By Karen Garcia
Haines Borough interim manager Brad Ryan has offered the police chief position to one of the three candidates who visited town last weekend, but he won’t say which one.
Ryan said Wednesday he was in negotiations with “a police chief” to reach an agreement, but refused to say if it was Heath Scott, Tim O’Neill or Dave McKillican. The three were interviewed by the Public Safety Commission on Friday. Ryan didn’t sit in on the interviews, though he is responsible for deciding who to hire.
The commission recommended Scott on a 3-0 vote after about 30 minutes in a closed-door session Saturday.
Ryan said he wasn’t releasing the name because he doesn’t want to create unnecessary controversy if his pick is different from the commission’s. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I am just trying to keep things from getting too excited before (the new chief) shows up,” Ryan said.
Scott, the commission’s pick, has worked the past eight years as deputy chief of the District of Columbia Protective Services Division in Washington, D.C. Scott called his department a “boutique agency” responsible for protecting facilities and government employees. He also worked as a deputy sheriff and police officer in Arizona from 1995-1998.
Scott emphasized his honesty and ethics, as well as his capacity for motivating staff. He also displayed a strong interest in protecting children, and said he would “fight tooth and nail” to install a resource officer at the Haines School.
“In Arizona we had a saying: ‘Don’t mess with our kids and don’t mess with our guns.’ If you mess with those, we’re going to take you to court, we’re going to put you in jail forever. I like it. That’s what I live by,” Scott said.
Scott also said he supports departmental transparency, with the media and the public. “There are some things you are going to have to give the typical law enforcement answer – ‘That’s under investigation. I can’t comment about it now’ – but more and more in this industry and this profession, that is not acceptable. That’s not acceptable to the community,” he said.
Scott said Haines Police should participate in “social media scraping,” where the department uses analytics to look for certain words in social media postings online.
“Do you guys look at any of the social media threats to officers or threats to kids in the school? Or threats to assembly members or threats to the mayor?” Scott asked, saying analytics could be used to track issues like substance abuse, domestic violence and bullying. “You fix all of that when you start looking at social media and you use analytics to do it. It’s expensive, but I’m thinking that’s worth an effort at maybe the regional level.”
Scott said he would also like to address staff turnover at the department, perhaps by interviewing people who have resigned and asking what would have made them stay. “Your institutional knowledge at this agency stinks,” he said. “Your institutional knowledge is one officer with two years on. That’s not enough.”
Public Safety Commission chair Jim Stanford said Scott quickly rose to the top of the pile during executive session.
The commission consists of Stanford, Kay Clements, Bob Duis, Judy Erekson and Judy Ewald. Ewald did not participate in the candidate interviews. Erekson showed up late to the executive session meeting, after the vote had been taken.
The executive session was also attended by officer Chris Brown and former interim chief Robert Griffiths.
“It became pretty apparent pretty quick who the candidate was,” Stanford said. “(Clements) started out right away (saying) she really liked Heath Scott.”
Stanford said Scott seemed “very, very bright” and that he wasn’t concerned about Scott’s lack of recent pavement-pounding police work. “It’s been awhile since he’s walked a beat, I know that. That didn’t seem to bother any of us,” Stanford said.
Stanford said he and Clements immediately gravitated toward Scott, and Duis was neutral. Largely the discussion was between Scott and O’Neill, who rose from officer to investigator to sergeant in La Crosse, Wis. since 2005.
O’Neill spoke extensively about his work with the department’s Domestic Abuse Reduction Team, and emphasized his listening skills and a desire to create a good working environment for staff.
The third candidate, McKillican, has worked as police chief in Hoonah since 2014. He also has worked in law enforcement jobs in Fort Wainwright, Fairbanks and Fort Yukon.
Prior to the candidate interviews, interim chief Josh Dryden expressed his support for McKillican. He said this week McKillican is still his top pick.
When asked whether he would feel slighted if Ryan offered the job to someone other than the commission’s recommended candidate, Stanford said he “would prefer that everybody be on the same page.”
“I think it will be a horrible situation for anybody coming into a position like that if they knew that half the community or half the administrative staff wanted somebody else. I hope that doesn’t happen,” Stanford said.
Clements and Duis did not respond to multiple calls for comment.
Ryan said he hoped to release the name of the new chief Thursday morning.
The commission’s recommendation of Scott nearly didn’t happen for lack of a quorum.
Commission chair Stanford said he and Clements sat waiting for a third member to show up for nearly a half-hour on Saturday before they eventually got Duis to phone in so they could officially meet.
