National Police Association Podcast with Guest David Miklos
I have a fellow retiree with me today, a law enforcement officer with an incredible career. We're gonna talk about that. And then, you know, we're gonna talk about a lot of things today, and and that's why I wanted to bring this guest in because, we have we have so much happening now as we move into 2025 with American law enforcement, with the change of tide in this country. And I also want people to know that, you know, law enforcement officers, are so involved in our communities, and I I don't think we talk about that enough either. So we got a lot to talk about.
Betsy Brantner Smith:Dave Miklos, welcome to the show.
David Miklos:Thank you very much, Betsy. We really appreciate being here.
Betsy Brantner Smith:So let's talk first and foremost. Why'd you become a cop, Dave?
David Miklos:Well, I went to college and got a degree in none other than recreation administration of all things. And I worked in that career for about 11 years when I I moved to North Los Angeles County. I was working for a city there running recreation programs. And a lot of our constituents and people that were participating were LA County deputy sheriffs. Sports programs, they were in our adult sports and kids sports and things like that.
David Miklos:And, over a few years of them getting to know me and vice versa, they started heavily recruiting me to say, you should think about becoming a deputy sheriff. It's taught in the late eighties, probably 1987. And I kind of laughed it off and never even thought about it. I had a different career in my mind. I'm married for 10 years.
David Miklos:I had a 6 year old son, but they kinda kept pushing me about it. And I thought, well, you know, let me just actually go on a ride along, see what that's all about. And, you know, after that first ride along, something just went off in my heart. My brain is thinking, wow. This this is really something where you could have a positive influence on your community and a positive influence on other people.
David Miklos:It's just so exciting because it's something different every day. So I really had a strong impression from the people that I was just going on these ride alongs with. And so I finally decided after I talked to my wife about it, and she was all all for it, that I was gonna become a deputy sheriff for Los Angeles County. So I started to find out back in those days, it was a little more difficult to find out what do I have to do, but I found out what those things were. I was 32 years old already, and I thought, you know what?
David Miklos:I I'm gonna become in the most physically fit I could possibly get and find everything I can about how to become a deputy sheriff. And the academy turned out to be quite exciting and super fun that I had a just tremendous career, for 28 years. And, after right about the time I retired, I became employed by Rio Hondo College Police Academy. So I'm still working part time at a police academy in Whittier, California because I I really love the the career so much and wanna have still have an impact on future leaders, in in law enforcement.
Betsy Brantner Smith:You know, one of the things that that, we have seen over the last several years is a a reduction in standards for police recruits, especially when it comes to physical fitness. Talk about because when you and I started, you know, I started in the early eighties, and and, you had to be a an athlete to, even pass the testing and and things like that. And and we've really gotten away from that in a lot of agencies in this country. Talk about why physical fitness is so important to police officers.
David Miklos:Yes. When we start recruiting because we have basically information meetings, people who are interested in the job and coming into the academy. I tell them anybody else who asked me, there's only 2 things you have control over when you're getting ready to go into a career in law enforcement. That is your physical fitness, number 1, and your attitude. Your job history is what it is.
David Miklos:Your your financial status is what it is. Your school history is what it is. There's nothing you can do about that now. But you can control your physical fitness, and you can control your attitude. That's what's gonna carry you a a long ways in this career.
David Miklos:Because the the physical fitness I found for myself, keeps my mind clear. It makes me feel confident in my abilities to go out and do the job and protect myself, to protect the community, and protect my partners so that I can I can stay in any situation physically long enough for, you know, the troops to come and help, arrives? And not only that, if you physically fit, I think it reduces the amount of stress. And if it reduces that amount of stress, ultimately, you're gonna end up with a a longer retirement than you will have had for a career. So if you work 30 years, hopefully, your retirement's gonna be 30 plus because you kept yourself in that, physical condition.
