While Ankerfelt works to retool Sitka’s police culture, he acknowledges that the department has work to do. He called substance abuse Sitka’s biggest problem. “It’s the genesis of most crime,” he told the Chamber. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

A little over a year after the department was rocked by charges of excessive use of force, Sitka’s new police chief is focusing on community engagement.

Jeff Ankerfelt spoke to Sitka’s Chamber of Commerce this week (Wednesday 12-21-16). He discussed his efforts to reinvent the culture of policing in Sitka.

Downloadable audio.

In most all respects it was a presentation that any new department head would make: The status of facilities and resources, staffing challenges, and a 10-year plan for improvement.

For instance: The jail. The Police Department and jail are housed in a 40-year old building never designed for either.

“The jail is something that bothers me. It’s small. It’s dark. There are no windows. So you could be sentenced to a period of time to serve and you could go into this jail and you’re behind metal bars and you don’t see daylight for weeks.”

But Jeff Ankerfelt is not saying that he wants to make the jail pleasant. He wants to make it humane and dignified. Here’s why:

“Most of the people we put in our jails are not bad people. They made mistakes — the vast majority. They are our citizens and they’re going to come back out and join us in our community.”

And this happened over and over again in Ankerfelt’s presentation. He’d describe some set of circumstances within the department — whether it’s the break room or the sergeant’s office, or the shortage of detectives — and connect it to not just the need for new facilities or more personnel, but to a new philosophy of policing.

There’s probably a more technical term for it, but Ankerfelt calls it “customer service.” He admits it’s a challenging idea in law enforcement.

“I know from a fact that I didn’t get killed a few times because I treated people well. I also know I caused trouble by not treating people well in my youth as a police officer. Good customer service. Never take away anyone’s dignity — ever. That’ll get you killed and it’s just dumb and it’s being a bad person.”

Ankerfelt has been trying to instill this value into the Sitka Police Department since he was elevated to chief from lieutenant in October . He suggested that he wouldn’t retain officers who acted otherwise.

“If you’re a jerk and you’re mean to people, I’m going to fire you. I’m going to get rid of you. Being kind and empathetic is not unsafe.”

In November 2015 a video surfaced on social media showing two police officers and the Sitka jailer tasering an 18-year old student from Mt. Edgecumbe High School as they forcibly subdued him and removed his clothing. The City of Sitka settled with the student for $350,000 last February. An unrelated union grievance further eroded morale in the department, and contributed to turnover.

Ankerfelt didn’t mention these episodes directly, but this is the department he inherited. The desire for change percolated through his remarks.

He said he had recently heard laughter in the hallways for the first time since he came to Sitka 2-and-a-half years ago as a lieutenant. He celebrated the recent hire of two new officers — Josh Stevens, son of former deputy fire chief Al Stevens, and Jason Christner — both Sitkans. And Ankerfelt expressed a desire to diversify the police, and to rebuild the authorized force to 17 officers from its current figure of 14 — with the aid of a grant-funded cadet program.

Mostly though, he wants to rebrand the Police Department as a community asset, like the guys across the street.

“So if you go over to the Fire Department. It’s like America’s Heroes, right? The big deal. The flags. The beautiful fire trucks lined up and the tourists are out there taking pictures. There’s an understanding there that there’s community value to that. And what I’d like to have for our officers is this recognition that you’re a part of us.”

Ankerfelt said he hoped to remain chief for ten years, with plans for a new police station in place in about 7. But he’s thinking strategically, and he reminded the chamber that the mission of the department remains stopping crime.

“I’m not here to build a kingdom,” he said. “Every dollar spent on policing is a dollar that isn’t spent on something that might be more effective in the long term for public well-being.”

Tom Gamble is a former member of the Sitka Tribal Council, and a past president of the Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp No. 1.

He believes racism is more pervasive in Sitka than many realize.

“It’s a systemic problem. Nobody knows how to stop a rolling ball that’s been going so long. They want the ball to stop somehow, they just don’t know how.”

Gamble received training last summer from the First Alaskans Institute to become a local host in a program called “Advancing Native Dialogues On Racial Equities,” or ANDORE.

The project is funded by a grant from the Kellogg Foundation. ANDORE is an experiment in fostering community healing through conversation.

Gamble says that Sitka was propelled into the national conversation about racism, when a video surfaced on social media last fall showing an 18-year old Native Alaskan student being stripped and tasered by three Sitka police officers.

“People reacted to this Hoogendorn video recently. It divided the community to the extent that they wanted changes within law enforcement. It just seems like it keeps repeating in certain organizations.”

Gamble says the stories and conversation about racism in Sitka would be much different than, say, racism in Seattle. ANDORE is also not just about drawing attention to police practices. Leaders from municipal government and many local agencies have been invited to listen and learn about racial experiences.

And then? Participants are invited to home in on a solution.

“When you first start to talk about these things, there’s a checkerboard — emotions go crazy. Being able to harness that all into a productive event, to have a good moderator, a person who knows that what we’re really looking for is systemic change. We’ve seen it go on long enough, now what’s the solution? We want these people to be able to talk about their experiences — good or bad — to benefit everybody in the end.”

