Conference Connection
Hunter’ to School Bus Driver, and Back Again
WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY |
RYAN@STNONLINE.COM
Lt. Joe Kenda once taped a piece of paper on his office door at the Colorado Springs Police Department with a message typed in the smallest font possible. “You had to get up there with your nose to read it,”
he recalled. Simply put, and typical of Kenda’s no-nonsense style peppered with sarcasm, the paper stated: “Are you lonely? Do you like to impress your friends? Ten have a meeting. Just don’t have it in here.” Welcome to the mind of America’s—actually the
world’s—most popular reality television sleuth. Kenda is the namesake of Investigation Discovery’s hit series “Homicide Hunter,” which recently completed its fifth season on air. He will be a busy man through September completing production on season six, but he’s carving out time in July to speak to STN EXPO attendees. No, not about his remarkable case solving skills.
Well, perhaps a little bit, he admits with his trademark acerbic wit. After all, by the time he retired from the force in 1996, following a 25-year career, he had cleared 92 percent of the 387 murders he’d been assigned. To put things in perspective, the national average for case resolution is between 58 percent and 62 percent. Since, an additional murder case was solved, thanks to
new DNA evidence. Kenda asserted that he also knows precisely who committed 15 of the remaining 30 un- solved cases, he just never could completely prove it. Part of his talk on July 25 at the Grand Sierra Resort will be about crime, “as it pertains to the charming youth of America that school bus drivers encounter ev- eryday,” he said. But Kenda will also speak from the per- spective of the school bus driver, not simply a cop. You see, after retiring from the force, Kenda drove a special needs route for eight years. It was an experience he said he loved, adding that he could easily still be driving the “Waldorf Hysteria,” the name he gave his bus “because everybody on it was crazy, including me.” Seriously, Kenda said driving his students, many of whom he drove year after year, was a rewarding experience and the perfect segue from his previous career. “I loved those little kids and they loved me back,” he said. “I went from a totally negative atmosphere to
42 School Transportation News • MAY 2016
Lt. Joe Kenda is coming to the STN EXPO this summer to share stories from his hit reality television show spanning his detective career, and from behind the wheel of his school bus.
a positive one.” But then Hollywood came knocking … and knocking and knocking. Kenda’s wife Mary finally convinced him to answer. Te first season of “Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda” aired in October 2011, drawing rave reviews. Today, the series is shown in 183 countries and in 100 lan- guages, and is bigger than Monday Night Football. Well, at least when the Buffalo Bills are playing the New York Jets, Kenda joked. With due apologies to said fans, Kenda reported that he often can’t get through an airport without signing 20 or 30 autographs. “Homicide Hunter” is the hottest show in the U.K., and he said he’s been was recognized all over the world, including by a waiter while dining near the Champs-Élysées. Not bad for a guy could very well be in the audience at this summer’s STN EXPO rather than on stage looking out over one. “I took the standard career path: Policeman to school
bus driver to reality star,” he said. “I’m living proof that even a blind pig finds an acorn every once in a while.” ●
From ‘Homicide
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