Unique Connection to 4 Police Officers Killed

Summary

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Episode Summary: "Unique Connection to 4 Police Officers Killed"

Law Enforcement Talk: True Crime and Trauma Stories
Host: John "Jay" Wiley
Guest: Gary Parish, former Prince George's County (MD) Police Officer
Date: April 29, 2026

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Overview

This episode provides an insider’s perspective on police work, trauma, and accountability through the unique experiences of Gary Parish, a former background investigator and officer in Maryland’s Prince George’s County Police Department. Parish shares how his role in vetting applicants ultimately connected him emotionally to four officers who were killed in the line of duty, reflecting on the intense responsibility, guilt, and long-term impact of those losses. The discussion delves into the realities of recruitment, training, department politics, cultural shifts, and how tragedy shaped Parish’s life and his current mission to support first responders through technology.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gary Parish’s Background and Role in Law Enforcement

• Parish served about 10 years as a police officer, specializing in background investigations for new recruits and lateral transfers (03:20).
• His assignment involved deep research, including interviews with teachers, family, and prior employers, plus military and academic record checks (03:54).
• At the time, background investigators were sworn officers, not outside contractors as is now more common (05:39).

2. Police Recruitment and Training: Then and Now

• Training was rigorous: six months in the academy followed by another six months field training (06:01, 07:16).
• Polygraph tests were common pre-hire, along with strict physical requirements—many since relaxed by court rulings (05:54, 07:18).
• Parish and Wiley reflect on the myth of under-trained cops, noting frequent and mandatory in-service and roll-call training (06:21).

Notable Quote:

“Passing a background investigation is no walk in the park. Secondly, getting through the academy is really difficult.”
— John J. Wiley (05:42)

3. Cultural Realities, Hazards, and Temptations in Policing

• Both men discuss the dangers and temptations of the job, candidly noting that personal issues—especially “women and booze”—were notorious career-enders in their era (09:16).
• Departments had unique cultures, often heavily influenced by military veterans (19:34).
• They contrast police who stayed involved in the community versus “mobile report takers” who avoided real work (17:37).

Memorable Moment:

“If you were that kind of police… last ones to show up on a hot call… They never got blood on your uniform… and they’re first ones passing judgment on real police.” — John J. Wiley (18:01)

4. Challenges in Modern Police Hiring and Standards

• Standards and background investigations have changed. Departments lowered standards at times due to recruitment struggles, with more non-sworn investigators and fewer polygraphs (13:24).
• Competitive pay and benefits attract candidates, but the demands—rotating shifts, legal risk, and public scrutiny—limit recruitment pools (14:13).

5. Vivid in-the-Field Anecdotes

• Parish describes a violent off-duty encounter with a recently released mental patient, detailing the chaos and his survival thanks to community relationships (16:18).
• He emphasizes the vital lesson: get out of the cruiser, know your community—something he feels modern officers increasingly neglect (17:37).

6. Unique Issues with Lateral Transfers and Cultural Change

• Parish outlines how rapid demographic shifts after urban unrest forced dramatic department changes—e.g., a mostly white force now policing a minority-majority community (28:03).
• The practice of hiring lateral transfers at the same rank, sometimes from very different policing backgrounds, bred tension and hurt morale (27:39).

Notable Quote:

“You’re bringing in someone as a sergeant from elsewhere... Not only did they not match in culture and background, but it took away a sergeant’s position.” — Gary Parish (30:19)

7. Connection to Officers Killed in the Line of Duty

• Parish reflects on doing backgrounds for several officers who died on duty, with Mark Murphy’s story highlighted (30:40).
• Murphy was killed by friendly fire during a search warrant operation. Parish’s sense of accountability and guilt—wondering if his vetting ‘failed’ them—haunts him (36:48 - 37:12).

Notable Quote:

“You carry some guilt with you. You got him into that job, you got him hired, and he's no longer with us or his family.” — Gary Parish (37:12)

8. The Emotional & Psychological Toll

• Parish discusses how seeing names and faces of officers he helped hire, who later died, affects his mental health (36:48-37:12).
• Parish left service after his detective role was eliminated as a result of Justice Department interventions (37:42).

9. Current Work: HD Barcode LLC and First Responder Support

• Gary Parish now aims to support first responders’ safety and family communication through “HD Barcode,” a high-capacity, secure data technology for ID tags and emergency contacts—keeping vital medical and contact info with the officer at all times, with no database access needed (42:57, 44:08).
• Applications extend to Alzheimer’s, autism, and other vulnerable populations, as well as labeling for medicine and food (44:36).

