The Haines Borough Assembly has scrapped plans to ask voters if they support amending the borough charter to include emergency police response as a borough-wide power. Instead, the assembly voted to interpret the charter’s provision for borough-wide emergency dispatch to allow Haines police to respond to emergencies outside the townsite.

The loss of a state trooper post in Haines in 2017 sparked a debate about the local police department’s ability to provide service outside the townsite. 

The Haines Borough charter states that local police departments can only operate within a service area. Right now the Haines townsite is the only police service area in the Haines Borough.

When voters living outside the townsite were asked if they would like to form their own police service areas funded by an increase in their property taxes, they rejected the idea. 

At a Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday, Assembly member Brenda Josephson said many voters living outside of town felt they already contributed enough tax revenue to the police department. 

“The argument we hear from people out the highway is, ‘I pay sales tax on everything I buy in town as well as everything I get on the internet. I’m contributing. That 1.5% goes to the townsite service area, which the police is part of.'”

In practice, the Haines Borough Police Department has responded to calls outside the townsite and continues to do so. Last year, they were authorized by the borough to respond if there is a crime in progress or an imminent threat to life or property.

Former borough manager Debra Schnabel and former assembly member Sean Maidy said that practice does not align with the borough charter as it is written.

Not everyone agrees that the charter prohibits the Haines Borough Police from responding to emergencies outside of their service area. The borough is allowed to provide emergency dispatch across all areas of the borough, not just the townsite. 

Assembly member Josephson believes that emergency dispatch includes an emergency response by a police officer. 

“Black’s Law definition of dispatch is to send with speed. One of the definitions is to send with speed. Accepting a call without an action is not logical,” Josephson said.

In an email to former borough manager Debra Schnabel, the borough’s attorney Brooks Chandler disputed the idea that references to emergency dispatch in the charter authorize police responses outside the townsite. However, he added that formalizing a charter interpretation is better than doing nothing and is likely acceptable to a majority of citizens

The assembly passed a resolution in late 2019 to interpret the charter’s provision for borough-wide emergency dispatch to include police response. They also resolved to have voters settle the question of police service during the October general election in 2020. The decision prompted Maidy to resign from the assembly. 

Assembly member Josephson said that the intention of the ballot measure was not to increase services or funding for the police department, but simply maintain the current practices. 

“There seems to be a concern that we’re looking to change what we’ve been doing over the decades or that we’re looking to expand services. That is not the intention. The ballot proposition was just to address specifically that emergency response is included as part of dispatch,” Josephson said. 

But on Tuesday the assembly abandoned the ballot measure. Assembly member Josephson moved to stick with the assembly’s interpretation of emergency dispatch and not ask voters if they support amending the charter itself. 

Assembly member Gabe Thomas supported the decision. He felt that the assembly’s resolution to interpret dispatch to include emergency police response was sufficient and did not require a charter amendment. 

“The resolution seems fine. I really wanted it to go to the people, but at the same time it seems like it’s just going to be mixed all up.” Thomas said. “It’s going to just not get done, and we’re going to be right back where we are in another six months.”

The assembly voted to remove the requirement to put the question of police service before voters in a 5 to 1 vote with assembly member Zephyr Sincerny opposed.