Good morning. This is the, I call this meeting to order at 803 with the House Department of Public Safety Finance Subcommittee.
Today we will be hearing from Commissioner James Cockrell and other entities.
I'm sorry. I don't have my script, but I want to stick to time.
tenants we have representative kamshofsky representative holland
represent with procs representative miers
represent him shoe represent hall
representing Claire represent G Nelson
today is February 5th, 2026 room 124.
Also present today
is my staff Ken Miller our committee age and moderator
from the Legislative Information Office.
Please remember to silence your cell phones,
subcommittee binders have been provided to provide
all subcommittee members and documents have
been posted to biases.
Are there any questions about these?
Seeing none, today the Department of Public Safety
will present their FY 27 budget change.
and FY26 mid-year status report.
Our presenters today are Commissioner Cockwell.
Welcome, Administrative Service Director Diane Thorton.
Welcome.
Available questions are in the room,
Deputy Commissioner Leon Morgan,
Director of Victims, Assistance and Forensic Scientist
and Friends, Susie Frenzel.
Director of Village Public Safety Officers Division, James Holscher,
Director Statewide Services Lisa Printon, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Major Aaron Frenzel,
Commissioner Cockrell, and ASD Diane Thornton.
Please join us up on the podium with yourself on record and please begin your presentation.
Through the chair, James Cockrell, Commissioner of Alaska Department of Public Safety.
On my right is Diane Thornton, our administrative service director, so pleasure to be here.
As always, this will be my, I think, fifth year in this committee and I always want to, if not,
if it's all right, just kind of do an opening statement and then we can go from there if that's
And I'm always nervous the first time.
So bear with me there.
My wife told me to take five deep breaths.
I've done that, it seems to help a little bit.
But essentially what I want to do is kind of set the stage
what the department's done for this year
and what we plan on doing for the future,
even though we know that we're kind
of on a base budget and we certainly recognize
the challenges that have.
Over the past several years, you know, we've seen crime and Alaska fall fairly substantially and probably about 48 percent.
We've see the incidence of sexual assault drop about 25 percent, so these are huge differences in up.
I attribute a lot of that to certainly the administration for providing us the needed tools,
but realistically, you guys should also take ownership of
that because without the support of the legislature, there's no way we would have had all the
tools that we need as Alaska State Troopers, last Wild Life Troopers, to actually put it
in in crime. And I know in our jurisdictions, we have been doing that. We focus, I would say
violent crimes and certainly sexual assault.
As you know, we've put two sexual
assault units in rural Alaska up in the YK Delta.
We have three investigators,
this investigating child sexual abuse cases.
We've also got three now up
in The Nome Costable Area,
one in NOM and two in,
or two and Nomin wanted
cost to be focused just on sexual assaults and.
primarily crimes against children.
We've found that to be, I hate to say successful,
but we have been making a huge dent
in the amount of sexual assaults in those regions.
And I'm very proud of our investigators,
and also when we are not using our uniform troopers
for doing those type investigations,
because they can be lengthy,
sometimes they go into several months.
It allows our troopers to actually be in villages,
and that's been the focus of the division,
and Commissioner is to actually have more presence in rural
access. And that includes the VPSO program. If you look at the
VPSO program, it continues to blossom.
If You look out where we were 40 years ago and where
we where when I took office, we've doubled the number of VPs.
So currently we have 85 that's boots on the ground. We've added
another
20 VPSO to 20 different villages that don't have VPSOs that are hadn't had VPsOs in the past,
and the program keeps growing. We do have enough to meet our, I'll say, our authorized positions
this year is at 90. Currently, we're going to put seven or eight at the academy, so we'll just
But again, if you look at where we're at, just a few years ago, we were at 38 and now we are almost at 90.
My ultimate goal is still 100 at some point in time and I'm further in my career, which I don't know,
because in the election I may not be here next next year. Talk about this, but just get us up to 121.
And realistically, the ultimate goals of the VPSO programs have a VPCO in every village that wants one.
And that's been the goal for this department.
We're still focused on urban areas of Alaska.
We have a criminal suppression unit, not only in the Matsu Valley,
but also in Fairbanks area that focused
on property type crimes, drug times crimes and violent crimes.
