ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
The Anchorage Police Department is taking some heat, as the public says it could operate more efficiently. It’s just one of the points that was raised in four community budget discussions convened by Mayor Dan Sullivan, which his office released findings from Wednesday. Sullivan hired a research group to find out how the public felt about the budget, as he plans how the city should address a shortfall of up to $20 million. One thing was clear: almost everyone involved in the study didn't want an increase in property taxes.
“The large budget items which are typically considered sacrosanct, like the police department and Maintenance and Operations, where are ones that the public clearly stated there could be greater efficiencies.”
The 350 people involved in the survey say they don't want service cuts, and want departments to do more with what they have. They said areas that can do better are Administrative Support Services, Maintenance Operations -- and the police department.
“Before looking at cuts in services, they would look at possible increases in revenues,” said Heidi Gantwerk with Viewpoint Learning, which held the budget discussions for the city. “At the same time, they don't want to see that in property taxes.”
Other suggestions include being smarter about using fuel. APD's budget for the year is more than $1 million, but Anchorage Police Department Employees Association President Derek Hsieh says there are some reasons for those costs that the public isn’t aware of.
“These vehicles are equipped with a single battery, and as soon as you turn the engine off, particular with the overhead lights on, these cars will die in a matter of minutes and you will not be able to restart it,” Hsieh said.
APDEA says the department needs to do a better job explaining to the public how it operates, so some of its costs will make sense.
“And one of the examples used -- quite often in fact, at every dialogue – is, there is a fender bender and five police cars show up,” Sullivan said. “So the question was, ‘Do they have that much unallocated time that they can respond to a fender bender in such number?’”
“Clearly, there are going to be a number of traffic stops where numerous officers are going to be involved, and a lot of reason for that one is officer safety -- earlier this year, we had an officer shot on a traffic stop,” Hsieh said.
Some Anchorage Assembly members say the report was surprising.
“We keep cutting and cutting -- we've been find efficiencies for years, but I was surprised to see the police department one of the areas the community thought there needed to be efficiencies,” Gray-Jackson said. “But at the same time, they said, ‘We also need to maintain police service, or even increase it.’”
The city is still taking ideas for how to save money at its website.
Contact Rebecca Palsha at rpalsha@ktuu.com
