Haines Borough interim police chief Josh Dryden said he has been getting flack for his decision to station an officer in street clothes at this year’s Beer Fest, but he won’t change his mind.

“I’m not trying to trick anybody and I don’t care if people think it’s fair (or not). If this tactic helps somebody else and saves them from being hurt, then great. I’ll take every advantage I can get,” he said.

Dryden said a local officer in plainclothes will walk through the festival. Uniformed officers also will be on-site periodically, he said. The festival attracts more than 1,700 people to Dalton City at the Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds.

When asked if plainclothes officers would also be patrolling bars on Beer Fest weekend, Dryden said, “It’s possible.”

Dryden said during his roughly two-year tenure at the Haines Borough Police Department, he has worn street clothes while on the clock.

“They are there to watch and make sure everyone is having fun. I don’t understand why everyone is having an issue it,” he said. “If you’re not doing anything wrong, don’t worry about the cops.”

Dryden said the plainclothes officer can keep an eye out for people overindulging and becoming vulnerable to sexual assault, which he said he has seen happen more than once during special events in Haines.

“We’re making sure nobody is trying to hurt anybody or take advantage of anybody,” he said.

Fair director Jessica Edwards said to her knowledge this is the first time police have used a plainclothes officer at the festival. She learned about the plan during her annual pre-Beer Fest meeting with borough staff and was “sort of surprised.”

“I’m not exactly sure what the goal is with the new strategy,” Edwards said.

Uniformed officers have always been effective, she said. “We like to have the officers there, for sure. It’s really nice to have a police presence. We feel like them being visible has been a good reminder. It makes people feel secure and safe.”

Having a plainclothes officer at the event seems to shift the relationship between participants and police from one of passive observance and deterrence to an assumption of wrongdoing, Edwards added.

Dryden said the plan to install a plainclothes officer at Beer Fest was discussed during a closed-door meeting, and he hadn’t initially intended for the information to go public.

“I wasn’t trying to make it a secret, but there was just no reason for people to know,” Dryden said. “Are they going to act differently (because) there is one plainclothes officer in the midst of 2,000 people?”

Dryden’s decision irked some festival-goers, who feel the move is unnecessary and deceptive. Alisha Young, who turned 21 in February and will be attending Beer Fest for her first time, called the move “a waste of time.”

“I just think they are trying to do something that doesn’t need to happen,” Young said. “It’s a big event for this town, but I don’t think it’s big enough that they need to do that. I think a uniformed cop would be fine.”

Former interim chief Robert Griffiths said Dryden floated the plainclothes idea by him. “I told him, ‘This town is not going to sit still for that. It is going to create all sorts of political upheaval that you won’t be able to handle,’” Griffiths said Wednesday.

Using plainclothes officers isn’t unprecedented in Southeast. Skagway Police Chief Ray Leggett said his department “seldom” uses cops in street clothes, but has for special events. Uniforms can sometimes be counterproductive, Leggett said, provoking anxiety and frustration.

“The plainclothes folks aren’t there to sneak up on somebody,” Leggett said.

The Juneau Police Department also uses plainclothes officers, said Lt. Kris Sell. They’re particularly useful at the cruise ship dock where commercial business representatives will try to sell services in restricted areas, or downtown, when officers try to crackdown on “hawking,” a form of aggressive sidewalk solicitation.

“Sometimes we do plainclothes enforcement where a uniformed officer might make it difficult to see what is going on,” Sell said. “As long as someone is in public, there is no expectation of privacy legally, so that’s kind of what we use as our guideline.”

Plainclothes officers also serve as a type of “professional witness,” which comes in particularly useful at events where people have been drinking and their memories are foggy, or they are hesitant to speak to police because of their relationship to the involved parties, Sell said.

Having a plainclothes cop allows police “to see who is instigating problems. Sometimes when the uniform police show up and we see a fight, all we see is who is winning. We don’t see who the primary instigator was,” she said.

Dryden said he is considering bringing additional officers into Haines for the weekend, like when the department brought in two Hoonah officers two years ago. It’s unclear if that will pan out. “I don’t have a bunch in the way of resources here,” he said.

Dryden said he isn’t out to “get” anybody, and just wants people to use common sense and be respectful.

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