In your article “Residents Critique ‘On-Call’ Police Service, my position was misrepresented as saying the borough should lobby for the trooper position’s reinstatement.
While I do support having a ‘Blue Shirt’ stationed here in Haines, funding is short, we cannot afford everything we want.
My position is the borough has not exhausted every effort to force the Troopers to accept jurisdiction as set by the Alaska State Legislature. Efforts should include more than a “couple” of unanswered letters. Efforts should include meetings with elected officials identifying through statute, trooper’s jurisdiction; combined meetings with other communities with this issue; and borough leaders traveling to Juneau and meeting with the Governor’s office.
Jurisdiction is what Klukwan enjoys: call the troopers and make a police report, serious crime is investigated, sometimes troopers travel to Klukwan; life threatening, they call the Haines Police and ask for assistance. In this scenario, the HBPD could charge the troopers for assisting.
My position is that our borough’s leaders’ cursory attempt in getting the trooper jurisdiction resolved properly is insufficient. It is not about having a Trooper stationed here. It is about receiving the same level of service as most of our state receives: The troopers taking police reports over the phone and an occasional visit to say hello.
I choose to live in Alaska, in a rural community, outside the townsite. If I want a higher level of service, I will move to an area that has that service.
Thank you,
George Campbell