Alaska’s Capitol building will require TSA-type screening of all visitors soon

By
Suzanne Downing
-
111

X-rays and putdowns — just like at airports — may be coming soon to the Capitol in Juneau.

Alaska’s Capitol may be the few left in America where screening of visitors at the entry is not routinely conducted. Wyoming and Montana capitol buildings do not require x-ray, pat-downs, and backscatter screening of visitors and their belongings, but Idaho’s Capitol does, for instance.

Alaskans come and go from the building without having to put their purses and parcels through an x-ray as they have since the territorial days.

The new policy, being discussed in open and in executive session at the Dec. 12 meeting of the Legislative Council, will require all visitors to the Capitol, meaning those without badges that indicate they are employees of the building, the state, or are regular lobbyists with special badges, will be screened by a magnetometer. Visitors may opt-out of the magnetometer and receive a pat-down screening. The new policy says:

  • All carried items will be screened by an X-ray device.
  • A person who escorts or allows a visitor inside through another door must escort the visitor to the lobby of the Capitol Building for standard entry screening.
  • Weapons, firearms, explosives, and knives (except pocketknives with blades under 3 inches and knives used by the legislative lounge staff to prepare or serve food) are prohibited in the Capitol Complex, which includes associated buildings such as the Terry Miller Building and the Assembly Building, as are other items deemed dangerous by security (e.g., fireworks, flammable substances, andcorrosive materials).
  • Visitors using wheelchairs will be screened with a handheld magnetometer.
  • Service animals will be visually inspected by security personnel.
  • Visitors requiring other security screening accommodation should contact Capitol Security in advance.
  • Visitors are required to undergo screening each time they enter the Capitol, regardless of previous entries that day.
  • The screenings include children who are visiting on school field trips.

The new screening procedures have been in the works for several months. The Legislative Council had Legislative Affairs open up a period to receive bids for the equipment that will be used, and will be discussing those bids in executive session on Dec. 12.

In addition, the Legislative Council is in the process of moving the Capitol mailroom, now located on the entry-level floor, to a site outside the building, in order to provide greater security.

All of the documents that have been made public related to this upcoming series of security actions can be viewed at this Legislative Council link.

Because Democrats and their allies control the Legislature and thus the Legislative Council, it’s likely that these bids for security screening and rules that get implemented around screening are bound to go into effect, but what is not certain is when. The Alaska Legislature convenes Jan. 21, which means legislators and staff will be moving into their offices in mid-January at the same time the security team might be receiving and installing the new equipment.

Follow the Legislative Council’s meeting on Dec. 12 at 9:30 a.m. at this link.

Watch the public portion of the meeting on Gavel Alaska at this link.

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111 COMMENTS

    • more jobs w/great bonus retirements: companies w/family or friendship ties to legislators should be limited from bidding on the contract.
      Maybe it’s again time to bring up moving the state capital to Anchorage! That could save the state the cost of implementing the new security expenses.
      Also: it’s time to pass a bill that codifies new expenses be balanced by exempting old outdated expenses!… You add a 1,000,000 expense here, you remove a $1,000,000 there! It’s a age old process called “balancing the budget”!

  2. It’s about TIME..After the maskrade of the WOKE school disruption last year, destroying anything they could.. They created such a disruption and closing down the legistlature on TAXPAYER $$$$$.

    • kc, you have it wrong. The way to respond to crime is with swift, harsh punishment of the perpetrators rather than instituting draconian rules upon the entire population of law-abiding citizens. For example, those who perpetrate mass murder or terrorism should be given a trial process with either guilty or innocent verdict rendered within 14-days of the offense. Within 24-hrs of a guilty verdict, they should be burned at the stake. These types of crime would virtually disappear. If all crime would handled similarly (with harshness appropriate to the crime), we would see most crime disappear.

  3. Why are the politicians scared?
    They know what they have done to the citizens of Alaska and now they want to use our money to protect them self’s from us as they continue to mismanage this state and steal from us to get rich.
    They would not need protection if they did what’s best for the people and not themselves and rich friends.

  5. It won’t save them from truly committed people. They still will have to leave the” bubble” sometimes towhere nutters can get to them

  6. It is unfortunate that the legislatures first move was to prohibiy concealed carry of firearms in the building. Those who choose to carry are the least threat to others. However, once they did this they took on the responsibility to ensure everyone’s safety in the building. So I am glad they have stepped up their security, but wish they had not taken those first steps that led to this.

    • Sure, let’s have concealed guns everywhere. What could possibly go wrong? Have them in your church, your kid’s schools, in hospitals, in courts, in government offices, and heck, why not even on airplanes if the carriers are so harmless? Craziness. Insanity. Stupidity.