Memorable Moment:

“We provide the most advanced 2D code in the world... All your medical records and emergency contacts in the code itself—it only stays with the officer... At 3 am, you want to reach somebody, it’s not always easy. You don’t have that number for your spouse, so it becomes important.” — Gary Parish (42:57, 44:08)

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Timestamps & Key Segments

• Background Investigations & Training (03:20–08:27)
• Recruitment Challenges & Risks (09:15–15:03)
• Memorable Incidents & Policing Culture (16:18–20:11)
• Departmental and Demographic Shifts (27:33–30:26)
• Line of Duty Deaths and Personal Connection (30:40–37:12)
• Life After Policing, HD Barcode Initiative (42:57–45:38)

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Notable Quotes

“Passing a background investigation is no walk in the park. Secondly, getting through the academy is really difficult.”
— John J. Wiley (05:42)

“You’re bringing in someone as a sergeant from elsewhere... Not only did they not match in culture and background, but it took away a sergeant’s position.”
— Gary Parish (30:19)

“You carry some guilt with you. You got him into that job, you got him hired, and he's no longer with us or his family.”
— Gary Parish (37:12)

“All your medical records and emergency contacts in the code itself—it only stays with the officer... At 3 am, you want to reach somebody, it’s not always easy. You don’t have that number for your spouse, so it becomes important.”
— Gary Parish (44:08)

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Takeaways

• The trauma of police work runs deep, especially when professional decisions feel linked to tragedy.
• Background investigators shoulder a unique burden, often invisible to the public.
• Law enforcement culture, training, and hiring have shifted substantially, with consequences for morale and public trust.
• Supporting first responders—through practical tech and empathetic understanding—is crucial in mitigating the personal toll of line-of-duty risks.

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Additional Resources

• Learn more about HD Barcode and Life Preserver for First Responders at hdbarcode.com

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This summary captures the nuanced realities of police work, trauma, and the drive to effect change from within, as shared by someone uniquely connected to both the triumphs and tragedies behind the badge.

Transcript

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[John J. Wiley]

He's a former police officer that had four officers killed in a line of duty and he's here to share his interesting and often unspoken about connection with welcome to the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. In the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show, we are joined by special guests talking about their experiences, the realities of investigating crimes, plus those have experienced horrendous trauma. Police, first responders, military and victims of crime share their stories. Hi, I'm John J. Wiley. In addition to being a broadcaster, I'm also a retired police sergeant. Be sure to check out our website letradio.com and also like us on Facebook, search for the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. If you're on the Clubhouse Drop In Audio Chat app, be sure to look for me and follow me. My name's John the letter J. Wiley W I L E Y. You can also search for that's John J. Wiley W I L E Y T Radio show on the Clubhouse Drop In Audio Chat Apple calling us from Florida. We have Gary Parish on Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. Gary is a former Prince George's County, Maryland police officer. He spent about 10 years there. He specialized in doing background investigations, left the agency. He works in many different things now, but one of the things he really works and he'll talk to you about much later on is HD Barcode LLC and HD Life Preserver for First Responders. Their website is hdbarcode.com Gary, thanks for your service and thanks for talking about it on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show.

[Gary Parish]

Well, thank you very much for having me on and the Opportunity to hopefully we can help officers in the long run saving their life.

[John J. Wiley]

It's really about the everybody else because to do an education very quickly. It's about a million police officers in the United States and we broadcast every week to 48 million combined US population. So the vast majority of people are end user consumers, regular people and they want to hear stories. And that's what we're focused on. And here's a story that we almost never get to hear about that's you specialize in background investigations for those who want to be officers of your agency.

[Gary Parish]

That is correct.

[John J. Wiley]

And how long did you do that?

[Gary Parish]

It was a TDY assignment from the detective bureau into the personnel division that the officers, the detectives would do backgrounds on various individuals applying. And I did that for about a year and a half.

[John J. Wiley]

I remember back in my days in the academy we started, I think the academy class was about 55. We graduated, 22 people were being yanked out almost daily because of something that came out of the background investigation. And a lot of people to this day we don't know what they were.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, we actually did it a little bit different. We took the county actually did the background investigations first. So I was assigned to do the background. And that was pretty intense background investigation at the time. Everything going from the elementary school teachers to the parents to the grandparents to the church, synagogue, wherever it may be, we would take a look at that and discuss their background, any issues, any problems or how great they did in school, look at their grades if they were in the military, look at their DD214s, get full information. And then if they came from another area, we would go to that area or contact that area, whether it was Baltimore City or Ohio State or New York State and ask for help in doing the background investigation to get a complete background on an individual back then, which they don't do now. They also used to do polygraphs and the polygraphs were taken before entry into the academy based on any information that might be a problem like use of drugs or any kind of previous misdemeanors or arrests and wanted to get information about that person. So I usually would sit on the outside of the. Where the, you know, it was being done and then watched the. Actually watched how the person reacted to the different questions.

