Josh Dryden was confirmed as the next police chief for Haines after the assembly approved a $122,000 contract with the longtime police department officer. Dryden has been with the department since 2014 and succeeds Heath Scott, who left the department last fall.
Chilkat Valley News sat down with Dryden in his office at the public safety building for a brief conversation about his experience and vision for the department.
This story has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Does having the new contract signed and approved change much in your life?
Dryden: No. It doesn’t take effect until July 1 because of the timing and how the pay was structured, so that was the easiest way to fix it.
Why did it take so long to get a contract signed? (Dryden has been in talks with the borough at least since February).
Dryden: I’d say it was probably more me changing the contract over and over. I had a lot of changes I wanted to see to protect myself and make the contract more livable. It’s not an admin chief job, it’s not 40 hours a week, which a lot of salaries aren’t but not many other department heads get called out at 1 or 2 a.m. to deal with domestics and other unpleasant things. I really pushed for standby and call-out. (With standby and call-out, Dryden will make up to $129,000).
Why did you choose law enforcement as a profession?
I had a kid ask me that the other day, and I don’t really remember. There was no driving force. It seems exciting to go out and meet people and help people. Something new every day. I didn’t want to sit behind a desk. I didn’t want to finish school — which that’s a regret — but once I got into it, I enjoyed it.
What brought you to Haines?
We were watching Gold Rush (a reality tv show about gold miners based in Haines). Me and my wife had watched it for years. And we were like, ‘Let’s look at moving to Alaska.’ We’d talked about it before. I started looking at a couple different departments and talking to some officers here. At the time there were two troopers in Alaska I knew that I had worked with in Virginia and they pulled my resume off the sheet.
Was it an easy decision once you got the call?
No, it wasn’t easy. I talked my wife into it, and she agreed, thank God.
How has your experience been with the department?
Chief Bill Musser had just been hired when I got here. He stayed for maybe a year. They hired Bob Griffiths who was retired from the Anchorage Police Department to be interim chief and he’s the one who appointed me sergeant. He stayed until November of 2015. So I was interim after he left until they hired Heath (Scott) in the summer of 2016. He came on and unfortunately did not stay.
Have the priorities of the department changed? Have you seen any trends since you’ve been here or has it felt pretty steady?
It’s been pretty steady. I think the department has improved quite a bit both in procedural training and our relationship with the community. I think that has changed a lot for the better.
Do you have some ideas for things you would like to keep improving on?
We’re continuing to upgrade our communication system infrastructure. Right now we have a conventional system with repeaters up the road. The plan is to bring a new radio system that the troopers and most other departments use. I asked a company in Anchorage to come down in October and do a site survey and that was their recommendation.
That brings more reliable coverage?
We could talk to Skagway. I was over there yesterday and met with them about doing a shared dispatch model. We’re still in the infancy of that. We’ll be down to two dispatchers in August, so if we can have Skagway take a midnight shift here or there and vice versa. We’re pretty close to each other. It kind of seems silly not to share resources for small departments.
Any other plans for changes?
We want to implement body cams. I’ve asked the borough to pay for that. We’re going to put that in front of our public safety advisory board and see what they think. I wrote a policy on it years ago, so I’ll probably update the policy.
I still would like a drug detection and search and rescue dog. That’s something I’ve been working on for a long time. We could have used that dog a couple days ago. We could have found somebody a whole lot sooner if we’d had that dog. I think this community would greatly benefit from a dog like that. It’s not a biting dog. Probably gonna be a lab. You can pet it.
Other projects: just staffing and getting training up and being able to respond to certain events. We’re several hours from getting help. We’re a small department and we want to be self-sufficient. I’m not trying to turn the department into a little mini-SWAT team.
Can you talk about the issue of fentanyl and illicit drugs in the community? Do you have ideas for keeping it from getting in or responding to it?
Trying to attach more to SEACAD (Southeast Alaska Communities Against Drugs) task forces. We’re a member of that and a member of (HIDTA) High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program as well. We’re just trying to stop it before it gets here — that’s the biggest thing. If people are in that realm and they’re addicted and they need help, I’d rather just give them help and educate them than throw them in jail.
How are people bringing in fentanyl at the moment?
The mail, ferry, private boats, seaplanes, across the border. They use creative ways. We’ve seen it come in under pizzas. We’ve seen it come in under various fast food establishments.
Is there mandatory training for mental health responses?
I don’t think it’s mandatory. I brought down an individual from the Anchorage Fire Department and put on a mental health first aid course for police officers and first responders. And then also a de-escalation course. She provided that to some of our other stakeholders like SEARHC and SAIL and the school.
The department’s been at four officers for a while now. Why is it so hard to recruit people?
We’re budgeted for five and we haven’t hired a fifth because we didn’t know what was going to happen with me. We’ll start advertising. If you go to Alaska Police Standards Council’s website and click on vacancies and see the list, it’s huge. We’re not one of the higher paying agencies. I really believe that we’re gonna have to open the purse strings a little bit to recruit good people. I’m not just gonna hire someone to fill a seat, because that just causes problems.
What are you looking for in an officer?
I would like to have someone with some prior experience. I need that individual to understand that they’re not coming up here to throw cuffs on everybody. It’s a much more community-oriented model. You have to adapt to the way this community operates. It takes a special kind of person to work here for more than a year or two. They need to want to live here and to be okay with not having a Chick-fil-A or a Target.
There’s been a lot of talk about diversity in policing lately. Is it a priority to hire a female officer or officers of color, or Alaska Native officers?
I would love to have a female officer. Race does not matter to me. I just don’t care. If you can do the job I don’t care what race you belong to.
Any other big challenges you foresee?
This building is a mess (the borough has made replacing the aging building a priority). That’s a pretty big challenge. Other than that, the community is very supportive. The assembly is supportive and that’s great.
Any moments that stand out from your years at the department?
The landslide sticks out, probably for all of us. Heath was on training leave when it happened so I was the acting chief at the time, so I learned a lot about how the EOC operates.
I’m pretty proud of our relationship with our school. When I got here I don’t think the relationship was super positive. I feel like it is now. Relating to the kids and being able to talk to them is super important to me and the rest of the guys.