Episode 35 - Case Study of a Lifelong Learner in Law Enforcement with Ben Opfar

Episode Resources

• Paul Butler: https://www.paul-butler.com/
• The Outward Mindset by The Arbinger Institute
• Leadership and Self-Deception, Fourth Edition: The Secret to Transforming Relationships and Unleashing Results by The Arbinger Institute

Guest Information

Ben Opfar is

Transcript

Madi: Welcome to the Blue Leadership podcast hosted by retired multi agency Chief of Police from the state of New York, Dennis Nayor. Blue Leadership is a podcast by law enforcement for today’s law enforcement leaders, taking you inside the experiences and careers of law enforcement experts from across the country.

Dennis Nayor: Well, Madi, thank you for that introduction. And today’s guest is Ben Opfar. So if we want to define a lifelong learner, Ben is that person. Quick introduction about who Ben is, and then we’ll kind of get rolling here. So Ben started his law enforcement career in 1994 prior to that, he did four years of service with the United States Air Force.

He worked in the Explosive Ordnance Division. He was a police officer in Texas, Georgia, Arizona, and Wyoming. And we’re going to talk about that because he, to do that, went through four police academies, which I, it is amazing. And, um, he’s a graduate of the FBI LEEDA Trilogy Series, which is a huge accolade.

He’s Rocky Mountain Command College. Um, he has an Associate’s Degree in Law Enforcement Technology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Law Enforcement Administration. Currently working on his Law Enforcement and Public Safety Leadership Master’s degree here at the University of San Diego. And without further ado Ben, welcome to the show today.

Ben Opfar: Thank you, Chief Nayor, appreciate that.

Dennis Nayor: Um, and what I should say right now is what makes this even more special is right now, Ben is working as a risk management expert for Gillette College in Wyoming, and he’s still pursuing this acclaimed master’s degree, which just really ties into someone who is a lifelong learner and since he’s retired, is still putting his skills to the test.

And what I want to start with, Ben, four police academies, can you just talk a little bit about that and, and what your motivation was? To do that?

Ben Opfar: Sure, uh, so the biggest motivation I think for it was, it all started when I got out of the military and, uh, I was, I was going to Amarillo Police Department. I’d shotgunned out applications, didn’t know where I was going to go and my father was, he, he had been diagnosed with cancer and so I went home to see him before going to the Amarillo Police Academy.

And I got to see him in the driveway, uh, on March 31st and basically gave him a hug and he told me, he said, son, my life’s over. Yours is just beginning. You’re going off to start something new. I’m passing away, don’t come back for the funeral. And so those words stuck with me of I’m making a life to make him proud.

And so waving goodbye in the driveway that day was the last time I ever saw him. I, that was the toughest choice I made to never come back home for the funeral and be with my family who might’ve needed me as well. But that was his choice. So that was what I did. And that kind of drove me. Into the, the, the perseverance, I guess the, the drive to push me to do my best and, and succeed at it.

He died eight days after I got to the academy, so, uh, not to, not to put that on down. I’m all good with it and all of that good stuff. But, um, so, so I, I did go to Amarillo and, uh, it, it was pretty nice. And I got to go to the, the bomb squad was my first assignment there, actually before I was a police officer because they, they, the lieutenant pulled me in and he said, Ben, I want you to, he says, are you military?

I said, absolutely. He said, bomb disposal. Yes, sir. He pulls it, opens his desk, throws me a page and he says, you’re on the bomb squad. I said, I haven’t even got out through FTO yet. And he said, yeah, but we can teach you to do that, but we can’t teach those other guys to do the bomb disposal. So, so that set the course for, for the drive and the motivation to do the academy and do well there.

Dennis Nayor: And that was the word I was thinking as you’re explaining, you know, your departure to your first academy is there could be no more powerful motivation than what you went to the academy with, with that conversation with your father.

Ben Opfar: It was pretty powerful.

Dennis Nayor: Yeah, for sure. So now, out of all those academies, did the recruits start seeing you once you started going maybe to your second and third academy, and obviously especially your fourth? Did they start seeing you as more of a mentor than a peer?

Ben Opfar: Um, in this, yeah, as I went along, I think they did. Initially, um, in Texas and Georgia, not so much, um, because I was new. Uh, I, when I, when I did the, uh, Georgia Academy, that was only, I, I’ve only stayed in Amarillo for two years. So, my wife wanted to move to Georgia and I went with her, so, did the second academy, but I was still new, it was still exciting, I was gaining confidence, so that, that kind of kept the drive going there.