And they've been, again, very successful
if you've followed the occurrences of the homicide.
increases in the Fairbanks area. We sent all our ABI investigators to Fairbank's.
We solved all of them. The only ones we haven't solved is the
ore trucks that got shot up.
We're still worked in that case, but all the homicides that happen in
about a two-week period, including a juvenile, we have solved those.
Our overall
Recruiting is still is a challenge for the department, but it's also still a priority department a couple years ago, the legislature funded us a professional recruiting position, which has really helped the Department to focus on getting a quick return over what we're seeing.
The trooper show is now back up on air on A&E, so we got that up and go on the first.
show was probably about two weeks ago.
We're really proud of the direction
that the production company has done.
We kind of changed a little bit
from our original show to focus more
on the actual troopers and what they do
versus just always arresting someone.
So I'm hoping that that'll bring more troopers
to the academy.
We currently have about 50 vacancies
in between the Alaska State Troopers
and Alaska Wildlife Troopers,
but we've got about 15 in this class
and we expect more in the next class.
We're making gains.
If you look at the numbers of applicants
we put through the Academy in the last three or four years,
it's pretty impressive.
We are still, one of my focuses is still
to improve safety and rural Alaska.
And again, I see the VPSO program is a huge part of that.
We our opening a post up in St. Michael's this summer.
If we got housing in that and I plan to go out there
and march to ensure that
and we've gotten really good feedback there.
We do have two tribal liaisons that helps us interact with the tribes because you know our department we're pretty much
the whole state other than the municipality of Anchorage and some of the municipalities
But we touch about every every corner of this state and the tribal liaison to really help us do that
We set up a
Coordinated direct victim services division just to focus on victims of violent crime and to connect them with the Alaska state troopers
And we've seen really remarkable
Progress and that with our victim navigators and also the council domestic violence is in that
division and also the by the crimes conservation board is in that division too. So instead of
having five silos we've had one division that focuses just on our victims and our shelter services.
So with that
said, I think I've kind of said everything, but I am really proud of this department
from our civilian staff to our troopers that do a fantastic job with the things that they
have to do.
So, and I always appreciate the conversations that we have in this committee.
I do have a few concerns if that's okay, if I talk about that really quick.
One again is to ensure the VPSO program continues to grow at the rate it is.
Stagnet will put us back. I mean if you look at what we've done over the course of 40 years when it first started to where we're at now
It's just it's completely a different program, and it is actually working I do I am concerned about
Because I am a board member of the Council of domestic violence and sexual assault, concerned about the fact that we flat funded all our 28 shelter services for the last 10 or plus years, which is having a very difficult time of hiring people and keeping the shelters open.
formula funding for it to ensure that we have the money available when a person is
victimized by violent crimes. And if you looked at some of the cases you
understand why we need it, that board came in effect in 1973. It was one of
the first ones in the country and we we continue to try to grow it but it's
we've kind of stagnated because of formulas and she can talk about the
formulas on the violent crime conservation board.
And then we'll talk a little bit about aircraft and funding our aircraft, but unless there's some questions, I appreciate the opportunity.
Again, it's very important that the legislature knows what your last state troopers is and what the Department of Public Safety does for this state.
And again, we feel this is an honor for each to be here to talk about our department, so thank you very much.
Excuse me, thank you, Chairperson, Jimmy, and members of the subcommittee.
For the record, my name is Diana Thornton, I'm the Administrative Services Director for the Department of Public Safety.
I'd like to begin with a brief overview of
the FY27 Governor's proposed operating budget and then turn to the mid-year status report and the FY26 operations.
This side shows the department's enacted budgets compared to the actual expenditures for the FY21 through the current fiscal year with the governor's proposed budget for FY27 on the right.
Overall department spending has tracked closely to authorized funding levels, variations,
variances between the enacted budget and the actuals in any given year is largely attributable to
General funds, including federal receipts, reimbursable service agreements, and other authorized adjustments.
These differences do not represent overspending, but reflect upon the changes in total authorized budget in the authority during the fiscal years.
In the FY27 governor's proposed budget, approximately $354 million representing about a 2% increase from the FY26.
