Legislature(2011 - 2012)CAPITOL 120
01/28/2011 01:00 PM House JUDICIARY
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Overview: Department of Public Safety | |
| Overview: Alaska Court System | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
January 28, 2011
1:03 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Steve Thompson, Vice Chair
Representative Wes Keller
Representative Bob Lynn
Representative Lance Pruitt
Representative Max Gruenberg
Representative Lindsey Holmes
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Carl Gatto, Chair
Representative Mike Chenault (alternate)
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
OVERVIEW: DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY
- HEARD
OVERVIEW: ALASKA COURT SYSTEM
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
JOSEPH A. MASTERS, Commissioner
Department of Public Safety (DPS)
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented the overview of the Department of
Public Safety (DPS).
HANS BRINKE, Captain, Commander
Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol
Division of Alaska State Troopers
Department of Public Safety (DPS)
Wasilla, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Responded to a question during the overview
of the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
DOUG WOOLIVER, Administrative Attorney
Administrative Staff
Office of the Administrative Director
Alaska Court System (ACS)
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented the overview of the Alaska Court
System (ACS).
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:03:31 PM
VICE CHAIR STEVE THOMPSON called the House Judiciary Standing
Committee meeting to order at 1:03 p.m. Representatives
Thompson, Holmes, Keller, and Pruitt were present at the call to
order. Representatives Lynn and Gruenberg arrived as the
meeting was in progress. Representative Gatto was excused.
^Overview: Department of Public Safety
Overview: Department of Public Safety
1:04:00 PM
VICE CHAIR THOMPSON announced that the first order of business
would be an overview of the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
1:08:09 PM
JOSEPH A. MASTERS, Commissioner, Department of Public Safety
(DPS) - noting that page 2 of his PowerPoint presentation listed
the DPS's five divisions, and the one board and three councils
that are administratively-housed within the DPS - relayed that
the mission of the DPS is to ensure public safety and enforce
fish and wildlife laws. The priorities of the DPS are law
enforcement patrol and investigations, rural law enforcement,
domestic violence (DV) and sexual assault programs, resource
protection, and highway safety. The Division of Alaska State
Troopers is the DPS's largest and most visible division and its
mission is to preserve public peace, and protect life, property,
and resources. In calendar year 2010, the Division of Alaska
State Troopers responded to 133,401 service calls, an increase
of about 9,000 service calls from 2009, with approximately 25-30
percent being criminal in nature; and investigated 18 homicides,
9 of which were DV related, 1 of which was sexual-assault
related, 2 of which involved police officers from Hoonah, and
all but 1 of which have been solved and the perpetrators brought
to justice.
1:12:41 PM
COMMISSIONER MASTERS relayed that the Division of Alaska State
Troopers has 78 cold cases that its Alaska Bureau of
Investigations (ABI) is tracking, with 20 of them currently
being worked, and has solved 30 cold cases, with 11 of them
resulting in arrests for the crime of murder in the first
degree. Referring to page 3 of his PowerPoint presentation, he
then listed a few high-profile murder cases that either have
been or are in the process of being adjudicated. Up until last
year, the DPS utilized federal funding for its cold case unit,
and funding has since been made permanent in the DPS's
"operating base budget." In calendar year 2010, the Division of
Alaska State Troopers also dealt with 75 marijuana grow
operations; 410 prescription drug abuse cases - up from 216 in
2009; only 11 methamphetamine laboratories - down from 80-90 per
year prior to passage of the methamphetamine-precursor
legislation; 234 alcohol importation arrests; 400 sexual assault
and 363 sexual abuse of a minor cases - though increases from
last year in the numbers of such cases might in part be the
result of increased reporting; [63,099 prisoner transports,
8,302 arrest warrants, and 20,459 writs]; and 789 search and
rescue operations, with 389 lives being saved.
1:19:17 PM
COMMISSIONER MASTERS explained that highway safety has been one
of the DPS's prominent focuses, and so in an effort to decrease
the number of vehicular accidents in Alaska and improve
enforcement along the state's highway safety corridors, the DPS
formed the Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol within the Division
of Alaska State Troopers, and has been working in partnership
with the Department of Transportation & Public Facilities'
(DOT&PF's) Alaska Highway Safety Office (AHSO), as well as with
municipal agencies around the state, to institute components of
Alaska's Strategic Highway Safety Plan. The DPS has also done a
number of other things specific to highway safety. For example,
the aforementioned Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol, which is
almost entirely federally funded via the AHSO, now has 27
dedicated troopers, with units in the Fairbanks, Soldotna,
Matanuska-Susitna (MAT-SU), and Girdwood regions. As a result
of such steps, as well as because of an increase in seatbelt
usage, the number of highway fatalities and serious injuries on
Alaska's highways has decreased, with only 57 fatalities in
calendar year 2010 and only about 30 percent of those involving
a lack of seatbelt usage. He then relayed that the number of
alcohol-related fatalities on Alaska's highways also decreased
in calendar year 2010 - down to just 16, the lowest number seen
since about 1977; this can be attributed to the DOT&PF and DPS's
efforts regarding enforcement, education, and engineering, which
he referred to as the "three Es."
