Nome police updates PSAC on accreditation process
The Nome Public Safety Advisory Commission inducted a new commissioner during their recent meeting on Monday night.
Peter Travers, a lawyer for the Alaska Legal Services organization, took the oath of office on Monday evening before participating in his first commission session. “I’m glad to be here and looking forward to seeing what I can do with this [position]” Travers told his fellow commissioners at the end of Monday’s session.
During the session, commissioners heard public safety updates, crime statistics and where the Nome Police Department is in the accreditation process.
“The Common Council wants to get a full cost accounting of what it would be to go out and get accreditation,” City Manager Glenn Steckman told commissioners. “That was made as a request by a couple of the Common Council members before we pursue this. It’s not fallen off the chart.”
Police Chief Mike Heintzelman has been working with other police departments in Alaska to determine the cost of receiving accreditation for the Nome Police Department and says the biggest cost is just management.
“The only cost that we’ve got to figure out yet is the accreditation manager, having a person in charge of making sure that we’ve got everything we need,” Heintzelman said. “The cost is relatively minor when it comes to joining an organization — just $1,100 per year, so it’s very low. The main cost is the accreditation manager.”
Accreditation “is a priority for the chief and me,” Steckman said. “We believe it’s a good safety program and I’m very supportive of it. Moving forward, we do have money budgeted for the start of this project, but we just need to get the numbers to get the Common Council to fully buy into it.”
Heintzelman says accreditation is a valuable tool used by police departments across the country and would significantly benefit the City of Nome. “You’ve got policies and procedures that have been vetted through successful departments throughout the nation,” he told commissioners. “It’s a vetted way of doing things that is a recipe for success.”
Heintzelman explained data regarding ongoing Nome crime statistics and detailed how most crime statistics have fallen over the last year.
“In 2020, we first got hit with COVID, and here we are in 2021 still dealing with COVID and with all the calls added up, everything has gone down statistically [this year],” he explained. “The only thing that is currently up from our statistics right now is 911 calls.”
Sexual assaults, he said, were halved between 2020 and 2021.
“Sexual assaults are right at 47 for this year, and we finished off the year 2020 at 93,” Heintzelman said. “I don’t know what is causing the much-reduced sexual assaults, but I’m happy that whatever it is, we keep doing.”
Heintzelman also informed commissioners of the recent passing of Community Service Officer Bryan Piercy, who was set to retire this year. “Bryan was a great guy,” commissioner Justin Noffsker commented. “I remember seeing him on Front Street. He showed such great care for people and an amazing amount of patience.”
Several commissioners expressed concerns with how the city is addressing COVID-19.
“Response to outside entities versus what’s going on within the city itself seems a little disproportionate,” Noffsker said. “I’m surprised to see people meeting in general, particularly in the city building, particularly after what happened [last Monday], at a [Council] meeting regarding COVID, where someone later tested positive who was at that meeting.”
Steckman says safety precautions are being taken in both city facilities and in bars and restaurants across Nome.
“The city has been operating since last Sunday morning at a reduction in the attendance capacity by 25 percent,” he told commissioners. “We are not aggressively enforcing this, though we are following up when we do get complaints of people that may be in the bars though they have been either tested or potentially exposed [to COVID-19].”
COVID-19 cases in Nome are beginning to fall after peaking at 108 active cases in late October. Currently, there are 87 active cases in the city, and Steckman says the city will begin to relax current mask and bar capacity mandates once active cases fall below 50.
The next Public Safety Advisory Commission meeting will take place on December 6, where representatives from the Nome Community Center will present about their upcoming Housing First project, a 15unit apartment-style complex designed to provide permanent shelter to the most vulnerable unhoused residents of Nome.