Crime Down in State, Borough

According to Alaska Department of Public Safety Communications Director Austin McDaniel, Alaska leads the nation in violent crime. But those crimes have been decreasing since 2018. Property crimes across the State are under the nationwide average. And total crimes for the State are inching closer to being below the nationwide average.

These are a few of the statistics that McDaniel shared at the Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting this week. He says the Borough is seeing similar dropping crime trends. Fewer incidents are being reported to the Alaska State Troopers. He also says the State enacted a law in 1991 that made it more difficult for prosecutors to enforce property crimes. Since that time, the number of cases referred for prosecution are down.

Alaska State Troopers Captain Andy Gorn says that 14 of the 58 Trooper positions are vacant in the B Detachment, which includes the Mat-Su Borough. Some of these will be filled when the Academy releases new Troopers in December. Gorn says that will bring the vacancies down to five.

McDaniel says the Department of Public Safety requested funding for 10 new positions in B Detachment last year. But the Alaska State Legislature instead partially funded only five positions. He says part of the staffing issue is related to Governor Walker’s administration forcing closure of Trooper posts in 2015, including the one in Talkeetna. That also meant Trooper layoffs at the time. He says Trooper numbers have not recovered since then.

McDaniel says the Department of Public Safety is working to fully staff all the positions and re-open the Trooper posts. He also says once the vacancies are filled, the Department will push for more than 400 Trooper positions across the State. There are currently 312 Trooper positions.