[John J. Wiley]

How long did you do this? What years?

[Gary Parish]

This was done in originally I did it in 1980. Sorry about that. Let me go back to my. Look at my notes here. It was probably in 77, 78.

[John J. Wiley]

Things changed quite a bit. And back in my day they don't

[Gary Parish]

even use the officers anymore to do backgrounds. They hire outside.

[John J. Wiley]

We had the background investigation. And I always say this to people, if you think that we do a lousy job, you go ahead, you get hired. Just making it in the academy is tough enough. Passing a background investigation is no walk in the park. Secondly, getting through the academy is really difficult.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah. And really a lot depends on the department and the academy or the agency that you're going through. Some would come from different cities which would have like a. They would pay to have them go to an academy like ours in Prince George's County. Others would do just a short hire from a short academy of a few weeks. Ours was like almost six months.

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah, ours was about six months as well. And you were a police officer, you were a sworn employee. You didn't get the blues and the gun until the end of your academy stint and six months. And here's the other thing that I get, and I'd love to get your feedback on this. People say, oh, our police need more training. Like, okay, they have about six months to the academy and they go through 40 hours a week of training. And most of that is not self defense. Most of it is not handguns. Most of it's law and patrol and policies and procedures and all that stuff. Then they have a yearly in service training of one week in Maryland is what we had. And four days of that was classroom and every day we had roll call training. So where is this time for extra training coming from?

[Gary Parish]

Well, the other part you gotta look at once you got graduated, if you graduated. And of course there was a process of going through, not the academic side of it, but you had to do the physical side.

[John J. Wiley]

Right.

[Gary Parish]

And stay in shape. And back then the requirements were a lot tighter about height, weight capabilities than they are now. And I think in the courts they kind of knocked that out, saying that didn't affect the job. But I guess the people in the court never went into a bar fight at.

[John J. Wiley]

No, they didn't. And it's easy to sit there from the safety of your office where the most dangerous thing you encounter is a rusty paperclip.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, yeah, It's a big difference. And you know, and after that we were assigned to a field training officer FTO for almost probably another six months. So it wasn't even like you got to go out and do it on your own. And usually the field training officer was a very experienced officer and with high qualifications and he would, you know, give you the background. Of course, a lot of them would joke about now, forget everything you learned in the academy. This is the real world.

[John J. Wiley]

That's the first thing I was taught.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, that's not unusual.

[John J. Wiley]

And the second thing was, and this seems to be universal with police, is every now and then my field training officer would yell out, where are we? And I would have to tell him. He'd say, because if I was shot somewhere and you didn't know where we were, you'd be no help to me.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah. I find that nowadays, and I still am involved with working with the Prince George's County Police. And you know, as a former officer, that it is always family. It's sort of like the military. Whether it's your department or another, there's still family. And you worry about the men and women involved in that job. It is a dangerous job. And you go there. And I look at it now in working with the different stations, and the difference comes in, as I look at it now, in the backgrounds and all. You get policy changes, you get legal actions, and that affects who can be hired in their backgrounds. And I see a lot of them getting in trouble with being arrested for different things, whether it's theft or other things that they shouldn't be doing. And it concerns me.

[John J. Wiley]

Right.

[Gary Parish]

Well.

[John J. Wiley]

And we will have that conversation. Back in the day, our careers overlapped. I started in the Academy in 1980, and I was retired in February of 92 due to injuries. So. But there was two things that they said would ruin the career of almost any police, no matter where they were in the state of Maryland. It was women and booze.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah. And that seemed to be a lot, you know, and there was a lot

[John J. Wiley]

of guys that got hung up on that. I mean, what. For goodness sakes.

[Gary Parish]

It's very easy to get hung up when, of course, every department has a nickname for runners or, you know, chasers or whatever they want to call them.

[John J. Wiley]

Right.

[Gary Parish]

And, you know, I used to tell the guys they were coming on the department, this was going to be an issue. I said, you're going to go into a job that you're wearing a uniform that you're identifiable. You're one of the few in the government that's identifiable, that you work for the government. You got that uniform on, you got authority, and you're going to have people think of you like in the movies, like a John Wayne image.

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah. Which you're not.

[Gary Parish]

Which you're not.

[John J. Wiley]

Let's take a short break on that.

[Gary Parish]

They think that, and they think they're going to be getting somebody that's perfect and you're not.