Gamble has two sessions of Advancing Native Dialogues On Racial equity this weekend. The first will be 6-8 PM Friday evening in the Sitka National Historical Park theater, and will include an introduction, a short presentation, and some breakout discussions.

The second session will be 9 AM – 4 PM Saturday at the Sheetka Kwan Naa Kahidi, and will focus on legal questions, policy issues, and education.

Although many community leaders have received personal invitations to ANDORE, the public is welcome to attend both sessions and share stories and ideas about bringing racial equity to Sitka.

The video of the arrest of 18-year-old Franklin Hoogendorn was at the center of a months-long controversy over Sitka police procedures. (YouTube image capture)

Sitka has settled out of court with a high school student who was tasered in the city’s jail in 2014.

Franklin Hoogendorn will be paid $350,000 by Sitka’s insurance carrier.

Hoogendorn was 18 years old, and attending Mt. Edgecumbe High School, when he was arrested in September of 2014 outside a Sitka bar where he had been attempting to buy a drink.

Police took Hoogendorn into custody. A video of the arrest, which went viral on social media last fall, shows Hoogendorn being forcibly restrained by a jailer and two police officers and repeatedly tasered as his clothes are removed.

The settlement was negotiated between the Alaska National Insurance Company, on behalf of the City of Sitka, and the two legal firms representing Hoogendorn.

Sitka’s municipal attorney Robin Koutchak says it was a standard no-fault, no-admission settlement. She’s satisfied with the outcome.

“It’s not a windfall for anybody. We felt that it was very fair.”

Hoogendorn never filed a lawsuit over the incident. His attorneys instead submitted a “draft complaint” which contained only the threat of a lawsuit.

As a result, Koutchak says the settlement agreement does not bind Sitka, for example, to change police procedures, or other any action that might be compelled by a judge, had the matter gone to court.

Franklin Hoogendorn is now 20 years old. His attorneys could not be reached for comment by press time.

The conduct of the officers in the incident remains under investigation by the FBI.

Additional reporting from KCAW on this story:

Arrest video raises questions of excessive force in Sitka jail

Sitka officials say taser incident conformed to police policy

FBI to lead investigation of tasing incident in Sitka jail

In letter to FBI, STA concerned about racial bias

Sitka Police release operations manual in wake of video

Teen prepares to sue city over tasing

Sitka Tribe, police defuse tension following tasing video

In spite of everything, 2015 will be remembered as a good year in Sitka. It’s the year that the community’s faith, grit, and forward-thinking principles were put to the test. (KCAW photo/Emily Kwong)

In spite of everything, 2015 will be remembered as a good year in Sitka. It’s the year that the community’s faith, grit, and forward-thinking principles were put to the test. It’s the year that Sitkans forged tragedy, loss, and crisis into a renewed sense of purpose. It’s the year than many of us decided to try and lead better lives, for ourselves and others.

KCAW’s Robert Woolsey has this look back at 2015.

Downloadable audio.

If you think I’m going to exaggerate the significance of 2015 you should think about this: The top story of 2014 was the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Sitka’s school board takes the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Yup. You had forgotten all about that.

Sitka’s 2015 will be memorable because our biggest stories were clustered together in a year that was already sprinkled with interesting news stories, like the state’s closing all its parks here, its goal-line stand against an invasive marine species called D-vex, the school district outsourcing Community Schools, the Sitka Softball team winning its 5th state championship in 6 years, or the Cross Country  and Girls Basketball teams winning its first titles — ever. Go Wolves!

The Lady Wolves made it 5 out of 6 in Softball in 2015. (Facebook photo)

The epic news began on Monday August 17, when the Electric Department notified media that 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel had leaked from a storage tank at the Jarvis St. generator plant. Much of it had been recovered in a concrete containment structure designed for just this emergency. But an unknown amount — possibly as much as 7,000 gallons — had drained into a storm sewer that emptied into Jamestown Bay. (Note: This figure was subsequently revised down to 2,500 gallons.)

The state and city set up an incident command center to manage the situation, which would prove to be provident. The very next morning, Tuesday August 18, a sopping-wet storm system dropped down the outer coast and soaked Sitka with as much as 5 inches of rain in under six hours.

The deluge triggered 7 landslides on the Sitka road system, one of them sweeping through a new development on Kramer Avenue, destroying a house and killing two workers inside, the brothers Elmer and Ulises Diaz, age 24 and 25, and also taking the life of 62-year old William Stortz, Sitka’s building official.

City engineer David Longtin performing recovery work at the landslide that nearly overtook him. Longtin was not totally at ease — “I’m keeping my eye on it,” he said. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Municipal engineer David Longtin and an excavator operator, Jerome Mahoskey, escaped. Longtin said they had very little time to react.

“We heard a rumbling. It didn’t immediately dawn on us what it was. We looked at each other with puzzled expressions and looked at the hill, and saw these 200-foot trees falling like dominoes — boom, boom, boom, one after another.”

The next day, Gov. Bill Walker flew to Sitka to personally assess the scene.

