Commissioner: Ronald L. Otte
Tel: (907) 465-4322 Fax: (907) 465-4362

Administrative Services Director: Kenneth E. Bischoff
Tel: (907) 465-4336 Fax: (907) 586-2762

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To maintain a commitment to all Alaskans to help ensure a safe, orderly, and positive environment, so children and families can work, live, and learn without fear of violence. This commitment is delivered through statewide police, emergency response, fire safety and other vital public safety services.

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Continue efforts to automate and link criminal justice information systems to support Alaska's 4,500 criminal justice professionals who are conducting investigations or are making decisions on arrests, sentencing, release from custody, employment, licensing and other important public safety related matters.
Improve training for village public safety officers, municipal police officers, and State Troopers by completing the expansion and remodeling of the Public Safety Academy and firing range.
Support rapid identification and apprehension of violent offenders through continued crime laboratory participation in the national DNA registry, blood screening for all serious offenses, and completion of Alaska Automated Fingerprint Identification System upgrades.



Protect life and property against fire and explosion.

Promote and participate in a program involving state and local fire prevention agencies working with the media to educate the public on fire safety issues.
Develop a statewide fire suppression initiative which includes clarifying responsibilities and identifying resources needed to save lives and property from fire and explosion.

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Division of Alaska State Troopers:

Major Investigative Cases - The Alaska State Troopers have been successful in solving major criminal cases. Homicides in Elim, Fairbanks, Fox, Sitka, Sterling and Wasilla are but a few examples of cases investigated and solved. During calendar year 1998, twenty-four persons were victims of homicides in Alaska State Trooper jurisdiction. Twenty-one of these cases were successfully resolved.

Federal Funding Received to Provide Village Police Officer Training - A $650.0 federal grant proposal was developed and approved to provide training, uniforms, protective vests, and other equipment. Some Village Public Safety Officers (VPSO) will also participate in this program.

Domestic Violence Training and Program Management - The Alaska State Troopers held training in Ft. Yukon, Unalaska, Sitka, Kenai, Nome and Galena for state troopers and approximately 38 village public safety officers. A program coordinator was hired to coordinate training, research, needs assessments and develop policy recommendations for state and municipal law enforcement agencies relating to domestic violence and sexual assault issues. Further, AST and the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) Law Enforcement Sub-Committee produced a domestic violence information booklet (as required under AS 18.65.515) which was distributed to all law enforcement agencies relating to domestic and sexual assaults.

Division of Fish and Wildlife Protection:

Commercial Crab Fisheries Enforcement Strengthened - The Division of Fish & Wildlife Protection made significant progress in commercial crab fishing enforcement during FY1999. The Patrol Vessel Stimson was brought into service. The P/V Woldstad, P/V Stimson, and the King Air conducted enforcement patrols of king crab and tanner crab fisheries in the Bering Sea. These enforcement patrols ensured a fair start for all fishermen and greatly diminished pre-season and post-season fishing. Extensive efforts to measure crab at dockside resulted in very few undersized or female crab being delivered.

The Stimson patrolled the Bering Sea Blue King Crab Fishery. During the patrol a serious violation (using an overlimit of pots) was discovered which resulted in criminal charges against the vessel crew responsible. The Stimson also patrolled the Aleutian Brown King Crab Fishery. This fishery has not been effectively patrolled for many years. Additionally the Stimson covered groundfish fisheries that have not been previously patrolled.

The Department's Beechcraft King Air 200 aircraft was used to patrol most of the Bering Sea and Aleutian commercial crab fisheries in FY1999. The aircraft is equipped with radar and a forward looking infrared radar (FLIR) system. This aircraft covers the ocean about 10 times faster than the Division's surface vessels. It uses electronically stabilized video cameras and recorders to gather evidence and can search hundreds of ocean miles in a short time period. During the 1998 Bristol Bay Red King Crab Fishery, the King Air located and documented three vessels operating crab pots prior to the commercial opening. The aircraft then directed patrol vessels to those locations to finalize enforcement action. These actions deter unlawful crab harvests.