[John J. Wiley]

We're going to return our conversation with Gary Parish in just a few moments. He's a former Prince George's County, Maryland police officer, and he's heavily involved in a company that's HD Barcode LLC and HD Life Preserver for First Responders. Their website is hdbarcode.com this is law enforcement Talk Radio Show. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

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[John J. Wiley]

Return Conversation with Gary Parish on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show. Gary is a former Prince George's County, Maryland police officer in PG County. We called it back in the day and still do. A lot of people do. It's on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. and it's the dividing line from Southern Maryland and Central Maryland, I'll put it that way. And he did background investigations for that agency for quite a long time and he left there for about 10 years. He's heavily involved in a company, I'll just say what it is. HD Barcode LLC and HD Life Preserver for First Responders. Their website is hdbarcode.com that's hdbarcode.com check it out. And you might want to insist on having that for your first responders as well. Gary the whole thing with the background investigations And I remember there was a time where maybe I was filling a job and people were like, well, what's your background investigation like? I don't hear that being talked about too much anymore.

[Gary Parish]

No, I am surprised that it's not. I think they do it entirely different. It may be due to different legal actions that occurred over the years within the government that they what they're limited to do or maybe for a while they couldn't get enough people on board. So you had to change the standards to get the people to wear the.

[John J. Wiley]

I think that's part of the ladder. And people say, they love to say very conveniently, very easily lowering the standards. Listen, it's a tough occupation and it's tough to find the best of the best. They're going to work rotating shifts, rotating days off. They're going to be called every name in the book. They could be killed, they can be injured, they can be sued, they can be arrested, all that stuff. And by the way, we want you to speak a language. We want you to have a college degree, we want you to be a military veteran. And you've got other options as well. They probably pay more.

[Gary Parish]

Absolutely. And you have competing departments. I just saw recently on LinkedIn that a department in California was offering a starting pay that was twice as much as out in the.

[John J. Wiley]

Don't even start me on that because when we started, this is back in your day, we started at $13,280 a year. I couldn't afford an apartment by myself. We were so poor we couldn't afford

[Gary Parish]

the R. Yeah, that was the regular. The nice part about least Prince George's county at the time was, and I think they still do, is they could assign and work part time for jobs and raise enough money to live.

[John J. Wiley]

I look at the salaries now and look, I don't want to sell any sour grapes and I'm glad they're getting them. But when I got promoted sergeant, I was making the most of maiden policing. It's still not what a police officer makes. Not even close.

[Gary Parish]

No. Now I know the other issues that come in. I think in the state of Maryland they also ran into a problem with some of the officers have to have their own insurance for liability. And I couldn't understand that. And I still don't understand that. I mean until you go out there on the street. You know, I work basically in minority areas the whole time. And you know the interesting part, I look at some of the officers now and I'm concerned, you know, of course we'll talk about the Officers that I did backgrounds on and that were killed in line of duty. But I had an incident where I was working part time at a drug distributor on Southern Avenue, which is on the Maryland side. In the middle of the street is on the Washington D.C. side. And of course across the street is Washington D.C. well, back then there were riots going on and insurrections going on. And I was working part time, going to college at night and not in uniform and walking on the sidewalk on the Maryland side to protect the people leaving from work. And I was attacked by a person that thought that Caucasians were devils. He just got out of the St. Elizabeth's Mental Institution.

[John J. Wiley]

Good old St. Elizabeth, remember that? Back in the day.

[Gary Parish]

Oh, yeah. And so, you know, he came at me and put his hand behind his back and I drew my weapon, which you carry off, you know, all the time back then. It was an old lead ball. 38, short nose, Smith and Wesson, right. And he tried to grab it. And I can tell you what happens when you try to grab a gun. It generally goes off, but it went through his chest and mostly on the shoulder side. And we were fighting in the middle of the street of Washington D.C. you know, and there's blood and you know, the adrenaline's going. You don't know if you're shot or they're shot, right. And that's a fighting gun in between you. And I finally started to get the best of them. I bring him back over to the Maryland side and the crowd's gathering around and you know, with all the problems going on and the best thing I learned from that whole incident, because I called it signal 13, which is an officer in trouble. And for the people at the company and there was a bunch of kids standing around and they said, hey, that's Officer Parrish. He plays ball with us on the side lot. We know him. Yeah, we don't know the guy who's on the ground. And nobody had a. What's the problem? And I watch a lot of these guys nowadays, they stay in the cruisers and they don't get out and learn the neighborhood.

[John J. Wiley]

That's the thing that Gary, back in the day, we didn't do that. As a matter of fact, we got chewed out by the so called old timers. If you were that kind of police. And by the way, and when it came to policing, you had police officers, real police or good cops, back up. Then you had mobile report takers. They were the ones with windows rolled up and they were last ones to show up on a hot call if

[Gary Parish]

they did you knew those guys too? I knew them.