Gov. Bill Walker (right) and Sitka Mayor Mim McConnell visited the site of the Kramer Avenue landslide on Wednesday, August 19. (Rachel Waldholz, KCAW)

“I’ve been governor about nine months now and I’ve prided myself by saying I’ve never had a bad day. Well, I can’t say that anymore. This is a really tough day.”

And it would get tougher. Volunteers flooded the firehall with offers of assistance, but the threat of more rain forced officials to keep most everyone off the slope. And it soon became clear that there would be no rescue. Grace Harbor Church transformed into a 24-hour care center, for recovery workers, for families evacuated from the surrounding neighborhoods. Working in shifts, coaches and friends from their former high school baseball team found the bodies of Elmer and Ulises about 3 days after the slide. William’s body was finally found a week after, on August 25.

Seattle Fire Battalion Chief Thomas Richardson flew to Sitka to advise. His department had managed the slide in Oso, Washington, in March 2014, which claimed 43 lives.

“Yeah, it’s very similar. In fact it’s déjà vu.”

The video of the arrest of 18-year-old Franklin Hoogendorn will be examined by the FBI< along with Sitka’s police procedures. (YouTube image capture)

Then came the video. Over Halloween weekend a Sitka middle school teacher, Alexander Allison, posted a pair of videos on social media. One, of his own arrest as a bystander watching a DUI investigation, and a second showing then 18-year old Franklin Hoogendorn, a Mt. Edgecumbe High School student, being taken into custody by Sitka police, and being tasered multiple times as three officers subdued him in the local jail. The Hoogendorn video went viral.

Police chief Sheldon Schmitt said the video only told part of the story.

“What you’re seeing on the video is the culmination of a longer contact.”

Schmitt maintains that Hoogendorn was resisting — since the moment officers confronted him earlier in the evening outside a Sitka bar — and that the use of the taser conformed to police policies in place at the time of the arrest in September 2014.

Since the video went public, Hoogendorn has obtained legal counsel. His attorney, Myron Angstman, says the video tells its own story.

“It doesn’t really matter what I think the tape says, or what you think the tape says, or what the police chief thinks the tape says, or what the city manager thinks the tape says — because the jury has the final decision as to what that tape says.”

The conduct of the Sitka police officers is being reviewed by the FBI. The Sitka Tribe sent a letter formally asking the bureau to investigate possible racial bias in Sitka’s police department. At the request of media, Sitka released its police operating procedures manual, but the 342-page document doesn’t spell out guidelines for use of a taser. Top officers in the department held a town hall meeting with Tribal citizens to discuss concerns and ease tensions, but could not directly address the Hoogendorn incident since it appears headed to court.

The rest of the news in 2015 was lighter, but no less important. For example, the CEO of Sitka Community Hospital bolted. Well, technically Jeff Comer skipped town in 2014, but the news became public when he failed to show up for a meeting with the assembly on January 2.

Comer had been working in Sitka for less than three months. His abrupt departure, paired with a bizarre story of being attacked by an unidentified couple on a Sitka trail, left people more amused than worried.

The hospital classroom was packed for the first board meeting following the disappearance of Jeff Comer. Staffers urged transparency as the board moves forward. “A lot of what’s happened has been a mystery to us,” said one. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Municipal attorney Robin Koutchak assured the hospital board that Comer would not be coming back.

“Ann, I think he’s gone. (Laughter) Elvis left the building.”

Sitka businessman Rob Allen later took the job of CEO, stabilizing the hospital’s finances, and possibly restoring sanity.

Sitka wrapped up the largest public works project in its history in 2015 – the $157-million Blue Lake Hydro expansion.
Electrical department engineer Dean Orbison was boosterish about the project for the two years it took to raise the dam and build a new powerhouse. But when he cut the ribbon in May, he didn’t seem to upset too take off his hard hat once and for all.

Project Manager Dean Orbison (left) and Mayor Mim McConnell smashed a bottle of champagne against one of the new, blue turbines. (Emily Kwong/KCAW)

“This particular project, this success, and working together with this team is by far the pinnacle of my career. Which ends today!”

Another significant departure this year was John Straley’s. The former writer laureate of Alaska retired from a three-decade career as a criminal investigator, most recently for the Public Defender’s Office in Sitka. Straley drew on his work experience to write nine novels, which he says, had far more “moral certainty” than real life.

“Reality is always so much more complicated, with so much more gray area. And in stories, you always make it work out faster.”

John Straley, in his office at the Sitka Public Defender. With up to 50 cases in play at any given time, Straley says the work “can be rewarding, but also heartbreaking.” (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

As if to illustrate Straley’s point, the family of Lael Grant in June asked the state to issue her death certificate. The 33-year old mother of two went missing in 2012, with no ID in her possession, and no other means to travel off-island.

Her sister, Erika Burkhouse, believed Grant’s disappearance was connected to her involvement with Sitka’s drug culture. She didn’t want to give up hope, but the family needed to move on.

