Locked In with Ian Bick

Rob Fessock served as a military officer before becoming a DC police officer — one of the most violent postings in American law enforcement. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Rob breaks down what it was really like policing Washington DC, the gangs that made it one of the most dangerous cities in the country, and the calls he'll never forget. Then in 2011 he was deployed to Afghanistan where he worked alongside the Kabul City Police — responding to terrorist attacks, gathering evidence at bombing scenes and witnessing violence that changed him forever. When he came home the PTSD caught up with him — forcing him into retirement as a cop and pushing him into drug addiction. He opens up about hitting rock bottom and how he found his way back.

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#VeteranPTSD #DCPolice #Afghanistan

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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
https://ianbick.com/

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Shop Locked In Merch:
http://www.ianbick.com/shop

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Timestamps:
00:00 DC Cop War Veteran and PTSD Survivor — Rob Fessock's Full Story
02:00 Growing Up and the Family Influences That Shaped Who He Became
05:00 Military Ambitions and the College Years That Changed His Direction
10:00 The Leadership Lessons That Prepared Him for Everything That Came Next
15:00 Deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan — What He Signed Up For vs What He Found
22:00 The Combat Experiences in Afghanistan That Will Never Leave Him
30:00 Coming Home and Becoming a DC Police Officer — A Different Kind of War Zone
36:00 Policing Washington DC — The Violence the Community and the Reality Nobody Shows You
44:00 The Challenges of Police Work and the Coping Mechanisms That Almost Destroyed Him
50:00 How PTSD and Addiction Took Everything He Had Built
55:00 How Teaching Himself Piano Pulled Him Back From the Edge
01:00:00 Recovery Reflection and What Life Finally Looks Like on the Other Side

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Steve Lundquist spent 14 years as a Gang Intelligence Sergeant inside Suffolk County's jail on Long Island, New York — tracking some of the most dangerous gang members in the country. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Steve breaks down exactly what goes on behind the walls that nobody outside ever sees. From identifying gang leaders the moment they walk through the door to monitoring phone calls that give inmates away, Steve shares the insider knowledge that took him 14 years to accumulate — and the cases involving Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, MS-13, 18th Street and local neighborhood crews that defined his career.

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#GangIntelligence #TrueCrime #prisonsecrets

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Thank you to QUINCE for sponsoring this episode:
Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to https://quince.com/lockedin for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.

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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
https://ianbick.com/

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Shop Locked In Merch:
http://www.ianbick.com/shop

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Timestamps:
00:00 14 Years in Gang Intelligence — Steve's Full Story
00:23 Growing Up and the Early Influences That Led Him to Law Enforcement
01:54 The Childhood Inspiration and Career Path Nobody Expected
02:34 How He Went From Restaurants to Corrections — The Career Shift That Changed Everything
03:00 What the Corrections Test and Hiring Process Actually Look Like
04:02 Academy Training and the First Impressions That Surprised Him Most
06:28 The Jail Facilities Population and Roles Nobody Explains Before You Start
07:35 His First Day on the Job and the Lessons That Hit Him Immediately
08:22 The Most Common Inmate Charges and How Facilities Are Actually Structured
09:53 The Inmate Mental Health Crisis and What It Does to the Officers Who See It Daily
12:00 The Human Side of Jail — The Stories That Stay With You
13:13 How He Got Into Gang Intelligence at Suffolk County Jail
14:25 Rising From Officer to Investigator — What That Career Progression Really Looks Like
15:21 Life as a Sergeant — The Leadership Challenges Nobody Warns You About
17:04 Daily Duties in the Gang Unit — What It Actually Looks Like From the Inside
18:02 Jailhouse Snitches — How to Manage Information and Who You Can Actually Trust
21:11 Gang Dynamics Separation and the Situations That Can Turn Deadly Fast
22:00 How Contraband Gets In — Phone Calls and the Intelligence Gathering Nobody Sees
23:12 How He Built Trust With Inmates to Get the Information That Mattered
25:36 The Major Gangs Their Affiliations and How Gang Investigations Actually Work
28:33 Jail Politics Prison Hierarchies and How Inmate Segregation Really Works
31:36 What Inmates Actually Fight Over — Food TV Technology and the Petty Battles That Turn Violent
37:09 The Contraband Methods That Shocked Him Most and How Daily Operations Handle Them
41:41 Handling Informants and the Dangerous Situations Nobody Prepares You For
45:27 Weapons Smuggling and the Gang Violence That Defines Life Inside
47:50 Female Inmates and Gang Involvement — What Most People Don't Know
50:15 How Inmates Communicate — Kites Hand Signs and the Coded Language Officers Learn to Read
52:01 Gang Hierarchies Shot Callers and the Set Politics That Run Everything
54:32 Officer Safety Use of Force and What It Really Takes to Maintain Security
01:00:31 The Mental Toll of a Career in Corrections — What It Does to You Over Time
01:04:06 The Respect He Gained the Lessons He Learned and the Impact That Lasted
01:07:08 How the Media Gets Corrections Wrong and What He Wants the Public to Know