Special Sport Fish Enforcement Programs Initiated - The Division operated three special sport fish enforcement programs that ended in September FY99. These programs assigned extra FWP Troopers to Bristol Bay, Yakutat, and the Kenai River sport fisheries. These were areas where a number of complaints from the public were received and concentrated efforts to stop illegal activity were made. These three programs resulted in 12,824 contacts with sport fishermen and documentation of 462 violations that warranted citations. Many remote areas were patrolled which resulted in very positive feedback from law-abiding fishermen and the general public. Funds from both FWP and ADF&G were used to complete these programs.

Enhancements Completed To Statewide Law Enforcement Information Systems - Completed system modifications to the Alaska Public Safety Information Network (APSIN) to:

Meet state and federal requirements to establish a state Protective Order Registry linked to the FBI's Protection Order File.
Comply with state legislation modifying the sex offender registration program and to allow participation in the National Sex Offender Registration File.
The department now provides significantly better service to the public by having this registry on the Internet. Interested persons may query the sex offender registry without charge at , a service currently generating 820,000 hits per year.
Provide the ability for statewide law enforcement to query APSIN to identify information about missing juveniles including runaways.
Participate in the FBI's Identification for Firearms Sales program.
Electronically interface local law enforcement applications with APSIN.
Continued efforts to completeY2K assessment and remediation for major Department systems and communications components. The scope of this effort included testing of hardware and software upon which the Alaska Public Safety Information Network operates, department servers, workstations, local area networks, wide area network connections, dispatch centers, radio communications and other key components.

State Crime Lab Accredited - Continued accreditation of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory for 1999 was achieved again this year with the successful completion of the annual review prepared for the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB).

Vessels - Key law enforcement vessels have been replaced through creative funding partnerships with the legislature that allowed use of funds generated through commercial fisheries cases and proceeds from the sale of aging, obsolete vessels for these purposes. These funding sources permitted the purchase of:

65 foot Kodiak Patrol Vessel
Two 27 foot patrol vessels
26 foot patrol vessel

CDVSA - The Council performed work on behalf of the Dept. of Corrections to complete 10 batterer's Intervention programs approved this past year.

Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization training was held at 13 sites throughout Alaska.

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Court Security - There are an insufficient number of Court Services Officers (CSOs) located around the state to provide adequate court security, move prisoners and serve court papers. Since the CSO program was first developed as a cost effective method of providing such support to the Court System, the number of CSO positions has not kept pace with the increase in criminal and civil cases, number of judges, or number of courts to be served. The Court System budget for FY2001 contains an increment to address this need by providing additional CSOs and their supporting costs to the Alaska State Troopers (AST).

The need for trooper services continues to increase while the numbers of troopers remains relatively unchanged - Public expectations for services provided by AST continues to increase steadily while the resources available to provide those services have remained constant or have decreased in some areas. The Alaska State Troopers have a commissioned staff of 237 personnel in FY2000, located in 34 posts across the state who provide all public safety services to the vast majority of the state's geographical area. While AST provides some services to every person in the state, they are the only providers of direct public safety services to over 195,500 Alaska citizens.

Whittier Roadway/Tunnel to open May, 2000 - Estimates indicate over the next couple of years that visits to Prince William Sound through Whittier will increase from 90,000 person days to 900,000 person days annually. This will have significant impact on Fish and Wildlife enforcement, search and rescue as well as impact trooper highway and criminal law enforcement. Due to this road opening, the department continues to review options for providing enforcement services within its existing budget.

Improve Fire Safety - Fire and burn injuries and fatalities in Alaska are three to four times the national per capita average. During the first ten months of 1999, there have been 8 deaths due to fire. The department is reviewing with the fire industry, ways to strengthen public fire education, early detection and early intervention to help reduce loss of life and property, in addition to providing basic training, and grants for advanced fire training to rural communities. A Statewide Fire Suppression Strategy is needed that identifies the planning framework with state, local, and media participation to educate the public regarding the magnitude of fire related issues. A balanced approach is needed to fix responsibility and provide resources to save lives, property and associated costs.

