National Police Association Podcast with Guest, Matt Swartz, Deputy Sheriff, Trauma Survivor & Speaker
Hi. This is sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith with the National Police Association, and this is the National Police Association podcast. I have a guest with me today who is the true picture of resilience, but it really goes way beyond that. This is a guy who, really for decades has been serving, but he's also been inspiring. And I just thought that you needed to hear his story.
Betsy Smith:Deputy Matt Swartz, welcome to the show.
Matt Swartz:Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Betsy Smith:So let's get right into it. First of all, I gotta ask you because I ask every cop I talk to this question. Why'd you become a cop?
Matt Swartz:It's one of those questions I've been asked in the past, and, of course, I've answered it in the past, but I grew up around it. Both of my parents were police officers. So to say that it was meant to be or it was my destiny through high school, you would have never believed it because I had grown my hair long, and I wanted to be a rock star. And I wasn't really a problem child, but I was definitely given given the rope to hang myself with plenty of times by mom and dad. And we used to laugh because as kids, we would be out doing something, tearing up the neighborhood or whatever, and all the kids would be like, oh my god.
Matt Swartz:The cops. And take off. And dad always knew where to find me because he would just come home, and I couldn't get away with much of anything. But that being said, as I grew up, I just kinda followed that path and and wanted to serve and wanted to be part of fighting the good fight, so to speak, and, you know, leading the charge and being part of the law enforcement family. And I basically kinda stepped up, necessarily in dad's footsteps, but alongside of him because he was actually still working when I got started.
Matt Swartz:So there was a few days that we, interacted a little bit. And, of course, you know, dad, a couple times, had to pull me aside and have the the veteran to rookie talk. And he even told me, he's like, I'm not talking to your father and son. I'm talking to you as a senior man. You should think about this.
Matt Swartz:Try that, you know, and just kinda helping me out as I got started.
Betsy Smith:So on into your police career, you got involved in a in a crash off duty that really changed the trajectory of your of your whole life certainly and certainly your whole police career. Talk about that.
Matt Swartz:Yeah. I was years into my career, so I had already been experienced with you know, like a lot of the guys, while you're working, you're experienced death and crime and some of the worst times for people's lives and some of the best. So I was an experienced officer, but the one morning I was actually off duty, I was, on my way down to a property that, I was in the process of building a house on, and I was involved in a crash, and it was off duty. It was 11/08/2004 at 07:34 in the morning. A kid not paying attention, and he, hit my pickup truck in the side and basically t boned me and and flipped the truck and caused it to roll four times.
Matt Swartz:And during that, of course, I sustained some pretty serious injuries and literally in a in a split second without even realizing it happened because I was unconscious and life changed for me.
Betsy Smith:So when you, you woke up in the hospital, and when did you start to realize that things were gonna change?
Matt Swartz:It was a couple weeks after the crash. Initially, of course, I had a traumatic brain injury and skull was fractured, numerous broken bones, and they actually called for a helicopter to come and take me into the hospital. In all my years, was familiar with hospitals and I knew what the ICU was, the intensive care unit. I never knew what a special care unit was until after the fact when they told me that I was so serious. They brought me to, you know, one of the high level trauma centers in the area by helicopter, and they went right past the intensive care unit and brought me to that special care unit where they had me hooked up to life support and, you know, the breathing machine and all the different tubes.
Matt Swartz:That being said, I was basically just a a body laying in the bed for days and days while everybody else gathered around at the hospital and tried to be there for me and be there with me and just hoping and praying that I was gonna wake up. And eventually, I did, but, of course, I still I wasn't there. My body was awake, so to speak, and I I could move, but I couldn't really think. I couldn't talk and couldn't necessarily communicate. And it wasn't until two or three weeks later, when I got sent to a brain injury hospital for a recovery period, and I actually fell out of bed.
Matt Swartz:And that was, like, the first thing that I remembered. So in other words, like, that was me. I remembered falling, I remember thinking something is seriously wrong. Now what do I do? And I laid there on the floor, and it was actually a nurse walking by the room, and the door was open.
Matt Swartz:And she saw me laying on the floor and came in and helped me back into bed. And that's when things started to kinda sink in, so to speak, that I could understand start to understand what was going on.
Betsy Smith:How serious were your injuries?
Matt Swartz:Well, I wound up with, the traumatic brain injury. And in such, I had injury to the front of my head, so I lost my sense of smell. My vision had gone to 2,400. I was basically blind, and one of the ears ringing. Of course, the brain swelled quite a bit, but, I also had a lot of damage to one of my arms with a broken elbow, and then my left leg, the ankle had gotten crushed.
