Wasilla promotes Smith to Chief of Police

WASILLA — Wasilla Mayor Glenda Ledford named Joel Smith Chief of Wasilla Police on Tuesday in her first act as Wasilla Mayor.

Smith had been serving as acting police chief since November of 2019 after former chief Gene Belden retired. Smith has been a member of WPD since 2000 and started his career three years earlier at the Palmer Police Department.

“They know him, they’ve worked with him, he’s one of them and from what I can see and what I have heard they all have a lot of respect for Joel and so it all works together and the young guys that are coming up and they see that we are promoting from within. It gives them some stability,”said Ledford. “We are serious about having safe neighborhoods and with the promotion of Joel into the permanent position then I think they’ll realize that they can count on us to keep them safe, that it is a very high priority.”

Finding someone to fill the vacant chief’s position had been an important topic during the mayoral campaign season and Ledford was happy to have fulfilled her promise to Wasilla voters with her first act. Stressed by both Ledford and Smith was the need to hire two more police officers to fill vacant positions. On Friday, Ledford conducted the swearing-in for WPD Officer Jeff Sheveland, who was promoted to sergeant.

“We are highly competitive. We are desirable in a lot of ways,” said Deputy Administrator Lyn Carden. “We don’t see a lot of that transfer to any other departments, they come into us from other places around the state and outside the state. So, for as small as we are, we are a desirable place to be with a very competitive salary and I would suspect that the city council going forward and the administration going forward will always make sure that that is a priority.”

Prior to beginning his law enforcement career with PPD in 1997, Smith worked as a social worker. As part of his job prior to becoming a police officer, Smith manned suicide hotlines listening to at risk youth. Smith said that his training on how to listen has helped during his illustrious law enforcement career where he hopes to continue to improve the Wasilla Police Department. After city residents voted for a tax increase to pay for a new WPD building, Smith hopes to continue to foster trust between residents and WPD.

“We are absolutely interested in maintaining the trust of our community and whatever that brings us to in the future,” said Smith. “If you’re not responding to what your community is looking for in the changing within the community, you’re not going to be effective and it’s more than that. It’s more than going out and arresting bad guys or writing tickets to speeders, It’s that community interaction and knowing that as a community member knowing you can trust the police department to do the right thing and that they’re heading in the right direction.”

Smith is one of a small group of WPD chiefs that were promoted from within the department. As acting chief, Smith oversaw an unforeseen transformation in how police interact with the community when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing new mitigation strategies and protocols for police officers.

“That means a lot that we’re at a point in our history where we can promote from within our ranks and it’s a good place to be in a career to have worked here in the Valley and for WPD for so long,” said Smith. “My philosophy even as the acting chief was I”m not just going to do status quo. We want to push the department in a positive direction and obviously covid hit and I can tell you that in all of the scenarios that ran through my head stepping into a position as acting chief, a global pandemic was not one of the scenarios that I had run through.”

Smith said that he hopes to improve WPD and specifically noted that reserve units would help ease staffing woes. With previous support from the Wasilla City Council, Smith is hopeful that the unit can be revitalized at WPD.

“Reserves provide so much for the police department. It gives the officers a chance to either have a second person in the car for safety or maybe to help handle some of the calls like a minor fender bender in the parking lot,” said Smith.

For over 20 years, Smith has seen face to face the growth in the homeless population in the Valley and understands the importance of the issue in Wasilla. Smith noted non law enforcement agencies and a larger problem than can be solved by Policing.

“Unfortunately the Valley doesn’t have a Brother Francis shelter. We don’t have some of those resources, but there are other resources that are coming into play and we’ve got some new treatment facilities that are up and running now in the Valley here and we’ve got some of the mental health providers are trying to look at models of what are some alternatives that we have besides either taking somebody to jail, or how do we deal with the core issue here. Not just the trespassing or shoplifting as a symptom of the problem. It’s a result of the problem and some of these providers are looking at how do we deal with the core issue here,” said Smith.

After over 20 years serving the community as a police officer, Smith is excited for the chance to lead and hopeful that he can continue to work to improve the Wasilla Police Department.

“It’s been a great place to work. It’s been a great place to raise a family and it’s a great place to be a police officer,” said Smith.