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

The Public Safety Commission last week discussed how complaints against police are handled and how to make sure those who brought up issues feel their concerns were addressed. Two residents spoke up during public comment and complained about interactions they’ve had with local police.

Laurie Dadourian said she had a recent interaction with an officer whose tone “hardened my good attitude and I felt very tense.”

“I think many people that live here feel as I do,” Dadourian said. “We want a friendly police department to uphold the law and to not focus on the minor offenses.”

Another resident, Ray Staska, said he experienced two negative incidents with local police and said one was a “minor infraction” but the other was “definitely a serious violation against my civil rights.”

“I don’t want it to be exposed in public but I am damned pissed off at one officer’s procedures in this town,” Staska said. “I’ve been here over 30 years and if it happens again I won’t just go to the chief. I will go waste my money on an attorney.”

He asked who he was supposed to talk to when he felt his civil rights were violated.

Haines Borough Police Chief Heath Scott said a formal complaint form is available on the borough website and that he investigates complaints against the department.

“Regardless of who you go to, their role within the government, they still have to recognize the fact that there is borough policy that needs to be followed, departmental policy that needs to be followed to the best of their understanding and collective bargaining for the employee,” Scott said.

Assembly member Tom Morphet last month released four other complaints against police officers. He later wrote letters of apology to the two officers whose names he revealed, following a union grievance against the borough for the release of those complaints.

Morphet was the assembly’s liaison to the public safety commission until Mayor Jan Hill removed him from that position May 1.

During the meeting, Morphet said his goal was not to name anyone but to start a conversation about how the police interact with the public.

The borough’s collective bargaining agreement states that personnel records, including disciplinary actions against police, are confidential.

State statute states public records are exempt only if they, “could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of a suspect, defendant, victim or witness.”

Police disciplinary records would also be public record if they were criminal in nature, Scott said.

Because those records are confidential under the collective bargaining agreement, anyone who makes a complaint against a police officer won’t know what type of disciplinary action was taken, Scott said.

Commission member Michael Fullerton asked how a person who lodged a complaint is supposed to feel their issue was addressed.

“How do you address the inherent conflict that I think is the perception of you, being the chief, looking into this complaint and you have a vested interest in finding for your department and for your officers,” Fullerton asked Scott.

Scott said he recognized that problem when he took over as chief and said he asked the commission to go into executive session with a member of the public who issued a complaint to address how he handled the investigation.

Still, Scott said he can’t reveal any disciplinary action he uses with his officers and said he hopes a member of the public would be satisfied after a dialogue with him.

“I cannot share the level of discipline with you…if the employee is no longer with us, they would understand they were terminated…If the employee is still here I might say the personnel action was completed within the progressive disciplinary process. I can’t share beyond that with them.”

Scott said it’s important for the public to understand those are local rules, not policies he has instituted.

Scott added community policing is a “resource-based solution” and, as he’s repeated during many public meetings, said his department is “under-resourced.”

“When you do things with less resources than you need, things don’t go well 100 percent of the time,” Scott said. “That could be how an officer communicates with a member of the public because they’re tired, they’re overworked. That could be a police chief that is not doing substantive work because they’re always dealing with complaints because they’re understaffed, over-utilized, under-resourced. That’s been my last month.”