Derrick Powers

While Derrick Powers ’93 can still find his name on the Jackrabbits’ all-time top 10 list in the 10,000-meter run, he admits those days are over. However, Powers could still run down someone as the Brookings Police Department’s assistant chief, if needed.

Recently promoted to his position, Powers started full time with the Brookings Police shortly after graduating. Other than a two-year break when he and wife, Cami ’93, moved from Brookings and returned, Powers has worked with the Brookings Police.

Powers was boarding a bus for a track and field meet in 1990 when the coach at Mt. San Antonio College in California told him South Dakota State was interested in him as a student-athlete.

“I took a recruiting trip in March, and it was unseasonably warm. It was almost like it was perfect,” said Powers, a California native. “People did say the weather was never like this but everyone was nice and I liked the camaraderie of the team. I thought it would be good for me to come out, get away and try something else.”

Powers started pursuing a degree in parks management but switched after a semester to sociology and added a criminal justice minor.

“I was always interested in law enforcement so I switched my major to that,” he said. “I was always interested in that type of work and what officers did. I think it must have been one of the interactions with an officer that I had when I was younger through school.”

Powers has been a patrol officer, an investigations officer, a patrol sergeant, sergeant of investigations, patrol lieutenant and investigations lieutenant.

“I think you need to remember where you came from as you work your way up the ranks,” he said. “Some of the things I went through—the struggles, hard times, working weekends and nights, being away from my family—makes me really appreciate the officers who are doing that now.

“My career helps me understand what officers in those roles are doing and what they need to be successful in those,” Powers continued.

Powers credits South Dakota State for his success.

“Getting my education here opened the door to me working at the police department, including that part-time job when I was in college,” he said. “My education definitely helped me get into the job but also move along
the job, too. I’ve only worked in law enforcement in South Dakota, and I couldn’t see myself working law enforcement anywhere else. I couldn’t see myself working for the LAPD; it’s a different type of law enforcement. I don’t know where I’d be if I went to college someplace else.”