Outsourcing is getting further out there. The communities of Girdwood and Whittier will now have their 911 calls routed to a dispatcher 600 miles away at the Sitka Police Department, which was awarded a contract to provide dispatch services for the next two years.
The Sitka Police Department says that the additional funds from the contract will help the agency attract and retain dispatchers. Currently, the department is recruiting for a dispatcher, and the wage starts at $22.50-$24.60 per hour with full government benefits.
In 2022 the Sitka Dispatchers answered a total of 25,495 phone calls and 2,921 of those calls were 911 emergencies, the department said. Dispatchers ended up spending a total of over 552 hours on the phone providing customer service to our community.
Whitter is a town of 273 people, according to the most recent census, and provides police response to Girdwood, which is within the greater municipality of Anchorage. Girdwood’s population is about 2,029.
The Anchorage Police Department was unable to expand to provide service to the Girdwood community due to staffing shortages. Anchorage police are paid by the Anchorage Police Service Area taxpayers, and Girdwood is outside that zone, which has a boundary at McHugh Creek. An Alaska State Trooper station was located in Girdwood for several years but was closed by former Gov. Bill Walker in 2016. Whittier was awarded a three-year contract in 2016 to provide policing services to Girdwood.
