The Haines Borough Assembly and Alaska State Troopers Director Hans Brinke reached an impasse Wednesday afternoon on which government agency is responsible for policing the Haines Borough outside the townsite.

The Alaska State Troopers, which moved its trooper position to western Alaska last spring, maintain the borough is responsible for policing outside the townsite. Borough staff created an ordinance this summer which would have put police expansion to a borough-wide vote. Members of the public largely opposed the ordinance during public meetings and the ordinance never advanced.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Brinke said between decreased recruitment numbers, a smaller budget and a low volume of criminal calls in the Haines Borough, it must channel its resources in communities with greater needs. Brinke said 84 percent of calls directed to the State Troopers were non-criminal in nature.

“I understand Haines has concerns,” Brinke said. “Haines has needs but there’s still the rest of the state of Alaska which also has concerns and has needs. We have to make hard choices because the Haines Borough has the Haines Borough Police Department that is potentially available.”

Assembly member Stephanie Scott told Brinke that the State Troopers were making decisions based on misinformation about the jurisdiction of the Haines Police.

Brinke repeated a statement made over and over again during the meeting.

“All areas within the Haines Borough have been and remain the responsibility of the Haines Borough police department,” Brinke said. “The Haines Borough has the Haines Borough police department.”

“No it doesn’t,” Scott responded. “It has the townsite police department. You have to stop making that claim because it’s inaccurate. Your decision was made on misinformation. I really think you should revisit your decision based on the true information of the Haines Borough.”

Much of the hour-long meeting entailed similar back and forth discussion, with Brinke asserting the borough was responsible and with assembly members asserting the opposite.

According to borough code, the Haines Police are funded to operate only within the townsite. Haines Police regularly assisted the State Troopers on calls in the past and still do respond to calls across the borough.

Forty-three percent of the police department is funded through sales tax paid by all residents of the borough. Townsite property tax covers 26 percent of its budget and the remaining 30 percent is funded through a state grant.

Assembly member Tom Morphet said the borough and the State Troopers were “engaged in a great game of chicken.”

“I know you have your recruitment problems and your funding problems,” Morphet said. “Let me assure you our problems are just as great. For you to insist that we have the capability, that we have the primary responsibility, feels quite insulting here because we are not a particularly wealthy community and we are already going into debt to provide the police services we have now.

In September, Morphet proposed to direct the Haines Police to stop responding to calls outside the townsite but the assembly wanted to wait until they discussed the issue with the State Troopers.

No official action was taken at the meeting.