Our guest speaker this week was Mike Tamez. Mike is currently employed as a full-time criminal interdiction officer and task force supervisor with the Nueces County District Attorney’s Criminal Interdiction Unit.  Mike has been a law enforcement officer within the South Texas area for 19 years; 14 of which have been as a full-time Criminal Interdiction Officer. Prior to beginning his law enforcement career, Mike served the United States Marine Corps as a Sergeant in the Infantry. Mike also deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and served as a Convoy Commander for over 200 “outside the wire security” missions as part of the Law-and-Order Task Force (LAOTF) of Iraq. While serving in Iraq, Mike earned the Bronze Star along with many other awards for service in support of OIF.  

 

     Interdiction is the action of intercepting and preventing the movement of a prohibited commodity or person. Mike put it in layman’s terms for us, “We proactively stop drugs coming in, and money and guns going out.”  He has created a task force joining all the different police agencies up and down the 77 corridor. They are now working together, putting all politics aside, and getting down to the business of stopping the trafficking of drugs, money, and guns. A few cases have had ties as far reaching as Chicago.

 

       Officer Tamez is a court certified expert in the field of Roadside Interviews, Detecting Deception, Physical body language interpretation and contraband concealment detection. Mike shared with us different ways he is able to detect concealed contraband in cars, and broke down the psychology behind roadside interviews, and how these techniques are key when the case is brought to court. Mike has authored a book on how to best conduct roadside interviews, The Traffic Stop: The Only Thing Routine is the Hunt (Real cops training). It is available on amazon and will be available in audiobook soon.

 

Follow this link to check it out:

 

     Mike has taught at seminars for law enforcement agencies across the country, has been featured on NPR,  and internet blogs, as well as local, national, and federal news stations. As an expert in his field, he has created a business, 720 Interdictions, as an education resource for law enforcement individuals and agencies.

 

Officer Tamez is truly an amazing resource in our community, who is putting politics aside to create a safer community for us all. I'm going to paraphrase something that Mike said, that stood out in my mind, and that is, We can not allow drugs to destroy our communities and poison our children.

 

This article barely touches on his accomplishments. Follow the link below to see all his accomplishments, and what he is able to share to help other law enforcement agencies.