Should the Haines Borough raise taxes in outlying areas to pay its police officers for responding to emergencies outside the townsite?

That’s an idea by Jim Stanford, chair of the borough’s Public Safety Commission. He said last week it’s time to find a way to pay for police response in areas outside the townsite, the jurisdictional limits of the Haines Borough Police Department.

At the request of borough police and administration, the commission will visit the question at its meeting 5:30 p.m. Monday at the assembly chambers.

At a meeting of the commission last week, borough police chief Heath Scott said his officers go outside the townsite about three times per month, costing his department about $18,000 per year. Scott said such calls include requests for support from troopers and from the Haines and Klehini Valley fire departments.

Including regular duty, overtime and standby pay, such calls cost the department $517 for a four-hour response to calls ranging from highway moose collisions to domestic violence, Scott said. “That’s costing taxpayers money. It wasn’t in our budget to be constantly going out the road.”

Commission chair Stanford proposes broadening the boroughwide medical service area to an “emergency services service area” and using a property tax increase to fund police response. He and others at last week’s meeting cited the possible elimination of a state trooper position here as among factors pushing the discussion.

“As someone who lives out the road, I appreciate being able to call 911 and get a response. Without the state trooper or without someone from (borough police) being able to respond, I’m more than happy to pay a mil or half-mil property tax increase to cover that,” Stanford said at last week’s commission meeting.

Scott said police don’t have much of a choice in terms of responding to 911 calls from outside the townsite. “It’s a moral quagmire we’re under. If somebody asks for help, we’re going to help. This is what brought me to Alaska. We all come together and dance to the same song.”

Ambulance service currently is funded boroughwide through an areawide sales tax. Police department funding includes revenues from a sales tax charged in the townsite.

Stanford, a longtime resident of Mosquito Lake Road, said that years ago rural residents took care of themselves, but that’s changed. “There’s a new generation that’s moved to Haines and they want to be able to pick up 911 and call for some kind of support and get some kind of reasonable response.”

Stanford stopped short of calling for expanding non-emergency police service areawide. That would be “a long, drawn out process,” he said. “I think, at this time, we might light a fuse if we did.”

Rural residents this week expressed reluctance to paying for police service. John Shaw, who moved from town to 25 Mile about 15 years ago, was skeptical of the proposal. “We pay enough in property taxes as it is. We’ve had periods where we’ve only had one trooper, and haven’t had any big problems arise from it.”

Shaw also questioned police involvement for such things as traffic control on highway accidents.“Why can’t the ambulance crew direct traffic? He’s waving cars by and you have somebody raising mayhem in the townsite.”

Shaw said the number of calls doesn’t seem to justify expanding police service in his neighborhood. “Three trips a month isn’t too much anyway. It would just be an excuse for them to drive out the road.”

Mud Bay resident John Svenson said police coverage outside the townsite may be good for health-related emergencies or car crashes, but mostly, “I think having the trooper is plenty,” he said. “This isn’t a real action-packed town.”

Stanford said the police department must receive authorization from the state troopers to respond to calls outside the townsite.

Stanford said his commission penned letters to former borough managers Mark Earnest and David Sosa – when the trooper position was previously vacant – asking for assistance to assess the situation and possibly consult a borough attorney about how to proceed. Both managers never responded to the letters, he said.

Brainstorming for some solution now “seems like it’s more applicable because there is a real reality that we may not have a trooper,” Stanford said. “Personally, I think (wildlife trooper Trent Chwialkowski) is stretched thin.”

“People out the road should really be paying some tax for that,” Stanford said. “We’re trying to creatively figure out how to fund this without creating a huge firestorm.”