“I think she just got too far in, you know. She was in a really bad place after my dad passed away. So I would like to think so. She was a strong person, she really was. Those boys meant the world to her, and despite what was happening to her, and her unhealthy lifestyle, she still somehow managed to be a good mom.”

The state ruled Grant’s death a likely homicide. The case remains open and unsolved.

The 80-foot tender Kupreanof slips beneath the waves just seconds after the last crew member was hoisted aboard an Air Station Sitka helicopter. (USCG image)

And life also made headlines in 2015. Early in the morning on June 10, the 80-foot fishing tender Kupreanof began taking on water offshore of Lituya Bay. An Air Station Sitka helicopter arrived on scene and found the Kupreanof about half-submerged in rough seas, with four men on board.

The helicopter commander, Chris Stoeckler, asked the crew to get in their life raft, but the Kupreanof radioed back, with a problem.

“I’ve got one man that’s pretty old and can’t swim.”

A rescue swimmer was lowered to assist all four men into a raft, and all were safely hoisted to the helicopter, just as the Kupreanof slipped under the waves. There is a video of this rescue available online that is more real than any reality television you’ll ever see, though it plays like another day at the office for the cool heads flying the helicopter.

Simeon Swetsov, Jr., left, the mayor of St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands, choked up as he testified before the NPFMC advisory panel. Beside him is Mateo Paz-Soldan. (Rachel Waldholz/KCAW)

Sitka hosted two major fisheries meetings this year, the State Board of Fisheries, and the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. The meetings were filled with intense issues, but none more so than the Council’s deliberations over wasted halibut — or bycatch. The stakes are enormous for small-boat fishermen in the villages of Western Alaska. Member Duncan Fields was aggrieved when the rest of the council adopted bycatch limits favoring larger commercial interests.

“I acknowledge on a personal basis my identity with the folks living in Western Alaska, and their loss of economic opportunity, personal identity, and cultural legacy. I get it.”

On three separate occasions this fall young vandals tipped over headstones in the Russian Orthodox Cemetery. (KCAW photo/Emily Kwong)

Cultural legacy came into play in other news stories as well. This fall, Sitka’s Orthodox Cemetery was struck by three separate episodes of vandalism, where numerous headstones were tipped over. Bob Sam is the caretaker of the 200-year old cemetery, which holds the remains of mostly Alaska Natives.

“When you’re washing a headstone, it’s no different than washing somebody’s feet. You experience a kind of humility.”

Sam was nearing despair over the repeated vandalism, but help from the police department and cadets at the Sitka Trooper Academy helped restore his faith. After each incident, law enforcement personnel returned to the cemetery to raise the stones, some weighing hundreds of pounds. Sitka police later caught the culprits, a group of 8-10 year old children.

Another cultural rift was mended when the Alaska Day Committee was called out on its use of the name “Slave Auction” for an annual fundraiser at the Pioneer Bar. Pressure to drop the name came from the NAACP in Anchorage, in a press release issued on Alaska Day. In the auction, business owners agree to provide a service to a high bidder.
Event organizers felt that the otherwise benign, 31-year old event had been unfairly targeted. This is Mary Magnuson.

“This controversy frankly offends me a little bit, that people who know nothing about my community are pointing fingers and acting like we’re racist.”

The Sitka Tribe endorsed the NAACP’s position, saying “slave auction” was insensitive. The committee changed the name to “Alaska Day Auction,” and suggested that they would have welcomed a phone call from the NAACP, rather than a limelight.

There is cultural rift, and then there’s just culture.

Music: Cantina Band from Star Wars

On December 17, in Sitka and just about everywhere, fans flocked to the premiere of Episode VII of Star Wars. The intergalactic odyssey proved inter-generational, as parents stood in a line reaching toward St. Michael’s Cathedral to watch a film with their children, that they first saw as children themselves.

“This is probably the most important night of my life since I was 5 years old on Christmas Eve and watched Star Wars for the first time,” said one movie-goer.

Mike Romine stands in front of his home on Wachusetts Street. He even provided a low-power FM signal so viewers could listen to holiday music in their vehicles. (KCAW photo/Brielle Schaeffer)

And afterwards, on that evening and many others, Sitkans would get in their cars to drive to the corner of Kimsham and Wachusetts streets, to the home of Mike Romine, a Christmas light enthusiast and — for one month at least –probably Sitka’s best electrical customer.

Romine’s show has evolved over the past decade into something worthy of Vegas, but it isn’t heavy handed. As programmed lights climb a tower, they merge to form the words August 18, Elmer, Ulises, and Bill — the three Sitkans who perished in the landslide.

“I just knew that there were a lot of people that it affected. People just came together, it was a pretty big deal. And because I was thinking of them, most of Sitka probably was too. I think the families have appreciated it.”

Music: Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again.

And it’s been gestures like Mike Romine’s, large and small, bright and not so visible — too many to count, really — that turn a difficult year into a good one.

Let’s meet again in 2016. Happy New Year.

The department’s top officers recently gathered with Tribal leaders and other Sitkans in a town hall meeting (12-7-15) to discuss the incident, and to share information about the department’s guidelines regarding the use of force.

About 35 people attended the 3-hour meeting.

