By the end of May, the Kodiak Police Department will no longer be able to sustain patrols 24 hours a day, seven days a week due to steadily declining staffing levels.
Police Chief Tim Putney told KMXT in January that this will be the first time since the 1980s that the department has not been able to maintain overnight patrols throughout the whole week.
“At the current trend we’re looking at probably going to a different schedule, that means we’re not going to have patrol officers 24/7 and that’s something we’ve never done in the community,” Putney said at the time.
Putney referenced the downward trending staffing levels in an April 25 report to the City Council. In 2021 the department had 16 police officers including Putney, a detective sergeant, and a detective, but by May 27 it will be down to ten officers. The department is budgeted to fill 17 police officer positions.
Putney said the lone detective with KPD was reassigned to cover patrol shifts earlier this year, and another officer resigned on May 6.
Based on the current scheduling system, that won’t be enough to support sending two officers out on every patrol shift overnight. The few remaining officers already work 12-hour shifts, with three days off every other week. Putney said that results in more overtime and more burnout, so he’s looking to change how shifts are scheduled.
“I’m pretty against the idea of having them working solo, for safety reasons,” Putney said in January. “So we would probably have them available at home, on call, but just not on the clock for these extended overtime periods.”
Putney said he is considering going to traditional eight-hour shifts that would consistently cover 8 a.m. to midnight on a daily basis. KPD would also potentially have officers on graveyard shifts, which would involve some working 10 hours instead of eight.
Putney said earlier this year that he believes one of the main reasons for the dwindling staff is a lack of housing in Kodiak. The department has not had a new hire since the fall of 2022. It also takes three months on average for a new officer to finish training.
According to the department’s data, as the number of officers are falling, the number of calls for service are rising. Kodiak Island’s dispatch center saw a roughly 10% increase in calls over the past two full years, from 10,161 in 2021 to 11,227 in 2023. The department anticipates gaps in emergency response and less proactive policing with fewer officers at the end of the month.
Putney will provide a staffing update during his presentation to the Kodiak City Council at its work session next week on May 21.
