Borough manager Debra Schnabel met with borough attorney Brooks Chandler on Tuesday in Anchorage to draft a response to Alaska State Troopers on policing responsibilities outside of the Haines townsite.
The borough assembly voted 5-1 on Nov. 6 to request that Chandler respond to a letter from Alaska State Troopers sent to the Haines Police last week.
In the Nov. 6 letter, state troopers’ acting director Major Andrew Greenstreet confirmed receiving Haines’ new directive to restrict police to the townsite unless requested by a trooper to respond to a call.
Greenstreet said state troopers do not hold jurisdiction in the Haines Borough, regardless of the new directive.
In October, voters from Lutak, Mud Bay and Haines Highway voted against raising property taxes to create separate police service areas in their neighborhoods.
Greenstreet asked Haines Police to provide services throughout the entire borough “in accordance with the long standing past practice of the Haines Borough Police Department operating as the primary law enforcement agency.”
According to retired police chief Greg Goodman, that is only partially accurate. He told the CVN that when he led the force, the city police were authorized to leave the townsite only when requested by the troopers.
“I think that letter gives us an excellent segue into a letter from our attorney,” assembly member Brenda Josephson said at the Nov. 6 assembly meeting.
Schnabel told the assembly that over a year ago Chandler “believed there was a precedent for us to pursue this legally.” She said his main point was that the Department of Public Safety is inconsistent in how it deals with police services in boroughs.
Chandler referenced the 2016 dispute between Alaska State Troopers and the city ofAnchorage on policing responsibilities and funding for Girdwood and the Seward Highway as a precedent. In October 2016, AST closed its post in Girdwood, a town 40 miles southeast of Anchorage, and left the town and the surrounding communities without trooper service. Girdwood, which falls within the municipality of Anchorage, voted to contract with Whittier for police services.
Soon after closing the post in Girdwood, troopers stopped patrolling the 35-mile stretch of Seward Highway between Milepost 110 to 75.
“We understood where the troopers were coming from,” said Bill Falsey, former municipal attorney of Anchorage, who has since become municipal manager. “It definitely left Anchorage in an untenable place. We were going to have parts of the community that were not policed at all.”
In August 2017, the state legislature allocated $200,000 for the Anchorage police to patrol the highway, a fund that was projected to run out in nine months, according to an Anchorage Daily News article from earlier this year.
In February 2018, the municipality of Anchorage voted on a redistribution of tax dollars, in which homeowners inside city limits saw a marginal tax cut and outlying residents saw a slight increase in property tax to pay for an areawide highway patrol by Anchorage police. The new tax generates about $4 million annually, according to Falsey.
Chandler said this issue shares similarities with Haines.
“The letter from Mr. Chandler will expound on the broader questions in the interpretation of our own charter,” Schnabel told the CVN.
The letter will be drafted in November, and available for assembly and public review in December. It will take time, because the assembly wants to target communication with the newly elected state officials, Schnabel said.
While bringing back a blue shirt trooper is a long-term goal, Schnabel said that the immediate issue is being able to manage our police services in the short term.
The Haines Borough Assembly amended its directive to the Haines Police on Nov. 6, after reported incidents presented a safety conflict outside of the borough. Chief Heath Scott ignored the original order to obtain trooper direction, and responded to a flipped vehicle with a trapped driver and passenger on Haines Highway on Nov. 3.
The new directive will allow police response to calls outside the townsite deemed “urgent,” defined as a threat to life or property, or a crime in progress.
Additionally, the assembly passed a motion to form an ad hoc committee with assembly members and local residents to advocate that the legislature step in regarding trooper response in Haines.
Assembly member Sean Maidy voted against the ad hoc committee and the directive for Chandler to respond to Major Greenstreet’s letter.
“The stack (is) about this thick now, and we’re expecting a different answer,” Maidy said, gesturing about tower of papers on Greenstreet’s desk that the Haines Borough has sent.
The troopers reassigned its Haines blue shirt position to Western Alaska in 2017.