The Alaska State Trooper Post in Girdwood will not close in January 2016 as scheduled, but instead stay for the rest of their fiscal year.
Director of the Alaska State Troopers Colonel James Cockrell…
Col. Cockrell: “The [Anchorage] municipality, the Alaska State Troopers and the administration has been in discussions about the future of the Girdwood post and the future of us providing services or if the Anchorage Police Department was going to provide services to the Girdwood area which we certainly feel they have an obligation to since they are inside the Municipality of Anchorage. But a decision was made to keep the Troopers in Girdwood until the end of our fiscal year which is June 30, 2016.”
Some of the Girdwood personnel were slated to come to the Soldotna Trooper Post and that reallocation of officers will now be pushed back.
Cockrell detailed what the Department now has in mind for the two Bureau of Highway patrol officers, Trooper Sergeant, and four officers in Girdwood.
Col. Cockrell: “We were going to assign three to Bureau of Highway Patrol to provide highway enforcement on the Seward Highway where we have a high crash rate. And then move the other four positions down to the Kenai Peninsula to cover the area. This fiscal year we lost five trooper positions to budget reductions and again we’re not keeping up with the number of calls that we’re receiving to service which is reducing our response times to serious crimes.”
Cockrell says there will be a transition period, no longer than 90 days, before the Girdwood officers begin at the Soldotna Post.
