Hoonah Police Department

The Hoonah Police Department (HPD) is the only municipal police agency on Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska. It is a full-service municipal police department for the City of Hoonah, an Alaskan First-Class City of 875 residents. HPD also provides police protection to surrounding areas on the local road system and operated a short-term detention facility (jail).

Structure

The Department has a Chief, three paid officers and two volunteer reserve officers. Civilian employees include a fulltime Administrative Assistant/Supervising 911 Dispatcher, two full-time 911 dispatchers and two part-time 911 dispatchers and several on-call part time jail guards. All 911 dispatchers also serve as jail guards as needed. 911 dispatch is manned round-the-clock and also dispatches to the US Forest Service, Alaska State Troopers and US Coast Guard as needed, along with the Hoonah Volunteer Fire Department (HVFD) and Hoonah Volunteer Emergency Medical service (EMS). Reserve police officers serve as needed to supplement the full-time staff and during special or emergency events. HPD has a computer terminal link to the Alaska Public Safety Information Network (APSIN), Alaska's arm of the FBI's nationwide police computer database and communicatinos system, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The population of Hoonah typically swells to over 1400 in warm weather months (May-Sept) with the arrival of commercial and recreational fishermen, recreational boaters, hikers, hunters, seasonal construction workers and cruise ship passengers.

Police station

The station has two cellblocks, capable of holding low-risk and high-risk prisoners, females, juveniles and mental health holds under Title 47 of Alaska Statutes. It is generally a pre-trial holding facility, but can keep prisoners up to 14 days. Persons held at the HPD jail for convictions are usually "weekenders", persons convicted of less-serious offenses and who are sentenced to short terms in jail, especially on weekends. The station has an officer work area, chier's office, K-9 clinic area and evidence vault. The station was partially renovated i 2010 and has upgraded doors, handicapped access and a new video surveillance system, an imporved parking lot and grounds and a new building sign with the HPD logo and seal on it. In addition to a newly-upgraded digital public safety radio system, the department also houses an "Intoxolyzer" infrared breath alcohol test instrument to test for DUI, underage drinkingand court-ordered breath alcohol tests. Court is not held at the police station but at the Hoonah District Court in the City Hall Huilding on Front Street. A Magistrate presides over the court.

Officer duties

HPD officers are either on-duty or on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, patroling and answering calls for service in and near the City of Hoonah and along the 300 miles of unpaved roads leading to various recraational areas of the nearby Tongas National Forest in warm weather months (May-Sept). Officers also respond to emergency calls at the nearby communities of Whitestone Camp and the Farm Christian Community. Response to and prevention of domiestic violence, child abuse/neglect, underage drinking, maintaining a visible presence at the Hoonah School and during cruise ship visits and traffic enforcement for speeding, drinking and driving and seatbelt usage are most common patrol tasks. HPD also routinely assists the local wildlife "brown shirt" Alask State Trooper and the US Forest Service law enforcement officers as needed.

HPD is currently slotted for a Chief, a senior Officer-investigator and two patrol officers.

All HPD officers including the chief, are designated as patrol officers, with additional special assignments including: detective, bike patrol, training officer, instructor, firearms instructor, school resource officer (SRO). Ranks include supervisor (corporal or sergeant) and administrator (lieutenant or chief).

The department currently has several general police instructors, several firearms trainers, 2 trained investigators, 2 EMTs, 2 ETTs, a SRO and a hostage negotiator.

Training

Officers are basic-trained as Alaska police officers upon completion of a minimum 40-hour field training officer period (FTO) and then the Alaska Law Enforcement Training (ALET) at the Alaska Trooper Academy in Sitka or the Tanana Valley Academy at the university of Alaska-Fairbanks. Full-time officers are certifi8ed by the Alaska Police Standards Council (APSC). Additional officer training includes basic firefighting and either Alaska Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) or Alaska Emergency Trauma Technician (ETT-first responders).

Officers also recieve additional training such as bi-annual firearms qualification night and day course of fire, Taser less-then-lethal weapon, legal updates, defensive tactics, breath test operator, RADAR and other speed measurement instrument, criminal investigations, crime scene and other specialized courses including annual domestic violence in-service training as mandated by AK statutes. Reserve Officers in Alaska are not regulated by the APSC, so HPD reserve officers recieve training internally in legal updates, first aid, firearms and other topics. Current reserve officers include a civilian employee of the Alaska State Troopers and a former Alaska State Trooper.

