Juneau Police Department opens UAS substation

The Juneau Police substation at UAS will also serve Auke Bay and out the road. (Photo by Michael Ciri/UAS)
The Juneau Police substation at UAS will also serve Auke Bay and out the road. (Photo by Michael Ciri/UAS)

The Juneau Police Department is opening a substation on the University of Alaska Southeast campus. It’s the second one in the city and it’ll benefit the university and the community out the road.

The substation is located next to Spike’s Café in between the Egan Classroom Wing and the Egan Library.

Juneau Police Lt. David Campbell says JPD will use it when necessary but will not maintain regular hours there.

“The substation isn’t just for the university, but it’s more for the Back Loop, Auke Bay, out the road region, so that we could meet people at the substation. We could do interviews. Officers could go there to eat their lunches and just be a little more of a presence for that part of the community,” Campbell says.

The main police station is in Lemon Creek and JPD has one other substation near the Downtown Transit Center.

Campbell says JPD divides the city in two areas – one includes downtown and Douglas; the second encompasses Lemon Creek, the Mendenhall Valley and out the road.

“When they go downtown, they’ll spend their entire shift there, so the downtown officers use the substation quite a bit. The downtown substation is manned almost continually to some degree. The one at the university is not going to see that type of activity,” Campbell says.

Currently, Campbell says JPD doesn’t go to UAS that often – only when the university contacts them or during a normal patrol check.

The City and Borough of Juneau signed a memorandum of understanding with UAS to implement the substation. (Photo by Michael Ciri/UAS)
The City and Borough of Juneau signed a memorandum of understanding with UAS to implement the substation. (Photo by Michael Ciri/UAS)

Crime rates are low on the Juneau campus, but Michael Ciri says there are situations when it’ll be convenient to have an officer nearby. Ciri is Vice Chancellor of Administration at UAS.

“Take, for example, the library. It’s a public library and that means sometimes there are members of the public who walk in who are problematic. The process they would use now is that they would call and local law enforcement might show up and say, ‘Look, you need to move along,'” Ciri says. “At this point, it’d be all together likely that there would actually be an officer there just adjacent to the building.”

At the end of June, UAS ended a contract with Goldbelt Security Services to monitor security cameras and perform rounds at a student housing complex between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Those responsibilities now go fully to Residence Life staff. The cost savings from the $108,000 contract went toward improving security camera coverage.

Ciri says the agreement between the City and Borough of Juneau and UAS doesn’t require any exchange of funds. It’s a zero cost item for the city. The university is dedicating the room, parking space, phone line and furniture.

“I’m also a resident of the Auke Bay area and so the idea that we will now have sort of these anchor substations at either end of town – one downtown, one in the Auke Bay area, as well as the police station in the middle – it just seems smart for the community,” Ciri says.

The UAS substation could lead to a permanent Juneau Police presence in Auke Bay, but Campbell says that will be far in the future and depend on staffing.

JPD recently hired three new officers and plan to hire a few more next month. The department is considered fully staffed with 52 sworn officers. Right now, they have 43.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications