EP 3: Funnel Cake, Donut Burgers, Ice Cream, and More

Episode 3 00:00:00 Tpr. Corey King: Welcome to the Kentucky State Police podcast. I'm Trooper Corey King, and this is where we go beyond the flashing lights and headlines to talk about the people behind the badge. Every trooper has a story why they chose this career, what keeps them going, and what service really looks like on the toughest days. Here we will have real conversations about public safety, community, and the human side of law enforcement. So we're glad you're here. Today we are sitting down with a guest who is an absolute staple of the Richmond, Eastern Kentucky communities. If you have ever scrolled through any social media platforms over the past several three years or so, you've likely seen his witty, humanizing approach to public safety. He spent years as a trusted face and voice of KSP post seven Richmond and recently stepped into a massive new role as captain of post eleven in London. But the Greater Richmond area. He's also known as a small business owner, bee enthusiast and a champion for community kindness. Please welcome to the podcast Captain Robert Purdie. Captain, thanks for being here. Hey, Corey, thanks for having me. So you and I have known each other for some years now, worked together in different roles. I guess you'd say for those who don't know, you share with us your background. Meaning where are you originally from? Where or how did you get to this point in your life and where you are today? 00:01:43 Capt. Robert Purdy: Sure. So, uh, you know, I actually, I'm not from Kentucky. My, my dad was an airline pilot. And so we lived all over the United States, uh, for about a six year period in middle school and early high school. I lived just outside of Franklin, Tennessee, and, uh, kind of developed a love for this area. And we moved to Texas, and frankly, I hated it. And I went to college at Murray State University. 00:02:09 Tpr. Corey King: Yes. Go, racers. 00:02:11 Capt. Robert Purdy: And while I was there, I did an internship, uh, with post one Mayfield. Uh, one of our majors actually. Now, uh, he was there as a detective sergeant, and he talked me into putting in an application for one of the KSB classes. I think it was class maybe eighty two, and I was still in school. And I said, I can't, I can't do that. And so then I reapplied for cadet class eighty four and and got hired. 00:02:36 Tpr. Corey King: What year was. 00:02:37 Capt. Robert Purdy: This? That was, uh, I got hired in two thousand and five. July seventeenth, two thousand and five. That's the day we all arrived. They sent me to Richmond, and Richmond has become home. So that's where I spent most of my career with stints in several different specialized positions, uh, different branches within the agency and currently working out of London. I think you spoke to Scotty Pennington. 00:03:00 Tpr. Corey King: I did. We did. 00:03:01 Capt. Robert Purdy: Yeah. He's a he's our POW down there and he does a fantastic job. 00:03:05 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah. We love Scotty. Uh, of course, you know, you two are probably, I would say the the most known persons in KSP history. Really. If you look at if you think about if you think about just the, the social media amount that you guys have really put out there, it's been quite significant. And I know we're going to touch a little bit, probably more than a little bit about the notorious videos that has really shaped KSP history. And basically you were the editor and the mind behind all that. I thought it was crazy initially. I'll say when we were in the state fair. And of course, uh, people who may not know, uh, Kentucky State Police has been involved in the state fair since nineteen sixty one, I think. And it started out with these little pedal cars that we had called Safety Town. Safety town to this day still exists. Uh, the bikes might change a little bit, but the people are the same. The concept is the same, and it's a great way to broker that relationship with the public. Now they have that ability to talk to us because most generally, they see us on the side of the road with the campaign hat on and looking like a, you know, a statue handing out a citation to somebody or a warning, something like that. This is that ability for them to talk to them. And the kids get to see that. And you get to, to really garnish the, that moment with them. And, um, so that's where I think those who don't know what we do, typically, we are there for two solid weeks. We have to set the safety town up. This driving course is probably the footprints, what, one hundred foot by one hundred and twenty feet? Something like that. 00:04:34 Capt. Robert Purdy: Yeah. It may be bigger than that. It's it's a big space. 