Can Alaska’s VPSO program be saved? A task force suggests big changes.
State legislators will propose giving village public safety officers more flexibility and independence.
Six ways to fix Alaska’s law enforcement crisis
More than a third of Alaska communities have no local police of any kind. Criminals have been hired as cops in some remote villages. A federal emergency has been declared and millions of dollars are promised, but here’s what else experts recommend.
Here's what Alaskans suggest could fix the state's policing crisis
Alaska public officials, law enforcement and village residents offer their specific suggestions for improving public safety.
‘We can make this a better place': Iowa police round up supplies and cash to better equip an Alaska village force
After reading that Savoonga officers don’t have bulletproof vests, guns or even Tasers, an Iowa officer reached out to help.
Looking for Alaska’s ‘rural’ state police force? Check the fast-growing Mat-Su Borough.
Many remote Alaska villages have no law enforcement at all. But state troopers can be found in some wealthier, mainly non-Native suburbs, where growing communities have resisted paying for their own police departments.
The last police officer
Days before his death in 2005, Simeon Askoak told officials how a key Alaska rural policing program was broken. His village hasn’t had another permanent cop since.
Why remote Alaska communities that need cops aren’t getting them
A tiny Alaska village got a police officer. He’s never had to make an arrest. Meanwhile, larger communities with more crime have often been left behind as the state’s two-tiered policing crisis gets worse.
Have you experienced sexual violence in Alaska? Help us report these stories.
The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica have teamed up to listen. Do you work with victims, in government or law enforcement? We need to hear from you, too.
She leapt from a van on the Kenai Peninsula to escape her rapist. Then she waited 18 years for an arrest.
Anna Sattler’s rape kit sat untested for almost 20 years as Alaska’s backlog got worse. Now, an ex-Iditarod musher faces charges, and she’s speaking publicly about the attack for the first time.
Dozens of convicted criminals have been hired as cops in rural Alaska. Sometimes, they’re the only applicants.
In one village, every cop has been convicted of domestic violence within the past decade, including the chief. Only one has received formal law enforcement training of any kind.
Clergy abused an entire generation in this village. With new traumas, justice remains elusive.
Long before city officials said they had no choice but to hire criminals as cops, justice was elusive in the Norton Sound village of Stebbins and neighboring St. Michael.
‘I made a change in my life’: Village police say they make a difference despite criminal records
The seven officers in Stebbins explain their criminal records and what it’s like to serve as a police officer there.
One in three Alaska villages have no local police
A first-of-its-kind investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found more than 70 Alaska communities — places with some of the highest rates of sexual assault in the U.S. — have no local police protection.
'Enough is enough’: Alaska Native leaders ask U.S. attorney general for help, tribal authority to make up for lack of police
Attorney General William Barr embarked on a four-day swing through Alaska to learn about unique public safety challenges facing remote villages without local law enforcement.
Related stories
These stories inspired our Lawless series and spurred us to dig deeper into systemic issues surrounding sexual violence and policing in Alaska.
From criminal to cop, and back again, in Alaska’s most vulnerable villages
The rape and death of a 16-year-old girl reveal how criminals can sometimes become cops in remote Alaska communities. The Daily News has found that villages have hired a registered sex offender, felons and other convicted criminals for police jobs in violation of state hiring requirements.
A broken system of oversight for Alaska’s village police officers
The names of village police officers across Alaska — even the number of officers — is a mystery. Here's why.
911 dispatcher: I was raped and Nome police colleagues ignored the case
“One thing I’m not going to be doing is being quiet,” said the 911 dispatcher, whose complaint comes at a time of upheaval and demotions within the department.
A second woman comes forward to say she was raped in Nome without consequence
She is 21 years old. She says he wasn't the first man to rape her and get away with it.