Downloadable audio.

The town hall meeting was the kind of conversation that many larger communities should probably have, but can’t, because the scale of the acrimony and tension over policing issues in recent years has grown too large for a single room.

But Sitka has a just-rightness that allows people to speak, and a cultural tradition of courtesy that allows people to be heard.

Sitka’s police force has undergone some recent changes as well. Officer Mary Ferguson, a Tlingit citizen and newly-minted graduate of the Law Enforcement Program at the UAF Career and Technical College emceed the meeting. Two relatively new lieutenants, Jeff Ankerfelt and Lance Ewers have years of experience, but share an attitude about public engagement that feels fresh.

This is Ewers, speaking about the department’s renewed push for body cameras on officers.

“These things are great because they’re completely non-biased witnesses to events that take place. It’s a beautiful thing, being able to video-record everything the officer does.”

Body cameras were on the agenda, along with recent cemetery vandalism, and the department’s newly-implemented taxi-voucher program to reduce holiday drunk driving arrests.

But none of these topics could match the gravity of the tasing incident in Sitka’s jail. A video of the 2014 arrest of then-18 year-old Franklin Hoogendorn went viral when it was posted on social media this fall by a Sitka teacher.

Hoogendorn is an Alaska Native from Koyuk. He was attending Mt. Edgecumbe High School at the time.

The video was obtained through a court-order requested by Hoogendorn’s defense attorney.

Lt. Ankerfelt nodded to it in his discussion of body cameras. He asked, who owns the video files of police activities?

“One of the things we’ve struggled with locally is that someone will have an encounter here with a police officer and they’ll get on social media — Sitka Chatters or Sitka Chatters Without Rules, these different places — and they’ll discuss what they feel happened. But if you watch the video, it’s something entirely different. Meanwhile strife, conflict, disinformation — to some degree — is occasionally spread. But there’s this information that is essentially publicly-owned.”

Ewers and Ankerfelt explained that pressure to finally release the Sitka Police Operating Procedures Manual — and to have the town hall meeting — came from within the department.

Alaska Native Brotherhood president Tom Gamble applauded the efforts of the police to improve transparency. And he spoke candidly about his own experience, echoed by other tribal citizens at the meeting.

“The thing about growing up in Sitka as a young Native person is that you see those uniforms, and it’s very intimidating. Some of that, as we age, just never goes away.”

Nevertheless, Gamble remained open on the issue of the Hoogendorn video. “I can’t say the video was wrong,” he said. “I wasn’t there.”

The Sitka Tribe of Alaska wrote a letter to the FBI asking the agency to examine bias against Alaska Natives in the Sitka police department. The personal stories of several other Tribal citizens like Stephanie Edenshaw and Bob Sam, suggested that relations between police and the Native community in Sitka have been difficult at times.

But Alaska Native Sisterhood president Paulette Moreno believed that this meeting, and the willingness of the officers present to speak openly about their interest in regaining trust, meant that times had changed.

She referred to police chief Sheldon Schmitt.

“I know he’s a good man, and he wears a badge here tonight. And I know in my heart that if he had seen — in his experience — a Native person who was treated unkindly by an officer or by a police department, or treated unfairly, that he would do everything in his power to stop it at that point. And I know a lot of people here have been treated unfairly. I know that there’s a history in the Indian village, a history among our women, and other incidents with our elders and their sons and their families. And I just want to say that we feel your tears.”

Schmitt responded it was important to address systemic prejudice in policing.

“I know in my heart that there’s been injustice in this community and in this state toward Native people. And I know that influences how people feel about the police. Even if it’s not that police officer, or me specifically.”

Many in the room used Chief Schmitt’s words as an invitation to share their personal — and sometimes painful — stories of police encounters. Elder Nels Lawson said that this was the purpose of the talking circle.

But the discussion never drifted too far from the Hoogendorn video. The audience asked about the hiring policies of the police department, and whether the city knew that one of the officers involved in the Hoogendorn incident had been involved in a fatal tasing in New Mexico.

They also asked about the taser, how it’s used and how often it’s used.

Lt. Ewers explained as much as he could without going into specifics of the Hoogendorn case, which might be headed to court.

But not everyone was satisfied. Brent Turvey is a forensic investigator who came to Sitka 15 years ago, and has since made the community his home.

“I hear what you’re saying. But I have a very real concern that you don’t understand that what actually happened was wrong. Because what I hear is, We’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that. But do you actually understand that that kid being tased that many times with three officers piled on top of him, in a situation he couldn’t respond to — under circumstances of being held by police — that that was wrong? Because the community understands it’s wrong.”

Turvey has been a frequent and vocal critic of police practices on social media. He said he supported the department’s efforts toward transparency.

Lt. Ankerfelt, however, thought social media had created antagonism toward officers. Some of those feelings came out in this exchange with Turvey.

Ankerfeldt – We don’t pay them very well. Collectively we don’t treat them very well. Okay? They risk their lives. And they go home and talk about the things they read on the internet that affect their children. We are getting death threats right now against our officers. I got a call a couple of days ago from a guy who says he’s going to come into my driveway.
Turvey – Are you saying you can’t tolerate a public dialogue about facts that are available to the public, because your officers’ feelings might get hurt?

