The Haines Borough Assembly unanimously rejected a $125,000 federal grant at its regular May 8 meeting that would pay nearly half of an additional police officer’s salary for three years.
The U.S. Department of Justice awarded the Community Oriented Policing Services grant in November. Borough manager Debra Schnabel applied for the grant earlier in the year when staff developed a draft ordinance that would have expanded police service borough-wide.
The Alaska State Troopers moved its Haines position to western Alaska in 2017. Since then, Schnabel has lobbied the assembly to expand police service. The assembly let the ordinance die last summer and decided to collect data on police response outside the townsite for one year in order to evaluate potential costs and need.
Assembly member Sean Maidy reiterated that desire at last Tuesday’s meeting. “We’re still not through with that year of study to see whether or not we’re going to put something on a ballot asking people if they want another cop or police service,” Maidy said. “We’re still finding out the information as to what level of service is required.”
Assembly member Heather Lende said she wouldn’t want to commit to paying a sixth officer a full salary after the three-year grant elapsed.
Schnabel said she wanted to go on record saying she feels “heavy-hearted” that the assembly has not addressed the problem, and said the borough has a liability.
“I believe police service is a fundamental, basic requirement of government,” Schnabel said. “We do need to engage the citizens outside of the townsite as soon as possible in a discussion about how we can proceed…I would hate to see this community or this assembly have to be dealing with a crisis of great import because we failed to be responsive to a need for service outside (the townsite).”
The borough held public meetings last summer at the Mosquito Lake Community Center and the public library to assess people’s desire for expanded police service. Many residents outside the townsite said they’d like to see police respond to emergency calls only.
The assembly sparred with AST administrators last November over which authority has jurisdiction outside the townsite—a discussion that reached an impasse with neither taking responsibility.
The assembly also rejected twice an offer from the state Department of Public Safety to pay the borough $25,000 in exchange for the local force taking responsibility for policing outside the townsite.