Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

The assembly voted unanimously Tuesday to allow the Haines Borough Police Department to respond to calls outside the townsite deemed "urgent." A second motion defined "urgent calls" as "an imminent threat to life or property" or a crime in progress, based on a suggestion from police chief Heath Scott.

On Oct. 23, the assembly voted 4-2 to restrict the police to the townsite, unless the Alaska State Troopers request them to respond to calls for service. The result? A telephonic game of ping pong.

In two separately reported incidents, residents said they were bounced back and forth between local police and troopers, each telling the caller to ring the other agency. Despite the assembly's directive to local police, the troopers maintain that it does not hold jurisdiction outside the Haines townsite.

When asked why the state troopers haven't been directing Haines Police to respond to calls made outside the townsite, public information officer Timothy Despain said that it's "not a thing."

Municipal police departments don't "report" to the troopers, Despain said, so it's against procedure to issue directives to an independent agency.

Since the order was issued, Scott estimates his officers have received about six calls for service from outside the townsite.

Jen Reid, who lives off Mud Bay Road, called to report an intruder in her home on Saturday morning. She said she didn't feel threatened, but called the police hours later to inform them of the incident.

When she phoned the police, they told her to call the troopers. When she called the troopers, they told her she's in the jurisdiction of the Haines Police department.

"They said they haven't had any directions from their superiors as to changes. (The troopers said) all we got is a letter from the Haines Borough that they would no longer be covering out the road," Reid said. "I just felt very much like nobody cares. It means if we call, nobody will help us."

Of the estimated six calls for help from outside town limits, Scott said that only one was an imminent threat to life. On Saturday they responded to the scene of a vehicle overturned on Haines Highway, pinning a passenger inside. The fire department used the Jaws of Life to cut open the top of the vehicle, and one person was medevaced to Anchorage, according to fire chief Al Giddings.

Scott has said publicly that he will answer 911 calls regardless of the circumstance, because of an ethical duty to respond. "I'll do that if you give me $100,000 or $0. I'll do it if you tell me not to do it," he said during a public meeting last year.

On Tuesday, borough manager Debra Schnabel issued Scott a verbal warning for disobeying the assembly directive and responding to the overturned vehicle outside of town. A verbal warning is the first of five procedural steps, the last step being "dismissal," according to borough code. Schnabel told the assembly that it was a difficult decision for her to make, but she felt she had no choice but to uphold orders.

Major Andrew Greenstreet wrote a letter to Scott on Nov. 6. Greenstreet requested Haines Police 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."

Retired Haines Police chief Greg Goodman said that the statement is partially correct. "We were always authorized to leave the townsite upon request of the troopers, but they had to request it," he said.

Schnabel said she thinks that the letter is incorrect in many instances. She said that Major Greenstreet doesn't understand the structure of Haines Borough government, or the relationships with state troopers that has served Haines in the past.

"His letter implies that the Haines Borough Police Department always had jurisdiction areawide, and it did not," she said during a committee meeting Tuesday.

Alaska State Troopers communication director Jonathan Taylor said there is a distinction between operations and principles. "Operationally, I'm sure that there was robust engagement and from time to time the blue shirt was able to respond outside the townsite, but that doesn't necessarily change our principled decision that the borough is responsible to the borough," Taylor said.

Assembly member Brenda Josephson made a motion to set up an ad hoc committee comprised of assembly members and local residents to advocate that the legislature step in regarding trooper response in Haines. The motion passed 5-1 with assembly member Sean Maidy opposed.

"It is not the same effect as having any individual going and speaking to anyone that is not a coordinated effort...so this is a major step forward," Josephson said.

Assembly member Tom Morphet pointed out that it was under the Walker administration that the troopers pulled the blue shirt from Haines, and a new administration will soon take office. "Both candidates have competed with each other on who was going to be tougher on crime, so I think we have an excellent chance to have them point to an area where they've gotten tougher on crime," he said.

The latest directive to the police comes after Mud Bay, Lutak and Haines Highway residents voted against raising property taxes to create separate police service areas in their neighborhoods. AST moved its Haines blue shirt position to Western Alaska in 2017.