Sitka has its sights set on a new police chief, but it could be awhile until he can actually fill the role. The city has hired Michael Hall as a new police lieutenant with plans for him to move into the police chief position once he’s certified for police service in Alaska.
Acting municipal administrator Josh Branthoover announced Hall’s hire at the Sitka Assembly meeting Tuesday (10-14-25).
“He brings decades of law enforcement experience and demonstrates the leadership qualities we are seeking in Sitka’s next police chief,” Branthoover said.
Hall was one of two finalists for the police chief position who was invited to Sitka for a meet-and-greet in June. But Branthoover said before Hall can be hired as police chief, he will first have to attend a police officer certification academy in order to become eligible for police service in Alaska because of Alaska Police Standards Council certification requirements. The academy began in Fairbanks in early October, and the process could take up to a year.
Hall will serve as lieutenant under interim police chief Chad Goeden who stepped into the role in July. While one job may now be filled, in his quarterly report, Goeden told the assembly the police department has a 40% vacancy rate — higher than any other city department.
Goeden said that’s for a number of reasons. He said hiring is difficult, every department in the country is competing to hire the same few candidates, and once the department does hire them, training takes a long time.
“If I hired a police officer today, after the academy and after the field training program, I could finally cut them loose on the streets to help serve and protect in about July of next year. That’s the nature of police training,” he said.
Of the 11 vacant positions, Goeden said three of those are police officers, and three of those are sergeants, which is one of the hardest positions to fill.
“I think you can agree with me that if I put a sergeant on the street, you would want them to have been a police officer here in Sitka first,” he said. “I don’t care how great of a sergeant somebody was someplace else, I’m very hesitant to put them in a sergeant role here, if they don’t even know how things are done here.”
Goeden said despite the hardships, the department is making progress. Fourteen police officer applicants and four dispatcher applicants are going through background checks at the moment. He said he’d be shocked if they don’t have at least one new Alaska State Trooper academy recruit on staff by January.