      Here’s a thought: The paranoia that leads one to carry is in and of itself evidence of a predisposition towards anti-social, aberrant, and dangerous behavior.

      • You’re barking at leaves again.. Texas has had their capitol open to armed citizens for a long time now if you have your carry permit, they wave you in past the checkpoint line. You’ve already been vetted at that point. The armed public members are better behaved than the ostensible guardians of public order ( that would be the cops, to you and me

        Psto you and me)

      • Oh ok! So, you don’t want those who have concealed carry licenses to carry? They are the least threat to anyone. They often protect those in need of protection and are much safer around the general public than the general public themselves. You want my guns? Nah, I don’t think so, but you would if you could.

  7. If there’s actually that much cause for concern, perhaps it would be wise to evaluate why that is, instead of creating a false sense of security. If instituted, it creates the potential for it to become much less safe just outside the door. Where does it end?

    The Golden Rule is ALWAYS applicable.

  8. If you notice, all of these activities of protection take place in public buildings. These buildings house folks who tend to be of the “Protections for me and none for thee”. Funny, I don’t see this level of activity at my local mall or grocery or even, Heaven forbid, it is coming, the local post offices. (Yet)
    This whole system reeks of COVID mentality. For instance, how many terrorist have been caught going through TSA? Asking for a friend.

  9. There’s a lot of crazy, pharmaceutically overdosed people wandering the streets of downtown Juneau. I don’t even go downtown anymore, too scary. They hate the police too.

  11. Will legislators and staff still have 2ndAM right to protect themselves? Those on LIBERALL or mental malfunction conditions like TDS could skip a metal detector and screening as the steve Colbert crew did in DC. Are they going to hire the former secret service chief to manage security?

  12. This is ripe for a challenge in court. Many federal courts are now finding that the right to keep and bear arms precludes an assumption that a law-abiding person is guilty. One federal court found that banning guns from US Post Office facilities open to the public violates the law. So we will see where this eventually goes. Democrats are in charge of the incoming Alaska Legislature despite having a clear minority but Republican legislators who organize with the Democrats oppose the right to keep and bear arms while they stay in the closet about it.

    • Judges would certainly uphold the restriction. They know that not doing so would bring them one step closer to a similar challenge to allow guns in their courtrooms. They’re not stupid.

  14. Fair is fair.
    We should with one voice declare that from now on, anyone who votes to pass this bill should be subjected to pat downs every time they want to enter any public building….any public building, stores, mini-marts, movie theaters, schools etc..

    After all, there is no greater threat to public safety than Leftwing politicians, as Leftwing politics are responsible for the murder and slaughter of over 200,000,000 people in the last century…

  15. The commenters raise interesting points. Let’s ask, is the problem big enough to fit the dramatic, costly solution? Precisely how many life-threatening assaults or attempts have been perpetrated at the Capitol in the last decade? How exigent are the circumstances? Are we at least entitled to see the data that defines the problem?

  16. This is sad news to me. The last time I went to the capitol building during the session, I again made the mental note that this was undoubtably the only state capitol where a guy could walk in the front door, dressed like a classic Alaskan after his blue collar job and with a backpack on his back, and walk past the security guard kiosk to his legislators office without an appointment.
    Year by year Alaska evolves into just another place.

  19. So if your regular lobbyist (Campaign contributor) your treated special and require no screening BUt……if you are Just a citizen you have to go through intrusive screening! Money buys you accesss

  20. Their overvaluation and self-professed importance are way beyond anything based in reality or the public’s opinion of them.

  23. It is bad enough adults are going to be subjected to this but there is NO reason children on field trips should be forced to endure this treatment.

  24. Here we go again- employees telling their employers what to do. I guess it’s “der reich” thing to do. /s
    Since it’s “security”, EVERYBODY gets to go through it and be treated equally. No side doors for politicians, their staff and cronies to sneak in through. Even the governor gets the perp treatment. No exceptions. If you want to make it uninviting and intrusive on your employers (taxpayers), then the employees (government workers and politicians) need to feel the pain as well.

      • You missed the point- EVERYBODY gets the NKVD treatment. I mean everybody, judges, clerks, politicians, the governor, everybody. I’ll tell you how this ends. Some mucktymuck will get tired of being treated like a serf and will abolish it.

        I’d say you live in your mom’s basement, but most houses in floriduh don’t have basements.

  25. Well then. if it’s equal treatment under law that you’re after, let’s see the Trump prosecutions carry to completion. No special treatment, right? Right!

  26. This is just more bureaucracy and more government costs heaped on to restrict the access to the government for the individual citizen. Obstruction is the key tool the career bureaucrat used to wear down the resolve of well intentioned citizens from having their voices heard at the seat of government.