1:24:16 PM
COMMISSIONER MASTERS explained that in an effort to recruit more
troopers, Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs), and other law
enforcement officers from rural areas of the state, the DPS had
its Division of Alaska State Troopers work in partnership with
the DPS's Police Safety Academy over in Sitka, the Department of
Education and Early Development (EED), and the Department of
Labor & Workforce Development (DLWD) to start what he referred
to as the law enforcement cadet core program, which is somewhat
similar to a junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC)
program but is law-enforcement oriented. The hope is that in
the long run, more youth will become interested in a career in
law enforcement. Referring to page 4 of his PowerPoint
presentation, he explained that in 2008, the DPS's VPSO program
only had 47 filled VPSO positions, resulting in an absence of
any law enforcement protection in lot of rural communities, but
the administration has since committed to adding 15 new VPSO
positions [per year for] 10 years, with 2010 and 2011 being the
first two years. According to a study conducted by the
University of Alaska's justice center, one of the biggest
benefits of having a VPSO in a community was a 40 percent
decrease in the number of assaults resulting in serious physical
injury, a 250 percent increase in domestic violence (DV)
convictions, and a 350 percent increase in the acceptance of
sexual assault cases for prosecution.
1:28:16 PM
COMMISSIONER MASTERS went on to explain that the DPS had 70 VPSO
positions filled in 2009, 83 VPSO positions filled in 2010 -
though current funding allows for 86 VPSO positions to be filled
- and the [FY 12] budget is going to provide for 101 VPSO
positions. One of the biggest barriers to bringing VPSOs on
board in rural communities has been a lack of housing, though
the administration has been attempting to address that issue via
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) funding. He indicated
that the number of cases VPSOs worked over the last few years
totaled about 6,000; these were cases that probably wouldn't
have been worked at all, if not for the VPSO's, because there
just weren't enough state troopers to send out to the villages.
He noted that the DPS's forthcoming budget is requesting funding
for an additional three trooper positions that would
specifically provide support to VPSOs and liaison with the
communities and contracting nonprofit corporations; these
troopers are expected to have a meaningful impact on the
placement and retention of VPSOs. He also indicated that many
of the new VPSOs either would be or are serving areas of the
state that fall under the purview of the Association of Village
Council Presidents (AVCP).
1:32:00 PM
COMMISSIONER MASTERS, referring to page 5 of his PowerPoint
presentation, indicated that the Division of Alaska Wildlife
Troopers is focused on the enforcement of Alaska's fish and game
laws; preserving the public peace; and protecting life,
property, and resources. For example, such troopers often
address the issue of boating safety. In 2010, the division had
89,312 "resource user contacts" and [10,702] "boating safety
contacts," and dealt with 11 recreational [boating] fatalities -
down from 12 in 2009, 14 in 2008, and 17 in 2007. These large
numbers of contacts have resulted in increased compliance rates
and decreased violation rates; for example, in 2010, only 4.3
percent of contacts involved violations - down from about 8.5
percent [in 2008]. Boating safety issues are addressed jointly
with the Department of Natural Resources' (DNR's) [Division of
Parks & Outdoor Recreation], though generally it's the Division
of Alaska Wildlife Troopers that makes the contacts and deals
with enforcement. Still referring to page 5 of his PowerPoint
presentation, he provided some information about the three
situations listed involving the enforcement of Alaska's fish and
game laws.
