Initial Report and Recommendations - Alaska Department of Law
Initial Report and Recommendations - Alaska Department of Law Initial Report and Recommendations - Alaska Department of Law
staffing in Alaska is a significant impediment to alcohol and drug interdiction in ruralvillages. The Department of Public Safety should designate targeted alcohol and drugenforcement areas that include local option villages and their hub communities. Thisshould include seeking Postal Service cross designation authority for drug and alcoholinvestigators assigned to the target area as well as the statewide Major Offender Unitpersonnel. Success for this recommendation will be measured by an increase in seizuresof alcohol and drugs, forfeitures, and documentation of cases that could not have beenpossible without cross-designation authority. This recommendation will enhance theDepartment’s efforts to monitor and control choke-points, since almost all alcohol anddrugs move to rural Alaska by commercial air carrier or mail and package services. 70Finally, at this time, judicial/justice materials are not available in many languagesthat would serve Alaska. 71 The Commission recommends that more materials be bothdeveloped and provided in different languages for Alaska Natives. 722. Make Systemic Changes to Improve Rural Law Enforcement“The Northwest Arctic Borough is truly rural, an area the size of the state of Indiana,with a population of approximately 7,200, which is predominantly Iñupiat Eskimo. Thereare no roads connecting any of our 11 communities to one another. Transportation is byboat, airplane, or sno-go. We have many similarities with other rural regions; however,we are different from some regions in that we are an organized borough. Having beenformed in 1986, our borough government is young and not yet fully evolved.“Kotzebue, our hub community, has its own city police force, funded by city taxes,and also has a modern jail facility. Our other 10 communities are quite different. Forroughly 3,000 residents, scattered through 10 communities, we have three VPSOs; one inKobuk, population 100; one in Selawik, population 900; and one in Ambler, population475. The other 1,500 borough residents in seven communities do without the presence ofan officer. Some village communities hire a Village Peace Officer, or VPO. In most allcases this person has no law enforcement training. In many cases, this officer servesprimarily as a curfew enforcer, but does not deal with more serious offenses. As fiscalconditions get tighter and tighter for our village municipal governments, we have seensome of these VPOs laid off due to lack of funds to pay them. We expect this trend tocontinue. By itself, a VPO program cannot address our problems. All Northwest ArcticBorough villages except Kotzebue are served by the Alaska State Troopers, a sevenmembergroup headquartered in Kotzebue. Troopers are dispatched to a village in theevent of a serious crime, but due to distance, weather, and other factors, their responsetime can be less than impressive.”Tom Bolen, Public Services Director, Northwest Arctic BoroughThe Law Enforcement Workgroup developed a list of nine “consensus points” toexplain the premises and assumptions that underlay the process of agreeing upon optionsto be forwarded to the Commission. These points are presented below. They relate notonly to the work of this one workgroup but also to the recommendations from the otherworkgroups that relate to the law enforcement theme and are presented in this subsection.70 Recommendation 8.71See Supreme Court Committee Report on Fairness and Access Report at p. 92-93.72Recommendation 9a.Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission - Page 45
Law Enforcement WorkgroupConsensus Points• Funding should be secured to ensure that all officers engaged in law enforcementactivity in rural villages in the State of Alaska have a basic minimal level oftraining and certification.• Law enforcement in rural Alaska should be accomplished in a manner that doesnot threaten or diminish the sovereignty of either the state or tribes.• Cross-deputization of tribal and state/municipal police officers has the potentialfor assisting the State Troopers that serve rural Alaska, assuming an agreement onshared training and certification and liability standards could be reached.• For state, tribal, and other officers engaged in village law enforcement to workeffectively together, a reliable and up-to-date database identifying the officers ofeach department in rural Alaska, and their current training levels should bedeveloped.• Creating three tiers of villages or new rural government institutions is notnecessary to improve rural law enforcement.• Effective rural law enforcement, including improvements in recruitment andretention, requires a commitment to adequate infrastructure appropriate to eachcommunity’s size and need, such as housing, communications, technology,transportation, holding facilities, offices, and equipment.• Public safety and law enforcement services are a basic need throughout Alaskaand should be adequate and appropriate to a community’s size and need.• It is critical that the federal government take a much more active role in ensuringadequate law enforcement in Alaska’s Native villages, including far moreextensive funding of village law enforcement needs.• There should be an increased emphasis on juvenile crime prevention programsand positive interaction between public safety officers and youth.“The Ahtna People do not have a history of having Village Public Safety Officers but,if they did, I am sure that we would be testifying here today about the positive results ofhaving one in our villages.“At the present time we have many criminal misdemeanor offenses that are notresponded to by the Troopers and, if they are responding to it, it may be several hours toa few days before one of the four State Troopers are able to respond to a call for help.The local Alaska State Troopers have a history of establishing a working relationshipwith the Tribal Governments, by attending village council meetings. The Troopersexpressed the hardship they have with responding to calls when the service area includesa 250-mile area on the road systems and areas that need to be accessed by airplanes.Many times they may be out on a call and when a call is received from our villages andthey have to finish up with that call before they can respond. The Troopers do have aAlaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission - Page 46
