Alaska Department of Public Safety requests $347 million for FY26; seeks to reopen Talkeetna trooper post and expand village policing

Commissioner James Cockrell told the Senate Finance Budget Subcommittee on March 6 that the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS) is requesting just over $347,000,000 for fiscal 2026, and highlighted requests to reopen a trooper post near Talkeetna, expand village policing, and cover rising equipment, dispatch and fuel costs.

The budget request, presented by Diana Thornton, administrative services director, would allocate the largest share of department funding to the Alaska State Troopers and wildlife troopers. Thornton said about 62% of the department appropriation covers troopers and roughly 57% of the department’s spending is for personal services.

Cockrell framed the FY26 package as a continuation of investments made over the past three to four years and tied the requests to reductions in some statewide crime measures and record drug seizures. “We consider the Parks Highway a drug pipeline,” Cockrell said, arguing that a local post would shorten response times for crashes, violent incidents and major drug interdictions that now require long drives from the Mat-Su Valley.

The department’s largest single new operations proposal would reestablish a Talkeetna-area trooper post that closed in 2016. Cockrell said the post previously sat near the Parks–Spur Highway junction and that restoring a local presence would cut long response times when troopers now must drive from Palmer or Wasilla. He listed several justifications: the region’s tourist traffic, frequent commercial-vehicle crashes, a recent major shootout linked to a large drug transport, and an average annual crash count in the area that he described as “about a hundred.” Cockrell said the post would cover roughly 140 miles of the Parks Highway between the Talkeetna area and Cantwell/Healy.

As a budget compromise, Cockrell told the subcommittee the department shifted the proposed Talkeetna post start from July 1 to Oct. 1 to reduce the initial year’s cost by about 25 percent. He said the department and the legislature’s House side worked together on that startup delay.

The department also described continued expansion of the Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) program, which places trained officers in rural communities. Cockrell said the VPSO program is “very vibrant” and reported that the department currently has about 85–88 VPSO positions filled, with several recruits in the academy. He said the program now serves roughly 57 villages and many more communities have requested VPSOs; department leadership said previous targets ranged from 100 to 121 positions in prior administrations. Cockrell attributed recent gains to recruitment and housing investments in rural areas.

DPS also described a new statewide crimes-against-children investigative unit funded last year. Cockrell said the unit added three investigative positions that are now filled and that the department seeks to place a similar unit in the Northwest Arctic region, noting an interim investigator currently in “Cosby or Nome” while housing and placement are finalized.

Deputy Commissioner Leanne Morgan and Thornton outlined several FY26 increments and operating true-ups the department is requesting: roughly $800,000 for law-enforcement duty gear (split between state and wildlife troopers), $123,000 to cover increased dispatch contract costs with MATCOM (Wasilla) and the Kenai Peninsula Borough, a $2.3 million overtime true-up to reflect actual hours worked, $65,000 for an outfitted crime-scene van, $50,000 for a pilot genealogy program to investigate unidentified human remains (covering about five cases of about 70 pending examples), and an increment to offset rising aircraft fuel costs. Thornton said jet fuel has risen about 46% and avgas about 51%, and warned that without the fuel increment proactive aircraft patrols could be affected.

On dispatch, Deputy Commissioner Morgan said the department currently contracts with MATCOM in Wasilla (about $2.1 million per year) and the Kenai Peninsula consolidated dispatch center (about $1.6–$1.7 million per year). Morgan described past attempts at a state or regional consolidated 9‑1‑1 center as unsuccessful and said technical limitations in Alaska’s 9‑1‑1 call‑routing infrastructure and a statewide shortage of dispatchers make immediate consolidation difficult. “When we look at the 5‑ to 10‑year outlook on dispatch consolidation in Alaska … the technology will change,” Morgan said, but that under today’s systems the department does not have confidence it could assume Kenai Peninsula dispatch services from Wasilla.

Senators on the panel pressed for more detail on grant dependencies and vacancy planning. Senator Klayman asked for a written “deep dive” on federal grants that have funded rural prosecution and assault‑response positions; Cockrell and Thornton agreed to provide follow-up. Senator Wilkowski noted the state’s broader fiscal gap and asked the department to continue seeking efficiencies; Cockrell said DPS had identified the Talkeetna startup timing as one efficiency and otherwise described the agency as “lean,” noting high costs for rural housing and transporting officers.

There were no formal votes taken during the overview. The subcommittee concluded by asking the department to provide additional figures on overtime totals, grant dependencies and dispatch costs and said it would reconvene when Senator Olson returned to the committee.

The DPS presentation and the subcommittee’s questions made clear the FY26 request centers on sustaining recent rural and village investments, addressing equipment and contractual inflation, and restoring a local trooper presence near Talkeetna to reduce response times on a region of highway heavily used by residents and tourists.