The technical adjustments rather than a significant program expansion
There's no questions yes
And please the committee if you feel you have a questions, please let me know. Oh, we have questions from representative Prox
Yes, thank you through the chair. Thank you for being here today. If you can help me
understand on
This slide, the difference between the enacted and the actuals, I guess, mostly from the other funds, Feds, other and DGO.
It seems like there's a 40% reduction from being acted to the actuallys.
Go ahead through the chair representative Prox the differences just so that I'm understanding your question the difference is between the
FY 25
Actuals in the FY 26 enacted
No
Just going back that
FY25 enacted federal expected was
41 million give or take and the actuals was closer to 24
Which seems odd
in the same town through the other funds and the GGF funds.
Through the chair, Representative Prox, the enacted, it reflects our authority,
which is the bucket of available.
authority that we have for requesting funding, or
what we reflect for the total available that
we could collect for revenue if it's an other or
through reimbursable service agreements with other organizations.
That is the enacted, what that authority exists at.
Then the actuals is actually a reflection of what we actually received.
So under federal, it would be things federal programs or
federal grants that we receive, that is where the actually sits.
And the same with the other.
That reflects the the, actual revenue or
the annual reimbursable service agreements or other types of funding sources that
we received, so the authority is.
bigger, so it enables us to be flexible and be able to take on some of these different
activities as they become available, as grants come available.
They're not predictable exactly where they might be,
so the authority bucket is larger than the actual.
Right.
Yes.
But I guess I'm wondering, there seems to
Which is what the Department planned on for the upcoming year and that as far as planning the other funds
Are expected, but that didn't happen and I'm wondering why
That that did happen that the actuals are quite a bit lower
I guess the in actual's are quiet a little bit. Lower. It was that just?
Grants that got changed from the feds or
It just seems odd that there's that much difference.
And I'm wondering why there was so much of a difference?
Director Thorkin.
Through the chair, Representative Crockes, you are exactly right.
because maybe we applied for a grant, we didn't receive the grant.
Maybe it's a formula grant things like some of our grants that support our DNA work, our
work with crime victims.
Those fundings are based upon formulas from the federal government, so we have a larger
what that funding ultimately winds up being, or whether we actually receive a competitive grant.
If it's not a formula grant, we put in for the grant but we may not receive it.
So I'm sorry, I just wanted to finish this.
So the actuals is what we really can control, the enacted is
what have in order to make those applications.
Yeah, follow-up through the chair represent product. So how does that?
change the planning
the
I'm guessing that the department at the beginning of the year is planning to receive these funds in
We're gonna do this and that and the other because we think this money is coming in that money didn't come in
so now we have to
adjust the plan somehow
a pretty substantial difference in what you were planning to do, and then what actually happened.
Director Thirteen.
Through the Chair, Representative Prox, I guess I wouldn't kind of characterize it as the department plans at the beginning of the year to
expend every cent of enacted authority.
enacted an authority exists so that we have that flexibility.
We base our plans upon if we put in for a grant,
that grant has a plan for that funding,
but we don't initiate that, execute that plan until that
funding comes.
So.
We might establish a plan, for example, buying specialized equipment for our crime lab.
And we plan to spend that funding, if we receive that
funding on that crime-lab equipment.
However, that grant does not come through, we would not be buying that equipment with other funding unless something else happened.
we establish a plan but we don't necessarily enact that or implement that
plan unless the funding comes through. Can I add? Yes, go ahead. Through the chair,
Commissioner James Cockland, Department of Public Safety, and I will say she's
correct but a lot of these are three to four-year grants like we've got housing
grants right now through the McCausky's administration that
keeps going on and on for several years and so we don't all spend it if we have the
we apply for the grants we, have to have a permission for
the graduate legislature to just to actually utilize the
grants however a lot of times we
don t get the full grant amount even though we ve got the
ability to do that if
It's not just a one year thing where we use all the grants,
like our housing grants that we currently have
where they can purchase trooper housing.
That's been ongoing now since I've been the commissioner.