David Miklos:Becomes eventually becomes a lifestyle choice, and it just becomes a habit after a while, because it feels good, to stay fit and stay healthy. And then I I think, again, it helps your emotional state. It helps your your fitness state and kind of brings us back to why I got involved in the the California Police Athletic Federation and and Police Olympics is what it what it originally called because it brings in that fitness level, that emotional level of of being able to compete and have camaraderie with fellow, first responders in this event. So it was really a neat tie in for me having had a recreation degree and working in that field for 11 years. Becoming a police officer now has come full circle.
David Miklos:I'm kinda doing both of those things with the police and fire games, putting together athletic events and related to law enforcement. Good stuff.
Betsy Brantner Smith:Let's talk about the the police and fire games now. You know, police Olympics, we used to call it. And and, I had, when I was on the job, I had, several of my officers were very involved in that. My my husband was involved in the senior Police Olympics until he Yeah. Ripped his pack off of his chest, preparing for a bench press con contest.
Betsy Brantner Smith:But, but that that was one of the most exciting things for us was to see one of our brothers or sisters competing in in some of those events. Tell people about that.
David Miklos:Yeah. It's super exciting. I mean, I got involved in it probably in the late nineties when I first heard about, Police Olympics. And, there are so many events to get involved in. And once you I got involved, it's kinda after you get through high school and college and you were in involved in any sports there, kinda there's nothing really left after that.
David Miklos:But when you we have these police Olympics that came into being back in 1967, Duke Nious, who was the originator of this and the guy named Bob Burt, Duke was from San Diego PD, and Bob was LAPD. And, they just had a love for sports and a love for the competition and the camaraderie that it brought. They instituted this event called the Police Olympics. And over the years, it's had different names and different titles, but, you know, it's still really the same, great organization that is interested in promoting sports. And along with those sports, we're creating camaraderie, we're creating comradeship, and and competition for, athletes involved in firefighters or police officers and other types of first responders like paramedics and emergency medical technicians, things like that.
David Miklos:And it's it's really just a fun way to stay fit, and it gives you a goal to set your sights on. And so we train throughout the year to keep your fitness level up, not only for the job, but, you know, for these competitions. And, it's a really kind of a different type of competition when you get there. It's more of a type of a friendly get together. I mean, you get together, and you're you're meeting people from all over the country and in some cases, all over the world because we have 2 different events that we coordinate under the, banner CPAF, United States Police and Fire Championships, which happens every year, the World Police and Fire Games, which happens every other year at some location in the world.
David Miklos:And it's just a way for all of us first responders to get together, meet people who are doing the same thing you're doing, you know, across the Atlantic and and, Europe or Asia or African continent or South American continent. It's it's just super exciting to find you. I've made friends that I started doing the World Games back in 2001 where it was held in Indianapolis, Indiana, and that happens to be the first game's that our president, Jim King, was really heavily involved in in creating those games. And once I I did that, I was hooked on that world game activity, and, you know, I've been involved in it ever since. And now to the point where I'm a director, vice president of the organization and trying to help this, continue to move on and bring in, this great activity to many people as we can throughout the world.
Betsy Brantner Smith:And that I think that's so important throughout the world. This is an international, situation. I think that's one of the most exciting things about it is Exactly. Is that you have athletes, 1st responder athletes from around the world.
David Miklos:Yeah. It's, typically, we'll end up at a world games with from at least over 70 different countries. I mean, we're talking about place we get police and fire from Mongolia. Right? Real heavy, athlete athletes coming from the Indian continent.
David Miklos:We get them from all over Europe, all over South America. Canada's really heavily, instituted. And a lot of our board of directors are also from around the world. We have, from United Kingdom. We've got, well, actually in I Ireland.
David Miklos:I guess, Belfast is where one of our directors from. We have a couple from Australia. We have, one from Spain, several from the United States, but all over the United States. Because initially, this all started in California. And then over the years, it spread.
David Miklos:And, of course, it didn't include firefighters at the beginning, but now it's real heavily, influenced by our presidents of firefighter from Indianapolis and one of our other board of directors of firefighter from Fairfax, County in in Virginia. So it's just really a a great experience to be able to get to know these people and be like minded and and try to bring all this together, through our hosts, which is gonna be in Birmingham, Alabama in 2025. Right? So late June late June into the July 4th week is when our next World Games will take place in Birmingham. Alright?