Um, when I got on to, to Phoenix, then they started seeing me a little more as, as I’d been experiencing. I had a good buddy in, uh, In Phoenix, that was a fellow former law enforcement officer as well. It was his second academy, so we kind of had this little competition going.

And between the two of us, we would push each other a little bit harder, which made it a little bit easier to stay engaged with the academy there.

Dennis Nayor: How did you, how did you hold up with the fitness component of it? Um, obviously you would continually be gaining experience to bring to each academy and knowledge of policy and procedure and the profession. How about the, the fitness and drill portions? How did that? Pan out.

Ben Opfar: Well, if you’ve ever ran in Phoenix in three or four in the afternoon in 127 degrees, it’s painfully brutal. Uh, but it was, it was, uh, I enjoyed it. It got me in the best shape that I ever got. And Phoenix was a different academy set up because the, the structure. It was intense. It was paramilitary. I really enjoyed that one.

Um, but we had mixtures. So my sergeant was from DPS. My train, one of the training staff was from Phoenix. Another one was from Scottsdale. So you got that inter, interagency actions that kept the perspective different instead of just one. Whereas in Amarillo, it was more of a, uh, In house, tight knit, this is how we’re going to do things here.

They all were great, but for different reasons. Um, and then when I got to Wyoming, obviously they looked a little bit more at me like a mentor, I hope. Um, just because, uh, some of the staff were young enough to be my sons. But, they called me the grandpa. Um, and then the physical fitness that went with that went with that. We did the Special Olympics torch run and we took it downtown and they offered us a bus ride back and they thought, oh yeah, grandpa’s gonna get on the bus. No, I ran back with them and I think that was a little bit surprising to them that after that big long run I still pushed them back and some of them got on the bus so they kind of got a little bit of flack from some of their fellow classmates.

Dennis Nayor: I love it. It was a great story. And what about now for the academy instructors? Did they give you some level of deference knowing that, okay, this particular, and I’ll use the word recruit for lack of a better word, but this person who is now a recruit is actually a seasoned law enforcement veteran. As you were progressing through different academies and you were more and more seasoned as an officer in different states, did they show you any deference?

Ben Opfar: Yeah, not initially because, um, Amarillo, I was just starting. Georgia. I was still new, it was only two years, but Phoenix, when I got there, it was so big and so large that I was just a number there, and there were a lot of veteran officers that had good qualifications and experience, so I didn’t really stand out to them, but when I got to Wyoming, we had, uh, you know, like I said, a lot of the instructors themselves only had five or six years on.

And so after already having been retired for seven years, when I went back to my fourth academy, they, they, uh, they, they looked at me a little different. I think, um, they didn’t try so much to, to change my bad habits, good habits, whatever I had developed over the years, uh, firearms, for example. I. Had this really bad shake when I was, was younger and it, it developed over the years.

And so if I tried to focus and shoot, I could not, so I had to learn to instinctively shoot and part of that involved actually learning that instinctively. I was in one of the academies in Phoenix and I turned my sights around backwards so that I couldn’t see them so I wouldn’t focus on them and I was able to actually qualify with way higher scores just instinctively.

I don’t recommend that for everybody. By all means, please listen to the instructors and they’ve got some valuable training and experience, but that was what worked for me. They accepted that because I had been in a long time and didn’t try to correct any stances or whatever I was doing differently. So, so in that aspect, I think they did look at it a little bit differently.

Dennis Nayor: Wow. What about defensive tactics, the arrest and control portion? Um, how, how’d you like that comparing from beginning to the last academy?

Ben Opfar: It takes a lot longer to heal, I learned. So, but on a bright note, I had one of the instructors that I was going through and doing my sign off qualification and he was the bad guy and I put him down and handcuffed him and he stood up and he was the instructor and he goes, Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever been handcuffed that fast.

So. It goes, you’ve probably forgotten more than I’ve ever learned, and I said, you know, I appreciate that, but you know, I just got to do it like everybody else. It’s part of the program.

Dennis Nayor: Wow. That’s a great attitude. And obviously that’s the type of attitude one would need to be able to do that because again, one academy may be two, but to do that times four, that’s a lot. And one of the things that stood out, why I wanted to have you on this show is you’ve, put yourself through a lot of training because you work for some agencies that maybe their budget wasn’t there or they couldn’t afford, but they, but you wanted to attend.

Can you talk a little bit about that? What motivated you to pay out of your own pocket to attend some of the advanced leadership schools you’ve done?