00:04:36 Tpr. Corey King: That's just the driving pad. And then you have the trailers all around, which we work. So we're there literally every day for two solid weeks. Uh, a really tough detail, a lot of weights. But there's one day I recall, I had no idea how this started. Uh, but you come to me and I don't even know why did you choose me to. 00:04:55 Capt. Robert Purdy: Well, uh, you know, I knew that you were a well respected, uh, public affairs officer. And, uh, I thought. 00:05:03 Tpr. Corey King: If. 00:05:03 Capt. Robert Purdy: If we're going to do this, um. I probably need to get Corey on board. I didn't honestly, I didn't want to get fired. Like that's that's about that's about it. 00:05:13 Tpr. Corey King: That's what kept my sanity is like, I know that if they got mad at anything we did, it wasn't my social media. It was you. Sure. 00:05:20 Capt. Robert Purdy: And it was it was a it was a lot of work. But yeah, you talk about Safety Town. That is that is a cool place. It's a it's a cool opportunity. You get to come across thousands of of children and share a safety message. And I think probably one of the, the most telling things are I don't want to use the word old, but there are people who are probably in their sixties who would come up and say, hey, I remember coming here as a kid. I still have the driver's license that they gave me when I was at Safety Town. And that is neat. Just the impact and the amount of people who have been been touched. Uh, and through that, I mean, we talk about. 00:05:57 Tpr. Corey King: Tradition and. 00:05:58 Capt. Robert Purdy: Stop signs and everything else. Yeah. It is, it is so good. 00:06:01 Tpr. Corey King: So is that where you, uh, initially had this concept to promote either the state fair in general or Safety Town or a combination of all that because you'd mentioned. Yes, I, I'm not, I wouldn't consider myself an introvert. But here's the thing. I'm, I was born probably forty years too late, about eighteen hundred miles too far east. Uh, if I'm probably really the inside of me is probably an eighty year old man who's living in, uh, Jackson Hole, Wyoming or something. Right. So social media is not a big concept to me. Don't like it. Um, so I was very, very, and I guess you picked up on it that so, so the listeners who may be aware, uh, several years ago, we did two or three years of these videos every day, every day at the state fair. 00:06:42 Capt. Robert Purdy: Oh man, it was exhausting. 00:06:43 Tpr. Corey King: It was because it was. And that's where, uh, it goes to your really your genius mind when you started to think, how do I lure someone in but yet turn it into a message? And you knew that this could not be scripted. And I tell you, the listener right now, uh, this is where he comes to me every day, grabs me by the arm, says, follow me. That's all I knew. And you know that I knew a video was coming. You were going to film something, but I had no clue what was about to happen. And I can tell you guys, knowing how we're judged and knowing that we had these, uh, certain decorum we had to go by of sorts, uh, when you blindfolded me and put me up on top of a big old Ferris wheel of some sort, I think is what it was. I was blindfolded, but you gave me ice cream on top of that. Do you remember that? 00:07:37 Capt. Robert Purdy: Were you blindfolded or do we have those, uh, the, uh, the solar. 00:07:42 Tpr. Corey King: It was a solar. 00:07:43 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh, solar glass solar it was the day before, uh, the solar event of twenty twenty. 00:07:49 Tpr. Corey King: And that ice cream dripped all over me. 00:07:51 Capt. Robert Purdy: Yeah. 00:07:52 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah, it was terrible. 00:07:53 Capt. Robert Purdy: You know, it's kind of going back to I knew I, I knew you well enough. You like to have a really good plan of what you're going to do and what you're going to talk about. And I knew I could not give Corey any insight of what it was otherwise. Like you would come up with the perfect script. The way that you talk and you share information is, is something that I can't do, but I knew it had to be fly. Uh, it had to be unscripted because, because that's what's real. So, um, you know, I think that if you can just have those normal conversations that that's what people draw into and they can relate with. And what I wanted to do though, was have a safety message with every single one of them, right? It had to have a safety message. 00:08:36 Tpr. Corey King: That was the goal was the safety message. 