[John J. Wiley]

And they never got blood on your uniform. They never got IID numbers. They never got. And they're first ones promoted and they're first ones passing judgment on real police.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah. And yeah, I knew those guys too. And that was always a problem. But usually if you had a good squad and that you worked with, you know, when the cavalry starts coming, they come quickly. And they did. But I really didn't have a problem other than I had a problem. You have to go before a review board, which I'm sure you would know from somebody. And my former captain, when I worked in the watch commander's office, was head of the review board. And he said, well, Officer Paris, you were in Washington D.C. you left Maryland with this in the fight and you brought him back so he could get medical treatment. Is that correct? You know, being a young officer back at the end, you look at that and how the department watched out and the guys watched out for you. Nowadays, I can't say that's always true.

[John J. Wiley]

Now, here's the one thing, and I'll phrase this as a formal question. There's. Sometimes I miss policing. I look and say, man, I could do that. And then I realized it's a younger. I say man, man or woman. It's a younger person's job. And I did my time.

[Gary Parish]

Oh, absolutely, yeah. I don't know if you remember chasing people.

[John J. Wiley]

Oh, yes, I do still do.

[Gary Parish]

I worked on the TAC squad or the special operations squad for a while. We worked at the Capitol center and there was a guy on the roof of the Capital center running around. I think it was Muhammad Ali fight or something. And they told me to go up there and get him off. That's not an old guy's job.

[John J. Wiley]

That's what they listen. One of the hardest jobs I had to learn and I had old timers and when I say old timers, a lot of the. And I'm sure it's the same way at PG county at the time, a lot of the experienced officers were Vietnam combat veterans. And they. We had a few command staff that were Korean War veterans. And they didn't play. They didn't play when it came to spec. But one of the things they said was if you get into foot pursuit, shut the you know what up, because no one can understand you. So stop. And you only do is get yourself out of breath. Just keep the guy in sight. And when you can't see him anymore, he's probably hiding somewhere. Gary, can you relate to any of that?

[Gary Parish]

Oh, absolutely. In fact, we had to be a little careful when I was working on the street and we were doing a search warrant or something. If I had guys who came from the military, especially the Marine Corps, they follow directions very exactly.

[John J. Wiley]

Oh exactly to the left.

[Gary Parish]

Go in and find it. Or break this up. And they did exactly what you said.

[John J. Wiley]

Don't use the word break. We're done with Gary Parish. He is a former Prince George's County, Maryland police officer, did 10 years and left, which we'll talk about a little bit later on. He did background investigations as officers that were killed in line of duty, which we will talk about in a few moments. He's a representative for HD Barcode LLC and HD Life Preserver for First Responders. Their website is hdbarcode.com that's hdbarcode.com this is law enforcement talk radio show. Don't go anywhere. I promise you we'll be right back.

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[John J. Wiley]

A during conversation with Gary Parish on the Law Enforcement Talk radio show. Gary is a former Prince George's County, Maryland police officer, did 10 years and left. He did a lot of background investigations. Talk about a few moments. And some of those officers died, were killed in line of duty, which we'll definitely talk about. He is a representative for HD Barcode LLC and HD Life Preserver for First Responders. Their website is hdbarcode.com that's hdbarcode.com background investigations I really don't get. I remember being a young kid going through and having a disagreement with my soon to be background investigator and he's like, it was over polygraph and he's like, okay, we'll hire you. I'm like, oh, I'm hired. What do you mean? And then I was like, oh my goodness, am I tough enough? Am I smart enough? Am I resilient enough to handle being a Baltimore police officer? I didn't know. But I still to this day really don't comprehend what those guys, the background investigators, did.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, no, it is quite intensive and detailed. I have a funny story to begin with as a background investigator sitting in the office, there was five of us that did the backgrounds for both lateral transfers and new applicants. And we had a secretary, Zona Brown, and Zona actually got married to a captain. But Zona would be listening to a interview with my desk was right by her and she'd listen to the person talk for a while on the initial interview and leave. And then the person would leave and she'd come back and say, well, he's an Aries or he's a Cancer, he's a Scorpio. She was never wrong. I thought that was really amazing that she could pick out from an interview because I can't.

[John J. Wiley]

But no credence. But some people can.

[Gary Parish]

I don't either. But she never missed And I go like, that's really something. But in the interviews, it was very different in looking at an officer from a lateral transfer who was already a police officer, who knew the ins and outs, a lot of them, of the interview and what was going to go through and, you know, what would happen, you know, and whether he, you know, the polygraph or. I had a couple issues with one coming from another department, was a quarter inch short back then. You had to be 5 foot 10. And my lieutenant at the time said, well, doesn't qualify. My other investigator, who was quite qualified, said, take him over to our county doctor and take him in the morning and he'll be a. He'll meet the 510 qualifications. And he did. He ended up being a captain and retired.

[John J. Wiley]

Here's the thing, I'd love to tell you that there are books written about this stuff, how to get the AC interview and all this stuff. And to this day, I still don't know.

