57:50 Chief Philippus, we really appreciate you taking out the time. A lot of public officials and public servants are afraid to even talk to the public or press about things like this When did you first become aware that Delta Force, the most elite training force in America is what Pentagon says wanted to train with actual live fire blanks here in San Antonio? Is that true? Yes it's correct They actually started probably I want to say back in February when they first approached us, maybe even earlier than that about doing some operations in the San Antonio area. And we'll get into this more later and appreciate you taking the time again
58:33 Well, basically you're the person that knows about it. What were your major reservations in asking the mayor to tell them that y'all didn't want them to train here and cease training here? Well a lot of things happened first of all The organization came into the city never really approached the city as a whole We've gotten together with the mayor and said we need to speak to all these different departments And request some assistance Various groups of individuals came into the city and approached different people at different levels. The police department was contacted, the city manager's office was contacted about using city facilities, various business owners were contacted through the economic development department, the fire department was contacted by different individuals so there was never any coordinated approach to the City of San Antonio
59:23 When we found out of that, we had some reservations but were willing at least to listen. But then we started finding out that discussions were happening in other different levels and there was no communication or coordination between them. We also found out that leases have been negotiated with private business people throughout the city to utilize their vacant buildings without any coordination with a police department because we are originally told they were probably going to be a couple locations and later on we find out there's 12 locations And yet we were never brought into this at the beginning. Last Saturday, The Austin American-Statesman did an article about how they're practicing taking over police departments in Chicago In fact I've got a copy of that and can give you a copy after the interview. I should have brought it up from my car, just remembered That's one thing some cities I've heard had reservations about They call it touring the police department but they actually
1:00:13 practice dynamic entry and other things at the police departments. I heard that they were planning to do this in Houston, but they've already done some training along with the Marines and other forces of the military Have you ever heard anything like this before? No, I have not They did offer to allow our SWAT teams To do training with them in these particular exercises But you know our missioners are different Theirs deals specifically with international type situations our deals with local situations and if an incident were to occur in this country it would be Local law enforcement the FBI and others that would deal with Delta forces purely kill the terrorists, but whatever it is
1:00:54 I'm not so sure what it is, but it's at an international level and so our missions or tactics are somewhat different. And I am very proud of the SWAT team that we have. We have one of the best in the country. We do a lot of training for other agencies and I think that we have the skills and expertise to deal with those situations." Why did the mayor...and I heard this quoted on KTSA, San Antonio 550 station two days ago. I heard it quoted that the mayor said he didn't appreciate the dishonesty of the Delta Force. I was curious, we called the mayor's office and Jackie O'Donnell, she told us that you were the mayor spokesman on this can you tell us exactly why uh... the mayor would use such strong language and call it dishonest? Well i think there were various approaches for example when I originally said no several weeks ago matter fact a couple months ago but No was never no
1:01:50 And then no was never no. End of runs were done around to various community leaders, I had some... Excuse me sir you're saying that they ignored the police chief and under our constitution? You are the same as the sheriff and run the city or county? You're telling me that Delta Force was ignoring your order? Well, I don't want say they ignored it but in a roundabout way yes because what they would do once i said no They went to various individuals in the community to bring pressure to bear To get me change my mind For example, there was a community leader who I have a great deal of respect for and we have a very good relationship that they went to. I get a call from him and he says, Chief there's some people in here that are in town and part of their role here didn't say who it was they need to meet with the mayor or police chief. Well of course this gentleman, I've worked very closely with him on a number of projects. And I said sure give me a call. He already said no! Well then I find out its the same group
1:02:45 So they identified somebody apparently that I know that's very high in the community to make an approach to me and get me to change my mind. Well then, when we said no then some elected officials were contacted to bring pressure to bear uh... and then the offers were made to give money cash money to elected officials charities if they could get us change our minds i mean that you know is one of my deputy chief said in some circles as called bribery well it's called bribery but more importantly it's called manipulation of the constitutional system and the takeover of local police departments. And that $4,600 million that we just saw in the statesman is so wonderful it's buying them a lot control if they can't buy the police chiefs off like it did Elizabeth Watson for that $244,000-a-year job at the Justice Department Let's hear him say that one more time
1:03:40 to make an approach to me and get me change my mind. Well then, when we said no then some elected officials were contacted to bring pressure to bear. And then offers were made to give money cash money to elected officials charities if they could get us changed our minds I mean, as one of my deputy chiefs said in some circle that's called bribery. Why do you think and again this is just speculation seeing the large bookshelf of policing and criminology over there? And it was no small task to be a police chief of a modern city why did you think in Chicago maybe not aware this all get your copy of it
1:04:24 that they're practicing taking over police stations and fire stations and bridges. That seems like a military takeover of the city? Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't even want to speculate on that. I'm not familiar that those types of things are occurring. Certainly there was no approach made us to do those kind of things. Well, that's good. You talked about a memo from Delta Force? Yeah, because what happened is various elected officials were being contacted. I have 10 city council members and mayor and I just wanted to alert them as to what was happening that these situations were occurring, that they might be contacted by these individuals and in the best interest of public safety. And that's what I continue to fall back on we didn't feel it was in the best interest for the citizens of San Antonio to do that type of thing All I can say is no just never seemed to be a No and even after they told us We don't need you! We're still going to our training exercise at other locations
1:05:27 in and around the San Antonio area, but we're allowed to do them here. Next time still getting contacted by various officials I mean they never would say take no for an answer so they weren't respecting your jurisdiction? They were not respecting our jurisdiction uh i don't think they respected our decision uh to go into predominantly minority areas of the city where we had vacant warehouses and buildings, and try to do those types of exercises in those locations in the middle of night. You know sometime between 9pm-midnight you know I mean people become frightened We drew a lot of our decision making on experiences that happened in other cities
1:06:06 We were very concerned with some things that have happened over there. We didn't get any real good clear answers So they're being secretive about it? Very secretive And you kind of, the city and the mayor and yourself as a police chief You kinda felt that is was a little odd That they wouldn't trust y'all I mean ya'll are the authorities here A little odd, and once I made contact with my peers in some of the other major cities and they shared with me some of their experiences over there. The decision really was very easy My interest as police chief is the citizens of this city period And i was not about to jeopardize safety under exercise of this magnitude under any circumstance