Haines Highway residents raised points including essential emergency services, resistance to active patrols, and better tax representation to Haines Borough staff during a discussion about policing outside the townsite Wednesday evening.

Haines Borough police chief Heath Scott gave a short presentation to around 40 people at the Mosquito Lake School about the state trooper “blue shirt” position leaving town and what the people living out the highway wanted in terms of police presence.

The Alaska State Troopers moved the position in March. State wildlife trooper Trent Chwialkowski has said he will respond to emergency situations outside the townsite.

Haines has been without a “blue shirt position” since December. Since then police have been responding out the road to around three to four calls per month, according to Scott.

Interim borough manager Brad Ryan cited options including ending response outside the townsite, charging per call, expanding the service area for police protection beyond the townsite and levying a property tax to pay for it, and changing dedication of sales tax to fund police protection areawide, instead of with property taxes.

Borough police service is limited to the “townsite,” an area a little larger than the downtown core.

Expanding the service area would require majority votes from residents living in the current service area and from residents living in the expanded area. Changing sales tax dedication would require a boroughwide vote.

Public safety commissioner Jim Stanford suggested if the medical service area already is paid for with a portion of the sales tax, why not change the language from medical to emergency service area, which would include police protection.

“You’re talking half a percent or one percent increase in sales tax,” Stanford said. “This is almost a harmless way to provide for emergency police response to the outer borough and I’m wondering why isn’t it one of the options up there.”

Others felt the highway residents shouldn’t pay more for services they feel they already deserve.

“We get emergency services. It takes hours to get here,” Carolann Wooton said. “I just don’t feel like we should pay more for getting service we should already be getting as taxpayers of this borough.”

Stanford asked if anybody in the room didn’t want 911 service. No one raised a hand but Jan Merriman said there’s a big difference between calling an ambulance and calling the police. Even if there’s a violent emergency “it takes over an hour for a cop to get out here if they come,” she said.

Jennifer Canfield summed up a sentiment expressed by a sizeable contingent of the residents, saying she lives where she lives because she wants to live there and she doesn’t expect the police to actively patrol out the road.

“I expect – if you can save a life by responding to domestic violence, a weapon being used radically – that you show up,” Canfield said. “If I have to put a bullet in somebody who walks through my front door, I want somebody to pick up the body.”

Gordon Whitermore added that even with two state troopers patrolling out the road, many issues such as illegal drug manufacture and other problems still existed.

Dave Pahl noted that the police department is only funded by the townsite and asked Scott if he asked the Alaska State Troopers if they understood there was no such thing as the Haines Borough Police Department. A state trooper official recently said the borough should be responsible for policing out the road.

“There’s a misunderstanding there that’s very basic,” Pahl said. “There’s no Haines Borough police. There’s a Haines townsite police.”

The borough will hold another town hall meeting about the same issue at the library next week at 5:30 p.m.