Sergeant Bluck honored after three decades of service in Alpena
Trending
ALPENA - After 28 years with the Alpena Police Department and more than three decades in law enforcement, Sgt. Mark Bluck put a cap on his career on Sept. 11 and was formally recognized Monday night by the Alpena Municipal Council.
Police Chief Eric Hamp told the council that Sept. 11 marked "the end of an incredible career in law enforcement." Bluck's last official day included a retirement luncheon with city staff. On Monday, Hamp returned to council chambers to honor the sergeant whose departure has already left a vacancy in the department's sergeant ranks.
"We are here to celebrate the retirement of Sergeant Mark Bluck," Hamp said. "For the past 28 years Bluck has served the city of Alpena and the Alpena Police Department with dedication, professionalism and commitment."
Hamp said Bluck started with the department in January 1998 after graduating from the Wayne County Regional Police Academy and spending 4½ years with the Northfield Township Police Department. Combined, that is 32½ years in law enforcement -- the experience Hamp said will be the hardest piece of Bluck's retirement to replace.
"The experience that comes with 32½ years in law enforcement," Hamp said.
That experience was spread across a long list of assignments. Hamp said Bluck served as a patrol sergeant, field sobriety instructor, evidence technician, field training officer, weapons armorer and firearms instructor. He told the council Bluck had taken on many of those roles over the years.
Asked what he was most proud of, Bluck did not point to a single moment.
"There are many. That is a difficult question to answer. There are many things I am proud of," he said. "My involvement in the Aaron Trout and Lori Grotto investigations, but I was just a part of a larger wheel."
He also cited the technical work and the promotion that defined the second half of his career.
"I'm proud of being an evidence technician, a firearms instructor and being promoted to sergeant," Bluck said.
The assignment he kept coming back to was training.
"I think being a field training officer is what I'm most proud of," Bluck said. "Being able to train new officers in the proper ways and continuing to provide them with guidance and inspiration as they progress in their careers."
That role is personal for Hamp, who joined the department in 2003 and became chief in 2023. He said he has worked with Bluck since he was hired -- and that Bluck was one of the field training officers who taught him the job.
"I've worked with Sgt. Bluck since the time I was hired. He was one of my field training officers when I hired on," Hamp said. "Mark trained many officers, and he relished this role for many years."
In a department the size of Alpena's, field training is more than an extra duty. New officers learn local streets, local people and department habits as much as they learn policy. Hamp described Bluck as someone who enjoyed that work and stayed with it for years, shaping officers who later filled the ranks -- including the current chief.
As a patrol sergeant, Bluck supervised shifts and kept specialty certifications current. Field sobriety instruction, firearms instruction and work as a weapons armorer are the credentials that keep a small department ready. Evidence technician work put him at crime scenes with the job of getting the details right.
Hamp said the retirement has already opened a sergeant position. The department plans to fill it from inside.
"Mark's retirement has left a vacancy in the sergeant ranks," Hamp said. "The promotional process has already started, and the replacement sergeant will come from within the ranks."
Promoting from within keeps some of the culture Bluck helped build, even if it cannot replace 32½ years of judgment formed on patrol, at crime scenes and on training days.
Bluck said his own next step is still unsettled.
"As for my retirement plans, right now they are kind of wide open," he said. "However, I have been considering getting a bigger boat and my charter license."
The idea fits the city he served. Alpena sits on Thunder Bay, where charter fishing and recreational boating are part of everyday life. A bigger boat and a captain's credential would give him a way to stay on the water after decades of answering calls on land.
City officials used Monday's regular council meeting - the first public session after Bluck's final day - to put that career on the record. Hamp's remarks were brief: length of service, the range of assignments and the way Bluck carried them.
The supporting details are more specific. A Northfield Township officer who came to Alpena in 1998. An academy graduate who stayed long enough to train the man who became his chief. An evidence technician and firearms instructor who still talks about major investigations as teamwork. A sergeant whose last day was Sept. 11, who had lunch with city staff that afternoon, and who left a promotional process already underway.
Bluck did not describe retirement as an escape. The cases, the specialty work and the promotion all matter to him. The through line he chose was the officers who came after him.
"Being able to train new officers in the proper ways and continuing to provide them with guidance and inspiration as they progress in their careers," he said.
That work is finished in uniform. The vacancy it leaves is now someone else's test.