NIGHT SHIFT: Troopers stay busy long after dark

PALMER— Alaska State Trooper Scott Corino is about a year-and-a-half into the job. He said that this job is the sole reason he came to Alaska, and he isn’t disappointed.

“I came up here to be just to be an Alaskan State Trooper. That’s it,” Corino said inside his squad SUV.

He said that day and night shifts are, “totally different.”

“Night shift, we do a lot of warrants. The people with warrants, drugs, stuff like that, that cliental, night time is the time they come out. We’ll stop a car with no headlights, or headlight out or no license plate light. There could be four people in there and all four have a warrant. They know they have warrants. They chose to drive a vehicle with vehicle infractions. I don’t know why they do but they do it,” Corino said.

Corino is one of 37 troopers serving the Mat-Su Valley, with two more recruits on the way, according to AST captain Tony April. He said there are four different shifts throughout the day and there are typically nine troopers per shift, “on a good day.”

“Depending on the night, we try to get as many DUI’s as we can,” Corino said. “Because of the (staff) shortage, we can only get to so many of them.”

One trooper for every shift works in Talkeetna, according to Corino. The Talkeetna post closed May 31, 2015.

“We try and mix it up with the shifts, get everybody their time up there If I work Talkeetna one night and I take five calls where I need to follow up, I might be like, ‘hey can I can I work Talkeetna tonight again, I’d like to investigate some thefts’ and stuff like that. There’s a lot of follow up that comes with them, especially in Talkeetna, where there’s cabins and stuff like that,” Corino.

Corino was hired July 31, 2017. He said that since he’s new, he frequently take on an array of assignments which gives him plenty of overtime for efforts. He’s originally from New Jersey and after serving five years on the U.S. Marine Corps, he flew up to Alaska for an unconventional, adventurous and downright different line of work in law enforcement.

“I didn’t want to be a city cop and I didn’t want to be highway patrol, and here in the Valley specifically, you get to both of those,” Corino said. “I’ve got a bunch of buddies back home who that are law enforcement officers. The stories, the experiences that I have compared to them, even them being on two more years on than I have. They just don’t compare. I’m not saying we don’t have our bad days but it’s just way different up here and the work is a lot more fun.”

Every shift is different, according to Corino. He said that his least favorite part of the job is probably the paperwork, but it’s part of the gig. He noted that the overall call volume has dropped for the moment so there is more time to go after warrants, perform traffic stops and other investigations he likes to call, “proactive policing.”

“Every shift you can be proactive. You’re always going to be busy,” Corino said.

Corino said that he works all over the Valley, but spends a good chunk of his time driving past the edges of Wasilla, often in places like Houston, Meadow Lakes or Big Lake. Not unlike his fellow troopers, Corino regularly works with the Wasilla Police Department and Palmer Police Department. Both departments focus on their actual city limits while AST covers the gaps and everything beyond.

“We assist WPD all the time, vice versa, they assist us all the time. I think we have a really good relationship working with them, bunch of good guys,” Corino said.

AST currently has one K-9 officer, Skippy, who only works during the day. During the night, AST will occasionally ask for back-up during a pursuit or investigation and WPD will dispatch their new K-9 officer, Echo.

Corino said that most, if not all, of the vehicle pursuits he’s done in the Valley eventually turned into to a foot chase.

Troopers do not blindly chase a suspect into the woods alone, Corino said. Troopers tackles these pursuits as a team, calling in multiple cars and in some cases, may even call in aid from WPD or PPD.

During Corino’s shift Friday night, Echo was called in to aid a group of troopers attempting to apprehend a man with an outstanding warrant in Big Lake. The pursuit began after a routine traffic stop for an equipment violation. The vehicle did not yield to the lights and sirens and tried to evade troopers, taking them on a high speed pursuit which ultimately ended in with a crash and foot chase within a neighborhood, near the Mid-Valley Manor Personal Care Center.

The suspect’s vehicle, a black pick-up truck, turned out to be stolen.

“Now he’s looking at two felonies [vehicle theft and felony evading],” Corino said.

Matanuska Towing & Recovery is the sole towing company that picks up vehicles involved in a criminal investigation, keeping them on a secured lot until trial to prevent any evidence tampering, according to Corino. He said that MTR and a list of other towing companies will respond to other non-criminal impoundments the average citizens deals with.

While MTR was hooking up the chains to the battered truck, Corino and several other officers zipped around the suspect’s last known area, shining their swivel lights on the driver side to peer into the vast darkness, and asking for tips from local civil patrols and other people in the area. One resident in her apartment told the troopers she saw a man running past her yard.

Halfway through the search, Corino saw, what at first looked like a road sign, but turned out to be a woman hitchhiking off the Parks Highway, within the search perimeter. Her clothes were wet as if she were running through a swamp. Corino spoke to her at length with the support of a fellow trooper.

“Every trooper has their own way of talking to people. You get really good at reading people,” Corino said.

The woman said that she was running from her drunken father that night. She stumbled over her age, correcting herself.

“A lot of it for me, for most of us actually, is indicators. That could be anything. Talking to somebody who wants to run, they might reach down and tie his shoes or he might pull his pants up, tighten his pants up, or somebody who might be a little aggressive, wants to fight, clenched fists, 1000 yard stare then roll their sleeves up- just indicators that there’s a possibility,” Corino said.

Troopers suspected that she was in the suspect’s passenger seat during the incident. Corino said his, “spidey senses were tingling,” but he couldn’t force her to talk so the other officer escorted the woman.

“Not everybody’s the same. I try not to get complacent with stuff like that. I try to treat everybody the same. My contacts with people are very soft, yet it depends on what we’re going tom where we’re going to, what was reported to what happened,” Corino said.

While Corino was talking to the woman in question, WPD and AST found a coat in the woods and put Echo on the scent.

“This is a game changer,” Corino said. “We may actually catch this guy.”

The entire pursuit took about three hours and the suspect ultimately got away. Corino and other officers suspect that someone picked him up during the commotion.

“It happens,” Corino said.

Shortly after the search was called off, Corino followed up with some gas station clerks while fueling up in Big Lake.

“They’re a valuable asset. They know everybody,” Corino said.

He asked them about the woman in question and he came back in the car and sighed, “she lied to me.”

Corino said that night shifts have the advantage of less traffic so these type of chases are usually safer with less collateral damage.

Like many people, Corino found himself enamored with the National Geographic Channel series, “Alaskan State Troopers.”

“I personally was a big fan of the show, which doing the job now was extremely accurate. I wasn’t disappointed,” Corino said. “I’ve got a bunch of buddies back home who that are law enforcement officers. The stories, the experiences that I have compared to them, even them being on two more years on than I have. They just don’t compare. I’m not saying we don’t have our bad days but it’s just way different up here and the work is a lot more fun.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com