Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates

Minneapolis On The Brink with Jesse Watts

• Travis Yates • Episode 138

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Officers in Minneapolis describe empty rosters, mixed messages, and orders that put optics over safety. We speak with Jesse Watts of The Wounded Blue about confidential peer support, staffing collapse, and what courageous leadership should look like in high-risk moments.

• why The Wounded Blue deployed a mobile peer command center to Minneapolis
• how staffing fell from an 888 allotment to just over 300 usable on the street
• where leadership orders conflict with policy and officer safety
• why internal peer teams lack trust and how independent support helps
• what a seven-officer roll call means for safety and response
• contrast with Las Vegas where decisive leadership restored order quickly
• warning signs of weak leadership and steps officers can take
• how to access confidential support and donate to sustain services

Reach out to The Wounded Blue 24/7. Officers can reach out to TWB at their text line at 877-810-0911. If you text the word BLUE to 877-810-0911, you can reach them confidentially and immediately. 

The Warrior Talk Line is 833-TWB-TALK (833-892-8255). 

Donate at thewoundedblue.org.


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Travis Yates:

Welcome to the show. We have a special episode for you today with Jesse Watts, the executive director of the Wound of Blues. It's important and vital because he's in Minneapolis. And for context, this is in January of 2026 with all the ICE operations and the controversy and what's occurring with leadership there in Minneapolis. We're going to get into that. But the reason I wanted to touch base with you briefly before that episode is he is literally calling us from their mobile command center, their peer command center, to help officers with their peer response team. So there's a lot of background noise. The internet wasn't great, but that's not what we care about. The information is what's important. So just know that that is kind of coming. But what you're going to hear is going to blow your mind. Here we go.

Announcement:

Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice, and encouragement they need to lead courageously.

Travis Yates:

Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us here today. And this is an important episode. So thank you for being here. On today's show, we have Jesse Watts, retired sheriff from Eureka County, Nevada, but also the executive director of the Wounded Blue. Jesse and Randy Sutton and a group of other peers are in Minneapolis as we speak, as you're listening to this, and they're speaking to their officers on the ground. They're understanding what's going on. And we have very fortunate to have Jesse joining us from that area. Jesse Watts, thanks for being here, man.

Jesse Watts:

Thanks for having me on, Travis. Appreciate it.

Travis Yates:

Yeah, man. I know it's hectic out there. There's a bunch of stuff moving around. So I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. So I guess the first thing is tell us about the Wound of Blue and the peer networks you have and why you're there in Minneapolis.

Jesse Watts:

Yeah, so the Wound of Blue is the National Systems and Support Organization for Law Enforcement Officers injured and disabled in line of duty. We take care of cops that have been injured physically, mentally, psychologically, emotionally, you name it. We'll cover all parts of it. Active and retired law enforcement officers from anywhere in the country. Our motto is never forgotten, never alone. And our main mission is to make sure that we follow through with that. They are never forgotten and never alone. Biggest component to our organization is the peer support, independent and confidential of any agency, anywhere in the country. So we are a resource for law enforcement officers anywhere, anytime, 24-7, via phone call, text, email, you name it.

Travis Yates:

And so obviously you got requested to go to Minneapolis. And you know, if you if you happen to run across this episode in, I don't know, 2027, the context is uh ICE, immigration enforcement's going on in Minneapolis. All hell is broke loose because the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota are sanctuary cities and states. They don't cooperate with ICE. And so there's been thousands of criminals that's been on the let go of the streets. And either way, that's not some political uh talk. Literally, in the records of the jails, they've arrested illegal immigrants for violent crimes and released them back on the streets of Minnesota. And so that's the ICE's mission there as we speak to round those criminals and illegal immigrants up. And of course, obviously it's been wildly controversial, not because of ICE, because they're doing their job as set forth by the Constitution, Jesse. It's been wildly controversial because of the leaders there in that state and city. And this is a leadership podcast. And so tell me what you're hearing from the officers. We know it's confidential, but give us a general sense of what you're hearing when you're there.

Jesse Watts:

Yeah, for sure. So the number one thing is the the cops are just drained. Um, you know, they're allotted 888 cops for full strength, and they've got just over 300.

Travis Yates:

Um, and yeah, that's that's a great point, Jesse, because the politicians keep lying about that. You keep hearing them say 600 plus, and I know from my sources, not even accurate. They're counting everybody on injury leave. We're talking, you know, there's uh if people in the they're counting, they're counting the numbers. You're right, just over 300. We've talked about this a lot on this show. Minneapolis is probably gonna be the first major city to actually go bankrupt and lose their police department because of the leadership in that city. I'll let you continue.