Every year, we get another additional funding
to buy new housing, so those are our actuals,
but in the beginning of the grant program,
we would have showed like nine or 10 million dollars,
and it took us several years to get through this process
for the actual's.
mixing apples with oranges because there's certainly a difference between our
Authority to utilize it, but a lot of times most of our grants we don't get
Thank you for that explanation Commissioner Cockrell, and thank you represent parks for your
interest in this area
We are time restricted. So if there is anything else you'd like to ask you can ask offline. Please come
continue director Thornton
Thank You
Going on to slide number three, this slide represents two different views of the Department of Public Safety's proposed operating budget.
The chart on the left shows the budget by expenditure category and the categories on
the right show the breakout by appropriations.
From the financial breakout on the left, the view shows that the department's fundamentally a personnel driven department.
Over 80, 58% of our budget follows is covered by our personal services.
Followed closely by services, contracts section at about 18%.
And as a result of this, what we see for the department is that there's very little
in discretionary spending that we have, most of what
we spend is effects in our staffing and our contracts and required activities rather
than areas that can easily differ.
The trip.
I'm sorry.
I can't send you.
Oh, okay, I am sorry
The chart on the right shows the funding is distributed across the appropriations with the Alaska State Troopers representing the largest share of the department's budget.
This is because they carry the statewide law enforcement emergency response and investigative responsibilities.
The statewide support represents the second largest shared.
This includes our criminal justice information systems, our administrative infrastructure, and the support for operational components.
The integrative victim assistance and the village public safety operations reflects the department's prevention and victim support and
the rural public's safety roles while fire life safety and Alaska police standards council represents our regulatory functions.
Continue, page four, thank you.
So this goes into the very first of our increments, first one we're going to talk about is Alaska state troopers.
proposed budget with the item specific for these purposes.
The first item is $1.3 million towards unrestricted general funds.
The two are to support our ongoing costs for our body worn camera and in car camera programs.
These camera systems were originally funded through a capital budget to purchase and deploy the equipment.
The program has moved from that into implementation and ongoing operations with
the annual funding is required to supported.
On an annual basis, the operating cost of the body worn camera system is approximately $680,000.
The operating costs for the NCAR system, is a practically $653,00.
Together these amounts make up the requested increment and reflect the full cost
of sustaining the existing camera deployment program.
evidence storage, system maintenance, technical support,
warranty coverage, infrastructure, and infrastructure required to manage and
retain the evidentiary video in compliance with legal and retention
requirements. While individual cameras are physical
devices, the majority of the costs associated with the software platforms
and storage is what allows the videos to be accessed, retained,
and shared with prosecutors and introduced as evidence.
The increment does not expand the program or add additional cameras.
It supports the continued operations of the body worn and incur camera systems already in use by the troopers,
helping to ensure that they remain reliable and compliant.
The second item is a $1 million increase using other funds for the Alaska Bureau of Investigations.
This funding is fully supported through a reimbursable service agreement with the Department of Law and
provides authority for six long-term, non-permanent investigator positions.
These investigators work under the prosecutorial direction of the domestic violence and sexual assault cases.
And because the cost is full reimbursed, there is no unrestricted general funds on this increment.
The final item under Alaska State Troopers.
appropriation is $26,000 of unrestricted general funds.
This increment is related to the information technology.
Job class study conducted by the Department of Administration.
There is one position within the Alaska Bureau of Investigation
affected by this study.
This inclement ensures the department
can implement the final classification outcomes from DOA.
Representative Prox.
Yes, thank you to you the chair and maybe we can't go into it.
Fairbanks City Police asked the City Council for the authority to charge a feed to some people reviewing body-worn cameras and et cetera.
Newspeople wanting to review body cam storage for newspapers and the city police say they're spending lots of time on that might be something that we should investigate charging for.
the effort that it takes to produce that information for the media.
Through the chair, I represent Proxis, a good, good observation.
The department does charge folks that want parts of our body worn camera,
whether it's the Media or if it is a person wants to see their body
worn cameras.
So we do have a small charge fee for that.
Unit that does all our FOIA requests. We get about 10,000 FOIA request as a department every year and they're part of that unit to put that together. So, but thank you.
You may continue.
Director.
Through the chair, if it's may I ask we have three short videos we wanted to show just kind of the value of bodywork cameras and in car videos and I'll kind give you a
a synopsis of them, if it's okay with you.
The first one is actually out of Nina,
it happened last year, and our trooper,
Trooper Hombaugh received a bravery and life saving award
from the governor this past year.
