ingram, Cliff Meyer, and I attended a conference in Albany, New York hosted by  Brian Rossiter and featuring Mike Lewis.  It was at this conference that we decided that NDIA / NCEA would host the first annual Winter Conference.

The mission of this organization has always been to continue Robbie’s vision of networking and training officers to remain safe and return home at the end of each shift.  This became a pilgrimage of Robbie’s following the shooting in Robeson County, North Carolina in 1998.

The impact on law enforcement communities to network and coordinate with other agencies and officers throughout the country to eradicate what Robbie referred to as “secondary” crimes.  Officer safety was a priority to Robbie and he often refused to train officers that did not practice passenger side approach.  We wanted to offer effective training that would benefit and prepare the officer on a traffic stop with the knowledge that would allow him or her to utilize safety and prepare for taking each traffic encounter to completion.  Today, Robbie’s motivated and dedicated vision continues. What began as quarterly Hit Sheets submitted by members has now evolved into the NCEA forum where members can share detailed information from personal traffic stops in a safe and secure environment.  The NCEA forum provides access to highly trained, motivated officers across this great land.  NCEA members not only post on the organization’s website but also via social media that is now the digital “Wanted Poster”.

As I write this article, I am reminded of how important NCEA members are to me.  In the early part of 2015, Jeffrey McGee will once again enter a courtroom and request a mistrial based on an appeal granted by the State of Georgia.  This information was shared on the NCEA website and Face Book.  I cannot begin to tell you how important the outpouring of support from the NCEA family was to me.  I know that the membership will continue to be supportive to not only myself, but to all members that are in need.  For this I am extremely grateful.  I am proud of the many achievements this organization has made and, with this magazine, I know that the future is bright.  Thank you all for your dedication, your motivation, and your continued support.  REB314…The fight continues.