Ben Opfar: Absolutely. The biggest, best word I can come up with for that is investment. People want to invest in money. They want to have a good retirement on the end. Invest in yourselves. Um, Just being able to say, no, the agency is not going to pay for that, uh, we don’t have the money for that, we don’t have the funds for that, we don’t, whatever, there, there were some, some sidebars to that, but, to me, I enjoy learning.

That’s, some people de-stress by going out and doing activities or reading a book or whatever. For some reason, I’ve been drawn and gravitated to, I gotta de-stress, I need to add some stress. Like, go find some training to do or something to learn. Um, and so I would take vacation time and, I paid out of pocket, uh, to, when I knew that I was going to be testing for supervisor at my last agency in Wyoming, I, I knew that, that, that I would have to oral board against everybody.

I’d only been with the agency a year, so to, to boost that up, even though I had all the years of experience, I went ahead and went over to Salt Lake and stayed with my sister and attended a, First line supervisor course just to get it on the record and on the resume so that when I went to the interview I could say I’ve invested in myself I know that I can do this and and let’s how I compare to the other ones if they have the attitude of um It’s one of my big pet peeves Especially after I became a supervisor for people to say I’m not going to anything unless they pay for it Why are you here?

That’s what resonates to me. Why are you here? Invest in yourself a little bit. Invest in the others. Protect each other’s back. That’s what this profession is all about.

Dennis Nayor: For sure. And is that the, is that the role when you became a sergeant for the first time?

Ben Opfar: Yeah, uh, that’s why I came back for law enforcement. Um, when I came back, you know, For my fourth academy, I had been retired, but I missed it. I didn’t realize how much I was going to miss it until I got out there. They say, you don’t miss it till it’s gone. Well, that hit me. And so when I came back, I thought, well, I’ve done A to Y.

The only thing I haven’t done is Z. So my whole goal coming back was to go into administration. And I knew that I would need that. To invest in myself and especially coming back after seven years off, I had a lot to catch up. A lot of technology took place between 2011 and 2018, so, um, and there were a lot of things that happened.

in the overall picture of law enforcement during that time.

Dennis Nayor: Yeah, the landscape changed dramatically. And just to go back to what you just said, technology, you look at from 2011 to 2018, the advent of, you know, of, of proliferated use of body worn cameras and, and tasers and tasers for cameras, and then some of these other, uh, technologies, um, license plate readers and all of these things, everything was evolving.

And yes, like you just said, the landscape Yeah. We’re shifting in law enforcement as well, um, so that had to be a little bit of a shock just to, um, I guess it make the adjustment as well.

Ben Opfar: Yes, and that’s what pushed me, you know, let, I need to learn, I need to catch up, I need to better myself, I gotta make myself ready. So I also went on to pay my own way through, I attended that Rocky Mountain Command College, And that’s where I learned about FBI LEEDA, and with that, I got an interest in it.

So I went to the supervisor, and I went to the command, and I went to the executive institutes, and I finished those. I did them all out of pocket, own expense, own dime, own time. Uh, one of my good mentors gave me that. He helped me get a scholarship through them for the last class, which helped pay for the course, which was great.

Uh, David Boggs, one of the past presidents. But, he, uh, just being able to get that under my belt and to say, Okay, now I can go out and I can be a leader. I have the, uh, Some credentials to go with the experience, because that’s what I wanted. I wanted to go from A, I did A to Y, now I wanted to do Z. And so that was the ultimate goal.

And, and so it, that was, that was my whole goal going through, um, when I came back.

Dennis Nayor: Wow. A goal and then a goal you sort through fruition and, you know, one of the things that stands out and it shows, I’m sure the listeners and viewers can see in this conversation, um, You have a very positive attitude, and having had you in one of my classes, you’re, you know, a humble person, um, very accomplished, you have a lot of gratitude.

What is it that you’re able to maintain that? Because the law enforcement profession is very good at creating cynicism. Negative attitudes, you know, you’re exposed to a lot of negative, so it becomes part of who a person is sometimes, not in a good way, and you’ve managed to avoid that. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Ben Opfar: Absolutely. Uh, so I think one of the, biggest things that helped me in this journey has been, um, when I retired from Phoenix, I took that break. I was probably there in that burnout stage with everybody else where the, where you start to get those kind of attitudes. I needed that break after Phoenix. I really did.