1:35:20 PM
COMMISSIONER MASTERS - referring to page 6 of his PowerPoint
presentation, which addressed the Division of Fire and Life
Safety - relayed that in 2010, there were 12 fatalities stemming
from residential fires; 1,940 building inspections were
completed; 1,356 [building] plans were reviewed; 11
jurisdictions were deferred due to insufficient staff within the
division; and the division's Training and Education Bureau (TEB)
was very active in its efforts to educate children about fire
safety. Referring to page 7 of his PowerPoint presentation, he
explained that the Division of Statewide Services is responsible
for maintaining the Alaska Public Safety Information Network
(APSIN), Alaska's sex offender registry, and the Alaska
Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AAFIS); is
responsible for concealed handgun permits, [licensing of
security guards and civilian process servers,] and registering
sex offenders; and has been doing a lot to increase efficiencies
and enhance its ability to interface with the other agencies and
departments that utilize the aforementioned databases - for
example, the scheduled re-design of the APSIN is nearing
completion, and the extreme backlog of requested
fingerprint/background checks has been dramatically reduced such
that turnaround on such requests is now only 3-5 days rather
than the 150 days that it used to take.
1:41:39 PM
COMMISSIONER MASTERS, referring to page 8 of his PowerPoint
presentation, relayed that the Office of the Commissioner, in an
effort to improve accountability and efficiencies within the
department, computerized the complaint process, and established
an Office of Professional Standards, which has two external
investigators who are responsible for all internal
investigations. Referring to page 9 of his PowerPoint
presentation, he explained that construction of the new crime
detection laboratory ("crime lab") is proceeding on schedule,
with an anticipated move-in/start-up date of July/August 2012.
[In 2010], 4756 cases were submitted to the crime lab, with 78
percent of those cases having a turnaround time of 30 days or
less; there were 71 database hits; the crime lab's backlog [of
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples for testing] was
significantly reduced such that it now contains no cases older
than 2009; and there is now only a 30-day turnaround time for
Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) samples.
COMMISSIONER MASTERS, in response to a question, explained that
it would be up to the AHSO to determine whether to continue the
aforementioned federal funding of the 27 dedicated troopers
within the Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol; that the original
funding request was submitted to the AHSO as a five-year
project; and that future funding should still be possible
through grants.
1:50:15 PM
HANS BRINKE, Captain, Commander, Alaska Bureau of Highway
Patrol, Division of Alaska State Troopers, Department of Public
Safety (DPS), added that the current federal funding through the
AHSO is anticipated to continue until 2013, and indicated that
funding extensions should be possible after that.
COMMISSIONER MASTERS, in response to other questions, indicated
that the base pay for VPSOs has increased from $17/hour to
$21/hour; that if a VPSO also performs probation/parole-type
services for the Department of Corrections (DOC), his/her base
pay could increase to $23-$24/hour; that whenever the DPS asks
the legislature for a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for
troopers, the DPS also asks for a commensurate one for VPSOs;
and that approximately 65-70 rural communities have a VPSO,
though some of the larger rural communities have more than one
VPSO.
1:56:35 PM
COMMISSIONER MASTERS, in response to comments and questions
regarding the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board ("ABC Board"),
clarified that the ABC Board was originally housed under the
Department of Revenue (DOR); that the ABC Board was moved to the
DPS during the Murkowski Administration; and that pending
legislation proposing to move the ABC Board from the DPS to the
Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development (DCCED)
was not introduced by the administration. In response to
another question, he explained that village police officers
(VPOs) get significantly less training than VPSOs - only about
two weeks' worth of training; that what little training VPOs do
get is conducted by the Division of Alaska State Troopers
through a federal Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice
Assistance (BJA) grant; that VPOs are hired and funded by
villages - sometimes only temporarily and/or only part-time -
whereas VPSOs are hired and funded by nonprofit [corporations]
under contract with the DPS; and that the turnover rate of VPOs,
of which there are currently 105, is very high.
COMMISSIONER MASTERS, in response to further questions, relayed
that the Division of Alaska State Troopers has 14 vacancies, and
the Division of Alaska Wildlife Troopers has 7 vacancies; that
the DPS is anticipating filling the bulk of those positions very
soon; that each year, the DPS holds two "joint municipal
academies," one "training class ... sponsored through the Alaska
Police Standards Council (APSC) for municipal agencies," and one
VPSO training academy; that the DPS has recently been
experiencing higher retention rates for VPSOs, possibly for a
number of reasons such as the aforementioned increases in wages,
the focus on the program, training, and mentoring, and more
trooper visits to communities; that it's the individual
nonprofit corporation hiring a VPSO that determines what the
VPSO's wages, benefit package, and retirement plan will be; and
that VPSOs are not members of any collective bargaining unit.
^Overview: Alaska Court System
Overview: Alaska Court System
2:05:41 PM
VICE CHAIR THOMPSON announced that the final order of business
would be an overview of the Alaska Court System (ACS).