Equipment

Officers carry a Glock .40 caliber automatic pistol, Binelli .12 gague automatic shotgun, Ruger Mini-14 .223 rifle, Taser, telescopic baton and OC pepper spray. Officers may carry a semi-automatic versions of the M-4/M-16 rifle and an approved additional off-duty or "backup" pistol, if they qualified with the weapon(s). Each officer is issued body armor and other regular police duty gear and uniforms. Each full-time officer is also issued a marked take-home 4X4 patrol truck equipped with a digital audio-visual recorder, digital police radio, flares, tow line, life perservers, emergency medical kit, fire extinguisher, axe, crowbar, blanket, crime scene and other duty equipment.

Police vehicles

The department has (5) 4X4 patrol trucks, 3 Ford Explorers and 2 Chevrolet Tahoes. each of the 4 full-time officers are issued a take-home patrol vehicle and a 5th is a spare or avaialble for reserve officers to operate.

History

The depaertment was first established in the 1940's, during World War 2. It grew over the years from a part-time Chief to up to five officers during the logging era which peaked in the late 1980's.

Line of duty deaths

Two Hoonah Police Officers have paid the ultimate price, having been killed in the line of duty:

Sergeant Anthony Michael "Tony" Wallace, 32 and Officer Matthew Dean "Matt" Tokuoka, 39, were both shot and killed in an ambush on Front Street on Saturday night, August 28th, 2010 in the presence of their families. A man who had a history of arrest contacts with the 2 officers was charged with having opened fire with a rifle as Sgt. Wallace spoke to Officer Tokuoka and his family. Sgt. Wallace was shot in the leg and chest, penetrating his body armor. Officer Tokuoka, who was off-duty, came to Sgt. wallace's aid and was also shot two times in the chest. Responding Hoonah Officers and a firefighter removed the fallen officers to safety, where Hoonah EMS transported both to the Hoonah Clinic ER. there, despite tremendous effort by clinic staff, Officer Tokuoka died approximately 45 minutes later. Sgt. Wallace was flown by a US Coast Guard rescue helicopter to Bartlett Hospital in Juneau, where died while undergoing emergency surgery several hours after the shooting.

Responding Hoonah, Wrangel and Alaska State Trooper personnel contained the scene until SWAT personnel from the Juneau Police Department, US Forest Service Law Enforcement and Alaska State Troopers arrived the following morning. Additional troopers arrived the next day, along with US BATFE agents.

The suspect, John Marvin Jr., 45, of Hoonah, surrendered the next day, after being teargassed. He was charged with the murders of Sergeant Wallace and Officer Tokuoka.

Sgt. Wallace was a former All-American college wrestler and had served with HPD for over 3 years. He was survived by his 12-year old daughter, Mother, several siblings and extended family. Officer Tokuoka, a former USMC boxer and special operations Marine had served HPD for 18 months as both a reserve and active officer. He was survived by his wife, 2 daughters, 2 sons, a Father and several siblings, along with extended family. The murders of the two officers in the agency with 4 full-time officers was the largest per capita loss of life by any law enforcement agency in Alaska law enforcement history and triggered the largest deployment of law enforcement personnel in rural Alaska history.

The funeral of the two fallen officers was the largest police funeral in Alaska history and the biggest gethering ever in Hoonah history. It was held in the Hoonah High School gym and attended by Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and US Senator Lisa Murkowski, along with over 1100 people, including local, state and federal law enforcement officers from across Alaska, various lower-48 States and Canada. The State of Alaska provided a free ferry to get the offiers' remains to Hoonah for the funeral and to bring persons attending the ceremony to Hoonah also.

Officer Tokuoka was posthumously awarded the Police Medal of Honor and Sgt. Wallace was posthumously awarded the Police Ditinguished Service Award. Both officers were also were posthumously awarded Police Purple Hearts. The Hoonah City Council proclaimed the day of the funeral, Sept. 8th as Officer Matthew Tokuoka and Sgt. Anthony Wallace Memorial Day.

Additional duties

HPD officers respond to all fire and ambulance calls in or near the city. Officers also assist the US Customs and Border Patrol and US Department of Homeland Security/Coast Guard during cruise ship visits to Hoonah Harbor.

Leadership

The current Chief is John A. Millan, who has held the post since 2009. Millan was Chief of Galena AK proor to coming to HPD. He is a retired NC police chief who also served as a detective, supervisor, officer, deputy and NC Trooper; a retired Army National Guard Military Police Master Sgt who served in the Gulf War and Iraq and a former Marine with over 26 years of police experience.

Previous HPD Chiefs in recent years have included Jeff Hankla, Hugh Miller and Robert "Bob" Beasley, who is now the Alaska ABC Enforcement Chief.

Additional links

Official website: www.usacops.com, "Police", Alaska, Hoonah.