By Karen Garcia
Haines Borough interim manager Brad Ryan has offered the police chief position to one of the three candidates who visited town last weekend, but he won’t say which one.
Ryan said Wednesday he was in negotiations with “a police chief” to reach an agreement, but refused to say if it was Heath Scott, Tim O’Neill or Dave McKillican. The three were interviewed by the Public Safety Commission on Friday. Ryan didn’t sit in on the interviews, though he is responsible for deciding who to hire.
The commission recommended Scott on a 3-0 vote after about 30 minutes in a closed-door session Saturday.
Ryan said he wasn’t releasing the name because he doesn’t want to create unnecessary controversy if his pick is different from the commission’s. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I am just trying to keep things from getting too excited before (the new chief) shows up,” Ryan said.
Scott, the commission’s pick, has worked the past eight years as deputy chief of the District of Columbia Protective Services Division in Washington, D.C. Scott called his department a “boutique agency” responsible for protecting facilities and government employees. He also worked as a deputy sheriff and police officer in Arizona from 1995-1998.
Scott emphasized his honesty and ethics, as well as his capacity for motivating staff. He also displayed a strong interest in protecting children, and said he would “fight tooth and nail” to install a resource officer at the Haines School.
“In Arizona we had a saying: ‘Don’t mess with our kids and don’t mess with our guns.’ If you mess with those, we’re going to take you to court, we’re going to put you in jail forever. I like it. That’s what I live by,” Scott said.
Scott also said he supports departmental transparency, with the media and the public. “There are some things you are going to have to give the typical law enforcement answer – ‘That’s under investigation. I can’t comment about it now’ – but more and more in this industry and this profession, that is not acceptable. That’s not acceptable to the community,” he said.
Scott said Haines Police should participate in “social media scraping,” where the department uses analytics to look for certain words in social media postings online.
“Do you guys look at any of the social media threats to officers or threats to kids in the school? Or threats to assembly members or threats to the mayor?” Scott asked, saying analytics could be used to track issues like substance abuse, domestic violence and bullying. “You fix all of that when you start looking at social media and you use analytics to do it. It’s expensive, but I’m thinking that’s worth an effort at maybe the regional level.”
Scott said he would also like to address staff turnover at the department, perhaps by interviewing people who have resigned and asking what would have made them stay. “Your institutional knowledge at this agency stinks,” he said. “Your institutional knowledge is one officer with two years on. That’s not enough.”
Public Safety Commission chair Jim Stanford said Scott quickly rose to the top of the pile during executive session.
The commission consists of Stanford, Kay Clements, Bob Duis, Judy Erekson and Judy Ewald. Ewald did not participate in the candidate interviews. Erekson showed up late to the executive session meeting, after the vote had been taken.
The executive session was also attended by officer Chris Brown and former interim chief Robert Griffiths.
“It became pretty apparent pretty quick who the candidate was,” Stanford said. “(Clements) started out right away (saying) she really liked Heath Scott.”
Stanford said Scott seemed “very, very bright” and that he wasn’t concerned about Scott’s lack of recent pavement-pounding police work. “It’s been awhile since he’s walked a beat, I know that. That didn’t seem to bother any of us,” Stanford said.
Stanford said he and Clements immediately gravitated toward Scott, and Duis was neutral. Largely the discussion was between Scott and O’Neill, who rose from officer to investigator to sergeant in La Crosse, Wis. since 2005.
O’Neill spoke extensively about his work with the department’s Domestic Abuse Reduction Team, and emphasized his listening skills and a desire to create a good working environment for staff.
The third candidate, McKillican, has worked as police chief in Hoonah since 2014. He also has worked in law enforcement jobs in Fort Wainwright, Fairbanks and Fort Yukon.
Prior to the candidate interviews, interim chief Josh Dryden expressed his support for McKillican. He said this week McKillican is still his top pick.
When asked whether he would feel slighted if Ryan offered the job to someone other than the commission’s recommended candidate, Stanford said he “would prefer that everybody be on the same page.”
“I think it will be a horrible situation for anybody coming into a position like that if they knew that half the community or half the administrative staff wanted somebody else. I hope that doesn’t happen,” Stanford said.
Clements and Duis did not respond to multiple calls for comment.
Ryan said he hoped to release the name of the new chief Thursday morning.
The commission’s recommendation of Scott nearly didn’t happen for lack of a quorum.
Commission chair Stanford said he and Clements sat waiting for a third member to show up for nearly a half-hour on Saturday before they eventually got Duis to phone in so they could officially meet.