Wasilla’s police force marks 15 years’ growth

WASILLA — It’s a story Wasilla Police Chief Angella Long tells often.

In 1993, Wasilla hired Irl Stambaugh, a retired Anchorage Police Department patrol captain, and tasked him with creating a working police department. He was given three and a half months. Stambaugh hired Long as a secretary, then hired eight officers.

On July 1, 1993, the Wasilla Police Department opened its doors and began responding to calls 24 hours a day.

“It was a big whirlwind,” said Long, who 15 years later is the department’s chief.

Stambaugh said the development of the WPD wasn’t a singular effort, that help came from all corners of the law enforcement community in Alaska.

“Just about anybody I would call that was able to help me, they would help,” he said.

For Long and Stambaugh, it was the chance of a lifetime.

“How many opportunities do you get to get in on the ground floor of a police department?” Long said.

Today, as the department prepares to celebrate its 15th anniversary, its ranks have more than tripled from eight sworn officers and one civilian to 24 sworn officers and 28 civilians. It has added numerous programs, including a K-9 unit, a school resource officer and a full-time investigator. Wasilla has a dispatch center that serves both the department and Alaska State Troopers.

And Long, the first person Stambaugh hired, became a police officer, rose through the ranks and is now in charge.

That first year, the department was housed at City Hall. Next door, Long recalls, was a Head Start program.

“It was pretty crammed, but it was still OK, because we only had nine people,” Stambaugh said.

There wasn’t a parking lot, either. Cruisers parked on the street. The department’s first sign, planted in the grass outside City Hall, was created as a local Boy Scout’s Eagle Scout project.

And, amid the pomp and circumstance of the department’s opening days — photographs from which show a very healthy community turnout — the Wasilla PD took its first call.

It was a burglary at an animal food store. Somebody had made off with, among other things, a large parrot. Police never did find the culprit, Long said, though she thinks some of the stolen items may have surfaced later.

“That was one of those unsolved crimes,” she said.

Long has four predecessors as chief; Stambaugh was first. Then Charlie Fannon. Next was Don Savage, then John Glass. Fannon made the historical point that, technically, Stambaugh was the second chief.

“Back in ’87, [the city] hired another guy,” Fannon said. “They tried to create a police department and it didn’t work.”

To a man, all four former chiefs say they loved their time at the department.

“The best time in my law enforcement career was my work at Wasilla,” Fannon said. He came to Wasilla from Haines, where he had been chief of police.

Savage said when he retired as commander of the AST “B” Detachment — the detachment that serves the Valley and surrounding areas — being chief of Wasilla was the only job he would have considered taking. Luckily, the job was open.

Glass’ tenure was the shortest — he worked six months as deputy chief before Savage retired, then worked six months as chief before he was tapped to be deputy commissioner of public safety for the state and head the Alaska Wildlife Troopers.

“I just couldn’t say enough about it,” Glass said of his Wasilla posting. “They are just some outstanding people at WPD. I would class them as very user-friendly. I think that they’re a little bit more compassionate than some agencies are. They also can take care of business when business needs to be taken care of.”

In 15 years, Long said no officer has been shot in the line of duty, but that isn’t to say there haven’t been bumps along the road.

In 1996, officers shot and wounded a burglary suspect in downtown Wasilla. In March of this year the department had its second officer-involved shooting when officers shot and killed a suicidal man firing rounds in their direction.

Fannon said that the start of his tenure, in 1997, saw the ushering in of a new political regime at the city. Sarah Palin, now Alaska’s governor, was elected mayor.

“The good old boy system that had been in place for many, many years, they were still in shock that she had been elected and there was a lot of stress over that,” Fannon said.

That trickled down to the department and its employees who, after all, worked for the city.

“It was just a stressful time because it had been a close election and it was affecting the officers’ morale,” Fannon said.

Through it all, the department enjoyed tremendous support from the public, he said. That’s one of the things that sets the WPD apart and makes it a joy to work for.

“They enjoyed tremendous support from the city of Wasilla, more than any community I’ve ever been in,” Fannon said.

Under his tenure, the department grew from eight officers to 17 and, he said, “I never once had to ask for additional manpower or anything. The demands for that always came from the community.”

Savage and Glass said that support continued at least through their tenures, and Long said it hasn’t diminished.

Glass, Fannon and Long also all credit the department’s progressive nature — its use of new technologies such as mobile computing in squad cars to combat crime.

Asked what the future holds, all five chiefs said growth. The Valley will continue to grow, they said and, along with it, the department will expand to meet those needs.

Glass said growth doesn’t necessarily have to happen within the city’s boundaries to drive a need for expansion at the department. Wasilla’s big box stores and other retailers draw folks in from around the Valley. The Parks Highway runs right through the city, bringing with it traffic moving from Anchorage to Fairbanks and points north.

Long agreed.

“Any time that the Valley grows we feel that influx,” she said. “Because we are such a hub that population has an effect on our community.”

With more people come more problems and those problems often warrant a law enforcement response.

But, in the near term, Long said she doesn’t see any new positions on the immediate horizon.

“We’re in good shape and I’m able to do some good things with the numbers I have,” she said.

And if she has anything to say about it, the department won’t soon see its sixth chief.

“I sure like my job,” she said. “Leaving is not in my plans.”

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