photo by: Youtube

Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister hosts the new podcast "A View from 100," which first aired online in March of 2024. The video was filmed at the Lawrence Public Library.

Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister has launched a new podcast focused on connecting with constituents and giving them a look behind the badge.

The podcast is called “A View from 100,” which is a reference to the sheriff’s radio dispatch number. The podcast is set to air about once a month on various online listening platforms and in its video form on YouTube.

“I want the listener to hear the humans who do this work and see that we are people just like them. It would also be nice for them to get a chuckle in the process of learning more about us all,” Armbrister told the Journal-World in an email.

Throughout the career of sheriff’s deputies, their radio numbers change while their badge numbers remain the same. Radio numbers change with rank — with sergeants around the 150s, detectives in the 120s and the sheriff always at radio number 100. Armbrister hopes future sheriffs might take over the conveniently named podcast.

The podcast is produced by the office’s public information officer, George Diepenbrock, who said he and the sheriff had discussed starting a podcast for several years.

“(Armbrister) had brought it up as an avenue to try with storytelling, being transparent and possibly reaching new audiences that we typically might not reach, especially those who are younger and might prefer to get their information from podcasts as opposed to other means,” Diepenbrock said.

After Armbrister was reelected in 2024, the two decided to start production.

Diepenbrock said that while the the podcast launch was not affected by the encryption of law enforcement radio scanner traffic last October, he hopes the podcast can increase the public’s familiarity with the office and its work.

“The podcast is another avenue to provide transparency and education to the community about the Sheriff’s Office, our policies, procedures, and all the people who work here in different ways to protect the community,” Diepenbrock said.

Prior to the encryption in 2024, the public could listen to law enforcement’s radio traffic to find out when potential criminal activity was happening. Armbrister had supported the encryption and said that it would ultimately make law enforcement safer and more effective, though he expressed concern for those who used the scanners to stay informed on what was happening near their homes.

In the podcast’s first episode, Armbrister interviewed his second-in-command, Undersheriff Stacy Simmons. Armbrister said during the broadcast that he and Simmons worked well together because Armbrister is the “megaphone” and Simmons is the “clipboard.”

Simmons explained that she and Armbrister, in their more than 25 years on the job, took different paths through the office. She has been focused on working in the corrections division at the jail and becoming an expert on policies within the office, while Armbrister worked on patrol and as a detective. The sheriff has the vision, she said, while she works on executing policy.

(I’m) making sure all of our staff is appropriately trained and that they have the right equipment — that they get the things that they need. I take my orders from the sheriff. He leads me in the right direction, and I’m hoping to lead the sheriff’s office in the right direction,” Simmons said.

Armbrister said that the response to the podcast has been “tremendous.”

“I have received texts and emails from many folks who really enjoyed the conversational approach as well as the information provided,” Armbrister said. “One person said they loved hearing these things in our own voice instead of reading about who we are, where we come from or what we think.”

He said a sheriff in western Kansas has since reached out to share how he has been inspired by the production.

“Just these two individuals exceeded my hopes and expectations for the whole idea, and I am very pleased to hear these things,” Armbrister said.