On the night of September 13, 2015, Kentucky State Police Post 1 Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder conducted a traffic stop near the 49-mile marker of I-24 — one that resulted in a nine-mile pursuit of a suspect, and eventually, Ponder’s untimely death in a shooting.
Six years later, Ponder’s memory continues to be honored through the efforts of his mother, Brenda Tiffany, and the “Trooper Cameron Ponder Memorial.”
That memory became a little more tangible Monday at Cadiz City Hall, when Tiffany presented the Cadiz Police Department with a grant for more than $5,800 from her son’s memorial funds in conjunction with the 2021 Spirit of Blue Foundation.
It was an emotional presentation for Tiffany, too, for clear reasons, as officers from both the Trigg County Sheriff’s Office and Kentucky State Police Post 1 were also on hand Monday in support.
Cadiz Police Chief Duncan Wiggins gave credit to former city officer Mike Felts, now with the Trigg County Sheriff’s Office, for originally filling out and submitting the grant proposal — noting Felts always seems to “leave things better than he found them.”
Wiggins also noted the Ponder tragedy lingers within the ranks of local law enforcement — especially because Ponder was just beginning to make strong in-roads within nearby communities.
Felts remembers the night he clocked in for a shift at the Cadiz Police Department and surfed on Google for possible grants to help with trauma kits, and stumbled upon this opportunity with Spirit of Blue.
He called Wiggins for the go ahead, and now, the department has a plethora of these packs — which typically come with tourniquets and special bandages for emergency triage.
Felts said the grants also came with new optic sights for trooper rifles, which were supposed to be provided in a previous grant — but hadn’t been delivered.
Following her son’s death, Tiffany said she’d been looking for some way to give back to police in west Kentucky.
This was just another step in that direction.
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