The FBI has not said how it will address the Tribe’s letter on racism, when agents arrive in Sitka this month to investigate the Hoogendorn incident. Nevertheless, there was sentiment among some elders at the town hall meeting that it had been productive, and that open dialogue with police should happen more often.

Tribal chairman Michael Baines closed the meeting by thanking the officers, and everyone who shared their stories, but he also suggested that the conversation isn’t over. Baines said that if there was anyone in Sitka who has experienced a civil rights violation, the Tribe wanted to know about it.

Franklin Hoogendorn hired Bethel attorney Myron Angstman (pictured here) to represent him in a pending suit, after a video of his arrest and repeated tasing went viral.

The Alaska Native teenager at the epicenter of a tasing incident in Sitka last year has hired legal counsel. Though he’s not yet filed suit, the lawyer representing Franklin Hoogendorn intends to bring his case before a Sitka jury.

Downloadable audio.

Myron Angstman has run a private practice out of Bethel since 1977. He’s no stranger to cases involving police conduct on the job and has represented both parties.

In 2007, he defended a Bethel police officer in a case concerning a taser gun and won. “I kind of have an idea what the rules are and what the limits are. So this case looks like it’s one where there is a problem with the conduct of the officers. That’s my view,” said Angstman.

And that view – along with a six-minute video of Hoogendorn in police custody – convinced Angstman to take the case. He said, “The whole case is contained in that videotape, for the most part and I looked at the videotape and it sure looked like a doable case to me after I reviewed it.”

The six minute video was uploaded to YouTube on October 29th, over a year after the arrest, where it quickly made the rounds on social media and accumulated over 37,000 views. Angstman says Hoogendorn contacted his office shortly after.

Angstman then notified the Sitka of Hoogendorn’s intent to sue. Municipal attorney Robin Koutchak says the city’s insurance company has retained its own legal counsel to organize a defense, Cynthia Ducey of Anchorage. Last week, the city also released its police department Operating Procedures Manual to the public – a 342 page document.

Maegan Bosak, Sitka’s Community Development Director, said the city wants to be open about how arrests happen in Sitka. “The city decided that there was a need to be fully transparent, and wanted to make it available to read through and use as needed.”

The FBI is leading its own investigation into Hoogendorn’s arrest. Angstman says that whatever the bureau uncovers will be brought into court room.

For him, the video – with the police procedures as a measuring stick – is what this case is all about. He said, “It doesn’t really matter what I think the tape says or what you think the tape says or what the police chief thinks the tape says or what the city manager thinks the tape says, because the jury has the final decision as to what that tape says.”

Sitka Police Chief Sheldon Schmitt reviewed the footage shortly after, and determined that the arrest – while uncomfortable to watch – fell within policy guidelines. Furthermore, Schmitt says the video only shows a small slice of the police encounter with Hoogendorn, which began when officers confronted him outside of a Sitka bar.

In a previous interview, Schmitt says we’re not seeing the whole story. “He’s not giving them his hands. He’s pushing off. At one point he tries to kick the officers. And having just fought with him, they’re still concerned that he’s going to fight more. Hence the use of the taser. They’re trying to get him to comply.”

Angstman considers that argument a moot point. He thinks the actions of the jailer and two police officers as they restrain Hoogendorn, strip him, and repeatedly tase him speak for themselves. “Unfortunately for the police, by the time the video was turned on, Franklin was walking into the room without any resistance or problem,” Angstman said. “Any decent policeman would set aside whatever happened on the street and say, now that we have you in custody, we start new.”

At the time of his arrest, Hoogendorn was a senior at the state’s all-Alaska boarding school, Mt. Edgecumbe High School.

Academic principal Bernie Gurule says Hoogendorn had no run-ins with the law and was in good academic standing at the time of his arrest in September, 2014. He was signed out for the weekend by a family member, allowing him to leave the campus and visit Sitka when police saw him enter a local bar.

The following Monday, Gurule says Hoogendorn came into this office and asked to shut the door behind him. “To me he said that he has been busted for underage drinking. He wanted me to know that, because he was sure he was going to be in the paper very soon,” Gurule said.

Except for the most serious infractions, Mt. Edgecumbe has a two-strikes-and-you’re-out-rule for student substance abuse. Hoogendorn’s previous offense took place on campus, so this incident was strike two.

Gurule recalled the day he turned himself in. “He was sorry. There was no question in my mind he had a lot of remorse for the mistake that he made and he mentioned that more than a couple of times. ‘I know that I’ve really made a mistake here. I really like Mt. Edgecumbe High School, but I know I will probably get what I deserve.'”

Gurule indefinitely suspended Hoogendorn two days after the arrest, on September 8th. But he adds that Hoogendorn didn’t talk about what happened that night, not about the jail cell, being held overnight, or the tasing. Neither the city nor the police department notified Mt. Edgecumbe that Hoogendorn had been arrested.

