THE FALLEN BUT NOT FORGOTTEN PODCAST:
“The Bloodhound Warrior: Pain, Peace and the Facade of Perfection, with Joe Cirrito”
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I sat down with my friend and fellow street copper, Joe Cirrito. We take a deep dive into how he gets through the pain of his endurance runs and extreme workouts.

Joseph Scott Cirrito was born and raised in New York. He went to Lona College where he played football and studied abroad at Trinity College Dublin Ireland. Before his illustrious carreer in law enforcement, he was a teacher at Herman Lehman High School and coached football, track and baseball

He worked alongside his friend, fallen officer Dominic Pezullo, who tragically died in the line-of-duty when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. Both Joe & Dominic spoke about becoming police officers together. Joe then moved to Los Angeles to fulfill that pact with the Los Angeles Police Department. While in the hiring process, he taught for the LAUSD 2002 to 2005 before starting the LAPD Police Academy in March of 2005.

Joe has been assigned to patrol in 3 different geographical areas of Los Angeles, “Safer Cities”, gang unit for 2 different precincts, Senior Lead Officer, Gang & Narcotics Division as a K9 bloodhound handler and now works as a field training officer where he trains probationers.

Joe conceptualized and built a homeless outreach program in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, which he coined, H.O.P.E. (Homeless Outreach Partnership Endeavor ). The program was a success & would ultimately be adopted by the LAPD and implemented city-wide.

Joe ran over 400-miles with Kristina Tudor, and a volunteer support team of 30 officers, from Los Angeles to Sacramento in full uniform to honor fallen officers. This run was called “Project Endure”. His efforts raised funds for the nonprofit, Bluecoat Foundation, a 501(C)(3) that supports families of law enforcement agents who have died in the line-of-duty.

Since then, Joe has continued his passion for running ultra marathons and endurance runs while honoring fallen officers. He completes a yearly 24-hour nonstop workout, (yes…24-hour nonstop workout), that he dedicates to his friend, Dominic Pezullo, and all first responders who perished on 9/11.

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TIMELINE:

00:02:15 - Tobacco Pipes
00:08::00 - Finding peace in a frenzied mind
00:11:00 - Trail runs & daydreams
00:13:20 - Laziness
00:14:20 - Pain
00:17:35 - Inspiration
00:20:20 - “The inner governor” -Goggins
00:23:00 - The spirit of a bloodhound
00:24:00 - Extreme measures
00:28:00 - The power of people
00:36:46 - The bond with Kristina Tudor
00:38:20 - Lt Humphries
00:39:45 - Mileage count vs humility
00:42:25 - The treachery & the beauty of California’s “Grapevine”
00:49:45 - Books & leaderships. “The Need to Lead” by Dave Berke & books by Jocko Willink.
00:55:00 - Perfection in policing
00:59:50 - Figure it out
01:04:27 - Skittles galore & brown piss
01:07:30 - Project Endure 3 and shark repellent
01:08:10 - What’s next?
01:13:00 - Joe shares a heartfelt dedication to Deputy Andrew Nunez of San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department End of Watch October 27th 2025



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