But essentially, we received an 911 call of a person
underneath the bulkhead on the Catanano River in Nina.
He was up to about this high,
and he was about ready to...
passed away. Our trooper got on scene, somehow he rigged up some kind of a harness with a toe
toe strap and went over the over-the-ball kid, which I think is 10 to 12 to 15 feet,
represent Prox probably knows what I'm talking about. And the trooper held on to the to
the victim for a long period of time. Both of them were hyperthermically both of
them went to The Hospital for
to get him back up and going again.
I'm very proud of the trooper and again he won
on the Governor's Ward, so we got a video of that one.
The second one, I call it a pit pin maneuver
that the department does when we're trying
to just stop a car that's eluding us.
In the Massey Valley, we had our highway interdiction team
come up to a vehicle that automatically sped away
and pursued and curd out of Valley and got ended up
area with the pit pen maneuver. There was the and this person's been certainly under.
Well, we kind of knew he was one of the bad guys.
But anyway, when we seized two firearms,
30 grams of heroin, 35 grams
of powder fentanyl, which was killed several people,
and over 1,800 grams mouth.
He was on a Nobel probation violation,
and he charged with multiple felony charges.
So you'll see that one.
We asked the Anchorage Police Department for assistance,
because actually the pit was done.
We actually made the capture,
and the municipality bankers that I refused to respond.
Our helicopter involved in it and we also had a canine involved and it was a very high-risk
stop. The last one was out of North Pole, which is in your district, I think, sir,
and basically the same thing, DV type-related. A person had several other warrants, eluded
the troopers, and then we did a pit pole, then also tased the person as he was running out
and bailed out his car. So a Pit remover is usually, oh, do this really quick.
And the trooper car will come up, nudge it, and it'll push the car.
And usually, we try to find a ditch or somewhere where somebody doesn't get hurt.
And then we, the second or third car trooper
car, will comes up and pin it so that person can't
get out of the cars.
So we call it a pin maneuver.
So with that, I'll let her run the video.
Thank you.
So this is me now.
I got a friend here who's going to help. Okay.
Okay, I don't know if it's gonna be long enough. I'm gonna have to get closer.
Okay reach it.
Okay can you reach this? I'll try that to hit you. Yeah I bet you're hungry huh?
I'm not going to put my way southbound, but back on highway.
AP is not gonna be involved in the pursuit of self in it.
And we'll just go to the field.
Give me your hands now.
Right now, you're rushing.
Hey, hey.
My shoulder is my shoulder.
My shoulders.
You did the stop.
I know I did.
Call 180.
Thank you for sharing.
All right.
It's the day in life and I'll ask you to stay tripper.
And when you saw the car going, we had the stripes, those black things are, um, spic
And that's what he was trying to get it out because they'll deflate the tires right away
Obviously, we didn't get them that on that but I appreciate you allowing us to do that
But I guess the point here
I'm sorry through the chair
Mr. Cockrell the Point here is the value of digital evidence this day and age we have to have a body-worn cameras first
Transparency department is committed to it. We've
It reduces the amount of court time, reduces
the complaint time because of somebody complains
that the trooper did.
this or that. We can go look at the video, we can bring in the
complaint and say this is this was really what happened. The
tribute in say that or the trip didn't kick you. So it
reduces the amount of administrative investigations we do.
And again, the public deserves to know what your Alaska state
troopers are and the only way to do that is with digital evidence.
And we stand really committed to the to
the bodymore camera program and into our NCAR. It is saved
our troopers, but also our prosecutors and it's putting people to jail and so that's why
it is so important and that is why we need to continue to program in order to do that.
It does cost money to that and thats why were asking for the $1.2 million to keep the program
going. Thank you for sharing that Commissioner Cockrell. We do have some questions with Representative
I mean we heard it on the video, Anchorage declined to assist. Is that what?
What causes that, is there like, like is their follow-up where you can find out they had no one available or it was too far away they couldn't get there in time or they declined because it
was outside their jurisdiction?
Can you explain a little more about why they didn't help?
Through the chair, Representative Hymshoot, realistically they're not going to assist us in pursuits because Anchorage Police Department has a no pursuit about policy.