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Jose Ramos grew up the son of a cop, served in the military, and joined the NYPD to follow in his father's footsteps. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Jose breaks down how it all fell apart — from getting shot multiple times by a fellow officer he trained, to becoming corrupt, to spending 3 years in solitary confinement on Rikers Island before being sentenced to over 14 years in prison. He opens up about operating barbershops in his precinct, renting space to a drug dealer who eventually flipped and set him up, getting jammed up in the NYPD ticketing scandal, and the quota system nobody in the department wants to talk about. He also shares what it was really like surviving prison as a former cop — and how he found redemption on the other side.

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#NYPD #RikersIsland #policecorruption

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Thank you to INCOGNI for sponsoring this episode:
Take back your personal data with Incogni! Use code IANBICK at https://incogni.com/ianbick to get 60% off annual plans.

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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
https://ianbick.com/

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Shop Locked In Merch:
http://www.ianbick.com/shop

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Timestamps:
00:00 From NYPD Officer to Rikers Island Inmate — Jose's Full Story
02:31 Growing Up and the Family Influences That Led Him to the NYPD
05:47 Military Service and How It Shaped the Cop He Became
09:00 His Early Years on the NYPD — What the Job Was Really Like
14:45 The Shooting Incident That Changed His Career Forever
20:02 Life After the Shooting — What Nobody Prepared Him For
23:31 The Truth About NYPD Quotas — What Officers Are Actually Told
26:46 Ticket Fixing and the NYPD Culture Nobody Wants to Talk About
31:40 The Barbershop Dealings That Set Everything in Motion
40:00 The Arrest the Charges and What the Justice System Did to Him
48:00 Inside Rikers Island — Solitary Confinement and the Systemic Failures Nobody Talks About
01:00:01 The Trial His Conviction and the Family That Kept Him Going
01:10:01 Surviving Prison — How He Adapted to General Population
01:18:00 What It's Really Like Being a Cop Locked Up With the People You Once Arrested
01:27:29 Release Readjustment and What Life Looks Like After Everything
01:31:09 What He Thinks About the NYPD Today and What Needs to Change

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Seamus McElearney spent years as an FBI agent doing what nobody had done in over a hundred years — he flipped a made man inside the DeCavalcante crime family. The same family the world knows as the real life inspiration behind The Sopranos. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Seamus breaks down exactly how he did it and what happened next. What followed was one of the most remarkable chain reactions in FBI history — flipping one mobster led to three more cooperating witnesses, then a captain, then an acting boss. By the end Seamus and his team had solved eleven murders, convicted seventy one defendants and completely dismantled the DeCavalcante crime family. He also led the takedown of the Colombo and Bonanno families — arresting 120 members and associates including the top leadership of both organizations.

