Alaska lawmakers hold hearing on rural police
Published Thursday, October 22, 2009
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska lawmakers are holding a hearing to get an update on the state's rural police program.
The hearing before the Public Safety Finance subcommittees of the state House and Senate coincides with the Alaska Federal of Natives' annual convention, which kicked off in Anchorage Thursday.
James Armstrong, an aide to House Finance Committee co-Chair Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, says the hearing was planned for the same time to give convention participants traveling from villages a chance to hear about the Village Public Safety Officer program and address any concerns.
Also on the agenda for Thursday's hearing, Public Safety Commissioner Joe Masters and others will address Gov. Sean Parnell's call last week for a greater law enforcement presence in villages, where only 52 of the 71 funded VPSO positions are filled.
Community Discussion
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I want to see some recognition that 'rural' and 'village' are not synonomous. The rural law enforcement problems are not solely a matter of not enough VPSOs. Both villages without VPSOs, and ALL the road accessible rural areas must rely upon the Troopers and their response and behavor is often *far* less than adequate, and sometimes extremely questionable.
Road accessible rural communities have a LOT of problems that result from the accesiblity to urban areas. In the early '80s the Trooper 'drug tsar' JR Roberts encouraged drug manufacture to move into rural areas, 'for the safety' of the urban populations and closer suburbs. This has caused drug and related criminal problems in rural areas with road access, in addition to the increasing popularity of 'partying' activities far from close LEO observation and control.
Out here, we have murders that never get honestly investigated, much less addressed; meth production [that makes it's profit by importing into town] that the Troopers consistently 'overlook'; rural 'bullyboys' using their ties to the Troopers to threaten, terrorize and engage in violent crime without fear of consequence; related rape and other sexual [frequently sadistic] crimes; dead bodies of non-locals being 'dropped off' in our woods; endless unaddressed property crimes; the list goes on and on.
Simply put, we need law-enforcement, and it seems to be Trooper policy not to provide it.
In many ways the Troopers appear to mimick the [previous] catholic church behavior, rotating known offenders and 'bad apples' out into remote communities where the population will have little recourse, and the offenses receive little public notice.
I'm curious as to why the native corportations don't have their own police forces? Does it have something to do with how they are organized as opposed to reservation police in the lower 48?
Can anyone answer that for me?
u_y_h -
there are undoubtable people that can answer better than I, but I'll make a begining, from my own limited knowledge.
It's kind of a 3 way mish-mash, as I understand it.
First, there are the big Native Corps. and smaller Village Corps.
*Some* Village Corps do hire their own police, and some villages actually have village and/or tribal police officers as well as VPSOs [Ak State].
Other villages have one or the other, some [larger hub] villages have Trooper OutPosts, and some villages have no LEOs at all. Those are entirely dependent on response by the nearest Trooper outpost, which can takes hours or even days.
Large villages/small towns, like Ft Yukon, or Bethel, have their own PD. Bethel has a Trooper OutPost to serve the surrounding villages, as well as their own PD.
Confusing? I agree. Maybe some one will post who has more/better information that I.
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