The Skagway Police Department released last year’s statistics on their new website. KHNS sat down with the police chief to understand what the numbers mean, and why he thinks the department needs more officers.

 

Statistics for the last three years are now posted on the police department website. The numbers show that last year,  the police answered 18 calls involving theft, 34 calls for suspicious persons and three calls for sexual assault.  

Jerry, or JJ Reddick has been Skagway’s police chief since 2021. 

“Our arrest records seem to be holding steady because it’s the same as it was last year,” he said. “So nothing on the major crime area. But we are seeing a considerable amount of increase in the calls.”

He says the numbers demonstrate the need for more officers.

Last year, there were nearly 5% more calls for service than the previous year. That might not sound like a big increase, but for a force of four officers, including the chief, every call counts.

Skagway’s population is ever-changing. The department serves about 800 year-round residents. But thousands of seasonal workers join the community from spring through fall. And during the tourist season, around 12,000 people disembark cruise ships each day. 

In a 2023 police department audit, the inspector recommended tripling the force to 12 to 13 officers. Reddick is authorized to add up to two officers.

“It was the agreement that we would hire one, but leave the position open to see if we could gain a second,” he said. “At this point, I think we’ve talked to four people that were somewhat interested. We’ve had one actually come to town. We tried to sell it as best we could. The biggest thing is, like everybody else is dealing with, the housing crunch.”

Potential employees have been scared off by the price and lack of options in Skagway’s housing market.

Reddick said Skagway’s officer salary is attractive but the municipality isn’t offering signing bonuses like other entities. He said he would feel bad doing so, given how hard his three current officers work.

“They’re getting tired,” Reddick said. “They’ve worked a lot of overtime. I had surgery this year on my shoulder. They had to cover for me, and that put a lot of overtime in. But, I mean, that’s what we do. We cover for each other and for the community.”

Reddick said his biggest concern for both the summer and winter population is mental health. He keeps the local clinic’s mental health provider on speed dial.

“We do have a lot of people that struggle, especially in the summertime, with the seasonal influx of people that we have,” he said. “Winter time is always a challenge because it’s so dark for so many hours over the day. And that’s when people are not working. They have a lot of idle time. That’s when the drugs, the alcohol, come into play.”

Reddick said that inadequate housing can have a big impact on mental health. Summer employees often live in overcrowded situations.

“Mental health and the housing,” he said. “I think those kind of go hand in hand. You can’t house 16 people in one place and not have drama when you start packing so many people in a residence. And a lot of people don’t realize that turns into a Domestic Violence and Assault Fourth Domestic, because now you’re cohabitating together.”

Reddick said another challenge in Skagway is illicit drugs.

“And how they’re getting it in, it’s either by mail, body carry, packages coming on Seaplanes or even from Canada,” he said.

In 2023, Skagway had its first fentanyl deaths. Two men died. Jacob Cotton was accused of providing fentanyl to one of the men and is awaiting trial for two counts of manslaughter. 

Reddick hopes the police department’s new website will be a resource to the community, for multiple reasons.

“I like the three year comparison, where we can kind of start seeing trends on what’s going on,” he said. “I think it’s going to be very beneficial for people to be able to look at the stats. I think it’s very important on transparency for us to put the stats out there.” 

Residents can also use the website to sign up for Nixle alerts, look up municipal code and read police press releases. The site offers P3 anonymous tips, a system that allows participants to send information to the police department without identifying themselves.