Assigning more troopers to communities in Alaska is a goal that Governor Mike Dunleavy and DPS Commissioner Jim Cockrell are promoting. Seventeen new positions for State Troopers and 10 for Village Public Safety Officers are in the governor’s budget. The budget cuts and positions lost to the department in 2015 caused residual side effects on recruitment efforts for troopers, according to Cockrell who said that the governor is building the numbers up with the goal of reaching 415 troopers, which he says will adequately protect Alaska.
On FirstHand, the podcast produced by the office of Governor Mike Dunleavy, Cockrell said that the public safety is going up by $24 million if the legislature agrees to it:
“I don’t know that we’ve ever seen a single increase that big. It covers all aspects of the department. It’s not just focused on the Alaska State Troopers. It’s focused on our other divisions, cause our department of public safety isn’t made of just the Alaska State Troopers. It’s the Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, our state crime lab, council and domestic violence, sexual assault, violent crimes compensation board, statewide services, our administrative services. You know, we’ve got just under 1,000 employees, but there’s a lot of other things that we do that’s the public safety’s mission, not just the Alaska State Troopers. It’s really easy to focus on them, but they are a big part of the department. This budget captures all of it, including our VPSO program, funding for 10 additional VPSOs, almost $2 million in support money for like office space or housing for our VPSOs. I think it also covers 17 trooper positions. Thee of them are wildlife trooper positions, one deputy fire marshal for Bethel. We’ve never had a deputy fire marshal in Bethel.”
In the podcast, Cockrell stated that reducing rates of domestic violence and sexual assault is a priority. In December, the governor launched several executive orders and put $7.3 million in his budget for this approach to combating domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, homelessness, and the crimes that lead to missing and murdered Indigenous persons. Cockrell said he is bringing back retired trooper Anne Sears, an Alaska Native, to head that effort, who worked for years in Western Alaska.
Click here to listen to the podcast.