Viewpoints
Police Officers of Ketchikan
By Phillip L. Alderson
February 06, 2006
Monday
I am responding to the letter of February 1st, 2006 by Kristina
Townsend. First of all, I agree with her that the Police Officers
of Ketchikan need the support of the community. I must say that
is an earned support not just a given. I worked with Mrs. Townsend's
husband for many years. He is a very dedicated officer and I
have a lot of respect for him and many of the officers that were
on the force when I was working there.
In her letter she mentioned,
what I called, the great walk out of 1996. I would just like
to say that money was an issue at that time for we were under
paid at that time as the officers are under paid today. I had
many discussions with the officers that left, one that I felt
led the "great walk out", who later returned under
protests from ranking officers, but that is another story. In
my discussions with these officers that were planning on leaving,
they lead me to believe that pay was only a small part of it
and the big issue was some administration problems, not from
the Chief of Police but some of his staff.
It is very interesting to me about her reference to Mr. Pearson.
When Mr. Pearson was manager he had an assistant by the name
of Jones. We had an agreement with the city concerning some
benefits we recieved from the city such as selling back unused
leave time and partial payment for eye care. We were told by
staff that Mr. Pearson and Jones had decided, without consulting
with us, that they were taking away these benefits and there
would be no discussion concerning us losing them. I was not
present when these decisions were made but we were informed by
staff of the department that this is what had happened. I do
know that members of the department were very upset about it.
In closing, I say, Ketchikan
support your Police Officers and to the Officers of the Ketchikan
Police Department I say, support your community.
Phillip L. Alderson
Attalla, AL - USA
About: Phillip L. Alderson
retired from the Ketchikan Police Department after 20 years of
service. He was hired on Dec. 2nd 1982 and retired on Jan. 4th
2003. He was a Sgt. at the time of his retirement.
Related Viewpoint:
 Officers and dispatchers deserve our
support By Kristina
M. Townsend - Ketchikan, AK - USA
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