It gave me a chance to recharge my batteries, focus. Yeah, I do miss it. I want to be back in it. But then you start thinking about all of the good things, and there’s so many good things that happen that we tend to overlook. And, you know, uh, We have a lot of bad things, but we have to remember that, that 95, I don’t know how accurate these numbers are, I’m just pulling them out of the air, but I heard one time that 95 percent of the crime is committed by 5 percent of the people, so that’s, unfortunately, that’s who we have to deal with all the time, and so we do get that loss of focus, so you need to develop some things on the outside, you need to figure out what it is.

Every mental health and physical health class will, will tell you find something outside of law enforcement. Make some friends that aren’t in law enforcement. Get out and meet some people in the public. There are good people out there and there are good things that happen. Um, but when you get one of those positives come along, and I’ll just use an example, uh, When I was a school resource officer in Phoenix, I did it for eight years, and I really enjoyed that position.

But one of the students, unfortunately, tragically, passed away, and the parents, I had that connection with them. They asked me to be the the pallbearer at her funeral. So I helped carry her to the grave and was the pallbearer for her. And the investigation took a turn and it ended up with a one and a half year investigation that I helped the detective division work through with the school and coordinated some of that.

And then the detective allowed me to go out because of all my involvement and my attachment to the case. She allowed me to make the arrest, but I ended up arresting both of those parents for severe neglect resulting in her death. So, that connection with them to be able to ask me to help bury her, but then be her voice to say they didn’t get away with it.

It’s hard to explain how that’s a positive, but to me that was just, okay, there are good things that happened. A good thing came of this, and the bad people went away. And that just, or when you find a missing child or a runaway juvenile and you take them home, there’s just so many good things that happen.

Dennis Nayor: Yeah, I think, I think I know what you’re, the purpose of what you’ve done and the meaningfulness of what you’ve done matters and has consequence to people who need closure or justice or whatever. I think that may be, is, is

Ben Opfar: Absolutely.

Dennis Nayor: Wow. You know, that’s, that’s, that’s key. And I, I think, you know, I used to call them gold nuggets, the things that just overshadow the negatives and then make it that someone still has to drive and the desire. And, and it’s good to notice when I think it stood out that when you took that break, it gave you that time to recharge and you had that point.

Hey, you know what, I’ve had my time, you’ve had enough or no, I still have more I want to give. And I think that had value. And, you know, So right now you’re in a risk management role and you still decided to go back. And earned a master’s degree in law enforcement and public safety leadership. What, what, and I have an idea of what the answer is, but I’d love to hear from you.

What is it that motivated you now in a civilian support role that you’re still motivated to get your MS LEPSL degree?

Ben Opfar: Thank you. That’s a great, great lead into that. So, I got hired as the risk manager, um, which is kind of up there in the college. I didn’t need to have the degree. I don’t need to have the degree. But I wanted to complete it because I’d actually started it twice. Not from LEPSL, but I, I did. Started a long time ago after I got my bachelor’s in a program, but internet technology was new, the computers just wouldn’t work, and we just couldn’t make the system work, so I had to drop that program.

And time went on and whatnot. And then when I got into the leadership and I got the Trilogy Award, and I started thinking, you know, I’m not done. I want to do more. I want to fit in at the college and be part of them, even though I don’t have to, I want to. Um, and, and that is part of leadership is just, you know, you’ve got to better yourself.

You’ve got to keep improving. You’ve got to keep going. So, I looked at all the different programs and I just loved, I fell in love with the format of LEPSL, how it just, you know, It’s structured. It’s one at a time. You just can’t beat it. Um, and the fact that my trilogy allowed me to substitute six of the credits towards that was huge.

Especially, like everything else, this isn’t something I’ve got a scholarship for. The college is not paying for this. This is all out of my pocket. It’s me better going on to get that myself again. And I don’t say that in a To brag, really, but invest in yourself. Please invest in yourself.

Dennis Nayor: Yeah. And it’s, no, it comes across very clearly. Like, you know, your whole history is of pure investment in one, in yourself. And, um, I can only imagine once you complete this master’s program, I know there’ll be something else. And who knows, do you think you’d want to go back in to active capacity?

Ben Opfar: Uh, you know, I definitely want to, at minimum, get back at least as far as either instructing or consulting, at minimum. I would be interested in, you know, I’m, I’m not done yet. A good thing is, you know, if you’ve ever heard Paul Butler speak, if you know who he is, most people have probably heard of him.

Some people have, some haven’t, but great guy, friend, I consider him a mentor as well. He, he speaks and he says. He says, the plans don’t always work, but you have to have a purpose. And that purpose is what keeps us going. The purpose behind it. You have to have a purpose. The plan never always goes through, but you gotta have a purpose.

