State fair keeps local police hopping

PALMER — Just like they always do, police here were running ragged this year for the Alaska State Fair.

Over the course of the 12-day event, police took 771 calls for service, which is just about the same level of activity as last year when calls totaled out at 787.

Speaking Thursday, Palmer Police Cmdr. Tom Remaley said things had finally started to settle down for his officers.

“Now they’re trying to get caught up on reports and still try to deal with day-to-day stuff,” he said. But they’re still getting fair calls. “Vendors are discovering things or not getting along as they tear down.”

The fair-time spike in activity also starts about a week before the fair opens its gates.

“The vendors and the traffic; that’s already here so I need the extra manpower because all kinds of things are happening,” Remaley said.

Officers worked 1,617 hours during the fair and put 6,410 miles on their vehicles. Palmer is somewhat unique among police departments in that officers work a week’s worth of 12-hour shifts then take a week off.

But not at fair time.

“What they basically work is 10-hour shifts except Friday, Saturday and Sunday are 12-hour shifts,” Remaley said.

He tries to stagger the schedules so that more officers are on in the evenings.

“There’s a period of time where I might have six people on, which is what you need,” he said.

Non fair-time staffing at a department like Palmer usually entails half that.

Drilling down deeper into the numbers, during the fair there were 10 drunken driving arrests, 18 drug arrests, 10 thefts, five assaults and one stolen vehicle.

And those are just calls in and around the fair. Remaley said having that many visitors to Palmer increases activity all over the city.

And then there’s the traffic stops. Adding to the insanity is that fair time coincides with a national crackdown on drunken driving. Those kinds of national campaigns pay departments to cover overtime hours for officers out enforcing traffic laws.

This year at the fair, officers made 219 traffic stops. For the Aug. 19 to Sept. 5 national traffic enforcement effort, they made an additional 687 stops.

It’s an indication of just how busy Palmer gets at fair time that even with those incredible stats, fair time still saw an increased level of traffic accidents — the exact thing stricter enforcement is supposed to prevent.

“These 10 guys or 11 guys busted their butts on traffic enforcement and still we had 25 wrecks,” Remaley said.

Nine of those were directly fair related — fender-benders in parking lots. The other 16 break down as six with injuries and 10 without.

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