And this is not uncommon for them not to respond to trooper response within the city limit of, um, Anchorage.
So it's more of a policy issue with them than not helping the Alaska State Troopers.
Because we do have task force officers within the Anchorage Police Department with the drugs part of it.
But for patrol they just will not pursue.
Our department will still pursue under assuming they're safe.
Thank you through the chair, so a no-pursuit policy, I'm not well-versed in policing,
is that because in an urban area it increases risk or why would a jurisdiction have a
no pursuit policy? Through the Chair,
I'd let you just talk to the anxious police department because I can't speak for them
or any others. I just speak
for what we do with the last state true person.
And I don't know where this would come from,
but is there support for local police departments
to have body cam technology like the troopers are using?
Is that something that we as a state support
or each department needs to figure it out?
Well, through the chair, that's a great question.
Me personally, I think all law enforcement
should have a body-worn camera,
even though statutorily they're not required,
most of the police department,
so even the smaller ones have
body worn cameras now.
I think I answered your question at their own expense sure. Okay. Thank you next we have our position Colin great
Thank You through the chair. I had a couple questions on the budget changes first one is just a clarification for me
I noticed that the way you're going back to the but you don't want to talking about right now
I'm still on this slide before this
If it's that because of time our time limit here
Could we I want us to get through the presentation for the last
some sites and then you can ask your question to a certain
slide. Okay. Thank you representative Holland for your
patience. Please continue director Thornton.
Thank you through the chair Diana Thornton administrative services director on this slide is slide number six
This is the Alaska police standards council
They we have an increment that we are looking at
$550,000
Increase to their authority for spending their designated general funds
The Alaska Police Standards Council is responsible for training, certification, and standards oversight for law enforcement probation and correctional officers statewide.
The increment supports the required training by helping reimburse costs for
law-enforcement corrections and probation officers.
It does not represent a new program or expansion of the APSES role.
This increment support their ability to carry out the existing responsibilities as demands for
training and certification continue to grow.
is bringing in enough revenue, including their carry forward, which is represented as hard
to see on the slide, but the carry-forward and the which
is a revenue that they do not expand annually.
They are authorized to bring that revenue forward to the following year for.
they're eligible expenditures.
And what we're looking at here is that the blue on the graph
represents the amount that Alaska Police Standards Council
spends to operate the program.
The orange represents
the amounts of funding that they are able to provide for
training reimbursements.
So what were talking about is an increase to the orange.
dollars in authority that they could expand annually on training certifications and reimbursements.
This is not an, like I said, this is an increase in undesignated general funds.
Page 7.
Thank you.
On page 7, we're looking at an integrated victim's assistance.
Components, we have here, there's two changes that we're looking at.
One is for the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
This change is the change for them and for
the Violent Crimes Compensation Board.
Our change's driven by the changes in the restorative justice fund.
Restorative Justice Fund is made up of the permanent fund dividends,
which are withheld from individuals.
individuals ineligible to receive the dividend for the violent crimes
compensation. I'm sorry for
the counsel on domestic violence and sexual assault for CDBSA. They do have
a increment to replace the.
loss of revenue there of 169,000.
The Violent Crimes Compensation Board is a different formula, and
their reduction is 492,00
in their designated general funds.
Any questions? We'll move forward.
This slide summarizes the changes to the statewide support.
These changes are entirely driven by the Job Classification Study,
conducted by The Department of Administration for the IT Classification study.
This study affects 18 positions for
the department, there are 17 in these components.
One of the positions you saw earlier on the Alaska Bureau of Investigations.
These positions are affected, are supporting the criminal justice information systems,
the information technology and communication infrastructure within the department.
These increments provide authority needed to align the existing positions and they will
be updated once the pay standards from the Department of Administration has made the
final determination.
These changes do not create new positions, expand services, or reflect changes in the
Seeing no questions. We'll move forward to page 9
This is where we'd like to begin talking about our mid-year status report and focusing on how the department has been managing through the current fiscal year
It reflects how we've been applying our funding and what has being provided and steps we have taken to maintain our core services
We're funding was not fully available
First things we wanted to talk about was the dispatch
contracts, we have a MATCOM service contract that is provided to the Matinuska Susitna
The contract was extended in FY26, and the keen eyebrow contract increase is being managed by adjusting within our existing authority to avoid service interruption.
