My 1st Blog

I am Joe Harris, co founder of Roll Call.  I am a 35 year old man from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I am married to my lovely wife Carrie and have three great children, well three sometimes behaved children. My oldest had just enrolled in The Citadel Military College in S. Carolina. Before you ask, yes I am 35 with a kid in college. He is my stepson. I married his mom when he was just 7. I am a cop is Scranton, Pa for 14 years now. For those who don't know about Scranton, Our city's recent claim to fame is "The Office" television show staring Steve Carell.  My youngest son Joseph is 10.  His life revolves around football.  I do have the honor of coaching his team.  Coaching was for the kids but quickly turned into therapy for me.  My daughter who is almost 3 runs the house and is sure to give her mom grey hair. 

I am a Corporal in my department.  I was a member of our SOG team (special operations group) aka SWAT for about seven years. I was a sniper for four years and a firearms instructor for the department for nearly 10 years.  Due to the company's demands I had to resign from the SOG team which I miss greatly.  I currently have a unique desk-style job.  I am in the process of providing security assessments for nearly 20 schools in our city. This job, although not incredibly exciting, is truly the most rewarding; to have a part in making hundreds of children safer is a great thing.  As a member of my department I was afforded to attend some of the greatest training available in our country.  Training such as the Secret Service Firearms Instructor Course at the Rawlings Training Center, Intermediate/Advanced SWAT training by the Las Vegas Team Zebra and beginner, intermediate and advanced sniper training by the National Tactical Officers Association just to name a few.  

While working as an officer, my father Tom and I started Roll Call in 2007.  I felt this would be a great opportunity to sell to cops by cops. Let's be honest, I did not get very excited to sell uniforms. I did like the firearms part.  Now having my dad as a partner was very important. He not only had the entrepreneurial experience but he was my father.

At the beginning of this adventure, we set the ground rules of how this business would be run. Customer is right, customer is doing us the favor, and don't except a thank you from a customer but to thank them.  Too many companies in this day in age think you owe them for their service or product.  That can't be any further from the truth.  We also said honesty is best.  This would not be the 1970's used car salesman approach (no disrespect to used car salesman, only the outdated approach).  I remember telling the new cops "Look,  I'll tell you what you need then what's cool to have". I never sold them what they did not need. Selling to the new guy was easy. If it's black and velcro, they would buy it. Honestly, I made sure I sent them in the right direction. I had to sleep at night. 

Just recently, we launched our largest website yet.  It was asked by one of our advisors why we don't blog.  I like to read, I like to write but I did not have an answer.  So welcome to Roll Call's 1st blog.  My blogs to come will be the fundamentals of marksmanship, gun reviews, business and cop talk just to name a few.  I hope to blog 2 to 4 times a month.  Talk to you soon. 

Thank You for Reading,
Your friend Joe Harris