Initial Report and Recommendations - Alaska Department of Law

Part of the solution may lie in enhanced or altered rural law enforcement.Accordingly, the Commission also has been asked to study issues related to lawenforcement in rural Alaska. A brief history will help put the current systems inperspective.2. Brief History of Law Enforcement in Alaska 12The U.S. Cutter “Bear” was one of the few signs of the United States’ new legalauthority along most of coastal Alaska in the early territorial days. Revenue MarineCaptain Mike Healy, its legendary captain, was described in the New York Sun in the1890s as “a great deal more distinguished person in the waters of the far Northwest thanany President of the United States. … He stands for law and order in many thousands ofmiles of land and water.…” Healy was frequently called upon to act as a peace officerand to administer legal and extralegal forms of justice.In the late 1800s the evolution of law enforcement in Alaska continued with theU.S. Army and Navy being the sole law enforcement authority throughout the vastTerritory. Later, U.S. Marshals were appointed but were far too few in number to meetthe law enforcement needs of the territory. In the tumult of the gold rush period, bothSkagway and Nome first brought to focus the need for an additional statewide lawenforcement organization to supplement the U.S. Marshal’s Office (which continued tobear the responsibility for law enforcement in Alaska for the next 40 years).Federal Territorial Judge James Wickersham followed the “floating court”tradition of Healy and other cutter captains in 1900, traveling by cutter with an entourageof 18 jurors from Valdez, to preside over a felony trial in Unalaska in the AleutianIslands. His trip led to regular summer journeys in which the court, with judge andjurors, traveled by Revenue Cutter along the Alaska coastline and came ashore whereneeded to administer justice.2a. Alaska State Troopers 13In 1941, the 15 th Territorial Legislature established the Territory of AlaskaHighway Patrol for the purpose of enforcing the traffic code – but it did not provide thenew organization with police authority. In 1945, as lawlessness continued to thriveoutside the jurisdiction of local police departments, the members of the Alaska HighwayPatrol were deputized as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals. In 1948, the Highway Patrolwas given the full authority of peace officers to enforce the laws of the Territory.In 1953 the Territorial Legislature established the Alaska Territorial Police toprovide law enforcement services for the entire Territory: the total strength at that timeconsisted of 36 officers. The Alaska Highway Patrol had already gained a reputation asan elite corps, and formal training became its hallmark.1213Quoted almost verbatim from the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center’s website –http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/images/features/crimjust.htmlThis section is almost verbatim from www.dps.state.ak.us/ast/trooperhistory/Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission - Page 10