Wasilla REDDI to respond with new policy

WASILLA — A new city policy on how emergency dispatchers handle 911 calls on suspected dangerous drivers singles out city employees. Dispatchers are ordered to notify Wasilla police if a reported vehicle is owned by a city employee — even if the vehicle is outside city limits.

Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright handed down the unusual edict Feb. 3, one month after reportedly being involved in a Report Every Dangerous Driver Immediately (REDDI) incident himself when a community member called in his truck after he’d left the Mat-Su Borough Animal Shelter in early January.

Although Rupright would not discuss the incident because of an ongoing internal investigation, he said he never drives while impaired and defended the city’s need for the new policy on how future REDDI calls will be handled.

“Impaired driving is a serious issue,” he said. “When I realized that there was no written policy that ensures our police force follows up on calls related to employees, I knew we needed something to protect the integrity of the city as well as the safety of the residents.”

Administrative Policy No. 11-01 states that any city employee driving impaired or under suspicion of being impaired creates a safety issue as well as a liability issue for the city. It reads as follows:

“To protect the finances and the integrity of the City of Wasilla, the following policy shall be effective immediately:

“1. In the event any city employee is the subject of a REDDI Report, the Wasilla Police shall receive the dispatch notice. (Depending on the location of the reported incident, other law enforcement may be dispatched as well.) The Wasilla Police Department shall determine, either on their own or in coordination with another law enforcement agency, the validity of the REDDI Report through personal contact with the employee. Attached is a list of all current City employees. The HR department will update the list as needed.

“2. A REDDI Report regarding members of the public will be dispatched to the agency that has jurisdiction at the location of the incident. Additionally, the Wasilla Police will receive the dispatch notice if the vehicle is driving towards Wasilla or the driver and/or the owner of the vehicle has an address in Wasilla.

“Wasilla Public Safety shall, in accordance with State Statues, take whatever action is appropriate to protect the public once an incident has been reported.”

As a former probation officer who works as a defense and personal injury attorney when he’s not busy being mayor, Rupright said the policy should have been implemented a long time ago.

“We have to make sure we are investigating every REDDI call involving an employee because we don’t want it to look like the Wasilla Police Department is hiding anything,” he said, adding he didn’t think the policy was that unusual. “If you don’t follow up on these calls, you’re doing everyone a disservice. To me, it’s just a responsible way of handling it.”

Neither Anchorage nor Fairbanks treats REDDI calls involving city employees any differently than those involving the general public. Both Anchorage Police Department Spokesman Lt. Dave Parker and Fairbanks Police Chief Laren Zager thought Wasilla’s policy a bit odd.

Zager even called it “dangerous.”

“It does seem complex and unnecessary,” Zager said. “I would have to be more convinced of it to support it.”

Parker and Zager said they’d be curious to know how labor unions view a policy that singles out public employees.

Palmer resident Ron McPheters, president of the labor union that represents five Wasilla employees working at the Curtis D. Menard Sports Center, said he’s never heard of such a policy before.

“It doesn’t sound right to me,” McPheters said. “I wonder if that would hold up to much legal scrutiny.”

Telephone calls and e-mails attempting to reach the business representative of Teamsters Union Local 959, which represents the Wasilla Police Department, were not returned.

Alaska State Troopers Spokesperson Megan Peters said Rupright has not discussed the new REDDI report procedure with AST.

“The mayor of Wasilla has not provided a copy of this policy to the Alaska State Troopers, nor sought our opinion,” Peters said via e-mail.

Calls made to Wasilla City Council members on the subject by the Frontiersman were not returned. One council member who originally alerted the Frontiersman to the new policy asked to remain unnamed.

“I don’t want dispatch to have to take the time to look on the employee list to figure out who to call before responding to a potentially dangerous situation,” the council member said. “I don’t think the policy improves the integrity of the city. Public perception is worth a lot and this doesn’t look good.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.