Alaska Fire Standards Council - AS 18.70.320-369 becomes effective July 1, 2000 establishing the Alaska Fire Standards Council. The goal of this legislation is to implement a statewide professional standards and training oversight body similar in scope to the Alaska Police Standards Council. Council members need to be appointed to address organizational and funding issues.

State Crime Laboratory - Alaska's DNA Identification System which includes convicted offenders, and participation in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS the national DNA database), could provide Alaska law enforcement an increased ability to identify crime perpetrators through DNA analysis. DNA comparisons can be made electronically and be searched through CODIS if adequate funding is provided.

Village Public Safety Officers' Salaries - The Governor continues to recognize the need to raise VPSO salaries to a competitive level to help retain qualified officers.

Alaska Council On Domestic Violence And Sexual Assault - Alaska's rate of domestic violence and sexual assault is considerably higher than the national average. In FY99, there were 13 people who died as a result of domestic violence in the family. The rate of sexual assault is 2.2 times higher than the national average. Programs have continued to see an increase in the number of shelter nights, legal advocacies and support services being requested.

Criminal Justice Policy Initiatives:

Criminal Justice Information Systems - Integration of criminal justice agency computer systems will continue. Significant portions of a major interface with the Anchorage Police Department have been completed that will permit more efficient and effective exchange of information essential to police investigations, criminal sentencing and employment screening.

Implement Federal Interstate Criminal Record Compact - Analysis of legislative, procedural and programming changes has been completed to position Alaska to adopt the "National Criminal History Access and Child Protection Act". Legislation needs to be enacted during the 2000 legislative session to adopt the compact. States which become members of the national compact agree to reciprocally exchange fingerprint based criminal history information for employment and licensing purposes. The compact, combined with upgrades to FBI information systems, will make it possible to reduce turnaround time to conduct national background checks from about 6 weeks to a few days. These services are used to screen a variety of employment and licensing applicants, e.g. foster parents, day care providers, school bus drivers, etc.

Improve Compliance With Adult Criminal Fingerprint Law - Efforts to improve compliance with mandatory fingerprinting of adult criminals will continue. Since enactment of the mandatory fingerprinting law, compliance has improved from 47% to 65%. 100% compliance is needed. DPS will continue to coordinate improvement efforts with the Department of Corrections and the Courts by deploying of live scan fingerprint workstations and making necessary policy and procedural changes.

Develop Juvenile Criminal History System - Law enforcement and youth justice agencies require efficient access to juvenile criminal history information which is key to addressing juvenile crime. Public Safety will work with the Department of Health and Social Services which has received federal grant funding to begin development of a juvenile criminal history record keeping system.

Complete Automated Fingerprint System Upgrade - Core components of the upgrade have been completed. In order to take full advantage of new capabilities and more fully automate the process from the point of booking at a correctional facility through the identification process performed by the Department of Public Safety, several interfaces will be completed in FY 2001, including:

Automate notices to booking locations of ID confirmations.
Implement an interface between the fingerprint system and the APSIN criminal history system.
Update the interface between Corrections new application and live scan fingerprint workstations.
See Western Identification Network

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Current Status:
Total first quarter FY2000 is 186.

Benchmark:
First quarter FY1999: 141 sex offender compliance actions.

Background and Strategies:
AST appears to be on track with this measure. A mail-out verification was done to facilitate implementation of changes in statutes and regulations, and a pilot program initiated where a 2% random sampling of offenders registered is done and sent into the field for physical verifications.

Current Status:
There were two offenses closed by arrest for crimes assigned to CIB during the first quarter of FY2000.

Benchmark:
First quarter FY1999: zero cases closed by arrest.

