The Seldovia Police Blotter is Back!

by Shad Haller, Seldovia’s Chief of Police

Hello all,

I am pleased to announce that today we revive the Seldovia Police Department Blotter that Andy Anderson maintained while he was Chief of Police.  (It is located under the Gazette tab on the top navigation bar of this page) This will be a way to keep in touch with everyone and let you know about things that are going on in our community.   My hope is that it will be a format to offer some advice as to how to help better protect ourselves and our community.

I would like to start by thanking all of you in our community that continue to give your support, without it my job would be ten times harder.  It was not an easy decision for me to take on this role, as it affected, not just me, but my family and friends.  So, thank you very much!

The Haller Family’s Seldovia Roots 

For those of you who don’t know me from growing up here, I am a Seldovian through and through.  My parents moved here in 1972 when I was just two years old.  My dad, Ike Haller and my mom, Sandee Elvsaas (who still lives here) ran one of the local grocery stores.

I attended Susan B. English back in the day when we had trailers for class rooms where the Ottertorium “lunch room” now sits.  Sally Smith, who still resides in Seldovia, was my elementary teacher.  Through my junior high and high school years I played basketball, ran cross-country and wrestled.  I was very scrawny back then.  I enjoyed playing ball the most as it was my only experience being part of a team.

I spent my summers working on our fish sites, helping my family build our log cabin (maybe that’s why it fell?) and riding my three-wheeler.  I wasn’t a saint but I think I was a decent enough kid.   Might want to ask Andy about that….   At the age of sixteen I met my soon to be, very lovely wife, Tiffany.  We graduated from High School together in 1988 and married in September that same year.  December 1989 we welcomed our first daughter Ashley into the world and six months later I joined the military, where I completed eighteen weeks of training to become a U.S. Army Airborne Infantryman.  Three weeks after graduation I shipped off to Desert Storm with the 101^st Airborne.

I spent the next thirteen years in the Army, on various deployments and training exercises.  Korea, Panama, Japan and Germany to name a few.   Taylor, our second daughter was born in 1995, and our first son, Chance in 1997.  Logan, our youngest son was born in 2001.

In 2003, with our family getting older, my focus changed.   We made the decision that being home, and being a father to my children was more important to me than jumping out of airplanes in foreign countries and I ended my term of service with the military.

After a few years working in construction, I realized it was a lot like the military.  You go to where the work is, and the days are long and hard, regardless of the weather.  Tiffany and I talked often to our kids of our school days and growing up in Seldovia and how much we had enjoyed being able to just step out the front door and walk to where you wanted to go.  I talked about my rustic living when I was in my teens, all the fishing and camping and riding my three-wheeler on the road.  So as a family, we made another life changing decision.  We packed up the trailer (thank you Stephanie and Joe),  sold what would not fit, and made the 2700 mile trip home up the ALCAN.

When we first arrived, Tiffany worked for SVT and I worked in construction and for the prevention program with SVT, we both really enjoyed working with our youth.  I had already been approached a few times about Andy’s retirement and stepping into the role of Police Chief.  I declined it initially, as I didn’t have any law enforcement training and no desire to be a police officer.  I have never been one for sticking my nose into other people’s business, and not only that, but how does one police their friends and family?  (In such a small community, everyone is either one or the other.)

Well, as life often does, something happens and situations change.  Andy had been retired for almost 6 months and we still had no officer of our own.  Thankfully, we had troopers come over every now and then, and a part-time officer that came over every few weekends, but it wasn’t the same as having a full-time police presence.  I didn’t move my family here to have them live in a community without law enforcement.  As a family, we decided that taking on this responsibility, even knowing how it would impact our lives, was the right decision, and that it would be best for our community.

Oath of Office, Training Day

I was sworn in to office on the 14^th of November 2011 and attended Alaska State Trooper Academy in February 2012 in Sitka Alaska.  16 weeks of  way intense training where I tore my left rotator cuff during the first week, but somehow managed to muscle my way through and graduated with my class ALET 12-02 in June 2012.  I returned to Seldovia ready to take on the challenges of my new career.  I have made arrests, written citations, given warnings, responded to domestic violence calls, suicide attempts and people being threatened with guns.   While not everyone is going to agree with what I do or how I handle things, my ultimate goal is that our community is safe.

The Police Blotter is Back

Thank you, I so appreciate the community’s support.  You may click on the link to read the Seldovia Police Department Blotter, which I will be updating on a monthly basis.

Tags: Chief Shad Haller, Police Blotter, Seldovia, Seldovia Alaska, Seldovia Police report

Category: Community, News