Top cop returns to old stomping grounds

WASILLA — With just two days on the job under his belt, Gene Belden said he’s still getting settled in.

“It’s a lot of information, a lot of new people,” the new chief of the Wasilla Police Department said Thursday. He was sworn in at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Just to show how fresh he is on the job, Belden was wearing a suit with his badge on his belt. He said he’s still getting fitted for a uniform. And it might be a few more days before he’s got one.

But while he is new to Wasilla PD, he’s far from a neophyte when it comes to police work or living in the Valley.

Belden said his first job carrying a badge and a gun was in 1977 when he signed on with the Palmer Police Department. After that he went over to the Alaska State Troopers. He did his training year in Anchorage then shipped out to McGrath, where he worked until troopers closed down that post.

Then he went to Bethel for four years. Then Glenallen. Then Soldotna. And, finally, back to Palmer. He became a sergeant, doing stints as both a sergeant in charge of administration and as a patrol supervisor. Then he supervised the investigations unit.

But 11 years ago he hung up his badge and went into the construction business. Belden said he’d been in construction before, prior to the stint in Palmer and after serving in the military. As a contractor, he built homes for a while, then went to work for Shaw Environmental as a building maintenance carpenter on Fort Richardson.

He said Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright had talked to him before about maybe considering taking on the chief’s job. But he had too much going on at the time to accept. Then, last week, the job came open again.

Belden takes over for Mike Hughes who was fired late last week. Hughes came to the department from Texas and spent just 10 months on the job. The reasons for his departure are still murky.

“As far as Mike is concerned I can’t talk about it because it’s an internal personnel matter. It’s nothing evil or bad, it’s just he was separated from city service,” Rupright said.

Belden said that in the years between his stints in law enforcement the job has changed dramatically in many ways, but remained the same in many others.

Probably the biggest change is technology. Computers play a greater role in law enforcement than ever before. One of his biggest tasks right out of the gate, Belden said, will be to familiarize himself with police computers and software.

But being a patrol cop — making traffic stops and chasing down bad guys — is still the same as it always was, Belden said. It’s just that now you’re producing tickets with your laptop and a mobile printer instead of tearing them out of ticket books.

In addition to his experience in law enforcement, Rupright said he thinks Belden will be an asset to the department because of his long history in the Valley. Belden’s family homesteaded in Wasilla, Rupright said. Belden graduated from Wasilla High School, beginning his career there when the school was housed in the building that now serves as city hall.

Belden said the personnel office at Wasilla City Hall is in his former ninth-grade classroom.

“He knows Wasilla since the days it was dirt roads,” Rupright said.

He said he talked to officers at the department and they seemed to be on board with the choice.

“A lot of the older officers at the Wasilla Police Department know Gene and have worked with him in the past,” Rupright said. “They know where they stand with a guy like him.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.