The Nikiski Community Council developed a committee to look into law enforcement options for Nikiski in order to deal with the theft issues in the community.
Phil Nash is on that committee and said in their weekly meetings since the creation of the committee they have worked through a variety of thought processes that were heard from the community.
Nash: “We’re narrowing it down and our Committee Chairman Ben Carpenter made a report back to the North Peninsula Community Council to let them know that we are working on it and we’re getting closer and I anticipate that we will probably have finished our meetings and our discussions and we probably will have made a formal recommendation to them before the end of December.”
A variety of actions have taken place addressing thefts and burglaries in Nikiski since a September meeting with state legislators and members of the Alaska State Troopers in September drew a huge crowd.
Nash said he does not practice criminal law, only civil, however he has experienced the frustration in courts with repeat offenders.
Nash: “When I’m sitting in a pretrial with a civil matter and I’m listening to a criminal case that’s just been placed immediately ahead of me because somebody has cut a deal it gets real frustrating to sit there and listen to how many times they’ve been arrested for virtually the same things and how many times they’ve had deferred sentences but when they get arrested again nobody pays attention to that.”
