In a riveting and heartfelt episode of The Mark Howley Show, host Mark Howley welcomes Randy Sutton, a 35-year police veteran, speaker, author, and founder of The Wounded Blue, for a conversation that crackles with courage, vulnerability, and purpose. From standing center stage at the Republican National Convention to performing mouth-to-mouth on a baby shot in a drive-by, Sutton’s journey is anything but ordinary. But it’s not just his stories that command attention. It’s the weight of what they represent: the hidden cost of service, the crisis facing law enforcement, and the fragile strength required to keep going.
The episode opens with Sutton recounting his unlikely invitation to speak at the RNC, a high-pressure and highly choreographed opportunity he never expected. With just two weeks to prepare and a strict 300-word limit, Sutton delivered a powerful speech before a crowd of 10,000, including President Trump himself. In a moment of instinct and defiance, Sutton broke script to salute the President and was surprised to receive one in return. That spontaneous exchange, he reveals, resonated deeply with officers across the country. “We felt like you were saluting all of us,” they told him. And in many ways, he was.
But the highlight of Sutton’s legacy isn’t a speech or a stage. It’s a life of raw service marked by moments of impossible gravity. He shares a story from his early years as a Las Vegas police officer when he stumbled upon the aftermath of a gang shooting. A one-month-old baby had been hit in the face by a bullet. Standard protocol would have him wait for EMTs, but the baby wasn’t breathing. Sutton cleared her airway, performed mouth-to-mouth, and saved her life. That baby, Jackie, is still alive today and still a part of his life. “That night changed me,” he says. “It showed me that being a cop isn’t about the job. It’s about the moments that define your soul.”
That story sparked Sutton’s unexpected writing career. He penned “Her Name Was Jackie” the same night, on a yellow pad with a bottle of scotch, and locked it away. It resurfaced years later as the country reeled from 9/11. Inspired to help the families of fallen officers, Sutton compiled stories from fellow cops into a bestselling anthology, True Blue. That led to A Cop’s Life, and most recently, Rescuing 911: The Fight for America’s Safety, a searing account of the current law enforcement crisis.
What makes Sutton’s impact even more profound is what happened when his own department turned its back on him. After suffering a stroke in his patrol car, Sutton was denied medical coverage by the same agency he served for decades. “They said it wasn’t personal. It was just business,” he recalls. The betrayal was devastating. But the flood of messages that followed, from officers across the country who had also been abandoned, sparked something bigger: a mission.
That mission became The Wounded Blue, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping injured and traumatized police officers. Since its founding, it has supported over 15,000 officers, providing emotional, legal, and peer support for those tossed aside by a system that too often forgets its own. “Every day I hear from someone who’s been broken,” Sutton says. “Our motto is ‘Never Forgotten. Never Alone.’ Because isolation is deadly. And we’re not letting them face it alone.”
Throughout the episode, Sutton remains candid about the toll of trauma on himself, his peers, and the institution of policing. He shares stories of departments like Las Cruces, New Mexico, where multiple tragedies including murder, suicide, and mass shootings have left officers emotionally shattered. He doesn’t sugarcoat it. Law enforcement is in crisis. But he refuses to let that crisis define the profession he loves.
Asked what he’d say to a young person considering the job, Sutton doesn’t hesitate. “There is no more noble profession than being an American peace officer. Every time you interact with someone, you leave behind a piece of yourself. That’s your legacy.”