Gurule would not comment on that. He did, however, affirm that the incident has not compromised the school’s otherwise strong relationship with the Sitka Police Department. “We don’t’ have to call them very often, but when we do they respond very quickly. They respond very professionally. They treat all of our students very fairly. It doesn’t matter whether they are Alaskan Native or not.”

As for Hoogendorn, his lawyer says that he has returned to his home village of Koyuk and earned his high school diploma.

The video of the arrest of 18-year-old Franklin Hoogendorn will be examined by the FBI, along with Sitka’s police procedures. (YouTube image capture)

The City of Sitka has released its police department Operating Procedures Manual to the public.

The 342-page document was posted on the city’s website on Wednesday morning (11-25-15), in the wake of a viral video showing a high school student being tased in the Sitka jail.

Downloadable audio.

KCAW filed a public records request for the document, after Police Chief Sheldon Schmitt brought a copy to a press conference with Sitka reporters on November 3. A video posted on social media showing a teenager being repeatedly tased in the Sitka jail had gone viral, and prompted concerns over the use of excessive force in the department.

The radio station’s request was formally denied in a letter drafted by Sitka’s legal department, on the grounds that the release of police procedures “could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings,” among other objections.

Maegan Bosak, Sitka’s Community Development Director, says the city has reconsidered its position.

“I think it was requested by different media outlets and citizens. And after review the city decided that there was a need to be fully transparent, and wanted to make it available to read through and use as needed.”

The Operating Procedures Manual — or OPM — is based on operating procedures used by the Alaska State Troopers.

Lance Ewers is a former trooper, and now serves as one of two lieutenants in the Sitka Police Department.

“I think what we’re literally living through is an evolution in law enforcement.”

Ewers believes that allowing people to fully understand police procedures is important to understanding why we created police forces historically, rather than giving police duties to the military.

“So what we’re seeing here is a giant step — a beautiful step — backwards in time, where we’re remembering that there is no us versus them. There’s only us, and we are the people, and the people are the police. So why wouldn’t we want the people to know what the rulebook is?”

The 342-page manual covers everything from wearing the uniform, to the operation of police vehicles, to bioterrorism. In the aftermath of the tasing video, many people will probably be turning to Chapter 104, which covers the use of force.

The video shows two officers and a jailer escorting 18-year old Franklin Hoogendorn, then a student at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, into the Sitka jail after his arrest in September of last year on charges of Disorderly Conduct. Over the course of the engagement, the three officers physically restrain Hoogendorn, remove all his clothing except for his underwear, while repeatedly tasing him in the thigh.

The specific levels of force demonstrated in the Hoogendorn video aren’t spelled out in detail in the Operating Procedures Manual. Lt. Ewers says this where police training comes into play.

“We can’t punish someone in the use of force. You can’t bring punishment on them. You can use force to gain safe control, but once safe control is obtained you have to de-escalate the amount of force that you’re using.”

Sitka police chief Sheldon Schmitt has defended the conduct of the officers in the video, saying the arrest conformed to police procedures, and that Hoogendorn was combative with officers from the moment they confronted him outside of a Sitka bar.

Lt. Ewers says that police don’t use force in proportion to the amount of resistance they receive; rather, we require them to always win the upper hand, and gain “safe control.” As long as the force used is reasonable — and he emphasizes reasonable — police are acting appropriately.

“Some people might look at a situation where there are three police officers, and all three officers are trying to restrain one person. And they might look at that and go, Oh there’s three guys — it’s three-on-one — that’s not fair. But in reality, by having three officers, you can use less force than having one officer. Because one officer by himself has to use more force — and is actually legally justified in using more force — to ensure that they win safe control in a certain engagement.”

The Operating Procedures Manual requires the documentation of any force used by police beyond routine handcuffing. The FBI will be conducting an investigation into the Hoogendorn arrest to determine if proper procedures were followed. Among them: Section 402 of the OPM describes searching uncooperative prisoners and placing them in lockdown until they become cooperative. And Section 102, which governs the conduct of police during arrests. It states “His office gives him no right to prosecute the violator, nor to mete out punishment for the offense.”

The assistant district attorney subsequently dropped all five charges against Hoogendorn, and he returned to his home village of Koyuk.

Sitka’s Tribal Council penned a letter to the FBI investigating the arrest of a Native Alaskan teenager last year. In it, they express concerns the conduct was influenced by race. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

On Tuesday (11-17-15), Sitka’s Tribal Council wrote a letter to the Anchorage Division of the FBI, regarding a tasing incident of a Native Alaska teenager in the Sitka jail last year. The letter alleges that prejudice exists within the Sitka Police Department and asks the FBI to consult the tribe during the investigation.

Downloadable audio.

To see a copy of the letter click here: STA Letter to FBI

The letter was written to the Special Agent in Charge at the FBI, the agency investigating the tasing of Franklin Hoogendorn last year. The letter asks for a couple of things. The first is to consider racial bias as a factor in the case.

The letter reads, “This incident is symptomatic of other actions by the Sitka Police Department which have alarmed citizens of this Tribe for many Years. Many of our citizens believe such prejudice does exist within the local police department.”