00:08:37 Capt. Robert Purdy: It was and there were some troopers out of Kansas at the time that were doing some things. There were some troopers out of Illinois that were doing some things, and I saw them going to the state fair. And, uh, you know, riding the slide or doing some other exhibit. And I thought, oh, we can do that. And I never knew where it was going to go. And the traction that it got, both good and bad. It was actually probably up until three or four years ago, I was in Louisville getting a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, and I was not in uniform. No kidding. And this guy behind me said, hey, are you a trooper? And I said, I am. And he said, Purdy. And I said, I am. Oh man, I used to watch your videos all the time, man. Those were awesome. And I thought, and it's, it's those kind of interactions. I thought, man, that people actually watched and they paid attention and it. 00:09:27 Tpr. Corey King: Some literally coast to coast. It, it just took off because it was so unique. How you edited, how you made it turn into a safety message, but yet entertaining all in one level. And to put my name with entertaining does not go together. 00:09:41 Capt. Robert Purdy: Oh, you're very entertaining. 00:09:42 Tpr. Corey King: So to me, it scared the heck out of me. Every single day. I was like, oh God. I worried about what he was going to do. 00:09:48 Capt. Robert Purdy: It worried me too. And a lot of times I wouldn't know what we were going to do until that, that day or the half hour before. But it was a lot of work because after we would film, what people didn't see is I'd have to we'd leave during the shift or come in before the shift because you and I worked different shifts. 00:10:02 Tpr. Corey King: Shifts. 00:10:02 Capt. Robert Purdy: Yeah, film it, edit it that night, put it all together and then launch it. And so it was, it was a lot of work. But, uh, you know, some of them were good, some weren't. And I'll be the first to admit it. Um, you know, I was probably pushing the boundaries a little bit too much. Um, hopefully, you know, pushed them, but then it hopefully moved our agency forward and some of our, some of our message sharing. 00:10:28 Tpr. Corey King: Um, yeah, some of the, I mean, we were, that was the busiest I've ever been at a fair. We were having people come. Other of these troopers you've mentioned from other states come to the fair just because those videos to either, you know, have pictures made. 00:10:43 Capt. Robert Purdy: We had a donut burger with, uh, John Prine from, uh, from Indiana State Police. Um, and that was, that was a lot of fun. 00:10:50 Tpr. Corey King: Fantastic, fellas. 00:10:51 Capt. Robert Purdy: But, you know, that was, that was only, you know, that comes up in conversation a whole lot. And, and I, I get judged or people think that that's how I am because that was how I was for ten days a year or eleven days for two years. That's, that's all we did. But we still shared, um, positive messages other, other ways. I mean, there was one day, I know it was snowing, roads were shut down, I got out, I drove, I did a little video in my cruiser talking about the roadway conditions and how to drive safe. And, uh, NBC, I think picked it up the evening news with Lester Holt. Um, in my family in Oregon, uh, called like we just saw you on the national news. Um, and so it's really cool how, how, you know, sure. We did, uh, some, some state fair stuff, But it also, you know, most of the stuff that we did and we share was, you know, safety messages that needed to be shared. And because of that interaction that we were able to have, I think people saw, hey, these are, these are some real guys, just some normal, normal dudes that, uh, have a job where they get to help people and, and, you know, we got, we got to highlight some of the neat things that go on at the fair. And hopefully, you know, people got to see that we can still get out and have a good time. 00:12:05 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah. And I think really the one that really started it, if I can recall, we were on some little spinny thing. Yeah. The zipper. It was a. 00:12:12 Capt. Robert Purdy: Scrambler. 00:12:13 Tpr. Corey King: Scrambler scrambler. And that was probably the most purdy I've ever had on me. Uh, it threw you into me. It did, because you weren't wearing your seat belt or something. Was talking about seat belts. 00:12:21 Capt. Robert Purdy: We were we were talking about, uh, being being buckled up and and I knew better. I knew better than to. You're bigger than I am. I knew better than to go sit on the, uh, the outside. But yeah, that was, that was one. And, and I don't think we did any live videos after that. That was the first one. It was live. It was it was catchy. I think we made the The Louisville News. 00:12:42 Tpr. Corey King: That's where it took off. 00:12:43 Capt. Robert Purdy: And, you know, now on this side of my career, like I mentioned, I'm not an extrovert. I'm an introvert who appreciates the wearing of the campaign hat and the, the professionalism of the uniform. We didn't have our hats on, uh, on the scrambler. And I think that was probably one of the, the biggest takeaways that we heard was how we were outside and didn't have our campaign hat on. 00:13:06 Tpr. Corey King: But how do you do it with a scrambler? 