The Blue View - What It's Really Like to be a Police Chief

EmpowerU Board Member Barb Horwitz will be joining us to talk to us about McCarthyism. With cancel- culture at its height this discussion, which takes us back to the 1950’s may prove to be beneficial for many of us to learn about and reflect on.

For 30 years, former Middletown Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw handled brutal crimes that invaded his hometown. During his tenure, he saw the dark, ugly and cruel side of human nature. One of his survival mechanisms was to journal the daily events. It relieved his tension. It was therapy. He wrote in notebooks, on his laptop and on his phone. One day, while unpacking boxes, he discovered his journal entries. As he sifted through them, he was overpowered by the myriad of emotions stemming from each memory. “There were funny stories, notes of the day, things he had heard, his experiences, serious thoughts and observations that he had had. Little did he know that a simple daily journaling habit would turn him into an author.

The ex-chief does not condone bad behavior by cops. In his book he addresses the complex issues of racial profiling, evidence planting and untruthful statements. While he sometimes paints a transparent, unflattering portrait of police officers, he also acknowledges that the opioid crisis, structural poverty, lack of education and racial profiling have contributed to more crimes than a single police department could handle.

Rodney will take you to the inside of a police officer’s life, the life you don’t see. It will change the way you think about law enforcement. He says “The truth is that you cannot be trained enough to do this job.”

The Blue View is a brand new release and is already a 5 star read on Amazon, and the audio book was just released in January. Plus it has already been read in four other countries.

Recorded on April 20th , 2021

Learn about EmpowerU and more at empoweruohio.org