2:06:22 PM
DOUG WOOLIVER, Administrative Attorney, Administrative Staff,
Office of the Administrative Director, Alaska Court System
(ACS), explained that the ACS is just one of the three parts of
the judicial branch of government; that its funding constitutes
less than 1.5 percent of the budget; that it has its own
internal administration; and that it's different than most court
systems around the country in that it's a unified court system -
one of only eight wherein there is just one court entity - and
one of only five that gets its funding exclusively through the
legislature. The position of administrative director is
provided for in the Alaska State Constitution, and he/she is
hired directly by the Alaska Supreme Court. Alaska has four
judicial districts: the First Judicial District encompasses
Southeast Alaska; the Second Judicial District encompasses
northern Northwestern Alaska; the Third Judicial District
encompasses Southcentral Alaska; and the Fourth Judicial
District encompasses Interior Alaska. There are four levels of
court: the Alaska Supreme Court; the Alaska Court of Appeals;
the Alaska Superior Court; and Alaska's district courts. The
Alaska Supreme Court has five justices, and must hear appeals on
all cases over which it has jurisdiction, except for appeals
pertaining to criminal cases because those are handled
exclusively by the Alaska Court of Appeals, which was
established in 1980 specifically for the purpose of addressing
the Alaska Supreme Court's criminal-case workload.
2:11:16 PM
MR. WOOLIVER explained that the Alaska Superior Court is
Alaska's court of general jurisdiction, and has 40 superior
court judges in 13 locations. The most common types of cases
the Alaska Superior Court hears are felony criminal cases, civil
cases addressing monetary amounts in excess of $100,000,
domestic relations cases, child in need of aid (CINA) cases,
juvenile justice cases, and cases involving real property.
About one-third of the Alaska Superior Court's caseload pertains
to children - custody cases, CINA cases, delinquency cases.
Such cases engender a lot of complaints which, in turn, often
engender reforms of Alaska's laws. Most such cases, however,
are handled by Alaska's district courts; for example, in 2010,
the Alaska Superior Court only handled about 21,000 [such]
cases, whereas Alaska's district courts handled about 140,000
cases. Alaska's district courts are courts of limited
jurisdiction, and they also hear misdemeanor cases, cases
involving violations, small claims cases, and civil cases
addressing monetary amounts not exceeding $100,000. There are
21 district court judges in 9 locations, and 43 magistrates,
which are a subclass of district court judge, in 36 locations.
Magistrates - who are simply employees of the court system -
hear cases involving violations, domestic violence (DV), and
restraining orders, as well a lot of misdemeanor cases wherein
the defendant has given his/her consent.
2:14:46 PM
MR. WOOLIVER explained that [in 2010,] between the Alaska
Superior Court and Alaska's district courts, Alaska's trial
courts had 162,000 cases - an increase of about 5 percent from
2009. Separately, the Alaska Superior Court experienced a 6
percent increase, and Alaska's district courts experienced a 4.7
percent increase, with [substantial] increases in felony
filings, and cases involving domestic violence, sexual assault,
and stalking contributing to those overall increases. The
courts' workloads, although driven largely by the number of
filings, are also driven by the amount of work associated with
different types of cases. For example, a recent increase in the
number of people who come to court seeking to resolve their
cases without benefit of an attorney is having a big impact on
the courts' workloads because such people tend to file a lot
more motions, don't always stick to the legal issues that the
courts are required to resolve, and routinely don't have all
their paperwork in order. The courts, therefore, have to do a
lot to make the process easier for unrepresented litigants, and
one of the things the ACS has done is establish what he referred
to as a "family law self-help center" that provides callers with
information about how to proceed with a case in court. The ACS
believes that one shouldn't have to have a lawyer to access
Alaska's legal system.
2:18:17 PM
MR. WOOLIVER explained that the ACS, in an effort to reduce the
recidivism rates of those offenders with substance-abuse
problems or mental health problems, has established several
therapeutic courts, and these have been very effective at
reducing recidivism rates and providing a more humane and cost-
effective way of dealing with what are often just minor offenses
or non-violent misdemeanor crimes committed by people who are
generally law abiding except when they abuse drugs/alcohol or
stop taking their medication. He went on to explain that the
ACS has a whole body of rules under which it operates - the
Alaska Rules of Court; these rules, which govern how the courts
work and establish how various types of cases must move through
the system, can be and routinely are amended by the legislature,
or by committees formed [within the ACS] to address specific
provisions of the Alaska Rules of Court. Changes proposed by
such committees must be approved by the Alaska Supreme Court,
whereas changes proposed by the legislature must receive a two-
thirds affirmative vote from both bodies.