00:13:08 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh, you. 00:13:09 Tpr. Corey King: Know, it's not possible. 00:13:10 Capt. Robert Purdy: I don't know, but but it was, it was just, it was a seatbelt safety message. I think we were in, uh, I don't know, going into drive safer sober polo, get pulled over the click it or ticket campaign. Like we tried to use NHTSA campaigns as kind of the catalyst for sharing these safety messages as well. 00:13:27 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah. And you know, before we, uh, end on that note, there was one video That I had no idea why it didn't make the cut. It was one that probably I hated you the most at that moment. 00:13:39 Capt. Robert Purdy: I think I know the slingshot. Yeah, I still have that slingshot. 00:13:43 Tpr. Corey King: And you taped the phone? I taped your hand. Yeah. 00:13:47 Capt. Robert Purdy: I don't I don't know that we're at a point where we can show it, but if it ever comes up, you know, you're welcome to it. And you can have a throwback of six, seven, eight years. You can have it. 00:13:57 Tpr. Corey King: And so why didn't that make the cut? That was a funny. Was there not a message or. 00:14:01 Capt. Robert Purdy: No, there was. 00:14:01 Tpr. Corey King: There was there. 00:14:02 Capt. Robert Purdy: Was a message. No, there was a message. I just think it was, uh, it was a little. 00:14:08 Tpr. Corey King: Pushing, pushing. 00:14:09 Capt. Robert Purdy: Pushing the envelope. 00:14:09 Tpr. Corey King: Is what you're saying. 00:14:10 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh, but I mean, realistically, and I, and I, I, like I said, being on this side, I, I can appreciate that and I can understand people's concern over it, but we had some great, great experiences, I think through that. Some people saw us on Twitter, they tweeted at the Oak Ridge Boys, right? So yeah, I tweeted with them and messaged them and we got invited to come meet them on the the tour bus before the show and got invited to to sing Elvira on stage. 00:14:38 Tpr. Corey King: Giddy up. Boom boom boom boom bap. 00:14:41 Capt. Robert Purdy: Nailed it. Uh, and and so even in that, you know, you and I were invited. And I remember we called multiple other troopers like, hey, because we didn't want to get fired. 00:14:51 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah. 00:14:52 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh. 00:14:53 Tpr. Corey King: It was. 00:14:53 Capt. Robert Purdy: Why don't you come join us? But but that was that was really cool. Uh, the lead singer who is now passed away. I remember he was up on stage and he was talking about how they appreciate everybody in uniform. Doesn't matter what color uniform. Uh, and we walked out and, and thousands of people stood up and, and when I walked out, I was like, oh, man, I think I may throw up. But it was so much fun. I mean, I was, I went to karaoke, uh, before a couple days before that just to try to sing. So I. 00:15:21 Tpr. Corey King: Knew called me to come with. 00:15:23 Capt. Robert Purdy: What we would be doing. But that was probably one of the coolest experiences that just Happened. 00:15:29 Tpr. Corey King: And it happened all because of that. So that's what's unique about social media. Even though I'm not a huge social media fan, not only did it get the message to the people that needed to hear it, the consumer of that message, but also it got, uh, the big affiliates, the news affiliates. That's how probably likely NBC was to, uh, hit some of your stuff. They started following you. They're starting to see your feed a little bit more. And so it has a unique concept with law enforcement. It does. That was neat. 00:15:55 Capt. Robert Purdy: But but yeah, you know, and not doing anything on social media anymore is, is kind of been a step back. It's kind of been refreshing not to, not to have to deal with it. There are times that I want to share some things, but being a rogue trooper to work in a recruitment back to the road to public affairs. I also spent, you know, six years on our state police honor guard, uh, which was an incredibly humbling opportunity to be able to hear stories, um, there at the casket of, of our fallen or our troopers who served back in the day. And now they're now they're passed away. And frankly, we get to do the last detail with them and then supervision. I don't touch social media much anymore. And and it's okay. It's probably less stress not having to come up with what we're going to say. But, you know, we've kudos to, uh, to y'all and public affairs who are doing it. I know trooper washer, I, I watch a lot of his stuff. He, he, you know, pulled me in, uh, a couple weeks ago with, uh, a video. They were running some speed detail or something. And I spent fifteen minutes of my day after work watching him. And I thought, man, this is cool. Like he's doing the stuff that, you know, some of the ideas that I had. And it's neat to see it continue. 