Matt Swartz:And as it turned out, that got to be one of the major parts of the problem as well as my story and my life. They couldn't restore the blood flow. But initially, they also they couldn't stabilize me when they brought me into the hospital. And they were concentrating on the brain injury and and my injuries to my head. And after a short time when they couldn't get me to stabilize, they checked the arm, and they said, well, that's nothing to worry about.
Matt Swartz:Let's check the foot. And when they did, it was not an open fracture. It was like a closed fracture. I forgot what you call them. So when the ankle broke, it actually shredded the tibial artery, and I was basically bleeding out.
Matt Swartz:But because it wasn't opened up, I wasn't losing blood. And the blood and the swelling had slowed it down, but my pressure didn't stabilize. So I was basically slowly bleeding out because of the swelling. And that being said, when they cut it open, the the surgeons were like, oh, we found the problem and blood everywhere. And with that, they closed up a couple of the arteries, got me to stabilize, and then started trying to do the orthopedic repair.
Matt Swartz:And at that point, they told the family as well as my coworkers and my bosses, other people that had come to the hospital. So with that, the doctors explained that they had fused the foot together, but it just didn't work out. And after a couple weeks, they ultimately I got gangrene and they had to amputate the, left foot. So I became a a left leg below knee amputee, and didn't realize it.
Betsy Smith:So here you are. You're trying to rehabilitate from this horrific crash. You've got a TBI. Now you're an amputee. And are you thinking I gotta get back in a patrol car?
Matt Swartz:Yes. I wanted to get back to life, back to normal, so to speak. And, of course, initially, the challenge was just absolutely monumental because I had to learn how to walk. I had to learn how to stand, run, much less, you know, how to be a cop still. But as things started to improve, it was kinda like that learning curve.
Matt Swartz:I was here, and it got a little better a little better a little better a little better, and then things were going very well. And, eventually, I got to the point where I was running different five k races and downhill skiing. I lived in Upstate New York. We had the winter was there, and I went skiing. And I was getting into everything, and I was doing doing pretty well with it.
Matt Swartz:And then eventually made my made it back to work. It wasn't easy, but I did make it back.
Betsy Smith:Now your your crash was at a time when prosthetic technology was good, but not as good as it is now. Did you have you know? So once you decided, hey. I'm gonna go back to being a cop, did you work with physical therapists, physicians? What did you do to to Yes.
Betsy Smith:Get a prosthetic that would allow you to chase bad guys and fight with bad guys and things like that?
Matt Swartz:Catch 22 because the technology was there, but private health and health insurance wouldn't pay for it. If I was a wounded warrior project, those guys were getting four, five, six leg legs for different events and everything else. And I got one, and I had to have it do everything. So it was definitely a challenge for me. But while I was home trying to recover, I found actually found other police officers that had prosthetic legs.
Matt Swartz:And I started making phone calls, and I got in touch with a few of these guys. And then things really started to look up for me and, you know, the encouragement from the guys as well as some of the behind the scenes, like how to how to get a pair of combat boots on with a prosthetic leg. You gotta have side zip boots. You know, the little things like that that the guys would tell me and little stories of their, triumphs and tribulations being a cop and working with a prosthetic.
Betsy Smith:Did you go back to the same agency?
Matt Swartz:Yes. Yes. I was a trooper for the New York State Police, and we didn't have light duty at the time. So while I was out, I was sick, and the guys were donating vacation time for me to kinda stay on the books with a paycheck coming in while I healed up. And that being said, it meant the world to me to be able to go back early.
Matt Swartz:I had enough leave. I could have stayed out for a year and a half. That leave was already on the books donated for me, and I actually went back eleven months after the crash. So I was able to, you know, not use everybody's leave and and go back early, so to speak, as soon as I possibly could.
Betsy Smith:Now you became because I remember I remember when this when you went back to work. I was on the job. You were you were pretty well known in the profession and extraordinarily inspiring, not just to other cops, but to kids and to military veterans who were coming back and wanted to get into law enforcement. And and so you started going out and and sharing your story a little bit at a time, didn't you?
Matt Swartz:Yeah. And, you know, the and that's what I told a lot of people. I never set out to be that inspirational or motivation. I just fought like heck to keep my job and do what I you know, fight the good fight. And part of what I would tell everybody, a a badge doesn't make you a cop.
Matt Swartz:A police car doesn't make you a cop. A gun doesn't make you a cop. They're just tools to help you do your job. And I just have an extra tool. I got a left leg to go along with my badge and my gun and my patrol car, and it makes it easier to do my job.
Matt Swartz:I could still arrest somebody without that leg. It'd be a little bit awkward. But, you know, that that will to, you know, fight the good fight and and do the right thing and be part of the blue line and be strong and and all that. It just that's kind of in that core, so to speak. And it's hard to step away from it even after getting plenty enough time in, and I retired from from the New York State Police and moved south.