Jesse Watts:

Yeah, so we we saw the roster board yesterday, and it was eight eighty-eight strength, um, and just over 300 that are calculated to the streets. That includes injured, that includes pregnant, that includes people on training meet, that includes people on ancillary duty, that includes all aspects of that. And that was as of yesterday. Now, that board has not been updated in over a month, um, and they had a dozen people retire, leave, walkout last week. So that doesn't include those numbers as well. Currently, there's over a hundred people eligible to retire from the Minneapolis Police Department and walk-outs. Um, with that being said, that would decimate that law enforcement agency. Um, like I said, the guys are just drained. Um, and the number one stressor they have is not the um rhetoric from the people in the streets. It is the inability to do their job when they're standing there and they've been told you can't do this. You will not do this. Um, and then the other side of is, you know, we are brethren in law enforcement and not being able to protect their their friends and their buddies and their brethren um of ICE and Border Patrol and other things because of um what negative connotation the city mayor and the state governor have um dished out and threats they've made and and it's incited these individuals from all over the country, not just Minnesota, not just Minneapolis, all over the country to come here um and blow their whistles and get on the streets and get in the faces and then throw out objects of ice and all the cops. Um, and the number one thing that we keep hearing is we are told we can't do stuff, and that just kills us. Um, and then the other side is the leadership, and I say that word loosely with who we're talking about. The leadership isn't listening to those that are on the ground in the trenches with policy on their side, tactics on their side, and experience on their side. Um, there's a certain situation here in that happened after the shooting where Minneapolis PD is there and they've got an active scene, obviously, um, and protesters are there and they're following protocols, and the chief makes the decision of nope, because of the optics, you're gonna take your helmets off and you're gonna get swat out of here. And no less than two uh few minutes later, officer gets injured because somebody threw something. And if he would have had his helmet on, he would have been protected. But because of optics, um, the helmets were ordered to be taken off, and here we are.

Travis Yates:

Yeah, Jesse, and I admittedly, I'm pretty personal to this. Uh, we do talk about cowardly leadership a lot. We talk about leadership in our writings, in our podcast, and our training. So I've had dozens and dozens of Minneapolis officers reach out to me. And so I'm very well aware of a lot of these issues you're talking about. And uh I feel for the officers there because they are literally being led by the weakest of the weak in our profession. And you know, and every time you say that, I know everything is mashed in politics, right? Everybody wants to pick everything that's said or seen through a lens of politics. And I want to assure everybody listen to this this is not politics, okay? What you're saying is what you're hearing is what you're seeing. What I'm saying is what I have heard and seen for many, many years now. I mean, myself and Jacob Fry go all the way back to 2015. You can read about it in my book, long before George Freud. That guy's been acting like a buffoon for many, many years. And so um it's not the protest, it's not it's not the uh the environment of the crime. You're telling me the stress is coming from the decisions from leaders.

Jesse Watts:

Absolutely, 100% internally. Um, and the the guys are just beat down, and and uh and um you know their gas tanks around empty. Um we came here and we we got this mobile response unit um ready with snacks and water, and we truly didn't know whether we were gonna have one person show up or you know, 500. We didn't know. And um, we sent out our email to the union membership, and within minutes we had people at our mobile response unit, and they just want to talk, they just wanted to be heard. Um and they wanted a confidential and the fact that their peer team, you know, nobody trusts their internal peer team because it's gonna get back to admin, etc., you know. Um and us being independent confidential, it's beautiful for that fact. But it's been steady and the impact has been amazing. Um and we look forward to the next several days here to be able to make those additional connections. We we're at a roll call this morning, and you want to talk about staffing. Um roll call for the busiest, most dangerous precinct in Minneapolis, and there was seven officers and a sergeant with 12 open shifts. Two of those shifts had been signed up for overtime by a lieutenant and an officer, and they didn't show up for overtime. So you have more open shifts than you have officers.