00:17:05 Tpr. Corey King: And you say those stories, he doesn't push the envelope quite like you did. Or maybe I mean, he is better. 00:17:11 Capt. Robert Purdy: Like I, I think he does a great job of editing. He's an incredible storyteller. He's a really good interviewer, makes people feel comfortable jumping in the cruiser like he does. And just doing these ride alongs brings the public and is able to show them what we do like on a daily basis and invite them in. And he caught me hook, line and sinker. I love seeing his seeing his stuff. And so it really is neat getting to, uh, to see how social media has, has continued, how it's transformed. And, uh, our guys who are continuing to, to push that forward to share a good positive message for the agency. 00:17:53 Tpr. Corey King: So you worked your way up here you are as captain, uh, considering your position now as captain, has your perspective changed any at all since those earlier Robert Purdy days? 00:18:05 Capt. Robert Purdy: I don't I don't know that it's changed. I think that in leadership, it's about understanding that different people have different skills, gifts and abilities. How are they going to use it to the betterment of our community for the betterment of our agency? You know, I think that, uh, my experiences as a, as a trooper and the different roles that I've been in, I, I know in supervision, we're there to help our units along the way and help them make good decisions, help them find their way, help them impact the public. Um, you know, and that's been, that's been great. Um, getting to getting to lead and, and meet so many people. Uh, now as a post commander, you know, I just mentioned before I wanted to go into law enforcement because I didn't want an office job. And there are days that I'll call up some units and I'll say, hey, let's go, let's go road check and we'll get out and we'll road check back when it was snowing. Trooper Pennington, he was going to do a safety video. And so I took some footage, I interviewed him, I spliced it together, and then I sent it to him for him to release. And so it was kind of a fun opportunity for me to, to get back in. And it's, it's neat. And, uh, hopefully there's going to continue to be public affairs officers who are unique, who find their their why, who find their gifts, their talents and their abilities and be able to share good, positive message. Because honestly, the job that we do is awesome. It's hard, but it's awesome. And we have to have good storytellers to tell the narrative of what we really do and why we do it. Otherwise, nobody's going to tell it for us. 00:19:46 Tpr. Corey King: That's how you bridge the gap. Yeah. You know, us talking about those videos and you pulling me in. And I just look at it, quite frankly, as torment to me. Uh, you did that. Uh, you pulled me in and put a video, put me in some very peculiar. You remember the ice cream that got all over my uniform? You know, it was embarrassing. That was straight out embarrassing, Robert. And, um, you know, that was going to come back to roost at some point, right? Uh, and you're on my podcast, right? 00:20:14 Capt. Robert Purdy: I am on your podcast. Yeah. 00:20:15 Tpr. Corey King: So, you know, here's what we're going to do, Robert. Uh, we'll, we'll finalize this. We're gonna do some rapid fire questions for you. Now, there's no right or wrong answers. It could be yes. No. Maybe. So it could be just Robert's answers. Doesn't matter. But you got to answer it within. 00:20:28 Capt. Robert Purdy: Can you send this to me ahead of time? That way I can come up with a good script. 00:20:31 Tpr. Corey King: Oh, you didn't do that to me for anybody. Uh, so it's kind of like a family feud of sorts. Okay, so we'll see what your your answers are. 00:20:39 Capt. Robert Purdy: Hey, I'm excited. 00:20:40 Tpr. Corey King: It's just a competitive. 00:20:41 Capt. Robert Purdy: And nervous. 00:20:43 Tpr. Corey King: Now you know how I felt. Okay, so here we go in the rapid fire questions to Captain Robert Purdy. Okay. At what rank do you officially stop answering texts from old coworkers. 00:20:56 Capt. Robert Purdy: From old coworkers? 00:20:58 Tpr. Corey King: You don't answer mine. 00:21:00 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh, I don't when's the last time you texted me? 00:21:02 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah, he was a lieutenant. So was I really lieutenant with that question? 00:21:05 Capt. Robert Purdy: I don't know, I'm sorry if I didn't, uh, didn't answer your text. Please text me. We've texted this week, so maybe it didn't work out as Lieutenant. 