NCJ Number
146914
Date Published
1993
Length
26 pages
Annotation
After describing the problems of public safety in Alaska, this paper profiles the Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) Program, which is designed to provide general public safety services to isolated villages.
Abstract
Rural Alaska has a sparse population, sociocultural diversity, and political and economic underdevelopment. Policing services to rural villages cannot be provided easily, cheaply, or in conventional ways. The VPSO program can become an alternative to the existing dominant model of professional policing, which is now being delivered to rural areas through the Alaska State Trooper Agency. The VPSO program features "home-grown" policing adapted to the needs and desires of rural villages, a quasi-governmental organizational form that combines private and public agencies in a common effort, and a redefinition of policing from a narrowly specialized to an all-purpose public safety responsibility. Applicants for a VPSO position must be 21 years old, be U.S. citizens or resident aliens, be of good moral character, have no disqualifying mental or physical condition, and have no felony record. There are no formal educational requirements. Supervision of VPSO's in the field is done by oversight State troopers stationed in hub cities and village. Oversight troopers and VPSO's are assisted by other troopers when crime and emergency needs so require. The author argues that genuine generalist police orientations and work habits that incorporate multiple expectations will only arise when the VPSO system is at least co-controlled by the villages. 30 footnotes