Crazy Riot Stories, Police Chaplain, Background Investigations

Things Police See: Firsthand Accounts

Steven D Gould

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My good friend Ken Roybal, a retired Los Angeles Police Department veteran with an extraordinary 35 years of service to the city of Los Angeles. Ken started his career as an LAPD officer in 1980, he patrolled the streets during some of the most turbulent times in the department's history, then honed his expertise as a background investigator from 1997 to 2001, meticulously vetting the next generation of guardians. After retiring in 2003, he continued his mission in the City of Los Angeles Personnel Department, guiding countless applicants through the rigorous hiring process until his full retirement in 2018. Now, as the founder of Policebackground.net and host of The Police Applicant Podcast—affectionately known on Instagram as The Background Whisperer—Ken empowers aspiring officers with insider strategies to navigate backgrounds, interviews, and beyond.

Police Applicant Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/2blCjqkzrztWRsbg1W5yGH?si=2df84ec0e4894714

Contact Steve - steve@thingspolicesee.com

Support the TPS show by joining the Patreon community today! 

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=27353055

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for checking out or thank you for returning and
0:04.3	continuing to listen. In this episode, I sit down and I chat with a very good friend of
0:09.9	mine, Ken Roybal. Ken's got some amazing stories. She had a really interesting career with
0:15.7	LAPD. He was a chaplain at one time. He did backgrounds as both a police officer and as a civilian. Just a really
0:22.6	fun interview. We were actually in the field together doing a call and I had the recorder in my
0:29.6	backpack. He was unaware of it. I've been trying to trap him into doing this podcast for quite a while,
0:34.7	so I was happy that he agreed to do it and it was just a really a really
0:38.3	fun talk we take a walk to memory lane what it was like to be a boot back in the 80s what it was
0:43.7	like during the riots just a really fun conversation and I was so happy to be able to get it
0:49.5	so this will be episode number 16 that we're going to be listening to.
0:56.0	It's been going great, guys. Like I said before, I say every episode.
0:58.2	Thank you so much for checking the podcast out and keeping it rolling.
1:01.7	If you could, click subscribe, comment, rate, whatever.
1:07.7	Whatever you can do on iTunes.
1:10.4	That is always helpful for the podcast.
1:12.5	And if you have any questions or if you want to reach out to me,
1:14.9	it's Things PoliceC at gmail.com,
1:16.7	and that's in the description of this episode.
1:19.4	So without further ado, here's episode number 16.
1:24.5	This is Things Police See, first-hand accounts, with your host, Steve Gold.
1:35.3	Ken Roybal, thank you for coming on the podcast.
1:37.3	A pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.
	...

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