Matt Swartz:And now here I am still in law enforcement working for the Clay County Sheriff's Department in Florida and still doing although it's it is a little bit tougher. I'm I'm definitely older than when I started, but I I go to the gym, and I still try to stay in shape and do stuff with my leg and and still exercise, of course, and try to stay strong enough to hold the line.
Betsy Smith:And I want I want you to talk about that because physical fitness is it's very important to law enforcement. Right? But everybody sees, you know, fat cops out there and this and that. When you're wearing a prosthetic and you're when you're a state trooper as well because you're mostly by yourself. Right?
Betsy Smith:How tell people how important fitness is.
Matt Swartz:Well, I really believe that I, you know, I was not, like, a a bodybuilder or anything. I was in good shape when I was younger, but I was in decent shape. I was active. And every year, we did our PT test, and I always did decent. And I would go to the gym and workout.
Matt Swartz:Also, I was in I lived in farm country, so I was always out working with the animals and doing some physical labor, you know, whether it's building fences or whatever the case. And when that life changing moment happened, the fact that I was in decent physical condition really helped, and it helped the recovery. And knowing what to do in the gym and how to exercise, and it just that kinda set the tone. If anything, it made it more prominent because once I did start going back to the gym and working out, I was it was just more natural for me to be in and working and and working out in that.
Betsy Smith:Now you're, I guess we'd call you an extremely lucky guy. I think we'd also kinda call you, in some cases, an unlucky guy, because you're that lightning strikes twice guy. Talk about your second crash.
Matt Swartz:Yeah. So I after the first crash, I went back to work and I finished out my time and I retired under my own circumstances. I got my years in and I retired. And then I took another job in South, and I was actually on my way to work, and I got hit again. This time it was head on, but that crash actually was worse than the first one, orthopedically.
Matt Swartz:And the second one, I was actually pinned in the car, and they had to use the jaws of life to try to get the dash off of me and get me out of the car. But, I wound up on the same this became like that saying, add that insult to injury. So already being an amputee on the left side and a broken elbow and the skull fractures and all that, and I made it back. I recovered. And then I got hit again, and it was basically that same not quite the same direction, but on the same side.
Matt Swartz:And I wound up with a broken femur and broken hip bone, all on that same side of already being an amputee, and then broken left arm. So I got plates in my arm. My hip got pinned together. They put a rod in the femur and then basically healed me up and put the prosthetic back on. There you go.
Matt Swartz:There you go. Try it again. And same thing. I had to go through physical therapy and try to figure this all out and and get get healed up and back to work. And that time, actually, it was only six months, and I went back to work after six months.
Matt Swartz:But, yeah, it's it's been interesting. The guys, of course, know, have always been full of humor. And the guys, when I went back to work, they're like, I'm not riding with you. Maybe you should just stay at work from home. Or one of the guys said, maybe you should just get, like, a armored truck and drive to work in an armored truck, you know, all the jokes.
Matt Swartz:And even after the first crash, the state troopers that I worked with would joke about it. And one of the first ones and he was a joker anyways, but he came up to the house to check on me, and he said, hey. We've been thinking about it, and you're gonna have a really, really hard time coming back to work. And I said, what are you yeah. I know.
Matt Swartz:I'm struggling. He goes, no. You're gonna have a tough time in court. So what do you mean? And he said, you were always known for good court cases and good arrests and your paperwork was up, but now you're you're not gonna do very well in court.
Matt Swartz:And I'm like, what are you talking about? And he said, yeah. No matter how good your court cases are, you're still not gonna have a leg to stand on. Ho ho ho ho. So and that was, you know, when it started.
Matt Swartz:Next thing you know, the jokes, the guys coming up with creative ways to, crack jokes about being one legged. And, of course, you know, if I couldn't go back to work, they said, you'll you can always get a job at the IHOP. And I'm like, yeah. Okay. That's real funny, guys.
Betsy Smith:The cops think this stuff's hysterical.
Matt Swartz:Oh, yeah. Yeah. The cops were like the guys were like, once we knew you were gonna live, we just had to laugh about it. Okay. Thanks.
Betsy Smith:Thanks, guys. Now you didn't just, you know, rehabilitate again, come back to work, all that stuff. A lot of what you did, you know, you you ran competitively. You you ended up at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, FLETC, as an instructor. Yes.
Betsy Smith:You know, you know, firearms tactics, all that. How did that happen?
Matt Swartz:It was planned. I I had applied, was planning for a potential second retirement, so to speak, and it was in my wheelhouse, so to speak, doing, the instructor thing because I was also an instructor for the New York State Police as a firearms instructor. So when I went to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, I actually went in as a firearms instructor. And, my health, of course, I was doing good. With state police, we didn't have light duty, so it was all or nothing.
