Alaska police: Cities accept criminal records, investigation shows

Authored by eu.press-citizen.com and submitted by Horror_Mango

'Outrageous': Convicted criminals serve as Alaskan police amid public safety crisis, investigation finds

Dozens of police officers with criminal records have worked in Alaska's cities, despite a state law that should have disqualified them, an investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found.

The findings of at least 14 city police departments employing more than 34 convicted criminals came nearly a month after U.S. Attorney General William Barr declared a public safety emergency in the state, highlighting disproportionate rates of violence and sexual assault.

Local tribal governments have also hired tribal police officers convicted of domestic violence or sex crimes in an additional eight communities, the publications reported Thursday. Women in remote villages already face extraordinary barriers in reporting and dealing with sexual assault, USA TODAY reported last month, such as lacking access to victim support services.

In the rural city of Stebbins, for example, the Daily News reported that all seven officers have pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges in the past 10 years.

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The rap sheets for all 42 tribal and city police officers would've prevented their hiring at the Anchorage Police Department and its urban peers, the Division of Alaska State Troopers and private security guards nearly anywhere else in the United States, the news organizations reported. City governments did not report the hires to the state regulatory board as required in all but three of the cases, and many remain on the job.

Melanie Bahnke, a board member for the Alaska Federation of Natives representing 191 tribes, related the issue to a frontier mentality.

“It’s outrageous that we have a situation where we have such a lack of public safety that communities are resorting to hiring people who have the propensity for violence,” Bahnke told the news organizations. “And placing them in a position where they have control over people and possibly could victimize the victims further.”

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State troopers, limited by budget cuts threatening services from education to transportation, are stretched thin. Five troopers in northwestern Alaska cover an area roughly the size of Ohio, USA TODAY reported. They commute to hard-to-reach areas when weather permits and only after they've procured one of the state's few planes.

In an effort to hire and train tribal and village police officers, the U.S. Department of Justice allocated $6 million to Alaska last month. The department also aims to award $4.5 million to fund 20 officer positions, plus equipment and training, for Alaska Natives by the end of July.

The_Alaskan on July 22nd, 2019 at 06:10 UTC »

Could you please link to the source? I work at the newspaper, and Kyle's really put in a lot of work on this: https://www.adn.com/lawless/2019/07/18/the-alaska-village-where-every-cop-has-been-convicted-of-domestic-violence/

hallbuzz on July 22nd, 2019 at 02:34 UTC »

I was born and raised in Alaska. My older brother became a volunteer firefighter before I did. At one point whenever there was a fire, by the time my brother got to the station, there would be a truck full of guys waiting for him to drive... He was the only one on the department without a DUI/OVI. He always had to respond to every fire otherwise, no one would. (They would turn a blind eye to driving unlicensed to the station, but no one dared drive the truck. Some guys drove ATVs or dirt bikes off road everywhere.

Alaska has the highest murder rate of women and the highest domestic abuse (like 60%) in the US. Rural (bush) communities tend to be much worse for crime and alcohol/drugs, etc. Unemployment is also usually very high, often motivation is an issue. I'm not making excuses for anyone or the situation, but it's possible that if all of these police officers were fired, there simply would be no one else to fill the job(s).

Edit: I should have included a source, had no idea my comment would take off. Domestic violence is 59% of Alaskan women have experienced domestic violence.

Murder rate for women murdered by men for Alaska is 3.4 (/100,000), Louisiana 2.4, Nevada 2. etc.

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2019/06/25/deadliest-state-women-alaska-rape-and-murder-too-common-domestic-violence-rape-murder-me-too-men/1500893001/

TheyCallMeSoup on July 22nd, 2019 at 01:36 UTC »

It's a frightening problem.

Alaska's Police Crisis: Every Cop in This Village Has Been Convicted of Domestic Violence

In some U.S. cities, however, even applicants recently released from prison can be recruited as law enforcement, including convicted sex criminals.

Doesn't really inspire confidence.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

Dozens of convicted criminals have been hired as cops in rural Alaska