This requires trade-offs, but has allowed dispatch services to remain fully operational.
The state was also able to execute a letter of agreement to support trooper coverage.
This agreement allows for the use of alternate work schedules and provides additional flexibility in managing overtime.
This flexibility helps the department maintain trooper and manage existing staffing levels throughout the year.
The last item on this slide is the Northwest Region's Child Crime Investigators Commissioner
Cockrell spoke of these earlier.
For the first half of the year we did hire these individuals.
They are two long-filled, long term, non-perm positions investigators stationed in NOM.
These highly trained investigators are helping to address a significant workload in the region
and are relieving other troopers of need to take care of complex felony investigations
on core patrol and response duties.
Representative Holling.
Thank you.
Just a quick clarification comment.
We can come back to this later when there's more time.
On the second bullet for the trooper schedule
that of agreement, does this reflect cost savings
or new costs for personnel?
What's the revenue impact of these letters of the agreement?
Through the chair, Representative Holland, it is a cost savings overall for the department because it helps us
manage our overtime because the letter agreements provide industry standards for
flexible schedules, alternate work weeks, we're able to do 84-hour workweeks
and be able To give the troopers needed time off so they will work like a 410 schedule or they'll work three days on, two days off
We're able to provide manning in post where we can't do eight hour shifts.
We need to do 12 hour shift.
So it gives us a lot of flexibility and it is a cost savings overall for the state.
Perfect, thank you.
Thank you, please continue.
We have a question from Representative Meers.
Thank You through the chair.
I just wanted to make a comment that one of the most heartbreaking things to me in
this job is that work that the child crime investigators do.
I appreciate that there's folks that do that work and I cry every time it comes up but
really appreciate there are folks who are doing that and it's unfortunate that we need
to do this but I'm grateful that they do.
Thank you.
Please continue.
Thank You.
Moving on to slide number 10, looking at current year operation considerations.
We did receive a $1 million increment within our FY26 budget, which we are using for our overtime.
And at this point, we're monitoring our over time.
It is trending high, but it is within the authorized funding.
And we feel that it's basically being affected by our vacancies, our call volume and
Our aircraft operations is an area of our budget, it is experiencing pressure, maintenance requirements, fuel costs are driving higher on operation costs.
Aviation remains an essential statewide response, particularly in rural and remote areas.
And so these costs being closely monitored.
Law enforcement equipment and supply costs have also increased during the year to manage these increases the departments has
deferred non-essential purchases and reduced our travel expenditures where possible to utilize that as savings.
These steps help with the short term, but they do limit the flexibility and continuing these measures cannot be done indefinitely.
So, a key tool that the department is using to manage these pressures to fund and the funding associated them is vacant positions.
Vacancy savings are being used to offset the higher costs and other operating areas,
allowing services to continue without interruption.
This approach has helped stabilize operations during the fiscal year.
However, this is not a sustainable strategy.
Using vacancy funding to cover ongoing costs reduces the department's ability to hire into open positions.
Over time, that creates a trade-off between managing current costs and maintaining staffing levels.
If vacancy-funding continues to be relied upon in this way, it limits our hiring capacity and increases the risk of reduced coverage and increased overtime on existing staff.
The department remains within its available authority, but the tools are being used are particularly in vacancy funding have limits and cannot be absorbed and continued growth indefinitely.
Thank you, Director.
I believe we have a question from Representative Holland.
Great, thank you.
Through the chair, could you and this I think would probably be a follow up as opposed to a detailed answer today, if that makes sense.
provide us some more information on the number of vacant positions where they are,
which programs are being affected by those vacancies in terms of mission and delivery units.
But I'm also curious at the same time of understanding where the vacancies are and
how that's affecting the different activities, what the costs would be if those
vacancies were all filled, and what.
Kind of deficit we're looking at in terms of the funding you would need to be fully staffed to
be able to complete the full mission that's been outlined. So kind of two questions. Where are the
vacancies? How many? And what would the dollar impact be if we could fill all those positions but
then had to cover those costs? If you've got a quick answer, that is fine. If
you want to come back with some more details at another time, it's fine also.