The primary purpose of CIB is to assist troopers and local law enforcement. There is no expectation for CIB to separately close cases by arrest. Accordingly, the benchmark is zero cases closed by arrest.

Background and Strategies:
The Criminal Investigation Bureau has increased the number of closed by arrest cases in the first quarter of FY2000 above the comparative time period of FY1999. Due to the nature of the cases worked by CIB, though on track for a first quarter comparision, it is too soon to tell whether AST will see an overall increase in the total for the entirety of FY2000 over FY1999.

*Note - Although the legislature enacted this measure, no reasonable conclusion can be drawn from this measure as to the productivity level of CIB as they do not assume case responsibility for nearly every case they work on. By design, CIB provides investigative resources and assistance to all of the detachments. The detachments are each responsible for a geographic area of the state and are responsible for initiating investigations of criminal activity that occurs in their respective parts of the state. The detachments are responsible for the investigation, case management and ultimate resolution of those investigations. CIB is responsible for providing assistance to the detachments in an effort to resolve the detachment's cases. CIB almost never initiates an investigation of its own. This measure does not address most of what CIB does in the course of business nor is there a reasonable means of demonstrating what they do from a statistical standpoint short of initiating a new data gathering process.

Current Status:
In the first quarter of FY2000, there were 974 traffic accidents in AST jurisdiction. Thus, AST did not achieve the goal of reducing the overall total of motor vehicle accidents, and it is unlikely AST will achieve this goal should this trend continue.

Benchmark:
First quarter FY1999: 891 traffic accidents.

Background and Strategies:
The AST goal to reduce traffic accidents has been communicated to all Detachment Commanders who have also been instructed to allocate resources necessary to achieve the goal set via directed enforcement efforts.

Current Status:
In the first quarter of FY2000, 2767 victims were served.

Benchmark:
6,994 victims served in FY99

Background and Strategies:
The continuity of programs, increased community and statewide collaboration efforts, the number of victims requesting services has increased.

Current Status:
In the first quarter of FY99, there were 287 presentations to 5,600 participants.

Benchmark:
In FY98 there were 2190 presentation to 67,075 participants.

Background and Strategies:
Due to the reduction in funds from state sources and from local revenue sharing, many programs have reduced or eliminated outreach and education position in order to meet the needs of direct services. Restoring the loss in funding and researching additional funds for these activities remains a priority.

Current Status:
Alaska's mileage death rate (MDR) for 1998 was 1.58 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

Benchmark:
The national average mileage death rate (MDR) is 1.7 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Alaska's benchmark MDR was 2.05 deaths in 1994.

Background and Strategies:
Alaska's mileage death rate (MDR) decreased from 1.86 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 1997 to 1.58 MDR in 1998 and reflects a continuing drop from the 2.05 MDR of Alaska's 1994 benchmark year.

Program resources are directed toward target areas identified through a problem identification process and funded through National Traffic Safety priority areas.

Current Status:
There have been 275 convicted offender samples entered. It is projected that there will be 825 more convicted offender samples and 25 unknown forensic samples entered by the end of FY2000. Target for FY2001 - 1,440 convicted offender samples and 50 unknown forensic samples processed and entered into both systems.

Benchmark:
1200 offender samples and 50 crime scene (unknown) samples.

Background and Strategies:
There are approximately 1250 DNA samples from convicted offenders remaining to be processed and entered into CODIS at this time.

Barring any unforeseen complications, we estimate being able to enter 100 of these convicted offender samples in CODIS each month for the remainder of FY2000, and possibly increasing that number to 120 samples per month in FY2001.

It must also be noted that the Crime Lab has not received samples from all individuals who meet the convicted offender criteria in AS 44.41.035. However, Department of Public Safety is moving aggressively to ensure that samples will be collected from all eligible convicted offenders.

Continued funding of DNA analyst PCNs 12-1718 and 12-0031 by the State will allow the Laboratory to provide statutorily-mandated DNA testing capabilities for Alaskan law enforcement agencies.