Matt Swartz:So I was kind of that mentality right from the beginning, like, it's all for me because it's not gonna be nothing. I've gotta run. I've gotta do better than the other guys because everybody's gonna look at me a little bit more critical. And that being said, when I went to FLETC as an instructor, I've prided myself as being, an experienced veteran retired officer, and I'm trying to show the guys something to follow in my footsteps, so to speak. So when I would teach stuff and demo demonstrate stuff, I would, you know, take a kneeling position, take a prone position, run, do and some of my classes, I would even do push ups with the class leader if the guy screwed up, and I would put challenges out for, you know, like, a little shooting competition.
Matt Swartz:If you guys can hit this thing a certain number, I'll do a push up for every time that you hit the steel plate or, you know, just different things like that, which is important for camaraderie, important for leadership, but also important to, you know, show the guys, like, hey. This is what we're this this important to be physically fit.
Betsy Smith:Now you're married, to a undoubtedly a really strong woman. And, and and you credit that, you know, support from family, that supportive camaraderie, including the jokes from your coworkers to to helping you continue on this life of of service and and resilience. Talk about family support for your average law enforcement officer. How important is that?
Matt Swartz:It's critical. And and something especially when you're a young officer, you're so into that mindset of move forward, push forward. I gotta do this. I gotta and it's long for we eat, sleep, and breathe. And a lot of times, will drift away from the family.
Matt Swartz:They're not quite as important because work is more important, or you're busier, spending more time, more hours in the patrol car than you are at home. And and I was the same way. I was busy. I had a lot going on. But when the crash happened, luckily, I wasn't that far removed from my my family was important.
Matt Swartz:My friends were important. So I did have that support network, so to speak, and the family really stepped in to be there for me. And I didn't forget that. And I that was one of the things that that that kinda brought me back to that place when I was doing the recovery, that place of, you know, reminding me that the family is important, and thank god I have them. And that being said, when I did start doing some of my speeches to different police academies and different places that were having me come in to tell my story, I would kind that was kind of my strength in in my story was that it's it's the normal.
Matt Swartz:It's the everyday. I wasn't a SWAT officer that was shot down in a blaze of glory. I wasn't, you know, stopping a bank robbery or breaking up a gang. It was just a stupid off duty crash. And that being said, I'm not, like, the gifted public speaker.
Matt Swartz:Heck, I'm half bald. I've got this low monotone voice. But that was, like, the strength of my story was to tell everybody, like, I am one of you guys. I am not the perfect speaker up front, and I'm not, you know, the SWAT officer full of muscles. I am about as normal as you can get.
Matt Swartz:And if you look to the officer on your right and the officer on your left, the odds are one of those might not be here in the next four years because we're losing more cops in car crashes than we are in gunfire. And that, like I said, that was kind of the importance of my story that I'm the same. I am one of you guys. And if it wasn't for my support network of family and friends and coworkers, but especially the family, things would have been a lot tougher for me.
Betsy Smith:How frustrating was it in 2020 and 2021 after you had worked so hard to stay on the job as a police officer to see our profession just so demonized and vilified in the media and by politicians? What was that like for you?
Matt Swartz:It was tough. I was somewhat removed from that being an instructor. I wasn't out working patrol at the time, so I hated seeing it. But and a lot of people that knew me and knew I was a police officer, they would ask, why don't cops do this? Why are cops like that?
Matt Swartz:And I would have to kinda put myself in check because I, you know, I didn't wanna get into arguments with people. Well, I wanted to, but I did. But that actually was a catalyst for changes in what I did with my career. When the whole world said that cops are they need to deescalate, and they're using force too much. The federal law enforcement training center actually took that challenge up and got congressional money to put together a use of force and deescalation program and start traveling around teaching it to different local state local law enforcement throughout the country, and I was able to be a part of that.
Matt Swartz:And backside, while I was traveling around, teaching this class, I continued telling my story and would share my story at different police academies in different states and and just kinda continuing to spread that inspiration, so to speak. That that wasn't really my purpose. It was just sharing my story, but that that really was a special time for me. That being said, I was traveling so much that I was constantly away from my girlfriend at the time. So one thing leads to another.
Matt Swartz:I decided to, jump ship from federal law enforcement training center and stop traveling, and I wound up applying with the sheriff's office where we were living at the time. And, you know, like I said, basically, kinda clipped my wings and stopped traveling, and now I'm back back to work in patrol, and I'm an instructor for the sheriff's office here. And then we did get married, and things are going well for us.
Betsy Smith:Well, I tell you what, you really are, You're so humble, but you're so inspiring, and you really are the picture of resilience. And I'm so glad you got to share your story with us, and we thank you for spending some of your time today with us. If you'd like more information about the National Police Association, visit us at nationalpolice.org.
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