And my purpose is, I’m not done yet.

Dennis Nayor: That’s, that’s so true and, um, and, and I truly believe that the next chapter, whatever that’ll be, um, will be something that I would probably want to say, let’s bring you back for a round two interview. Um, but before that, what I want to ask, I have two questions. One of them is, what advice do you have for now?

People starting out, you’ve seen the changes, you know, since 1994 to now, and the landscape of law enforcement’s changed, but, and you still have a high regard, a positive outlook. Out of all your experiences of four academies, lifelong learner, amazing command schools, What, what message do you have for those listening and viewing this?

Ben Opfar: I think my message, and I’m gonna play a spin here and kind of pun off of it a little bit. The biggest message I think I could give would be AI. And I don’t mean artificial intelligence because we all know that artificial means fake and intelligence, when it’s set with military, doesn’t always conjoin.

But attitude and integrity. That’s my AI. You’ve got to have a positive attitude, you’ve got to have integrity, and I’d just like to quote real quick from Carl Eller, and I want to read this because I don’t want to mess it up. But Karl Eller said, uh, when you’re looking at the characteristics of how to build your personal life, first comes integrity, second motivation, third capacity, fourth understanding, fifth knowledge, and last and least, experience.

And then, if you research the quote a little bit, it goes on to say, Without integrity, motivation is dangerous. Without motivation, capacity is Impotent. Without capacity, understanding is limited. Without understanding, knowledge is meaningless. And without knowledge, experience is blind. So it all boils down to integrity.

You have to have integrity and a positive attitude and be happy when others succeed. Don’t, don’t try to be that one that I’ve got to do this to be better than you. I don’t care who gets the credit in the end. I could live another 20 years and do law enforcement

as long as the job got done and people learn and the profession advanced. That’s all I want.

Dennis Nayor: That’s, that’s great. And this actually may even cover my last question. I always like to conclude with is if there’s a specific leadership philosophy or a leadership book or a podcast or something that you think has value. Obviously that was, that was one very valuable, um, quotation that you provided. Is there anything else philosophy wise, uh, attitude and integrity?

Huge. Um, anything else that you’d like to leave, you know, whether it’s a book, a podcast or something else you want to follow that up with?

Ben Opfar: There’s several books out by Arbinger Institute, um, getting out of the box, self deception kind of stuff. Those are some excellent reads, I think, um, understanding how the boxes are created, how to get out of them, and it’s all about building them yourselves, and we put ourselves in the box, and we need to.

Just learn as much as you can. Knowledge is the true power. I’m not a big guy. I’m a small guy. I had to learn the hard way to, you know, life is going to knock you down and send you tumbles. When I first came into this profession, it was you had to be six foot tall, 250 pounds and drag your knuckles. And I couldn’t get in, and then the military allowed me to get in the back door, kind of, so to speak, to bomb disposal.

But that was a changing time when more women were coming into the profession as well, which was a great thing. And the size factors and the barriers started breaking down, and it turned out well. Um, and we’re ever changing, and just follow those changes, learn about those changes, stay up on top of the education, and go home safe at night. . The other thing I did want to do that we didn’t do, I’d just like to say congratulations to all of the last week’s graduates. Kudos to you. Hats off.

Dennis Nayor: Yeah, that’s awesome. And you’ll be one of them soon. And, and I think the last part, did you say be humble?

Ben Opfar: Definitely be humble. Um, like I said, I don’t care who gets the credit. I don’t want it. Just better other people. Focus on making them better. See them succeed. Be happy for their successes. Don’t try to hold them down to make yourself look better.

Dennis Nayor: Best way I could think to wrap things up, be humble, do it for the right reasons, lifelong learner, and I like how you incorporated that, obviously the congrats to the graduates, but also that key two words, stay safe, um, because world’s not getting, um, any less dangerous, and I think that’s always an important reminder.

Um, Ben, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, your experiences, kind of letting the listeners and viewers know what has motivated you. And, um, I think the people who watch this podcast are going to get a lot out of it. So Madi’s going to come in. Thank you once again.

Ben Opfar: Thank you. I absolutely appreciate it.

Madi: Thank you for taking the time to meet the law enforcement heroes and leaders who are part of the MS LEPSL family. You can find more episodes of Blue Leadership on Facebook and YouTube. And if you would like to learn more about the LEPSL program, visit us at criminaljustice.sandiego.edu.