- Page 2 and 3: IntroductionFor years, Alaska Nativ
- Page 4 and 5: In MemoriamEric D. JohnsonApril 27,
- Page 6 and 7: continuous. Those who worked hardes
- Page 8 and 9: Executive SummaryCreated by Congres
- Page 10 and 11: 8. Increase Access to Judicial Serv
- Page 12 and 13: Chapter I. Statement of NeedThe Ala
- Page 14 and 15: When domestic violence services are
- Page 16 and 17: With the advent of statehood in 195
- Page 18 and 19: Village Council Presidents, Bristol
- Page 20 and 21: “[M]any of the laws that we have
- Page 22 and 23: “[W]e’re 10 times the national
- Page 24 and 25: Great contrast exists today between
- Page 26 and 27: The literature has often decried th
- Page 28 and 29: Another resource on economic opport
- Page 30 and 31: The continuing escalation of fuel c
- Page 32 and 33: In 1999, in an effort to curb youth
- Page 34 and 35: and follow-up contacts. Since it wa
- Page 36 and 37: Chapter II. Charge to the Commissio
- Page 38 and 39: ♦ Gail Schubert, Executive Vice P
- Page 40 and 41: additional time to a person speakin
- Page 42 and 43: . Exchange of Information. The memb
- Page 44 and 45: sheets that had been prepared by th
- Page 46 and 47: Chapter IIIResponse and Recommendat
- Page 48 and 49: • Developing voluntary memoranda
- Page 50 and 51: example, during a protracted negoti
- Page 54 and 55: history of being in a community for
- Page 56 and 57: “The State of Alaska is mandated
- Page 58 and 59: “The AFN Sobriety program provide
- Page 60 and 61: community enhances alienation and i
- Page 62 and 63: oth the state and the federal gover
- Page 64 and 65: enforcement programs. In this proce
- Page 66 and 67: skills necessary to communicate wit
- Page 68 and 69: and others in the tribal community
- Page 70 and 71: A Comparison of Alaska and the Lowe
- Page 72 and 73: Map Showing the Location of All Ala
- Page 74 and 75: Appendix BBiographical Sketchesof C
- Page 76 and 77: Revenue. Mayor Botelho became Deput
- Page 78 and 79: His wide range of experience includ
- Page 80 and 81: Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforc
- Page 82 and 83: Workgroup MembersWorkgroup 1: Law E
- Page 84 and 85: Appendix EPhotograph of Commissione
- Page 86 and 87: Appendix FCommission Recommendation
- Page 88 and 89: ) Power differential between govern
- Page 90 and 91: 9. Adequate legal infrastructure to
- Page 92 and 93: ___________________________________
- Page 94 and 95: encouraged and permitted to partici
- Page 96 and 97: ___________________________________
- Page 98 and 99: ___________________________________
- Page 100 and 101: Impact Statement:More culturally ap
<strong>Law</strong> Enforcement WorkgroupConsensus Points• Funding should be secured to ensure that all <strong>of</strong>ficers engaged in law enforcementactivity in rural villages in the State <strong>of</strong> <strong>Alaska</strong> have a basic minimal level <strong>of</strong>training <strong>and</strong> certification.• <strong>Law</strong> enforcement in rural <strong>Alaska</strong> should be accomplished in a manner that doesnot threaten or diminish the sovereignty <strong>of</strong> either the state or tribes.• Cross-deputization <strong>of</strong> tribal <strong>and</strong> state/municipal police <strong>of</strong>ficers has the potentialfor assisting the State Troopers that serve rural <strong>Alaska</strong>, assuming an agreement onshared training <strong>and</strong> certification <strong>and</strong> liability st<strong>and</strong>ards could be reached.• For state, tribal, <strong>and</strong> other <strong>of</strong>ficers engaged in village law enforcement to workeffectively together, a reliable <strong>and</strong> up-to-date database identifying the <strong>of</strong>ficers <strong>of</strong>each department in rural <strong>Alaska</strong>, <strong>and</strong> their current training levels should bedeveloped.• Creating three tiers <strong>of</strong> villages or new rural government institutions is notnecessary to improve rural law enforcement.• Effective rural law enforcement, including improvements in recruitment <strong>and</strong>retention, requires a commitment to adequate infrastructure appropriate to eachcommunity’s size <strong>and</strong> need, such as housing, communications, technology,transportation, holding facilities, <strong>of</strong>fices, <strong>and</strong> equipment.• Public safety <strong>and</strong> law enforcement services are a basic need throughout <strong>Alaska</strong><strong>and</strong> should be adequate <strong>and</strong> appropriate to a community’s size <strong>and</strong> need.• It is critical that the federal government take a much more active role in ensuringadequate law enforcement in <strong>Alaska</strong>’s Native villages, including far moreextensive funding <strong>of</strong> village law enforcement needs.• There should be an increased emphasis on juvenile crime prevention programs<strong>and</strong> positive interaction between public safety <strong>of</strong>ficers <strong>and</strong> youth.“The Ahtna People do not have a history <strong>of</strong> having Village Public Safety Officers but,if they did, I am sure that we would be testifying here today about the positive results <strong>of</strong>having one in our villages.“At the present time we have many criminal misdemeanor <strong>of</strong>fenses that are notresponded to by the Troopers <strong>and</strong>, if they are responding to it, it may be several hours toa few days before one <strong>of</strong> the four State Troopers are able to respond to a call for help.The local <strong>Alaska</strong> State Troopers have a history <strong>of</strong> establishing a working relationshipwith the Tribal Governments, by attending village council meetings. The Troopersexpressed the hardship they have with responding to calls when the service area includesa 250-mile area on the road systems <strong>and</strong> areas that need to be accessed by airplanes.Many times they may be out on a call <strong>and</strong> when a call is received from our villages <strong>and</strong>they have to finish up with that call before they can respond. The Troopers do have a<strong>Alaska</strong> Rural Justice <strong>and</strong> <strong>Law</strong> Enforcement Commission - Page 46
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