Guest Speakers
Bazzel
Baz is known as “the Patron Saint for Missing Kids.” He is a former CIA Intelligence Special Operations Group Paramilitary Case Officer, recipient of the Intelligence Commendation Medal, former counter-terrorism officer in the United States Marine Corps and a graduate of The Citadel.
In 1993 Baz founded the Association for the Recovery of Children [ARC], an organization comprised of former and active intelligence, military, and law enforcement personnel dedicated to the recovery of missing and exploited American children, in foreign and domestic locations. In 2019, on invitation of the White House and DOJ, Baz introduced ARC’s legislative initiative involving severe penalties for those who sexually exploit any child under the age of 18 in the U.S.
Baz is well-known globally for his expertise and extraordinary skillset. Author of Terrorism Survival Handbook, he has been called on by CNN and MSNBC as an advisor and spokesperson on the war on Terrorism and Homeland Security. He is also a film and television writer, producer and actor. Bazzel Baz co-starred as the commander of Raymond Reddington’s paramilitary group on NBC’s “The Blacklist” for four seasons.
As a Life Coach, Baz travels nationally and internationally to provide breakthroughs to awesome performance with an uncanny ability to bring simple solutions to complicated scenarios. He is a well sought after motivational speaker and “life guarantor” for people entering high threat environments.
Police Panel
Police Chief Ken Cost has been with the Mesa Police Department for over 27 years. Prior to joining the Mesa Police Department, he was a sworn investigator for almost two years with the State of California in East Los Angeles. Chief Cost has served in several areas of the department and in every rank leading up to assistant chief. These assignments include: Patrol, Bicycle Unit, Special Investigations-Gang Unit, Community Action Team, Street Crimes, Violent Offender-US Marshal’s Task Force and Criminal Investigations. Chief Cost holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from California State University at Fullerton, a master’s degree from Xavier University, Ohio and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy for Police Executives. Chief Cost is very active in the community and volunteers numerous hours throughout the year coaching and mentoring youth.
Chief Michael Soelberg was appointed as the Gilbert Police Department Chief of Police in June 2017. Chief Soelberg has been a Town of Gilbert resident since 1995. The Town of Gilbert continues to be one of the fastest growing towns in the nation as well as one of the safest towns in the nation. Chief Soelberg began his law enforcement career with the Mesa Police Department in 1995. He worked numerous assignments throughout his career, some of which included Patrol, Criminal Investigations, Human Resources, Training, Public Safety Communications Center, Professional Standards, CompStat, Inspections, Policy & Planning, Peer Team, and Employee Wellness. As Assistant Chief, he led Mesa Police Department’s efforts to expand community engagement, improve employee wellness, and the development of department wide use of force de-escalation training and crisis intervention training.
Assistant Chief Dave Ramer began his law enforcement career with the Chandler Police Department in 1999. As an officer, he worked in patrol, from patrol, he was assigned to the Criminal Investigations Bureau, working as a detective in the Family Crimes Unit where he investigated domestic violence crimes, child abuse, elderly abuse and missing person cases. Later he served as the lieutenant over the Person Crimes section of the Criminal Investigation Bureau. In October of 2019 he was promoted to assistant chief of police to oversee the Professional Services Division. Assistant Chief Ramer has dedicated many hours of service to various non-profit groups and continues to be highly involved with the community. From 2007 to 2021 he served with the Law Enforcement Torch Run, to benefit Special Olympics. He then sat on the board of directors for Special Olympics of Arizona. He currently serves on the board of directors for AZCEND, a non-profit dedicated to helping families and individuals in need.