Interview with a Sergeant, Sniper team leader, and K9 handler

Name: Augustus McCray

Q: What is your job?

A: I am a sergeant, a K9 handler, and a sniper team leader.

Q: What does that imply daily?

A: The K9 and sergeant portion of my job is supervising a group of troopers with dogs, who are responsible for conducting bomb screenings at Colman dock in the city of Seattle. And responding to bomb calls mostly on the west side of the state of Washington.

My sniper stuff is I'm in charge of 3 others, there's 4 of us all together who are charged with providing until gathering and precision rifle fire when needed.

Q: How did you meet Jesus?

A: When i was younger about 7 or 8 with my brother Jeff shortly after my parents became Christians we began attending a church, Boulevard park, and it was there that Jeff and I started going to sunday school, and like i said mom and dad had recently become Christians and that's where I met Jesus in that 7-8 year old time frame.

Q: How did you get your start in law enforcement?

A: I was in my late teens when curt ladines our neighbor came home and he was a brand new trooper and just looking at his car and all the stuff he had in it I thought that was pretty neat. And I went on a ride along a few years later and it seemed like a pretty good fit. I applied the first time and didn't get accepted, and then I went back to work for a few more years then I applied a second time and got hired. I was 24.

Q: We already brushed up on how many people you lead daily, so what kind of leadership strategies or techniques do you use to lead them?

A: my leadership strategy, for the most part is to lead by example, I try not to ask people to do things I wont or cant do myself so I just try to establish my credibility with them through my work effort and therefore when when it comes time to ask them to do a little bit more they understand that I'm not asking them to do more so I can do less. So I'd say that my leadership Philosophy or strategy is leading by example on both sides of my Job.

Q: How do your everyday routines prepare you for work?

A: I would say that even being disciplined with my time and my energy helps me stay focused on the things I have to do to get my job done everyday. There's times when it's not and option and I have to adjust because I still know what needs to get done. I'm able to shorten my process or remove parts of it to still get to where I need to get to. I would say being consisting but also flexible is a big part of that.

Q: What is something that you do differently, then an average citizen, daily because you are a police officer?

A: I carry a gun. Every part of putting on a uniform is different, most people don't understand, especially now you know everywhere you go you feel like a target. You pull up to a gas station to buy a pop and before you get out you look to see who's there. How many people are inside? Is it busy? Is it quiet? It kinda affects everything. That's what makes it different because even if you're just strolling into a gas station people are always watching you when you're in uniform. It's kinda creepy, everybody knows what you're doing, that's really different.

Q: What's something you do differently daily because you're a child of God?

A: I try to be an example and try to be loving. I think I'm more understanding, I'm not perfect but I'm more understanding, based on knowing I'm perfect and help people keep moving and help them through it I think it helps me do my job better.

Q: What challenges do you face being a Christian in your line of work?

A: I think it's hard especially in today's day and age because I can't evangelize directly or talk about God to people at work because Im government. And it's against our rules. It always has to be my actions or a veiled comment about life or hope or things like that. It's a challenge with that in mind. Because you can't necessarily say what you think or feel.

Q: How do you mix the “warrior mindset”, being tactical, being aware of others and their actions, of being a sheepdog with being like christ and being humble?

A: that's an interesting balance. I'm not sure how to explain that. Because on one hand some days I'm there to save lives and protect and the other days I'm there to eliminate lives if necessary. And so it's a hard balance. It's different and I think it's one of the things I kinda struggle with sometimes is rectifying the two lines of my Job and it's weird. I think you can do both, I mean I do but it's not necessarily something I focus on.

Q: If you could give advice to your younger self what would it be?

A: Learn Spanish. That would have been a good thing to do when I was younger.

Q: If you were to give advice to a young person trying to find that balance that we talked about previously what would it be?

A: I would say You have to find some balance but it's not the same for everybody either. I would encourage them by saying your gunna swing both sides of the spectrum but try and spend most of your time in the middle.