New highway patrol moves base to Valley

WASILLA — It wasn’t exactly the toughest goal to accomplish, but the Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol is now headquartered in the Valley.

Reached Wednesday at the Mat-Su West trooper post just up from the Parks Highway on Pittman Road, Capt. Hans Brinke said he hasn’t quite settled into his new digs yet.

“I’ve got all my stuff moved out from Anchorage,” he said.

Brinke, a lieutenant and an administrative assistant are all now working in the Valley. That’s all it took to move headquarters out here. Well, not quite all. As office space goes, he’s currently borrowing an office from Lt. Pat Davis who’s out of town this month. Brinke’s office is being constructed now.

Highway patrol is a relatively new bureau of the troopers. It started in December. The troopers created the bureau using their two existing DUI Enforcement Teams in the Valley and in Fairbanks. Since then they’ve added a unit in Soldotna.

Brinke said the decision to move to Mat-Su West wasn’t a difficult one to make. Until recently, Brinke and his lieutenant had been pulling double duty while troopers sought out an officer to take over the duties they had prior to starting the bureau. That officer is now in place, freeing them both up. He said he could have stayed in Anchorage but wanted to be closer to the guys working the highways. The Valley was the obvious choice for the move because it’s centrally located between the Fairbanks and Soldotna teams. And, on a personal level, he liked the idea.

“I live in the Valley. It makes it more convenient,” he said. “I don’t have to necessarily hit the highway and go into Anchorage but that doesn’t keep me from going into Anchorage.”

Brinke said that every year the highway patrol is growing a little. Most recently in the Valley, one Wasilla police officer and one Palmer police officer joined the team.

And there are more to come, Brinke said. Right now the Valley unit consists of a sergeant, three troopers and the two police officers. But there are open positions just waiting for newly recruited troopers to finish up their field training.

“With the positions that we’re getting, as soon as we get the recruits on the road, we’ll get two more,” he said.

Brinke said he’s starting up a new two-man team in Girdwood to address problems with that dangerous stretch of the Seward Highway. The Soldotna Police Department contributed an officer there and that unit is looking to expand even more. And Fairbanks police are hoping to contribute a man.

Brinke said those municipal partnerships have worked out well. He said he’s been impressed with the municipal officers’ productivity and professionalism. The bureau pays the officer’s salary and provides his car and office space. So, for the department contributing the officer, it’s a pretty good deal. And, Brinke said, it makes sense that a local officer should sign on with a statewide bureau.

“Everybody who’s running around the state uses the state roads, the parks, fishes, vacations, hunts, throughout the state,” he said. “They’re accepting their part of the role of protecting the roadways for everybody’s use.”

He said he’s also got other great partners in the state’s Department of Transportation and especially in the regular patrol troopers and other trooper agencies.

“If I can take some of the burden off of their shoulders so they can better serve the public for their responsibilities then I’m successful,” he said. But it’s a two-way street. “Knowing what the other troopers are doing on the road is very valuable for us.”

Highway patrol sends its officers out to other areas of the state, often to run traffic enforcement when big events are held. He said so far they’ve stayed on the road system but there have been talks with other areas that troopers might need to put their cars on a ferry.

“If we can get our cars and our guys over there we’re going to go help them,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.