Understaffed, Over Utilized

PALMER — Rising crime rates statewide and a lack of funding for Alaska State Troopers has brought the issue of policing to the forefront. Troy C. Payne, Ph.D. of the UAA Justice Center prepared a study for the Alaska Department of Public Safety in late February. In the study, entitled “Alaska State Troopers B Detachment Patrol Staffing Study and Description of Dispatched Police Incidents”, Payne uses statistics of available troopers and a combination of obligated time and trooper hours to recommend that the B Detachment, which covers the 24,000 square mile area of the Mat-Su Borough, parts of Valdez, Cordova, Glenallen and the Richardson Highway, is understaffed and those on patrol are over-utilized.

“The total staffing recommendation is 58 Troopers,” wrote Payne. “This is an increase of 23 Troopers and three Sergeants over August 2017 staffing.… Though this is a substantial increase — 57.8% — over the August 2017 staffing of 45 total sworn, the ratio of Troopers to 1,000 population would be 0.81, well below the Pacific region average of 1.1 police officers per 1,000 population for areas of 50,000 to 99,999.”

The Palmer City Council discussed a similar study entitled Palmer Police Department Service Area Staffing and Cost Study at their most recent meeting. The study examines what the changes would look like if the PPD, which is currently only utilized within the roughly 5 square-miles covered in the Palmer Service Area — an area that annexes more than 20 square miles, effectively requiring twice the officers it currently employs.

Some areas in the Valley, including the Williwaw subdivision, running along the edge of Wasilla Lake, is considering bus stop changes while increasing efforts to look out for their neighborhood. They have instituted a neighborhood watch and discussed possible annexation into Wasilla to provide greater police service, due to rampant burglaries, assaults, drug and sex traffic.

“Benefits would be code compliance. one of the things the borough has significant understaffing for where we have a dedicated code compliance officer,” Amanda Graham, Wasilla Police Department PIO, said of possible annexation.

The Palmer City Council recently unanimously voted to approve a School Resource Officer to be stationed at PHS and serve the 12 percent of MSBSD students within the City of Palmer.

“The SRO position is probably one of the most important things that could have happened,” said Palmer Police Chief Lance Ketterling. “I think we have enough staff, officers and investigators, to accomplish the mission that we’re trying to do.”

The UAA study examines what exactly troopers spend their time doing, aiming for an optimal 60 percent of each Trooper’s time spent responding to citizen-initiated or officer-initiated calls. Roughly one-third of a trooper’s time is required for paperwork, evidence filing, and other non-time-sensitive work, the study found.

“When police officers spend more than 60 percent of their time responding to incidents, it is difficult to consistently achieve community policing and crime prevention objectives — these activities require blocks of time where officers are free from responding to citizen calls for service,” wrote Payne.

Times where a greater number of Troopers’ obligated hours are required range from the late afternoon to evening from Thursdays through Saturdays. Currently, the minimum required number of Troopers to patrol the Detachment are five. Two are permanently stationed in Glenallen. The remaining three cover the expanse from Palmer to Talkeetna.

“The median number of obligated Troopers is equal to or greater than five Thursday through Saturday late afternoon and early evening. As the previous sections have shown, five Troopers in the field cannot adequately service the workload in B Detachment, particularly from noon to midnight,” wrote Payne.

The PPD availability within the City of Palmer yields fast response times for the small service area, but is still understaffed based on officers per thousand residents. However, theoretical annexation of the Palmer Service Area would add four times the service and add twice the residents. The 14 officers within PPD would likely need to be increased to 30, if PPD were to service the PSA.

“The main impetus for this study is increasing dissatisfaction on the part of Valley residents and MSB elected officials with rising crime rates, and the perceived inability of AST to field enough troopers to combat it. Since a major cause for concern is staffing levels in the area covered by AST, it follows logically that any PSA would need to increase what is currently in place,” states the PPD assessment. “According to July 1, 2016 census estimates, the City of Palmer had 7,000 people living within its borders. Current staffing for the Palmer Police Department is generally considered adequate. 14 sworn personnel serving a population of 7,000 yields a ratio of 2 officers per 1,000 City residents.”

The Wasilla Police Department currently operates with a sworn officer number, including investigators and two lieutenants of 26 officers for the 13 square miles within inside city limits.

The UAA study also provides the possibility of adding one additional shift for peak hours.

“A third, 12-hour shift, from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m., could provide the needed capacity to meet peak demand. This power shift would provide the needed resources for peak demand (at least eight Troopers 1 p.m. to 1 a.m.) without dramatically over provisioning resources during off-peak times,” wrote Payne.

AST also oversees the Criminal Suppression Unit, which operates nearly entirely under not-obligated hours, providing crime prevention as opposed to reaction. These three troopers and one supervisor are unavailable to patrol duty during peak times.

“We always want more officers — that's always beneficial,” said Graham. “We’ve been posting a lot of job opportunities; we’re just trying to fill the spots that we have. There’s a nationwide issue of getting qualified applicants — it's a nationwide problem.

Ketterling claims that staffing is adequate in his department, but that PPD is trying to push more proactive police activity, such as airport patrols and rising property crimes by reaching out to businesses and detailing how they can make themselves a more difficult target for theft.

“Can be working with the community and do we have time to go to neighborhood watch meetings? The answer is, yes we do,” said Ketterling.

Any police force would like to have more officers, according to Ketterling, and PPD has variable times with slow days and days lined up with back-to-back calls that prevent proactive policing.