The Haines Borough Assembly will seek legal advice regarding an Alaska State Trooper official’s opinion that the borough is responsible for policing boroughwide.
The action comes after the Alaska Department of Public Safety offered a one-time, $25,000 payment to the Haines Borough for policing, on the condition that the borough provide policing outside the townsite.
The area previously was patrolled by an Alaska State Trooper, but the position was removed in December.
After the trooper position was moved to Western Alaska, Alaska State Trooper Colonel James Cockrell, now retired, wrote a letter to the borough stating it was the trooper’s position that Haines was responsible for boroughwide policing.
The borough requested $52,000 from the Department of Public Safety to pay for police response outside the townsite, a dollar figure Haines Police Chief Heath Scott and interim manager Brad Ryan estimated the extra enforcement would cost the borough.
Cockrell sent a counter-offer to the borough in early May for half the amount as a one-time payment.
The contract includes a provision that Haines Police would, “Provide necessary police services, resulting from the withdrawal of the Alaska State Trooper from Haines on December 15, 2017, for all areas within the Haines Borough that are the responsibility of the HBPD.”
During Tuesday’s assembly meeting, assembly member Stephanie Scott suggested an amendment to the contract that said local police would provide emergency services within the borough.
“The statement ‘for all areas within the Haines Borough that are the responsibility of the Haines Borough PD’ is inaccurate,” Stephanie Scott said.
“The only area that is the responsibility of the Haines Borough PD is the townsite, and they are implying that our police department has the responsibility for the entire borough, and it doesn’t,” she said.
Assembly member Margaret Friedenauer said her understanding was that troopers still had jurisdiction of the area.
“I’d love to see our manager and Mayor engage with our state reps and our attorney because I want a legal take on AST’s position that they no longer have any responsibility in the Haines Borough, because they do still have a wildlife trooper here who has all the capability of responding to anything,” Friedenauer said.
Despite multiple interview requests over the past several weeks, troopers have not responded to similar questions from the CVN.
Assembly member Tom Morphet said it’s a mistake to take Cockrell’s opinion regarding police coverage as a directive. “We are acting as though we’ve received a directive from the troopers, that we have responsibility here, and I think that’s a misinterpretation of a letter…We have not received a directive.”
Earlier in the meeting Ryan responded to emails he received about police patrols that residents have witnessed outside the townsite. Police have been tasked to respond to emergencies only. Ryan said the police received a state grant to conduct “highway safety” patrols outside the townsite and funding runs through September.
The grant pays for patrols meant to find traffic and seatbelt violations, according to police.
Stephanie Scott said local police jurisdiction isn’t set up out the highway and that the borough shouldn’t let people assume the police have that power, despite borough attorney Brooks Chandler’s opinion that police are covered by insurance if they operate outside the townsite.
“Brooks might have said you’re covered by insurance when you leave the townsite when you respond to an emergency, but a patrol isn’t an emergency, so I’m uncomfortable with this grant the police have accepted that have allowed them to patrol outside of the townsite,” Stephanie Scott said. “I don’t understand why they have the right to do that and I would like an answer to that question.”
Ryan said he’d talk to police about the issue.
The Department of Public Safety’s proposed contract also would require the borough to develop its own funding source to pay for boroughwide policing. The assembly voted to also strike that requirement from the contract.
Police Chief Heath Scott said in an interview with the CVN that ideally he’d like to see the state reimburse the borough over two to three years to allow the police department and the borough adjust to enforcement changes.
“For them to say we’ve enforced in Haines for ‘x’ number of years and now we’re going to abruptly stop without any formal, advanced notice was slightly unfair, but I understand there’s limitation that we’re dealing with,” Heath Scott said. “Everybody is dealing with less and less.”