Amid crime concerns, Mat-Su voters will consider borough policing

PALMER — Voters across Mat-Su will decide whether this sprawling borough with a property crime problem should investigate local policing powers.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly on Tuesday voted to put an advisory vote on the ballot for the Oct. 2 local elections.

Mat-Su is experiencing high levels of property crime linked to drug use, law enforcement officials say. But right now, more than three-quarters of the more than 100,000 Mat-Su residents — those outside the cities — are protected by diminishing numbers of Alaska State Troopers.

The number of troopers serving here is at roughly the same level as more than a decade ago — and short by about 26 positions, several Assembly members pointed out, citing information from the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

"The intent of this question is to keep the conversation going," said Assembly member Jim Sykes, who sponsored the ordinance and an amendment that gave residents of Palmer and Wasilla a say in the decision.

The vote comes with no direct action, Sykes said. Instead, the borough could gauge public interest in establishing police power, then take steps to find out what services people want and how the borough could pay for them.

Without police powers, the borough can't contract for additional troopers or city police coverage, create police service districts — areas where residents pay more taxes for local law enforcement — or look at other options, according to the proposed ordinance.

During public testimony, several residents blamed Senate Bill 91, Alaska's sweeping criminal justice reform law, for crime in Mat-Su and said adding a local layer of law enforcement doesn't make sense until the state repeals it.

Others, like Robert Hall of Houston, pointed out that local policing can come with a downside: The troopers go away.

Hall, a businessman who owns the fireworks stands at the city's southern border, said Houston opened its own police department about 10 years ago, then lost trooper coverage five years after that for everything but major crimes.

The city "couldn't come close to what the troopers were providing," Hall said. "We closed our police department."

He urged the borough to look at programs or grants that target and reduce property crime without jeopardizing trooper protection.

Borough Mayor Vern Halter condemned the idea of raising taxes because state lawmakers refuse to fund enough troopers.

"I do not think we should let the state off the hook," Halter said. He promised not to veto the ordinance, however.

The Assembly voted 5-2 to put the question of local policing powers on the ballot.