POST FALLS — After 36 years on the force, Sgt. Pat “Big Poppa” Kenner holds the record as the longest-serving Post Falls Police officer. He retired Wednesday.

In fact, Sgt. Kenner trained Police Chief Scot Haug when Haug started on the force in 1986. The police department only had two patrol vehicles back then.

“Pat started with Post Falls Police in 1979, and he has lived through all of the growth since then,” Haug said Wednesday at Kenner’s retirement party. “He has helped mold this department into what it is today.”

Kenner, who was born and raised in Post Falls, said he stayed on with the PFPD for so many years because it felt like the right thing to do.

“I was born here. Why go anywhere else?” he said. “This had the right pace for me. This is home.”

Kenner said his biggest accomplishment during his years of service was becoming a domestic violence trainer and having a hand in training almost everyone in the PFPD.

“I really enjoy training the new kids as they come up through the ranks,” he said.

Kenner, who is 57 years old, said he became eligible for retirement in 2009, but he just wasn’t ready then.

Now he has plans to help out family and relax a little bit more.

He said he will probably miss coming in to the police department every day and getting into the routine.

“These guys are part of my family too,” Kenner said. “I helped train everyone here.”

And they will miss Kenner as well. At his party, his colleagues projected a message on the screen that read: “You will be missed Big Poppa.”