[Gary Parish]

I think the easiest part is be personable, be honest. Understand that all of us have shortcomings and had to go through. And, you know, I can't speak for now, but one of the nice parts about this was the department, if you stayed on, paid for your college education, if you didn't have one. And they offered classes because we worked three different shifts, which was a nightmare, you know, for seven days on, stay, two days off, seven on, two days off at different times. But they would let you do the classes in the morning or the evening from the University of Maryland through the University College at the Academy, which was really nice. I don't think they offer that now. You had to stay on to match the amount of time that you were offered. The education was paid for. But it makes it nice. I've got my degree from University of Maryland and it helps a lot to these officers and it helps them in understanding and being better officers, too, and going into class and with other people outside of that. So in the applicant side, you know, the lateral transfers created a lot of problems within our department. And you're probably going to ask why. Why would that be a problem? Well, because they were offering lateral transfers at the same rank.

[John J. Wiley]

That was unheard of. I didn't hear of anywhere else. Maybe California's the only place I've heard of other than that.

[Gary Parish]

Well, we had a problem that we ran into with the Justice Department back then of, you know, it occurred. It was kind of unique. Prince George's county was kind of unique in the nation. And the fact after the riots occurred and a lot of Washington. Their residents and buildings and stores got burned down. They moved to the next affordable county, which was Prince George.

[John J. Wiley]

Right.

[Gary Parish]

Virginia was too expensive. Montgomery's too expensive. So the population shift in like three years, right?

[John J. Wiley]

It changed dramatically.

[Gary Parish]

Changed dramatically. So you have a population now of probably 95% Caucasian officers and a 50, 50 minority population who didn't understand or didn't appreciate the difference in culture. And there is a difference.

[John J. Wiley]

The DOJ didn't see things that way. That looked at. I almost hate to say this, because people, they love the, quote dei, they love the. And now I'm going to get them a soapbox here. They'll say, oh, they're a DEI hire. What are you basing that of race? Because if you are, then you're no good than anybody else. That's the reality. And we had, back in the day, back in the 1980s, we had gay police, we had female police, we had Muslims, we had Jews, we had blacks, we had whites. And no one cared. No one cared.

[Gary Parish]

And we had the same thing. I had executive bureau. It was a Jewish guy who had been a Marine. And he said to Sam, he never understood why he did all this, but he wanted to serve.

[John J. Wiley]

Right?

[Gary Parish]

And you look at that. And a funny part about, like, going and doing the backgrounds and they would get into the academy, the females actually would shoot better on the range, Right. Did you know that?

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

They didn't have all the bad habits, you know, the gunslinger habits that guys have that think they can fire from the training, the instructors, they would learn how to do it the right way.

[John J. Wiley]

Right. Well, I was. I never handled guns until they got in the police academy. And that was a really good shot because I was easy. They said that because they didn't have to train out.

[Gary Parish]

Bad habits, you gotta train out. In fact, I hired the first female officer, if I remember correctly there, that came onto the department. I did her background and she. I ended up, I think, marrying another officer, which is not unusual, by the way, to, you know, you work together and you get to know each other.

[John J. Wiley]

Right?

[Gary Parish]

So within that, the laterals, you know, when you bring in somebody as a sergeant from, you know, Howard county or, you know, Detroit, and the training is entirely different. Now he's a sergeant in your department. And not only did you not match in culture and background, but it took away a sergeant's position because, as I'm sure you're aware, there's X number of positions that get promoted.

[John J. Wiley]

It did. It did. And the ones who were high on the list, they got passed over because someone was brought in as a sergeant from elsewhere.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, absolutely. And so you look at that and you go there. One of the things, fellows I did the background we'll talk about and kind of got me where I am today with running this company is Mark Murphy.

[John J. Wiley]

Tell us about Mark.

[Gary Parish]

Mark was a terrific guy, very clean background. Everybody says, well, you know all about me now. No, I don't actually remember most of it. In fact, I went to a reunion not too long ago of retired police officers and one guy said, you did my background and I didn't remember. You know, you do a lot of backgrounds. You look at it a lot of different. But Mark was really clean, did a great job and was hired and came on and he was doing a search warrant after he was hired. And when he went to do the search warrant, he got hit by friendly fire. We raised up when somebody drew a gun and was firing from inside the apartment and I believe that's how it occurred. And he was killed with friendly fire. And that was really sad. They made him. I think they brought in the sergeant after he was deceased. But I looked at that and I looked at the other officers in the company I have now. I said, okay, we can help if not only with their medical information, but contact the family. There's nothing worse than seeing something on the television from a helicopter shot with a guy on 5th and Jones street in the city. And your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend or husband knows that's where you're working in that beat and you're down. Officer shot.

