Sheriff Michael Bouchard: Answering New York's Call After 9/11

0:00So just moments ago we passed the time stamp for when that first plane went into the World Trade Center the first tower at 8.46 a.m. and and that set off a Changed world for the United States going forward and then of course the ensuing attacks on the second tower on the Pentagon and and a plane that was Heroically taken town by pass and was on board in Changsville, Pennsylvania and and when you are in law enforcement and you see other members of law enforcement that are dealing with a major major situation Oftentimes law enforcement steps up. They help. That's what we saw here in Michigan in Oakland County in particular Sheriff Michael Bouchard saw what was happening in New York City He was being briefed as well and they mobilized and sent a Unit to New York City to to help those first responders there and sheriff Michael Bouchard joins us this morning It's it's good to have you back. It's always good of you to join us on a day like today and and

1:06Talk to us a little bit about As we sit here now 25 years ago first tower gets hit. What was what was going on in your world? So I was at the office and You know the first tower got hit and people were saying I wonder if it's an aviation accident And there's just no way that you accidentally run into one of the twin towers But you know there were people wondering if that was a possibility or something It was an individual maybe that intentionally but nothing beyond that so By the time the second plane hit the tower pretty much everybody knew the country was under attack and at the time I was Head of government affairs for major Stanley sheriff of America. So all sorts of my colleagues, you know, we started communicating I called in all of our people we went to a 12-hour shifts And we went to a kind of a readiness footing because if you remember nobody knew how widespread this might be or what might be next

2:10Was it gonna go off in every city? You know what we're gonna be the target so First thing I just is to sign all of our critical infrastructure that we've identified throughout Oakland County some businesses and some government places some utility, you know transfer stations things like that to be protected and You know as I was doing that I received communication from New York and New Jersey Because I knew as again that a lot of these folks Well people that I had worked with as head of government affairs for major County sheriff of America And they asked for help at ground zero So then kind of on a parallel track of making sure we were set here. I started planning a relief column to go to New York that night we left to the caravan left about mid-day and You know what was gonna be in that caravan? So you know figuring that there'd be a lot of rubble and things I sent

3:12PTVs and trailers with some of our search and recipe capability Evidence texts and people that would know how to find or unlocate evidence from any criminality or in this case I've reached terrorism, you know put together kind of capabilities like that and Made a plan Sheriff you also established the Oakland County Fallen heroes fun What did that support mean to the families of these fallen police officers and firefighters? Yeah, so before 9-11 happened I had been actively working on Trying to raise money myself to build a statewide police memorial We did not have one in the whole state of Michigan. There was a statewide fire memorial, but not one for police and It was extremely frustrating, you know, I saw so many different people Try it and then different groups would say well who's gonna be in charge of it? Who's gonna be in the committee and who's gonna decide and and just

4:15Crazy thing for preventing it from happening and then after I got back from working at ground zero in New York City with our team You know on that day you saw the single largest deaths of police and fire On that as they rushed into save people and it occurred to me that you know, we work side by side every day with our fire service Partners and in other folks And why not make our memorial Which is now the only statewide police and fire memorial in the country Why not make it together instead of just Police until that's what I set out to build after 9-11 but before that I paused my fundraising And this area and you get to give a shout out to this area this area has the biggest heart And WJR was a big part of it. I started raising money For the people that fell in New York City on that day hundreds of them and we raised

5:17$400,000 and gave it to them in a very short period of time before the end of the year Because back then there was no mechanisms to help families that have lost their loved ones in the land of duty There was no automatic you know as soon as it happened to help them Hey bills, you know a lot of them, you know suddenly weren't getting Paychecks or help insurance because they're loved one in Paris, which is crazy. Yeah, and so this area raised You know, I put out the call and we were able to give $400,000 to the fallout of the fire department police agencies in New York City Sheriff would you do anything differently looking back now 25 years later Well having hindsight obviously I think I would have taken respirators because more Public safety have died after 9-11 and died during that day From all the stuff that was in the air while we were working the asbestos and the particulates and things

6:21But you know, there's no way to see that in advance. I'm still Glad that we went and helped and the things we did And saw I think have a life-long impact on everybody that went Sheriff Michael Bouchard. Thank you as always. We appreciate you all the efforts of that day and of the ensuing years We appreciate you so much. Thank you Thank you. Hope to see you at the memorial today Where we add five more names to the Michigan Heroes wall from this past year. Yeah, absolutely Thank you guys. Yeah, we'll talk to you soon In New York City right now the reading the names of those lost on that day At the 9-11 Memorial in museum where those towering towers used to stand And now a beautiful tribute that gets taken care of meticulously It did take care of yourself love everybody And some kind for somebody to be lost and those that were heroes on that day Kevin Deeds next