One of six indictments issued by a Sitka Grand Jury last month involved police use of force. Sitka’s interim police chief Chad Goeden said during a recent community conversation that fortunately, use of force is uncommon in Sitka.
“We certainly had one high profile incident recently,” Goeden said. “Before that, I think in my eight months here, we put one person on the ground that I’m aware of. It’s very, very infrequent.”
During the conversation on March 3, Goeden spoke about how force decisions are evaluated under the U.S. Constitution, and the standards officers are legally held to.
“This is a big deal for me,” he said. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and hopefully it starts a conversation in the community about police use of force and educates people so that when we see it, whether it be on national TV or social media or even in our own backyard, that we have a common understanding of how we should look at these things.”
One of Goeden’s missions since joining the department last summer, has been equipping his officers with body cameras. Sitka is among the few departments in Alaska that doesn’t yet use the technology, but the Sitka Assembly approved funding for the cameras and associated licensing at a meeting in February. While Goeden said cameras could help with transparency, there are still blind spots.
“Just because the officer’s wearing a camera, they’re not implanted in the officer’s eyes. His eyes might not be looking at exactly what the camera is looking at that time,” he said. “Video rarely captures everything the officer perceived.”
Goeden is wrapping up his tenure as the interim chief soon. At Tuesday’s assembly meeting (3-10-26), the assembly approved the promotion of Lt. Michael Hall to the permanent position.
To watch Goeden’s full presentation, head to the Sitka Police Department’s Facebook page.