[John J. Wiley]

And what happens traditionally nowadays, especially for a lot of survivors I've had on, is they may start making phone calls and when their loved one doesn't answer a phone call, then they're even worse. They don't know if they're involved or not, but it creates the anxiety. We're talking about Gary Parish. Gary is a former Prince George's County, Maryland police officer. Did 10 years and he was heavily involved in background investigations. We're continuing to talk about in a few moments, especially that of Mark Murphy. And now he is a representative for HD Barcode LLC and HD Life Preserver for First Responders. Their website is hdbarcode.com it's hdbarcode.com this is Law Enforcement talk radio show. We're going to talk more about how close it became to Mark, the after effects and more. Don't go anywhere. I promise you. We'll be right back.

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[John J. Wiley]

RETURN Conversation with Gary Parish on a law enforcement talk radio show. Gary is a former Prince George's County, Maryland police officer, did 10 years and left the agency, which I don't know if I have time to discuss why he left. He did background investigations, one of them being Mark Murphy, who's currently line of duty and now he is one of the movers and shakers for HD Barcode LLC and HD Life Preserver for first responders. Their website is hdbarcode.com it's hdbarcode.com Gary. I had an episode I did a long time ago with a guy named Gary that was an east side Baltimore cop. And we talked about a police officer named Vincent Adolfo who was shot and killed in the line of duty by a guy I won't mention. But I had arrested the same guy less than a year before for a handgun violation. And he's supposed to be in prison. He wasn't. He's driving a stolen car, leaving traffic court and he shot and killed someone. And I believe he was the second to last person executed in the state of Maryland. But it took me, even though I didn't know Vincent personally, I had a connection with this guy. And it made it really, really even more difficult than, I hate to say this, than other line of duty. That's.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, it is difficult because you can remember bringing. And then you start thinking and second guessing yourself. Because Mark wasn't the only one. There were several others that I did who were kill line of duty. And you look at it and you see, did I pick the right guy? Did I make a mistake? What would he been doing there now? Did I take it away from his family? So you carry some guilt with you.

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah, I was going to ask that. How guilty did you feel?

[Gary Parish]

That you care about it and you know, you got him into that job, you got him hired and he's no longer with us or his family. He had two daughters, Mark, head of a perfect record, as far as I understand, in the police department. Afterwards, you know, I left after the 10 years actually because of the Justice Department. They changed my job from the detective to put me back in patrol. And I said, I'm detective, I can eat in privacy.

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

And you know, and so I said, no, this is, you know, this opportunity, had another opportunity. Got involved with high tech and imaging systems and barcode scanners and stuff like that. But Mark was. There's nothing you can say bad about, you know, about his qualifications and what he did. He was clean.

[John J. Wiley]

Did you meet those guys before you started the background investigation? Did you have a face to face with them?

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, it was a procedure back then, was pretty straightforward. They would fill out an application, they would come in and we'd actually do a number of interviews. We keep records on the interviews. We would then go out, you know, of course we needed information about his family, husband, wife, kids, parents, grandparents. You know, church, anything he needed, anything that would help us get more information. And, you know, you could find that a lot. You know, sometimes ex girlfriends, you know, gives you information that you wouldn't probably want to know sometimes.

[John J. Wiley]

Right, right.

[Gary Parish]

So you get a lot of different things for the applicant. And that's just the first part. The second part, of course, they're going to. Whether it's a polygraph, after you do the background, they still have to go before a board to be hired. They have to take a written test. They have to pass, of course, at the beginning. And they go before the police officers, commander's board, and there's four or five commanding officers in there and they talk to them. But before he comes in or she comes in, they would ask me, should we hire him or not? That was the question. They would just leave it onto the investigator, say, are we bringing on the right person?

[John J. Wiley]

I'm sure they left the responsibility to you. Because if I know police brass and I don't always think of them fondly, they are very good at eluding responsibility.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, that's how they got there.

[John J. Wiley]

That's exactly how they got there.

[Gary Parish]

That's a joke. But it's kind of a.

[John J. Wiley]

So the question is, and I get why you didn't want to go back to patrol. I understand that. And I always say this very simply. Detectives usually work Monday through Friday, usually have weekends off, usually work day work. Then you've got the uniform patrol thing. It's rotating days off, rotating shift work, rotating, all that stuff. And by the way, you've got a target on your back all the time, 24, 7.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, that's the biggest problem you run into. Because I don't know if Baltimore did that, but Prince George back then, they changed it. Now I find out, and like I say, I am still in contact with one of the district commanders on a regular basis. We have lunch when I'm up there. And he tried to. He was part of the process of the new things we were trying to do. But you know that seven day on, two days off, seven days, three to 11, one day off, seven days midnight, it was four days off. By the time you're going through that 21 day cycle, you're pretty cranky.

