Residents of Cooper Landing were able to ask representatives of the Alaska State Troopers during a community meeting last week questions about the absence of an AST station in their area.
In a packed community hall AST A Detachment Commander, Captain Mike Zweifel, and AST Public Information Officer, Austin McDaniel, addressed concerns that have been raised about Cooper Landing’s distance from law enforcement presence and fielded related questions from locals.
Currently, the nearest Trooper stations are in Seward and Soldotna. A “code” emergency response (a rapid response where law enforcement travels at high speeds using lights and sirens) to Cooper Landing would take approximately 25 minutes. Captain Zweifel acknowledged the strain this response time places on the community and explained why the Department of Public Safety is unable to establish a regular Trooper presence there.
“It’s not that we don’t want troopers here, our problem is right now is we’ve got to fill our current ranks,” Cpt. Zweifel said to those in attendance. “Right now, in Soldotna we should have 20 troopers assigned in there. We have 14. In Seward, we have 5 trooper [positions] assigned and we have three [positions staffed]. And down in Anchor Point we have 7 troopers assigned. It’s soon to go [down] to four. That’s a 40% shortage in Seward, 42% shortage in Anchor Point, and we have a 30% shortage [in Soldotna].”
According to Zweifel, AST will need to take care of its staffing shortages before taking the steps necessary to establish new Trooper presences in more communities. “We’ve got a fill those open slots and we are trying but that’s our number one priority: fill those open slots and then once we get there we can certainly go to the legislature, which is very supportive of this right now, to gain extra slots into the communities that really want Troopers.”
Zweifel suggested that, due to the lengthy response time, Cooper Landing residents have in some cases elected not to place emergency calls to Troopers. He emphatically encouraged those present to abandon this practice. “Here’s the problem: if you’re not reporting stuff when we get to that point [to add new trooper stations]…and the numbers aren’t there because you’re not reporting it’s going to be really tough for me to argue that I need a Trooper in Cooper Landing when another area of the state has more calls for service coming in.”
AST has notable staffing shortages across the state, and is currently offering a $15,000 first year bonus to new recruits.
