Trooper captain says goodbye after nine years in Palmer

PALMER — On the left sleeve of Capt. Dennis Casanovas’ uniform, all the way down by the cuff, are six embroidered stars.

The stars represent years of service and you have to have five years to get just one. Casanovas is two years away from earning his seventh. After 33 years, he said, he often gets questions about them.

“If you can retire at 20, why are you still here?” is the usual inquiry. Casanovas said he replies with a joke, that he won’t be happy until he’s got two more, like the line from the Alaska Flag Song. “You know, eight stars of gold on a field of blue?”

Monday, Casanovas will begin working as the supervisor for the troopers’ Alaska Bureau of Investigators, overseeing investigative teams statewide. The change in jobs marks the end of nine years as head of the troopers’ B Detachment, which includes the Valley, Glennallen and Valdez. Capt. Hans Brinke, until now head of the troopers’ Bureau of Highway Patrol, will replace him.

Lt. Jeff Laughlin, B Detachment’s Deputy Commander, joked that Valley troopers haven’t seen the last of their old boss.

“I guarantee you he will be looking at the logs daily,” the lieutenant said. “Captain Brinke is going to catch the brunt of that, but don’t slack off.”

Everyone there, including Brinke himself, agreed that Casanovas would be a tough act to follow.

“Capt. Brinke has got huge boots to fill,” said Maj. Matt Leveque.

And Casanovas’ going away party Thursday also doubled as the detachment’s yearly awards ceremony. Also honored with plaques for their service were troopers and civilians who did outstanding work over the years.

One of the main things Casanovas said he was most proud of in his time in Palmer was the opportunity he had to train so many of those troopers. In his time, he said, 109 recruits went through field training in Palmer, which represents a third of the total statewide force.

And, he said, those troopers are well trained. In 27 months, he said, 10 Valley troopers have had to use deadly force. He stands by every one of them.

“Those 10 troopers have all done what was needed at the right time,” Casanovas said.

He concedes that nine years is a long time for a trooper to stay in one spot. Officers in that department tend to move around the state during their careers.

“You normally like to see people move around and experience different parts of the state early in their career,” he said.

Casanovas said he stayed put partially because that mobility isn’t quite as important for a supervisor. But, he noted, it’s good for any trooper to spend at least three years at a posting, so the state gets its money’s worth out of sending him or her there.

Another thing he said he was proud of is the partnerships he built while in the Valley. Those partnerships were on display Thursday as he received commendations from Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and the borough’s Department of Emergency Services.

He said he started building them on his first day on the job. One of the first cases when he arrived in Palmer was that of an elderly woman who’d been murdered and left in a closet. Troopers’ prime suspect was whoever had been using her debit card since she disappeared. The suspect was withdrawing the maximum from an ATM machine every day.

Casanovas said troopers spoke to the bank, which didn’t keep an eye on the ATM transactions 24 hours a day. When he explained the case the bank decided to keep someone watching them around the clock, at no expense to troopers.

Within six days the suspect was in custody and had confessed.

“Did I do that? No. It was a collaborative effort,” he said. “There is no reason we cannot and should not work together.”

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