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Retiring officer eager to come full circle

PSU?grad joining university’s force after Logan Twp. career

After 26 years with the Logan Township Police Department, Officer Chris Bender is starting a new chapter after his retirement last week.

A horse enthusiast, Bender has served as the Blair County Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Foundation as the escort for the riderless horse at the yearly memorial service in June and is a fixture among local law enforcement. Bender has joined the police department of his alma mater, Penn State, to continue his 31-year law enforcement career.

He recently sat down with the Mirror for a question-and-answer session.

Mirror: How did you get started?

Bender: I was a big-time jock-type person and didn’t really care much about schooling and was more interested in sports than being a really good student. My guidance counselor said I really shouldn’t go to college, I wasn’t college material. So, I always wanted to be a policeman since I was little, and at the time, the best way to get a job was to go to college and get a degree. So I went to Penn State Altoona for two years, then went to the main campus.

I went to the the main campus for three semesters, and at at the time it was hard to get a police job. So I started taking tests with departments — a couple in Maryland, one in Virginia and I ended up getting hired by Northern York County Regional Police Department. I got hired there in February 1986. I had a semester of schooling left, so in 1988-89 I went back to the Penn State York branch campus and finished my degree. So I got my Bachelor of Science in criminology from Penn State University then. It was hard to go back.

I worked for Northern York Regional, and I always wanted to come back home, so I started taking some tests back here and got hired by Logan Township in February 1990. Steve Jackson was the chief then.

Mirror: What’s changed the most in police work since you started?

It went from where if you told someone they were under arrest, they followed commands and you usually didn’t have any fights.

The problem now is everyone thinks everything is debatable, so instead of just following orders and commands, “Put your hands behind your back and turn around,” they want to debate. So you have to use more verbal judo nowadays than you used to to convince people, without a fight, to follow commands. You have to be much more articulate. You have to be a lot more police. I’ve never had trouble with it, but you have to be compassionate and sensitive.

Mirror: Why did you want to become a police officer?

Bender: I remember the state police coming to grade school in Cresson when I was young, and I grew up on Cresson Mountain, which is Old Route 22, and the local Cresson Township policeman used to stop cars all the time in front of my house for speeding, and I thought that was the coolest thing.

And I wanted to be a policeman.

Mirror: What will you miss about serving in Logan Township?

Bender: I’ll really miss the guys. We’re a really tightknit group of guys. We’ve really got each others’ backs. Of course in 2014-2015, we went through some really hard times, and that really drew us all together. The other thing I’m going to miss is the township residents. That’s one thing that really shocked me coming from York County to Blair County, how much more of a compassionate community it was here compared to York County.

In York County, there were certain times — even myself I was involved in a really bad fight with a drunken man and there was a big party going on at someone’s house and no one came and helped me. They just stood and watched. That happened quite a few times with officers when I worked in York County when they needed help and the citizens wouldn’t jump in.

Here, in Logan Township, there’s been multiple times when citizens jumped in and helped me. Actually, I was injured in the Kmart parking lot in 2014. I hurt my shoulder — and then needed surgery — and two people jumped in and helped me. The way my shoulder was, I probably would have lost that fight.

Mirror: Why the move to Penn State?

Bender: After 32 years of police work in a municipal environment, to me it’s coming full circle. I started at Penn State. I’m a huge Penn State fan, and to me it’s like I’m paying it back to Penn State for giving me such a good career. It’s something I love to do. I love being a policeman. It’s still police work, but it will be totally different, totally new.

They have so many activities and events throughout the year, it’s going to be for me a lot of enjoyable things. I know there are still the bad things — disorderly people and crimes and such — but it’s also going to be a lot of extra, really neat, exciting stuff and new for me.

I was student auxiliary (Penn State students who work with the police to provide security and traffic control) when I was at Penn State, University Park. I did that for a year-and-a-half. I enjoyed that and I worked Penn State games with a Penn State policeman, and he was the nicest guy and I never forgot how he treated me. Hopefully, I can return the favor with the student auxiliary now. They have a very large number of student auxiliary now.

Mirror: What advice would you give the guys coming up now?

Bender: The advice I’d give is, Logan Township has given me and my family a very, very good life. We get paid well; we have good benefits. Logan Township, as far as I’m concerned, looks after us. They help us out; they’re not our enemy. The same with the citizens. The biggest advice I would give is be sure to have friends that aren’t just policemen. Have your policemen friends, but for the mental strength of yourself, don’t completely involve yourself with policemen.

Have friends that have other careers and interests. That way you’re well-rounded. Because if you just talk police work all the time, it will drive you insane. I’ve been a field training officer at Logan Township, and I’ve told that to every officer. It will eat you up. We see a lot of bad things.

Mirror: How did you get into horses?

Bender: I worked on a farm as a kid in Cresson, so I was around horses and livestock growing up. I got into horses because of my wife six years ago. We have two horses that we bought from Hancock Stables. They’re wonderful. We go trail riding about every day. We’re also into horse camping and go to Cook Forest, and we have a blast. We practice natural horsemanship, which means we use a cloth halter and not a bit. And it takes a lot of training. If I’m not working, I’m with my horse.

Bender: The biggest change is the attitude toward policemen.

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