David Miklos:And their previous games, which happened 2 years ago, and with 2023 was in Winnipeg, Canada. And then 2 years from Birmingham is gonna be in Perth, Australia. So we're going to Western Australia who'll be hosting the games in 2027. That'll be super exciting. There'll be a third time the games have been held in Australia.
David Miklos:And, you
Betsy Brantner Smith:know, it's not just, you know, running and weightlifting and stuff like that. You have so many, diverse sports. Right? Talk about some of those.
David Miklos:Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of the latest, hottest games are like pickleball, which has really grown exponentially.
Betsy Brantner Smith:Everyone alright plays football. Right?
David Miklos:It's it's really turned into a really great event. The combat sports are still very heavy. We still have boxing. We still have Brazilian jujitsu, karate, taekwondo, judo. Those are still very popular.
David Miklos:But, Birmingham's actually gonna institute a chess. This is a kind of an introductory sport that we've never really had before, but they're gonna try out chess. We have darts. We've got cornhole. Yeah.
David Miklos:Basically, beanbag toss, which is really highly competitive. And it's really highly competitive. That's a a great sport. Really fun to watch. It's really, really, really a neat sport.
David Miklos:So there's all kinds of interesting things that are over and above, you know, the normal athletics, like swimming and track and field and, you know, the Olympic power lifting sports. We but we we do have things like dragon boat. It's a team rowing event, basically, that's it's on water on a I think there's, like, 12 athletes that are on a boat for rowing, those kind of things. Ultimate firefighting, we have some sports specific events for firefighters that really involve really physical, physically demanding events that require the types of things they do as on the job, putting hoses together, using their access to to move certain things or break certain things and running upstairs on all their equipment, including their their masks. So there's some really cool events that are specific for firefighters, and then there's also more specific to law enforcement types of things where there's a long bore, short bore, rifle, shotgun events like ski trap, those kind of things, and then also a lot of pistol events.
David Miklos:Although there are quite a few firefighters that are getting involved in in those firearms events as well. But there's some really cool things. Some of the other unique things I think that are gonna happen at Birmingham is a contest for dog handlers. So, like, bomb dogs and narcotics dogs. So it can be a competition for those athletes, to have their dog involved as well.
David Miklos:And that's really kind of a cool sport for people to come and watch as well, the spectators. So we're looking forward to this in Birmingham, Alabama. People think, Birmingham? Why would you go to Birmingham? But, what we do is we have a bid process.
David Miklos:These, people who see this event usually starts with some athlete that came and thought, man, this is cool. I think that we shot it do this in Winnipeg, or I think we ought to do this in Indianapolis. And and so they get their bid team together, and they get the buy in from local, government officials and private sponsors, and eventually, we'll make a bid similar to the Olympics. You know, from what we've been told and what I understand, our World Games is is the 3rd largest amateur athletic event in the world behind the Olympics, the Summer Olympics, or the Winter Olympics. We're bigger than than anybody else as far as the number of athletes, the number of sports, and the things we do.
David Miklos:So it has a really phenomenal economic impact in the cities that that host it. And I think that's one of the things that, you know, city governments and and private entities see this. They see, okay. You're gonna bring 8 to 10000 athletes here along with their families and, and and get involved in all these great fun events and sports. That's part of the allure because, you know, back in the day, I not nothing against Indianapolis, Indiana.
David Miklos:But I said, why would I ever go there unless I was gonna go see the the the 500 race? But once my wife and I win, we got involved in that and saw all the cool things that are in and around Indianapolis. It's just really a cool city. It's kind of the same thing with Birmingham. Because, you know, they put in a bid, and we go through the bid process, and they show us the venues that they have available, which are phenomenal, and and the nightlife and and different activities that are in and around Birmingham that I think people all over the world would be really interested in seeing.
David Miklos:It's a cool city. Our registration is actually probably gonna be opening within a week here, just the next few days. The their website is live. It's b h m, WPFG 2025. You can go to that website.