00:21:12 Tpr. Corey King: Was coming to this. 00:21:14 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh, no excuse, but, uh. Yeah. Text me again. 00:21:17 Tpr. Corey King: Love is still there. I know. 00:21:18 Capt. Robert Purdy: Next time you come to Madison County, holler at me. 00:21:20 Tpr. Corey King: Deal. I got. Yeah. Do captains still get funnel cake at the state fair, or is that beneath you now? 00:21:26 Capt. Robert Purdy: You know, I have not been to the state Fair as a captain. Uh, maybe, uh, maybe this year I can. I can show up and we'll see. I, I. 00:21:33 Tpr. Corey King: Donut burger or or funnel. 00:21:34 Capt. Robert Purdy: Cake. I didn't I'm not a big funnel cake. The donut burgers were surprisingly good. They were, they were very calorie rich, but they were fantastic. I probably would not turn down a donut burger. 00:21:46 Tpr. Corey King: Oh very. 00:21:47 Capt. Robert Purdy: Well. I may not film it and put it on social media again. 00:21:49 Tpr. Corey King: Like we did. Yeah. Now, do your new troopers know that you used to be state Fair famous? 00:21:55 Capt. Robert Purdy: You know, I don't know if the new ones do or not. Um, that was that was six years ago. You know, some of these guys were getting out there coming out and they're twenty two. They were, you know, in middle school probably at the time that we were doing this. That makes me feel old. But, uh, it has, it has been a minute and it's not something that I publicize. I've left that lifestyle behind. 00:22:16 Tpr. Corey King: Love it. How nervous was your captain every time you uploaded a new video? 00:22:21 Capt. Robert Purdy: You know, one of the captains that I had, he's a he's a good friend of mine. He called the then captain over public affairs and said, When Robert is at the fair, is he does he report to me or to you? And I think it became clear that it. It falls under the public affairs realm. And so he. He didn't say much. I think he probably cringed a time or two when when some of them were were released. 00:22:45 Tpr. Corey King: I know that to be fact. I was with you. So how many meetings started with now about that State Fair video? 00:22:52 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh, there's probably three. 00:22:54 Tpr. Corey King: Three? 00:22:54 Capt. Robert Purdy: Yeah, not not a whole lot. Uh, there was one in particular that, um, I was, I was asked not to do a certain thing and for whatever reason I forgot about that certain thing. And then I kind of did it. And that one got brought to my attention. 00:23:11 Tpr. Corey King: So you see it differently now in your position maybe. 00:23:13 Capt. Robert Purdy: I do. Um, yeah. And maybe I didn't, uh. Yeah. You know, but but I think that at the end of the day and everybody or most people knew that, hey, I was trying to do it for a certain reason. And, and my gauge of am I really pushing the boundaries or do the troopers at post my post that really know me? Do they think that I'm out of control and they didn't? Um, those that just saw it, that one side of me, they thought, man, this guy is. 00:23:40 Tpr. Corey King: So they didn't know you. Yeah, yeah. 00:23:41 Capt. Robert Purdy: The, the ones, the ones that knew me, they thought they were, they were fine. And, and they, they appreciated the, uh, the connections and the community involvement that we had on a daily basis. It wasn't just the state fair, but I showed up every day ready to work and ready to make a difference. So try to think outside the box very well. 00:23:59 Tpr. Corey King: Okay, so looking back specifically at those videos, uh, were we building community relations or creating HR nightmares? 00:24:07 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh, I think, uh, community relations. 00:24:09 Tpr. Corey King: Okay. Was there ever a moment when you thought, yep, this one's ending my career? 00:24:15 Capt. Robert Purdy: Uh, yes. 00:24:16 Tpr. Corey King: Okay. On a scale from community engagement to career ending event, where would you rate these videos? 00:24:23 Capt. Robert Purdy: You know, I think I would still fall back on the, the, the engagement, the community engagement, the the comments, the shares, the sharing of, of just two guys that have got an incredible job, um, that are normally stoic on three hundred and fifty five other days of the year, uh, getting to see us for two minutes or less on a state fair ride. 00:24:49 Tpr. Corey King: With a safety message in. 00:24:50 Capt. Robert Purdy: Some place sharing some kind of, you know, safety. There was one that we, we filmed, uh, and I'll, I'll, I won't forget this. It was probably the best one that we did, honestly. But we were behind the south wing of the state fair. And we were talking about five ways not to meet a state trooper. 