2:22:31 PM
MR. WOOLIVER explained that in addition to specific court rule
changes proposed by the legislature, legislation in general can
affect the courts in any number of ways. For example,
legislation can add new offenses to the criminal statutes,
thereby increasing the number of cases that come before the
courts; legislation can increase the penalties for certain
offenses, thereby increasing the trial rate for some types of
cases; and legislation can increase the courts'
responsibilities, thereby requiring the courts to take
additional steps. However, typically [the ACS] doesn't take a
supporting or opposing position on legislation, unless it's
legislation that the ACS has specifically asked for or it's
legislation that specifically addresses [the ACS] and its
internal operations. A few reasons for typically not taking a
position on legislation are that the ACS recognizes that the
legislature is the primary body that sets public policy; many of
the bills that are passed will come before the court for
interpretation or because they are challenged on constitutional
grounds; and judges can disagree with regard to whether
particular legislation should be supported or opposed.
Generally, therefore, he simply provides the legislature with
information about how particular pieces of proposed legislation
might impact the courts.
2:26:09 PM
MR. WOOLIVER explained that the ACS also interacts with the
executive branch in a couple of ways: one, in day-to-day
interactions with the rest of the justice system - the Division
of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the Department of Corrections (DOC),
the Department of Law (DOL), the Department of Public Safety
(DPS), the Public Defender Agency (PDA), the Office of
Children's Services (OCS), the Office of Public Advocacy (OPA),
and the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), to name a few; and,
two, formally, through its court rule committees [and other
committees] which also have various representatives from the
administration as members. To highlight the latter type of
interaction, he then provided some information about a couple
such committees - the "criminal justice working group" and the
Multi-Agency Justice Integration Consortium (MAJIC) - and
indicated that some of the problems these two groups have been
seeking to resolve are those related to discovery, in
particular, and to the transfer of information between criminal
justice agencies, in general.
MR. WOOLIVER emphasized that the criminal justice system and the
civil justice system are just that - systems composed of a lot
of different but interrelated entities. This means that when
laws are changed for one part of the system, it creates issues
for all the other parts - those interrelated entities have no
control over such changes but must deal with them nonetheless.
For example, if the legislature provides the DPS with more
funding for additional troopers, that will result in more cases
being referred to the DOL's prosecutors, and in more cases going
through the court system, and in more cases getting assigned to
the PDA, and in more defendants going to the DOC. The ACS has
to accept every case filed by the prosecutor, the PDA has to
accept every case assigned to it by the court, and the DOC has
to find a way to deal with every person delivered into its
custody.
2:31:38 PM
MR. WOOLIVER explained that the Alaska Judicial Council (AJC)
and the Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC) - both
constitutionally-created entities - are the other two parts of
the judicial branch of government. The AJC accepts applications
for judicial positions, interviews and reviews those applicants,
and then sends a list of names to the governor, who then selects
from that list his/her appointments to the bench. The AJC also
reviews judges up for retention, and conducts numerous studies
of the criminal justice system. The CJC enforces the code of
judicial conduct, and makes recommendations to the Alaska
Supreme Court when violations occur.
MR. WOOLIVER, in response to questions, said that he isn't aware
of any problems judges are having with regard to exercising
their right of free speech; that forthcoming legislation
introduced by the ACS through the House and Senate Rules
Standing Committees is proposing to add two more [superior
court] judges to the Third Judicial District's civil bench in
order to address last year's increase in case filings; that he
doesn't believe the Alaska Supreme Court has any interest in
unifying Alaska's lower courts or sees any benefit to doing so;
that he would research the issue of grants for therapeutic
courts further; that court rule committee members - often
considered to be experts on a particular subject - are appointed
by the Alaska Supreme Court; that how often such committees meet
varies a lot depending on the committee; that copies of the
Alaska Rules of Court contain a listing of the various
committees and their members; that he would research how many of
the members of those committees work for the executive branch
and how many work for the legislative branch; and that although
crime rates are generally going down in most areas of the state,
the number of case filings is frequently going up, though such
might be due to increased efficiencies, staff, and enforcement.
2:42:05 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Judiciary Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 2:42 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HJUD Department Overview-Public Safety 012811.pdf |
HJUD 1/28/2011 1:00:00 PM |
Department of Public Safety |
| HJUD Alaska Court System Legislative Liaison Doug Wooliver Bio 012811.pdf |
HJUD 1/28/2011 1:00:00 PM |
Alaska Court System |
| HJUD Public Safety Commissioner Joseph Masters Bio 012811.pdf |
HJUD 1/28/2011 1:00:00 PM |
Department of Public Safety |