Travis Yates:

Yeah, I want to I want people to understand what that means, and we've already seen I mean, uh Alpha used in a documentary on the number of officers that were killed in that area. That's what this causes. Yes, there's a wellness aspect, there's a stress aspect. Officers are not going to make it to retirement with those kind of open shifts and working, but it's a dangerous aspect. This is not a job that you can come to work fatigued, tired, worried about what the decisions leaders are making. It's going to create danger because Minneapolis is a dangerous city. It's like a lot of big cities. And so I'm so glad you're there, Jesse, to kind of raise awareness because, quite frankly, the media in this country deserves a reckoning because the stories you're telling me are the stories the media there in Minneapolis could tell. Alpha News is really the only thing you can kind of get any honesty from because they they talk to a lot of these individuals. And so that's so I'm so thankful for that. So let me ask you this. You went to squad meeting. Have you been have you been welcome inside MPD buildings to talk to folks?

Jesse Watts:

Without a question. And I said it this morning. We we we have been in communication with one of their members. Um, the union leadership here has been amazing. The president and vice president both have welcomed us with open arms. Our mobile response unit um, you know, is rehabbed available to them. And and they they sent out the flyer to their membership, which is all the MPD guys. Um, so we we made contact there and we were just texting and calling this morning, hey, you know, where do we go? And we walk up and literally, not joking you, 5 30 or 6 o'clock this morning, we're walking up to the back door of the MPD, and these guys walking up, welcome us with open arms, um, you know, and just literally handshakes and just thankful that we're there. Um and immediately we got within an hour of getting to the mobile response unit, we have one of them in our room, you know, just able to have that peer on around.

Travis Yates:

Incredible.

Jesse Watts:

So at some point they sent it off the office.

Travis Yates:

What what message would you give other officers across the country that aren't seeing this? What warning signs should you give them? Because obviously Minneapolis is here. Uh, other than a reckoning of leadership and real courage coming to that city, this is the environment that they're in, unfortunately. Uh but but what I try to tell people is is these things don't just get isolated. You've got to be on guard for cowards in leadership wherever you are. So, what warning sign would you tell them that maybe listed outside of Minneapolis?

Jesse Watts:

So, yeah, absolutely. So the part that I would say is uh from small agencies all the way up to major agencies, you know, um these these decisions um it's mindset. And the mindset is it's not personal to you. These decisions are being made because of politics and oh my contracts coming up and all these other things. Remember that you drive you. Yeah, politics have some influence, politics have some things, you know, and and policymakers um as a former one of those, you know, have some drive. But make sure that you are staying true to you. There's resources available to you anywhere um in the country. You can reach out to the Window Blue or other resources um to get it out. I will tell you, weak leaders are going to ruin agencies, and we're seeing that first and I posted something earlier today. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department last night had an uh object thrown at an officer that got hit, and because that agency's leadership allows those officers to act, it was quarreled within minutes. 11 people were taken into custody within minutes, that officer was safeguarded, and the strip, which is a tourist area, major metropolitan area, the strip was safe and uh order was restored immediately because those officers are empowered to take action swift and hold those accountable accordingly. So just make sure that you you know that you can do that. Um, and God bless each and everyone who put on a uniform every day and remember why you raised your hand to be handless. You didn't swear an oath to that chief or sheriff, you were you swore an oath to the people that you were protecting and to the name on your name badge. So make sure that you hold true to that.

Travis Yates:

Jesse, I can't I can't thank you enough and and the wood of blue being there. Uh, this is a story and a message and uh and delivery to those officers that they so desperate. Please pass on from us to them that we're thinking about them. And obviously, if they reach see our reading and writing, we're always defending them uh for what they're doing. How can people reach out to the wounded blue? How can people reach out to you? And how can they donate to this great cause?

Jesse Watts:

Absolutely. So uh all of our information is available at the wounded blue.org. Um, and it's our website. We've got all the information you can about us. There's a donate link directly available there at the wounded blue.org. You can officers can reach out to us uh via our text line at 877-810-0911. If you text the word blue to 877-810-0911, you'll be able to get to us confidentially and uh immediately. Our talk warrior talk line is um available 24 hours a day, answered by peers that have been in on the job or are currently in the job, and that have been injured and disabled in the line of duty, and understand uh the depths of what can happen because of this career. And that warrior talk line is 833 TWB Talk. And that number is 833 TWB Talk. 833-892-8255. Um, so please reach out to us 247. We were here for you. Uh, absolutely, law officers, an amazing um partner, courageous police leaders, an amazing partner. And we truly appreciate all you do for us, Travis, all you do for American law enforcement. Um, and the wound of blue is here for all of you.

Travis Yates:

We'll get all that in the show notes and those numbers in the show notes. Uh Jesse, Jesse Watts, Executive Director of the Wound of Blue. Thank you so much for being here. God bless you, sir.

Jesse Watts:

Take care, sir. Thank you.

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