00:25:07 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah. 00:25:08 Capt. Robert Purdy: And, uh, that one. We weren't crazy. We didn't do anything. We weren't on a ride. We were just talking about wearing your seat belt, not driving, distracted, following the speed limit on the sign, and a couple other ones. And that one was was probably one of the best ones that we did. 00:25:25 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah. And I didn't realize I gave you a gift there at the end. Uh, you had the camera attached to the mirror of the vehicle. Yeah. And it was over the filming that I thought was over, but I knew the camera was still running, so I had, I think I had some ice cream or something you gave me, uh, during that moment. And I just did this silly. 00:25:41 Capt. Robert Purdy: Did you eat a lot of ice cream? Like that's what you. 00:25:43 Tpr. Corey King: You're the one that did. 00:25:44 Capt. Robert Purdy: I can only remember the two. The one where I stopped you. And we talked about keeping your hands on the steering wheel, rolling down the windows. Turn the light on at night if you're pulled over. But, uh, yeah, this one, this one. We didn't. 00:25:56 Tpr. Corey King: Ice cream in my. 00:25:56 Capt. Robert Purdy: Face that that was that that was a different use. 00:25:58 Tpr. Corey King: It. I didn't know that. 00:26:00 Capt. Robert Purdy: Was. 00:26:00 Tpr. Corey King: Uh, that was terrible. Thank you for that. 00:26:02 Capt. Robert Purdy: Appreciate the blooper reel. 00:26:03 Tpr. Corey King: Uh, yeah. 00:26:04 Capt. Robert Purdy: I still have all of these on my phone. I've, I've kept them over the years. And it's really funny because I've got two young girls now. They're twelve and nine and, uh, and I get to go, hey, let me show you some of these things that I used to do. And they blows their mind like that was you. And yeah, because they know the, the stoic, uh, professional me and, and they're not aware of those ten days. 00:26:26 Tpr. Corey King: That was such a fun time. Um, so what's funnier now to you, the videos themselves or how seriously people took them? 00:26:34 Capt. Robert Purdy: Um, it could be either one. I, I don't, I don't know. There were, like I said, there were some folks that didn't appreciate them. And like I said, I can, I can understand that. Uh, some of my watch now and I cringe like, oh, I can't believe I did that. Uh, I can't believe Corey made me do that is what I meant. You are retiring this year. Yeah, but, you know, it was there was a lot of, lot of learning. Uh, a lot of growth. We were pushing the boundaries and there wasn't a roadmap for us. And we got to hopefully make a difference, draw people in and, and share a good safety message. 00:27:06 Tpr. Corey King: Well, you know, um, of all the years, even though, uh, in those moments I hated doing it, I would look around my shoulder all the time looking for you, thinking, God, I hope I don't see him coming. Yeah. And here you come. I'd have to. In those moments, you did. You would push me. But I can tell you, uh, of those twenty six years of looking back and near retirement, that's probably the highlight. And I think for that. So I appreciate that. It meant a lot. 00:27:28 Capt. Robert Purdy: Thanks for taking the journey with me. 00:27:30 Tpr. Corey King: Yeah, certainly get to know you that, that, that was, uh, that, that it really was one of those things that I will carry with me. You know, I don't have those videos to this day. Uh, I still have it all up here. Just knowing how that feeling was and what, what an impact it made. Uh, so because I can, uh, resonate with some of the things you talked about people recognizing and things like that. Sure. Uh, you're like, wow, it really touched more people than I thought. 00:27:51 Capt. Robert Purdy: Yeah. I don't think we, we didn't have any idea of the impact it was going to make. You know, some of them were good, some weren't good. Some of them got a lot of views, some didn't. But at the end of the day, I didn't want people to see Trooper Corey King or Robert Purdie. I wanted them to see the Kentucky State Police as a whole that were real people, um, with a cool job that gets up every day with the mission to make a difference and an impact and just share that side that most people don't, don't get to see. But you know, a lot of that, like I said, having my personality and I think having, having your personality, like that's not us. Like that was a social media thing for ten days a year, for two years. I think that's all that we did it. And, uh. 00:28:35 Tpr. Corey King: And it. 00:28:36 Capt. Robert Purdy: Worked. It, uh, yeah, it was a great, great time. I think the Oak Ridge Boys was, uh, still up there. You nailed. 00:28:42 Tpr. Corey King: It. Yeah. We still have a lot to cover, so please join us next time as we continue our conversation with Captain Robert Purdie. Until then, stay safe, Kentucky, and buckle up.