Talkeetna is one of Alaska’s beloved communities. Around 1,000 people live there year-round, but every summer more than 100,000 visitors pass through on their way to Denali. They come to fish, hunt, climb, spend money in local businesses, and experience a part of Alaska that attracts visitors from around the world. The influx is so significant that years ago, the Mat-Su Borough moved its northernmost ambulance and EMS station to Talkeetna.
Yet for almost 10 years, Talkeetna has had no law enforcement.
The nearest troopers are stationed at Pittman Road outside Wasilla, roughly 45 minutes away on a good day. Talkeetna is not an incorporated city, and residents have twice rejected city government. There is no local police department waiting in the wings. When something goes wrong in Talkeetna, Willow, or Trapper Creek, the Alaska State Troopers are the law enforcement presence.
Today, troopers answer more than 2,500 calls a year across the Upper Susitna Valley. Response times can range from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on weather, staffing levels and where the nearest unit happens to be when the call comes in.
They should not have to wonder whether help is 45 minutes away when an emergency happens.
Those numbers do not mean much until you look at the kinds of calls troopers are responding to.
A serious crash on the Parks Highway. A domestic violence call where medics cannot enter until law enforcement secures the scene. A drug case that turns violent. In 2023, a kidnapping and double homicide near Trapper Creek was linked to drug trafficking activity. That was not a hypothetical. It happened to real people in a real community that many of us call home.
The part that frustrates me is why the post was closed in the first place.
During the budget crisis years, the Talkeetna post was shut down to save roughly $80,000 annually, including about $17,000 in lease costs. In a state budget measured in billions, $80,000 was a minuscule savings. Many people warned at the time that the cost would eventually be made up in overtime and travel expenses, and they turned out to be right.
These decisions should be based on the department’s evaluation of need, not on trying to balance a budget spreadsheet.
The situation became serious enough that the Mat-Su Borough Assembly passed a resolution encouraging residents to exercise their Second Amendment rights and established a free firearms training program because of the lack of law enforcement coverage in the area. I support the Second Amendment as strongly as anyone in this state, and I train and carry. But encouraging residents to arm themselves because the state cannot provide adequate law enforcement coverage is not a public safety strategy. It is an acknowledgment that something is wrong.
Before any discussion of expanding government, we ought to make sure government is doing the job it was created to do. People should be able to get a trooper when they need one
I served on the House Finance Subcommittee for the Department of Public Safety, the committee responsible for building the trooper budget. I know where the money goes, and I have worked to restore the Talkeetna Trooper Post at every opportunity. I never miss a chance to bring it up during floor debate and have tried to amend funding back into the budget every year for the past five years. I have had numerous discussions with DPS leadership and facilitated trooper visits to Trapper Creek during the homicide investigation.
During the 33rd and 34th Legislatures, Governor Dunleavy twice included funding to reopen the post with six positions covering the Upper Susitna Valley: a sergeant, three troopers, a wildlife trooper, and a technician. The post would provide dedicated coverage along roughly 60 miles of the Parks Highway from Willow through Trapper Creek.
Each time we have gotten close, the funding has been stripped out during the budget process, most often by legislators from Anchorage who believe the Mat-Su should somehow provide its own state law enforcement coverage.
In 2024, I sponsored HB 377 to allow a borough like ours to administer Village Public Safety Officer grants for communities such as Talkeetna and Trapper Creek. I knew it was a band-aid, not a solution, but I was not willing to sit back and watch public safety continue to deteriorate in my district.
In 2025, funding for the post survived the House only to be removed in the Senate. This year, the majority coalition again left it out of the budget entirely. I brought it to the House floor as an amendment, which failed on a 21-19 vote.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Public safety for the Upper Susitna Valley came down to a party-line vote, and the Upper-Su lost – again.
The Talkeetna post was one of many casualties of the budget crisis years. In the rush to cut spending, Alaska eliminated a law enforcement presence that never should have been on the chopping block in the first place. Nearly a decade later, we are still living with that decision. As Alaska’s population continues moving north and more visitors travel the Parks Highway corridor every year, the need for a permanent trooper presence is only becoming more obvious.
One of the core functions of government is public safety. Before any discussion of expanding government, we ought to make sure government is doing the job it was created to do. People should be able to get a trooper when they need one.
Families in Talkeetna, Willow, and Trapper Creek pay taxes, vote, volunteer in their communities, serve in the military, and contribute to this state just like everyone else. They should not have to wonder whether help is 45 minutes away when an emergency happens.
The Talkeetna Trooper Post never should have been closed. It is long past time to reopen it.
I will keep fighting for it until we get it done.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
