The Haines Borough Police Department will hire a new officer. They’ve been down to four officers since the beginning of the month.
The application period has only been open for two weeks, but the Haines Police Department already has four applicants for the police officer position. Chief Heath Scott says that’s rare.
“If you look throughout the state, that’s just not happening in other places,” he said.
All four applicants are Alaska residents and three are local to Haines. Chief Scott says he is pleased that they all have previous law enforcement experience.
“I’m really pleased with the folks that have applied,” he said, “I can’t tell you how happy I am.”
Haines Borough Police department will screen all the candidates with an extensive background check before moving to interviews. Chief Scott says he anticipates completing interviews by early June. They’re working quickly to have a new officer in place by July.
“When we lose a staff member it’s even a greater hardship. With four people we don’t allow any leave or taking off for training. With four people we’re still missing 8 hours of the day. We’re unable to serve the community during that time.” said Scott.
He says the department uses data to determine low crime hours, so they know when it is safest to have officers off-duty. He says even during these times, there’s an on-call officer.
After a new officer is chosen, the three remaining candidates will form an applicant pool that the department can draw from in the future. Chief Scott says he anticipates that more officers will leave in the next fiscal year, including officer Chris Brown, who may return to Idaho to be closer to family.
But the question for now is who will be the fifth officer on the Haines Police Department.
“So I can’t tell you I want somebody that looks like a linebacker, has a good high and tight, that looks cool in sunglasses, and has a great mustache. That’s not what concerns me,” said Chief Scott.
“I want somebody that speaks their mind, that is polite and professional and patient, and wants to serve people.”
The department will release the names of the candidates after they complete a background check and move on to the interview portion of the application process.