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#TheSopranos #FBI #organizedcrime

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Connect with Seamus McElearney:
Buy His Book: https://www.amazon.com/Flipping-Capo-Dismantled-Real-Sopranos/dp/B0DWHS2YVS
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seamus-mcelearney

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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
https://ianbick.com/

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Shop Locked In Merch:
http://www.ianbick.com/shop

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Timestamps:
00:00 The FBI Agent Who Took Down the Real Sopranos — Seamus's Story
00:20 Growing Up in the Bronx — How It Shaped the Agent He Became
02:56 The Education and Early Career That Led Him to the FBI
04:34 What FBI Selection and Training Actually Look Like From the Inside
07:58 Back to New York — Learning the City and His First Real Cases
09:21 His First Organized Crime Assignment and What It Really Looked Like
10:58 How It All Started — The Robbery and Murder That Opened the Case
13:03 The Witnesses Who Came Forward and How He Built the Investigation
15:39 Wiretaps Decoding Mob Communication and Recording the Evidence That Changed Everything
20:24 When the Arrests Began — Taking Down an Entire Crime Family
21:26 How He Built Enough Trust to Flip an Actual Made Man
25:36 The Domino Effect — How One Cooperator Brought Down an Entire Organization
30:33 Surveillance Searches and the Murders They Uncovered Along the Way
36:51 Preparing for Trial — The Challenge of Actually Convicting Mob Members
45:01 Inside the Courtroom — What It's Really Like Prosecuting Organized Crime
53:49 How Mob Investigation Tactics Have Evolved and Why It Matters
01:03:38 The Major Busts and How Technology Changed Organized Crime Forever
01:10:11 Why the Mob Never Dies and How Modern Gambling Keeps Them Alive
01:13:41 The Real Mob vs The Sopranos — What the Show Got Right and Wrong
01:20:14 Life After the Mob — Gangs Fraud and What Came Next
01:24:09 Retirement and the Private Sector — What Life Looks Like After the FBI
01:26:47 The Lessons From a Career Spent Taking Down America's Most Dangerous Criminals
01:32:17 The Ethics of Using Cooperators — Where the Line Really Is
01:33:02 Why Mob Cooperators Are Going Public and What It Means
01:33:37 Final Thoughts and His Book — What He Wants You to Know

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Chris Cooke was 13 years old when he was accused of stealing a pumpkin on mischief night in Warren, New Jersey. He didn't do it. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Chris shares how that one false accusation set off a chain of events that would change his life forever — probation, juvenile detention, and the unthinkable abuse that followed at the hands of the person meant to protect him: Warren County Sheriff Edward Bullock. What started as 30 days in juvenile detention turned into years of abuse, addiction, and silence. Chris tried to report what was happening. Nobody believed him. It would take decades before the truth came out — and even longer before justice was served.

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#SurvivorStory #TrueCrime #Justice

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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
https://ianbick.com/

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Shop Locked In Merch:
http://www.ianbick.com/shop

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Timestamps:
00:00 Betrayed by the Badge — Chris Cooke's Full Story
04:00 Growing Up in a Single Parent Household and What That Left Him Vulnerable To
07:00 The Pumpkin Incident That Started Everything — How a Minor Charge Changed His Life
11:00 His First Encounters With a Juvenile Justice System That Failed Him
15:00 First Time in Detention — And the Moment the Abuse Began
20:00 How the Cycle of Probation Violations Kept Him Trapped and Exposed
27:00 How the Abuse by the Sheriff Escalated and What It Did to Him
35:00 How the Abuse Destroyed His Schooling and Turned Him Against Everything
40:00 Using Substances and Relationships to Cope With Trauma He Couldn't Name
47:00 Addiction Mental Health and the Moment He Almost Didn't Make It
53:00 Building an Adult Life While Hiding the Secret That Was Destroying Him
01:00:00 Hitting Rock Bottom — The Moment Everything Finally Had to Change
01:07:00 Admission Rehab and the First Steps Toward Actually Healing
01:14:00 Fighting Back — The Legal Battle Against Warren County That Nobody Expected Him to Win
01:20:00 Walking Into Court and Facing the System That Failed Him as a Child
01:26:00 After the Case — Why Winning Doesn't Mean the Healing Is Over
01:32:00 Coming Forward Speaking Out and What Advocacy Really Looks Like
01:38:00 What Healing and Forgiveness Actually Mean After 30 Years of Carrying This
01:44:00 The Lessons He Learned and What He Wants Every Survivor to Know

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