FY2000 Performance Measure	Achieved	On Track	Too Soon to Tell	Not Likely to Achieve	Needs Modification
Increase in the number of sex offender compliance actions.
Increase in the percentage of offenses closed by arrest for crimes assigned to the Criminal Investigations Unit.
Decrease in the total number of traffic accidents that occur in Alaska State Trooper jurisdiction.
Increase in the percentage of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault who seek advice.
Increase in the percentage of Alaskans participating in violence prevention education training and workshops.
Reduce the mileage death rate.
Enter convicted offender samples and unknown forensic samples into the DNA database in Alaska.

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Capital Projects Listed by Department.

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Department Budget Summary
Funding Source Summary
Position Summary

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FWP Aircraft Maintenance Support - $56.9 GF will provide sufficient funding to allow for critically needed maintenance of the department's aircraft fleet. Department aircraft are vital to this department's mission of law enforcement presence throughout Alaska.

FWP Game Enforcement - $141.5 GF will offset a shortfall in criminal fines from FWP cases to maintain the FY2000 level of enforcement previously funded through the Fish and Game Fund.

FWP Aircraft & Marine - $99.6 GF is requested for an increase in Risk Management/Insurance in these two components. Without this increase for unfunded costs, enforcement patrol efforts will be reduced.

Fire Prevention School Inspection- $40.0 GF/PR is needed for inspection of schools and other assembly buildings on a critically needed annual basis.

Fire Prevention Code Project - $98.1 GF. The State of Alaska needs to adopt the new International Codes to provide the state's construction industry with standardized building codes.

Alaska Fire Standards Council - $220.0. The creation of the Alaska Fire Standards Council will establish state standards for fire services' personnel. The public is entitled to a reasonable expectation that personnel responding to a call for emergency services are adequately trained to mitigate the emergency.

Alaska State Troopers - Rural Trooper Housing - An increase of $38.1 Statutory Designated Program Receipts is needed for housing units in Kotzebue and St. Mary's.

Alaska Public Safety Information Network - APSIN will receive $90.6 GF to dedicate a position to providing technical support for projects directly related to implementation of state and federal laws and programs to protect children. This position is required to improve accessibility to comprehensive, up-to-date, automated records about sexual predators, domestic violence offenders, and others who pose risks to children, by modifying and integrating existing information systems and designing new programs based on effective technology.

Village Public Safety Officers - This $600.0 increment represents a 15% increase over the FY2000 amount budgeted for Village Public Safety Officer salaries and benefits.

Violent Crimes Compensation Board - $300.0 Permanent Fund Dividend funds will be utilized to enhance awards made to victims of violent crimes.

Council On Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault - $100.0 Permanent Fund Dividend funds will restore an FY2000 GF reduction to the base budget and will support grants for basic victims' services. An increase of $230.0 Permanent Fund Dividend funds will be provided directly to programs as grants for maintenance of basic needs for victims and to meet the increase in requests from children and adolescent victims and/or witnesses to domestic violence.

Batterer's Intervention Program - $120.0 Permanent Fund Dividend funds will replace $120.0 in one-time federal funds that are no longer available in order to maintain the FY2000 level of funding for this program.

Crime Lab - The Crime Lab will receive $238.5 GF for two purposes:

1) To implement an electronic interface between Alaska's DNA Identification System database and the FBI's national DNA database system. This will permit law enforcement the ability to identify crime perpetrators and victims in an automated fashion and electronically search other state DNA databases as envisioned by the legislature when AS 44.41.035 was passed.

2) To continue blood analysis of persons arrested pursuant to AS 28.35.031 (Implied Consent) or AS 28.33.031 (Implied Consent for operators of commercial motor vehicles). These tests are needed to test for drugs other than alcohol in those cases of persons involved in reckless, serious injury and fatal motor vehicle accidents.

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