Alarm bells about Fairbanks police rang, but a lot of us didn't pay attention

I talked to former Fairbanks Police Chief Dan Hoffman Thursday to get his take on the public safety emergency created with a short-staffed police department that now lacks the resources for 24-hour patrols.

I mentioned something about being blindsided and how I haven’t paid enough attention to the situation in recent years. He replied by saying, “with all due respect,” that there is nothing about this matter that should have blindsided anyone, as the danger signals have been obvious for years.

He suggested that I look up a column he had written in 2016 that ran under the headline, “Where are the alarm bells?

Hoffman, who served in the department for 20 years in every key position, is right. Seven years ago he wrote that the “police department is on the verge of operating at true crisis levels.”

We haven’t been blindsided. A lot of us just haven’t been paying attention. Our elected officials have downplayed the severity of the situation and it hasn’t generated enough news coverage or prompted community demands for improvement.

Several elections have come and gone since then and Mayor John Eberhart has given way to Jim Matherly and now David Pruhs. The management and operational issues all got worse during the pandemic.

In 2016, the department had eight vacancies. Now it has 14 open positions. With only 29 people on the force, the department cannot provide 24-hour service.

Redirecting money from unfilled positions to increase salaries and provide bonuses will help temporarily but it will not ease the strain created by not having backup personnel, which makes a dangerous job all the more difficult.

Working conditions will never improve enough to create stability and the level of professionalism that the community expects without real investments in public safety.

I think the one big difference this week, as the police department prepares to do part-time, is that we no longer have to ask, “Where is the sense of alarm?”

Here is what he wrote on June 28, 2016.

By Dan Hoffman

This past May 20 was a day of mixed emotions for me. I had just attended the annual observance of Police Memorial Day at the Fairbanks Police Department, honoring all Alaskan law enforcement officers who had sacrificed their lives in service to their respective communities.

Remembering beloved friends and colleagues taken away from families and friends way too soon brought tears and sadness. There was also the joy, comfort and camaraderie experienced in seeing former coworkers and friends. Normally, the positive sentiments end up outweighing the sad ones, and I always feel grateful for having attended. This year, though, was different — and I can't shake the feeling that there are some serious issues with city leadership that beg to be addressed.

Immediately after the ceremony, I learned that yet another experienced sergeant was leaving the Fairbanks Police Department, disrupting his career progression midstream to re-establish himself at our neighboring police department in North Pole. In the 20 years that I had served at the department, this would not just be noteworthy — it would have been shocking!

We were the ones that used to do the "poaching," attracting strong candidates and experienced officers from departments across the state, including Fairbanks Alaska State Troopers and Judicial Services, North Pole, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Police Department, Fairbanks Airport, Fairbanks Fire, Unalaska Police Department and others. It got to the point where I sometimes didn't feel overly welcome at chiefs' conferences or chairing the Police Standards Council; other chiefs were starting to resent the Fairbanks Police Department's strong pull and reputation amongst the statewide law enforcement community, with their officers leaving to come here and establish a progressive path of career development.

The recent departure of a nine-year Fairbanks police sergeant to North Pole had followed immediately upon the heels of a three-year officer leaving to accept a position with Juneau. A month prior to that, another sergeant with 18 years' experience had left to accept a position with North Pole. That had been preceded by yet another nine-year officer leaving the department to take a private security position!

In what seemed to start when Fairbanks Police Department lost its first experienced 16-year patrol officer to the city of North Pole, this mounting snowball of departures has now totaled in the loss of more than 55 years of police and critical field-supervisory experience, representing hundreds of thousands of dollars in training investment and experience.

In addition to these "mid-career" departures, there's been an alarming trend in officers choosing to retire early, some before they are even eligible to qualify for their retiree health-care coverage. The Fairbanks department has seen four retirements in the past 16 months, with several additional slated for the coming year.

It is already carrying eight vacancies, which translates to 25 percent of the department's authorized patrol force and totals nearly 20 percent of the entire commissioned department. Given the city of Fairbanks' current recruitment challenges and difficulty in filling positions, its police department is on the verge of operating at true crisis levels.

My simple questions: Why are Fairbanks' police officers currently so demoralized that they are choosing to pack up and leave city service? Where is the sense of alarm? Why is this not the leading topic of conversation amongst City Council representatives as we approach an upcoming mayoral election?

The trend of active-duty, mid-career officers choosing to leave city service has been mirrored by an unprecedented wave of city department heads and staffers also choosing to leave under the current administration — six department heads at last count, along with a chief of staff, city clerk and executive assistant.

I know from prior experience how easy it is for others to throw stones without having all the facts. That is precisely why I've been hesitant to say anything publicly to this point. However, as these alarming numbers continue to grow, I feel that the public deserves an explanation. I've been very supportive of the mayor's efforts towards increased equality and inclusivity in our community and he seems to be very quick to employ "transparent outreach," "talking circles" and other methods when it bolsters his own aims and agenda.

I'd be curious to know if detailed exit interviews have been completed by the city's H.R. department over the past three years, and to what extent current city leadership has influenced these employees' decisions to leave. Have these trends and sentiments been quantified? If so, when should we expect to see an announcement regarding the next public "talking circle" on this issue, where the community can discern the true extent of this problem, and determine what — or whom — is responsible?