Retiring trooper sergeant 'tired of tragedies'

PALMER -- In his first year with the Alaska State Troopers, Dennis Ponder worked undercover and helped make a one-kilo cocaine bust -- the biggest drug seizure in state history at the time.

In October 2003, Ponder helped with surveillance and arrest of former Nome police officer Matthew Owens, who is charged with murdering a Nome woman.

In between, he spent 24 years riding the daily ups and downs common to most law enforcement officers. A sergeant in the Palmer trooper office, Ponder will put on the uniform for the last time Jan. 16.

"I'm leaving the troopers while I still like it," he said. "But I'm tired. I'm tired of dealing with other people's tragedies. I've seen what people can do to each other and it's horrific."

The Palmer resident's retirement will be brief. He begins a new career Jan. 19 as business agent for the Public Safety Employees Association, a union representing troopers and others. The former union vice president will trade crime fighting for a chance to fight for better working conditions and benefits for union members.

"I can't imagine doing anything else. I've always had an interest in labor relations."

Capt. Dennis Casanovas, head of the Palmer trooper office, said Ponder's experience will be missed.

"He is probably the third most senior member of the state troopers in this detachment," Casanovas said. "His experience, not only with the troopers but also having been stationed at various locations, brings a pretty solid foundation of experience and history.

"As a patrol sergeant, he imparts this to all the newer and younger people coming through this office. We are going to miss that mentoring. He has been a very stable, solid performer and it's that sort of stability that we are going to miss here."

Ponder, 46, came to Alaska in 1967. His dad was a career military man stationed in Fairbanks, and Ponder majored in business management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He credits his mother for convincing him to attend college, even though the trans-Alaska pipeline was booming and there was big money for laborers.

"It was hard to go to school and be a broke student when my friends were making $1,500 a week," Ponder said.

After an internship with the Internal Revenue Service's intelligence division, Ponder began a stint as undercover narcotics agent for the troopers in 1980.

He laughs about the job description.

"I got paid to go out and party. When you're young it sounds great, but when you do it five nights a week, it gets old."

He got married the same year and says his wife, Lucretia, prevented undercover work from changing him.

"She kept me straight," Ponder said. "I'd get home from work and she'd say, 'OK, you're not with the druggies now.'"

After completing trooper field work and four years at Fairbanks, he transferred to the Tok office. He moved up to corporal in the Juneau office in 1988 and moved on to Kodiak as sergeant in 1990. He's been at the Palmer detachment since October 1993.

It's been a rewarding career, he says.

"I've been to all four corners of this state and have met people who've made history. There are some very good people in this organization, and I have a lot of precious memories."

Other memories aren't so rosy. That has taken a toll on Ponder, whose first death investigation involved a 9-month-old child killed when a drunk father rolled the pickup truck in which they were riding.

"I'm tired of people not taking responsibility for their own actions," he said. "My sympathy for people has come to an end. In my opinion, the only true victims are children.

"Here in the Valley, drugs and alcohol contribute to the majority of everything we do."

Ponder believes staffing for drug investigations could be tripled without curing the problem. And that brings up another problem: State funding for the troopers hasn't kept up with the increase in crime. In fact, Ponder said there were 440 troopers statewide when he joined the force, but the number has fallen to about 340.

The staffing problem, coupled with unfunded mandates from lawmakers, has caught troopers in a squeeze play, he said.

"I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel for the troopers," Ponder said. "A lot of it is the Alaska mentality of wanting everything but not wanting to pay for it. What bothers me most is not being able to respond to every call for service."

Looking back at his career, Ponder says he got the most satisfaction from his work with crimes against children. Bringing people to justice in homicide cases also was satisfying, he said.

The Palmer office largely serves as a training ground for troopers who have just graduated from the academy. Ponder encourages newcomers to view law enforcement's big picture, particularly the fact that prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and juries are equal parts of what he calls "this big wheel."

In short, troopers must shrug it off when someone they've arrested isn't prosecuted, plea bargains to a lesser crime, or is acquitted.

"I tell the young guys here, 'Don't keep a win-loss record,'" Ponder said.

What does he say when citizens criticize the troopers?

"I tell them, 'Here's an application.' We're not TV. We're bound by state statutes."