  28. A- This is in preparation to take the pfd’s away.
    B – And give the money to State workers instead.
    C – Who in turn will keep these “administrators” in power.

    It’s as simple as ABC …… as Micheal Jackson used to say.

      • You could’ve had it to if your state didn’t spend it’s resources like drunken sailors. Since you don’t live here like your friend dementia patient “greg”, maybe you should fix your own state before jumping onto this site and whining about what you don’t have.

      • Actually I pay plenty of taxes and I live in Alaska. My federal taxes are no different from yours. We have a sales tax, fuel tax,vehicle license tax .and all our groceries have been triple taxed right whidby. Only in Washington you pay for lots of things you don’t get. Your roads are shit.

  29. Politicians arm yourselves and save the tax payers a fortune in security nonsense. It’s also time to move the legislature to the road system. We all call Juneau north Seattle it has nothing in common with the rest of Alaska. Move it.

    Does anyone know if there was actual damage to our capital building when the kids stampeded it ?..?

      • Sacramento is a lot like the rest of California. Note that it’s right on the major North- South highways. it’s on 99, which was I-5 before there was an I-5. The capitol building is not far from the freeway itself. But is surrounded by the liberal force field that suspends perception of rea!ity

  30. I’m completely against security screening at any of these facilities. The punishment should be death if you threaten anyone on these premises and our legal system should follow through swiftly. A good public hanging is good for law and order.

    • Have you ever worked in any place like this? Do you have any idea how many demented people call in threats to any public figure (regardless of reasoning–most of them are just mentally ill).
      In one old job one of the morning tasks the receptionist would do was clearing up to 20 voicemails delivered each night by a “frequent flyer” who was obsessed with public figures. She wasn’t a real threat–just a very disturbed individual. So did she deserve the death penalty? No. But would we be happy to see her walk up in-person? Also no.
      This is why public security measures around secure areas exist. Because no, just because you are a constituent, you don’t have the right to just barge in and hog your representative’s time. Try that at a bank with the CEO sometime. Or try walking into their central services area where deposits are processed. It’s not about public/private sector or people screwing you over, it’s just basic business practice, and you are not entitled to everything. You hire them to do a job, not receive every visitor with a whackadoodle conception of what government should do for them (as demonstrated by this thread). That is literally several full-time jobs.
      I can’t believe the number of people here who have no real idea of how government works, what the Alaska constitution says, why Juneau was established as the capital. Please for pity’s sake, people, educate yourselves. Some of you have never been out of Southcentral and it shows.

      • gosh! another paranoid democrat pandering for the spenders of our tax dollars. If it’s scary for you to do the job you campaigned for, then go to the corner of the room & suck your thumb or QUIT! Too timid to even use your real name?

      • Give me a break ECG. Yes I’m
        Out in public around demented baby killing democrats all the time. If you are in a government office and someone threatens you OUR Alaska state troopers should find that person and do a throw down from hell then the judge needs to insure this person pays a hefty price. . No one should be threatened anywhere in America. Including our unborn.

  31. Key word is “visitors”.
    .
    Imagine rent-a-cops daring to “screen” the Peoples Lobbyist-Legislator Team, especially members whose hard work helped rent-a-cops get, and keep, their contract in the first place.
    .
    More about increasing separation between Rulers and Ruled, isn’t it?
    .
    So Democrat Rulers hire mercenaries to protect them from constituents who aren’t important lawyers, lobbyists or top-tier donors.
    .
    This is not necessarily bad news if the peasantry find out what their Rulers fear most, figure out how to exploit it, maybe topple the House of Cards in the process.

  35. more jobs w/great bonus retirements: companies w/family or friendship ties to legislators should be limited from bidding on the contract.
    Maybe it’s again time to bring up moving the state capital to Anchorage! That could save the state the cost of implementing the new security expenses.
    Also: it’s time to pass a bill that codifies new expenses be balanced by illuminating old outdated expenses!… You add a $1,000,000 expense here, you remove a $1,000,000 there! It’s a age old process called “balancing the budget”!

  36. Most of the commentary has been on guns. TSA also gets rid of all knives, scissors, cutting tools, even the occasional can opener. How many of those have been used in attacks inside the capitol? I’ll wait.

    OTOH, if the identical rules apply to everyone who works in the building outside security staff, I’m good with that. Problem is that it doesn’t and won’t. Members and staff will be fully armed just like they are today. The first mass shooting or slashing will trigger some awesome lawsuits aimed at the Legislative Council who came up with the disarming notion.

    Note that they didn’t dare do this until democrats were in charge in both the senate and house via “bipartisan” majorities. Cheers –

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