Tribal Chairman Mike Baines wrote the letter and said, “I’ve heard of a lot of Natives getting assaulted by the police and that kind of thing. That it’s pretty common. That’s one of our main concerns and it’s been coming out nationwide that it’s happening all over. It’s just a real concern for us and we want to do what we can to stop it growing locally.”

At present, Sitka Tribe of Alaska has 4000 enrolled tribal citizens. Hoogendorn is a citizen of the Native Village of Koyuk, outside of Nome. Baines would not go into further detail about the incidents described in the letter, nor the Tribe’s attorney. I asked Baines whether he felt the issue was department-wide or isolated to single officers.

Baines said, “I think there’s some that are pretty respectful and I’ve had pretty successful interactions with some of them. But the way that the police chief said that the incident didn’t break any department laws…I think that’ s a pretty big concern that the policies allowed for them to taser young man is a pretty big issue.”

Shortly after the arrest took place on September 6th, 2014, the Sitka Police Sheldon Schmitt reviewed the footage and determined that the actions of the three officers complied with arrest policies and that those policies have been changed since. KCAW’s public records request for those policies was denied.

In sending the letter, Baines also asks for inclusion. The letter cites the Clinton-era Executive Order 13175, which requires federal agencies to consult tribal governments when considering policies that would impact tribal communities. The letter says, “The Sitka Tribe of Alaska is ready, willing, and able to do government-to-government consultation.”

Meanwhile, the FBI investigation is pending and for this reason, the City Administrator Mark Gorman and Lieutenant Jeff Ankerfelt said the City and the Police Department had no comment at this time.

Gorman previously reported that the police department informed the city of this event shortly after it happened. Chief Schmidt also said the video does not depict Hoogendorn’s alleged level of resistance prior to custody.

The FBI also could not comment on any correspondence, but did say that, as with all investigations, the agency follows up on all leads.

The FBI has 56 field offices throughout the country, and one of them is in Anchorage. Part of the bureau’s mandate is to investigate alleged color of law abuses.

The Anchorage FBI office will be leading the investigation of the 2014 tasing of a teenager in a Sitka jail cell. Franklin Hoogendorn, age 18, was a student at Mt. Edgecumbe High School when he was arrested and tased by three officers, while in custody of the Sitka Police Department.

Downloadable audio.

The FBI has 56 field offices throughout the country, and one of them is in Anchorage. Part of the bureau’s mandate is to investigate alleged color of law abuses. Color of law describes someone given authority by a local, state or federal agency.

“And excessive force, which is something we would term ‘color of law,’ falls under that civil rights violation, so that’s how the FBI gets involved,” said Staci Feger-Pellessier, the public affairs specialist for the Anchorage office.

As of Friday, their office took the lead in reviewing the use of force in Franklin Hoogendorn’s arrest, along with the Alaska State Troopers. Feger-Pellessier says this type of review is what the Bureau is designed to do.

“People always think, ‘Oh, FBI is involved’ — people always think that makes it more serious or kind of takes it to a different level. It’s just that this falls within our jurisdiction.”

In 2012, 42 percent of the FBI’s civil rights caseload involved color of law issues — 380 cases. Last year, it was 307 cases. Feger-Pellessier could not discuss the details of this particular investigation, but said that when the case concludes, standard procedure is to submit the findings to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We do not make the final decision on whether or not the case is going to move forward. We investigate. We gather the facts and we hand that information over to the U.S. Attorney’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s office makes the final decision.”

Sitka Police Chief Sheldon Schmitt reviewed a videotape of the arrest last fall and said that while it, “didn’t look good,” it did not violate Sitka’s policies at the time, and that Hoogendorn’s resistance to arrest was not captured in the video. KCAW-Sitka filed a Public Records Request to obtain the department’s policies regarding the use of force . The request is pending.

When a local teacher posted a video of the arrest on YouTube in late October, it generated concern from the community and over 36,000 views. Chief Schmitt then requested the Alaska State Troopers conduct an independent review. Col. James Cockrell, who oversees the Troopers, said the FBI’s involvement brings more objectivity to the investigation.

“The FBI has a federal nexus. They’re not as intimately involved with the Sitka Police Department as the Alaska State Troopers were. We thought having another agency involved with it, and taking leads, seemed like the most proper and most reasonable and I think  defendable approach we could take.”

Col. Cockrell could not say how long the investigation would take, but that it would likely stretch for months.

“Tracking down witnesses for a case that’s well over a year old now…this will take some time. This isn’t going to be resolved overnight.”

Officials with the city of Sitka could not be reached for comment.

According to city attorney Robin Koutchak, the Sitka Police Department requested the review directly and the investigation began yesterday (11-09-015). She did not know how long the investigation process would take.

The Troopers will determine whether three Sitka police officers were acting within policy while arresting Franklin Hoogendorn, age 18 on September 6th, 2014.

Video footage of the incident, which shows the three officers using a taser on Hoogendorn while in custody, was captured from closed circuit cameras and posted to YouTube in late October. It has since been viewed over 35,000 times.