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah, very cranky and very stressed out. And they show them that it shortens their lifespan. Crazy. Here's the other thing. We used to change every 28 days. And eventually when I was on the job, still we got a permanent midnight shift that was volunteer only. But what would happen was we would change the Midnight shift. And then we'd have court the next day. And you get off work at 7 or 8 in the morning, depending on which district you're at. And you could be in court till 11, 12 o', clock, go home, be wide awake at that point. And when you're in court, you're sequestered. You're not even allowed to be in the courtroom itself. So it was tiring, very tiring.

[Gary Parish]

I kind of related it to the ministry. I mean, this is a calling between work and then you'll get in the detective bureau, you'll get a call at night. We've arrested this guy, you know, you had a warrant out for and you need to come in and interview him. You need to get the paperwork ready for the court. The court. Then you got to sit in there on your day off and, you know, it became almost a seven day a week job, which doesn't do well for marriages for a lot of guys.

[John J. Wiley]

I'll tell you a funny story of me working midnight shift and I was a rookie cop in Baltimore at Liberty Heights and Garrison Boulevard. It was a red light and was waiting for the shift change call. And I fell asleep in a patrol car at a red light driving old Pontiac. And someone came. You know how you incorporate stuff in your dreams? You hear there's car horns blowing, there are people behind me, they're blocked. This guy out the window. You okay? I'm like, oh, I realized I fell asleep at the wheel. William park. And I took off.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, it's very easy to do. And some people look at that. I know that I don't know the term they use. In a lot of departments they used to have 82s, seasonal 82s, where you'd meet with an officer at midnight and you hadn't had maybe an hour or two hours sleep. And you say, I need to close my eyes, right, for safety. And he would watch out for you and listen out for you to make sure you were all great. And somebody came up saying, oh, you're sleeping on the job.

[John J. Wiley]

That's a different story for a different day. Gary, I want to go into what you're doing today. HD Barcode LLC and HD Life Preserver first responders. What is that?

[Gary Parish]

Well, what we do now is we provide the most advanced 2D code in the world, HD Barcode. Whereas a QR code, everybody knows they can put about 3,000 characters in, we can put 704,000. So we are instead of a messenger where you send data which anybody can copy and create phishing sites. We are A data carrier. So I can put all your medical records and all your emergency contacts in the code itself it only stays with the officer or the agent. And there is no database, there is no, you know, have to look up so they can have all the numbers. And it goes on a Tesla and we had been working with PPG Industries. Tesla is a waterproof material that goes on like oil cans and outside. So it goes onto your ID card. You can put it on a ID tag, you can put it on the vehicle or on a notepad. And so we created that and it makes it easy for the supervisor. For instance they have to have an authorization code for each agency to be able to read that code or they can have the app on there. They don't need to go on the Internet at all. So each one is done individually for each department. So the protection is there to do that. Since that time I've been working with different agencies for autism, for Alzheimer's, for seniors, for people that are visually impaired that we can do that. And we don't have to have certain information on there. So it doesn't have to be a private app or we won't violate HIPAA violations. So it's really nice and it's on a label so it's inexpensive. And if something changes we have a little form you fill out. It makes the code and it goes away and it stays with the officer which is nice. So at 3am in the morning and you want to reach somebody, it's not always easy. You don't have that number for your spouse so it becomes important. So we've been working on that and we just finished up part where we're putting it on your foods and drugs. So it puts the entire directions for use. So people that can't read that small three point type. So those are the things we're working on. I've been getting a lot of cooperation from a number of departments and individuals into those departments to help with it. So that's where we are with it.

[John J. Wiley]

And that's website is hdbarcode.com Am I correct?

[Gary Parish]

That is correct.

[John J. Wiley]

And can people reach you there and get more information about your products and contact you?

[Gary Parish]

There's absolutely call our office and we'd be glad to help them. And always looking for new suggestions. Like one of the commanders said, I want to know if my officers are going into the 7 11s. Can they scan a code?

[John J. Wiley]

Yes, they are. Gary, thanks so much for being a guest on the law enforcement talk radio show. Very much appreciated.

[Gary Parish]

Thank you. John Jay, take care.

[John J. Wiley]

I'd like to thank our guests for coming on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. The Law Enforcement Talk Radio show is a nationally syndicated weekly radio show broadcast on numerous AM&FM radio stations across the country. We're always adding more affiliate stations. If you enjoyed the podcast version of the show, which is always free, please do me a favor and tell a friend or two or three. I'll be back in just a few days with another episode of the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show and Podcast. Until then, this is John J. Wiley. See ya.

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[Gary Parish]

It really does help the show to grow.

[Granger Announcer]

Thank you for listening.