David Miklos:Cpaf.org is our other website that you can easily get to our annual event, USPFC, or or biannual event, WPMG, by that website. And you can go look. The the entry book is already there. It tells everything about which events are happening, and how the registration process is. And there's a lot of details in that registration book because when people are traveling internationally and they're gonna compete, like, say, in one of these firearms events, gee, how do I get a gun into the United States?
David Miklos:How do I do that? So all of those things are explained in our our book in a lot of detail, all the accommodations, all the the nightlife, different excursion things you can do. Because most people, when they do this, they'll bring their families. Right? They're looking for other things to do with their family.
David Miklos:And, you know, the the host usually provides a lot of really neat events. And, also, they'll add a lot of things about what to do in and around Birmingham and how to have a good time there and maybe expand your trip beyond just your competition. So we're really excited about Birmingham and seeing, you know, how well they're gonna do to host these games.
Betsy Brantner Smith:And I think this is such a a great opportunity for American law enforcement to kinda, you know, show off our stuff, show off our nation. And because we really are into 2025 entering, we're hopeful a new era of positivity toward the American law enforcement officer. And I this is a great way to kick it off. Don't you think?
David Miklos:I absolutely. It's, it it is kind of interesting because there's a lot of things that are maybe political that sometimes we have to be concerned about. And as a board when we're, you know, doing certain things and and presenting our games, and we take into consideration things that might be happening globally or even worldwide. Like, for example, what's going on Ukraine, right, with with Russia. We basically follow the same principles as the Olympic organizing committees about okay.
David Miklos:You can't Russian athletes can't come as a Russian team. The individual athletes can come. They're just independent. Same thing with, I think it's Georgia over there. Well, one of those other supporting countries of Russia.
David Miklos:But that's just kinda one of those things we politically sensitive, you know, trying to people because it's still difficult for some countries to get a visa to come here. India, Pakistan, they have difficult times. Not more so much with us, but with their own country, trying to get visas to come. And that's another thing that the hosts really have to get involved in is there's a lot of intricacies. Some of these nations actually need invitation letters.
David Miklos:Okay. You say you wanna go to the police and fire games in the United States of America. You need an invitation letter. So we have to sometimes produce those things. Yes.
David Miklos:You are invited to come. A lot of countries like Pakistan, some of those eastern many eastern countries, similar kind of thing. So, again, we'll get anywhere from depending on, the year, anywhere from 6 to 10000 athletes. Our biggest one most recent was probably in Fairfax, Virginia. Usually, we get a real big turnout in in the games that are held in the United States just because we get a, you know, a phenomenal number of US athletes that come.
David Miklos:And, typically, the host country usually has the most athletes that that attend a a games. Say, when we were in the Netherlands a a few years ago, they they're oh, they had the most. Those countries are in and around. You know? That's, yeah, any European country.
David Miklos:So we're looking forward to it in in Birmingham, and it's gonna be phenomenal. And I think, again, they have a good tradition, really a strong tradition of supporting law enforcement and firefighters in in the south. And, and the people really do support the people in the south. And it kinda brings a topic to mind that just to throw in that I think, at least in my own personal experience here at the academy that I work at, the people in general still really supportive of law enforcement and firefighters. Absolutely love love.
Betsy Brantner Smith:Absolutely. Very, very well said. Dave, tell us again where people can find out about the games.
David Miklos:The probably the easiest way to do it is go to our website with cpaf.org, cpath.org. And on that website, it'll take you to, different links where you can go to the United States Police and Fire Championships, which will be coming up in San Diego, the last week of May, 1st week of June. Similar type of events, just a little bit smaller scale. We'll end up with about 3,000 athletes at that games. Then it'll take you to the world games where you could see how to register and look at what you could do in Birmingham, Alabama, the last week of June, 1st week of July.
David Miklos:Registration book is there. Registration will be opening soon. So cpaf.org is the best way to go to find out everything you need to know about how do I get involved in the competition. How do I I start doing these things?
Betsy Brantner Smith:That's awesome. I I'll tell you, David. I can't thank you enough for spending time with us today and talking about, all the things that that you guys offer. And if you'd like more information about the National Police Association, visit us at nationalpolice.org.
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