The majority of our positions are funded, however, because operation costs run higher than the funding on other.
areas, such as our contractual costs.
We had to absorb the increase for, just as one example, we had absorbed the increased
for our dispatch contract.
We increased the services necessary for the state on 911 services to the Kenai Peninsula
Barrow Dispatch Center.
That increased requirement for them was $550,000.
existing somewhere in our budget, so we have to use our vacancy funding.
So right now we're running about a 14% vacancy for the department.
It's not, it's higher than probably what is average for
the state agencies, I can't speak to all of the State agencies and where they're at.
But ours is about 14%.
We're about, believe the last number I think is, and we could certainly provide.
detailed information after the fact.
But right now our troopers are about 56 troopers,
I believe is our vacancy right
now on our trooper positions,
and those are spread throughout the state.
There's not one particular area
where that number is trending higher.
But realistically, I think that the concern we have
is that our operating costs, we just can't not go.
We're, it's essential that we provide the service, the state,
the citizens of Alaska expect us to be there.
We cannot opt to not answer the phone or not go to the calls.
So by using our vacancy funding, we're just concerned that the pressures
created on the budget mean that
we have to hold off on hiring, even though we are ready and we want to hire.
I don't know if I've completely answered your question and you know, but if you'd like,
we could provide a report to you of where our vacancy positions are and talk with you more
detail on that.
Thank you.
Do you have time constraint?
I think it's better if we follow up.
I'll follow.
Thank You.
Okay.
Please continue.
So I'd just like to kind of close with our long-term cost pressures and as we spoke of earlier our aircraft operations continue to require close attention
We're prioritizing missions monitoring usage and managing maintenance carefully to preserve our response capability particularly in rural and remote areas where aviation is essential
Law enforcement supplies and equipment also require active management.
We're focused on meeting critical needs first and deferring less urgent purchases where possible.
That approach allows operations to continue, but it does limit flexibility and shifts some of this replacement just into the future.
The village public safety officer programs continue to operate in a challenging environment.
While the program did receive funding in FY26, the cost of providing services in rural Alaska remains high.
Housing, utilities, travel, support costs vary widely by community, and
more than 120 communities continue experience limited to no VPSO coverage.
Those conditions influence how the Program operates,
expanded. Our capital projects oversight is continuing to be handled without a dedicated
project manager. The existing staff are observing the coordination and oversight responsibilities
which adds to their regular duties. Taken all together, this snapshot is where things
stand at mid-year. Services are continuing and is taking active management and difficult
Thank you. Thank You director Burton for your presentation come Chicago. Oh, thank you for coming
And I just wanted to add thank You for leaderships both of you
Especially with district 38 and the surrounding areas you both are well aware that we had our storm. Hey long and I
just want to commend you on
The support you guys has sent out, the state troopers,
the village police safety officers coming up,
the tribal police officers as well as people in their own community stepping up to help
with that rescue and restoration of what they can.
And I cannot thank you enough for showing that giving us help.
Thank you, Commissioner Cockrell.
Well, thank you, Chair Jimmy.
We've got some really incredible people in our department.
And like I said, I'm very proud of all our,
I think all of our physicians are essential to our job function.
Every physician I have in the department,
whether it's civilian or troopers,
has another mission within the Department
to keep us up and going and safeguarding our citizens.
So thank, you.
Thank you also a shout out to the guys, the troopers
and the VPSOs who showed up at the
Alaska Airline Center, the Egan Center is to ensure that our constituents were safe and
provide, you know, gave them that extra support. I really appreciate that.
Welcome. The VPSO has actually saved a life at the
Eagan Center. That person was...
Essentially dying from fentanyl and they gave him to to narc hands to get him up and going again
And so so you've got some bad math and so they actually had a save during that thing to time period
Can I come in you guys as much as I want?
So that brings us to the conclusion
Before I close out I
Please forgive me. I forgot to go out land acknowledgments to the Akkokan Takukan tribe state of Alaska nationwide
As you all know, I'm not only Alaskan digits, but lower for it. So I got to give a shout out to everyone
Our next house finance department of public safety subcommittee meeting will be scheduled for Thursday February 12th 8 a.m.
topic is to be announced and
We are adjourned at 8 57