Listen here:
Petersburg Police Chief Jim Kerr wants a K-9 unit to help locate illegal drugs in town. He told the Petersburg Borough Assembly on February 3rd that a dog would help his officers clear a key legal hurdle in drug investigations.
“You have a known person, known drug user, going to a known drug house, and instead of relying on the officer to develop probable cause, you can have the dog do it,” he said.
He said a drug dog would make it much easier to get a warrant to search those houses.
State drug enforcement officials say traffickers are especially motivated to target Alaska because its geographical isolation means drugs can be sold at higher prices. And Kerr says Petersburg’s no different than the rest of the state. In November of 2023, six people were charged in a Petersburg drug bust.
Kerr said that the department could cover the cost of starting the program with money seized in drug busts.
“The way I look at it is, drug dealers took advantage of our community. We may as well use their money to help fund this thing,” he said.
He estimates the program would also cost about $14,000 annually to run. For Mayor Mark Jensen, that was the sticking point.
“I think it would be a good idea, but how are we going to come up with some money in perpetuity?” he asked.
Several other assembly members agreed, saying they like the idea, but were worried about funding. Last year the borough’s budget was nearly $400,000 in the hole. Borough Manager Steve Geisbrecht said there will likely be similar problems this year.
“It’s not about the dog. It’s all about timing,” he said. “How many people am I going to have to lay off? How many department-hours am I going to have to…? And I can’t answer that right now. I just know that we went in last year having to use reserves, and this year it’s going to be the same, if not worse. The school, I believe, wants more money. I don’t know where to get it.”
Last year, for the first time, the assembly boosted local funding to the Petersburg School District to the cap imposed by state law. And now half a million dollars the school usually gets in federal funding is up in the air, too.
But Chief Kerr told the assembly that now is the best time. He said a police vehicle coming up for renewal could be retrofitted with a canine compartment, significantly reducing the cost of a canine-specific vehicle. And he said it’s very possible that the yearly expenses could be covered by grants from a couple different organizations he’s been in touch with – Southeast Cities Against Drugs taskforce (SEACAD) and Alaska’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area initiative (HITDA).
“They won’t contribute to start the program, but they’re interested in contributing after,” he said. “They wouldn’t tell me dollar amounts or commit to anything. It’s their way of seeing if it works out, I guess.”
Vice Mayor Donna Marsh had initially been worried about funding for the program, saying the timing was bad. But she changed her mind after hearing more from Kerr.
“Drugs do a lot of damage, a tremendous amount of damage,” she said. “Probably no one in this room has not been affected by it. So actually, I will be in support of this.”
Assemblymember Newman also voted for the program, but that wasn’t enough – the motion failed 2 – 4, with Mayor Mark Jensen, Jeigh Stanton Gregor, Bob Lynn, and Rob Schwartz voting against it.
That doesn’t mean the dream is over for Kerr, though. Several assembly members expressed interest in revisiting the idea later in the year, once the borough’s budget is developed, and more is known about state and federal funding for public education.
