Cops brace for youth crime

June 14, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Last Friday, dozens of bells rang out across the Valley, signaling the end of another school year for nearly 15,000 energetic young students.

For the next three months thousands of kids and teens will play in the parks, ride bicycles and skateboards through neighborhoods, swing baseball bats and participate in summer camps and youth programs.

While most of the youth manage to keep out of trouble, local law enforcement deals with the mischief makers, a task that keeps troopers and city police officers busy until school starts again in late August. Most of the trouble comes from teens and young adults.

"Each year it seems to get a little bit worse," said Palmer Police Chief Russ Boatwright. "There's just more people and word spreads that they can come out to certain areas and raise hell and do what they want."

Boatwright said vandalism, underage drinking, traffic violations and theft all increase in the summer months. One of the worst areas of vandalism, in Palmer, is the ball fields and parks. While local youth definitely contribute to summer crimes, Boatwright said many troublemakers come from outside the Valley as well.

"We get more tourists coming through," he said. "The overall traffic increases, with more Alaskans traveling through Palmer, going other places."

On the Wasilla side of the Mat-Su Borough's core area, Police Chief Don Savage deals with many of the same problems in city parks and shopping areas. Traffic violations with all-terrain vehicles and speeding automobiles are a particular concern.

"It starts with the good weather," he said. "That's when we see big surges with those kind of complaints."

According to Savage, most of the youth crime comes from the high school and middle-school-age groups. As far as wild parties and underage drinking go, he said that mostly happens outside town in more rural areas, where state troopers patrol.

One of the issues Savage said he has to deal with is the fact that police officers, like many other fellow Alaskans, take some time off during the summer months.

"We have reduced staffing in the summer, so people get busier," he said, adding that the number of calls to the police is considerably higher in the summer.

Outside the cities, Alaska State Trooper Robert French said troopers spend a good amount of time in the Butte area, near Palmer. It's the one place that stands out to him during the summer.

"The Butte is always a big area just because there's so much ATV traffic out there and it's a traditional recreation area," he said, adding that in recent years the troopers have cracked down pretty hard on wild parties out there.

"We have what we call summer party patrols," he said. "They look for parties and it seems like we've made a good dent, or else people are just a little more discreet about what they do. There's still activity out there but it's not as bad as it used to be."

Still, French said the summer months keep the troopers busy.

"The younger crowd just has more time on their hands," he said.

Unfortunately for law enforcement, the idle hands of youth translate into heavier workloads, at least until the fall, when the first bells toll to start school again.

"It picks up about June and right after school starts, it calms down," Boatwright said.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.