PUBLIC SAFETY
YOUTH CAMPS

The motto of Alaska's Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) is

"First Responders in the Last Frontier.” The VPSOs can be seen as

Alaska’s public safety“jacks-of-all-trades.” This holds with all Alaska

public safety and law enforcement such as Village Police Officers

(VPO), Tribal Police Officers (TPO), Alaska State Troopers (AST),

and federal law enforcement like the United States Marshals

Service (USMS). Within rural public safety, they are responsible for

several tasks including law enforcement, crime scene evidence

preservation, firefighting, water safety, emergency medical assist-

ance, and search and rescue. This concept is what developed the

VPSO program because while they are responding as first respond-

ers to save lives, they must also be prepared to survive in the harsh

realities of living and working in a remote setting with no backup

until other public safety resources and personnel can arrive to help. The most influential characteristics of Public Safety in Bush Alaska are the vast areas officers may be policing, village residents' tendency to call on Public Safety for a multitude of assistance, and the high number of crimes.

 

Working alone in Public Safety creates special sources of stress: they work in isolated situations. They are literally “on call” 24 hours a day to deal with the problems that arise in what are some of the most harsh and accident-prone places in Alaska. These factors dominate any discussion of rural enforcement needs, crime problems, and routine patrol techniques. For instance, Rural officers are more likely to encounter fire emergencies, village animal control problems, wildlife enforcement reporting, village drunkenness in public, illegal “R&R” distilleries in houses, and illegal bootlegging.

 

An in-depth Public Safety curriculum of these types of policing responsibilities describes special public safety techniques with a canvas of specialty skills that all officers must learn to possess as work multipliers. Skills taught in the Public Safety curriculum cover police responsibilities in functions unrelated to crime and law enforcement, such as search and rescue operations in tundra, mountainous, forests, and navigable waterways in rivers and lakes. Public Safety Officers must understand remote health and medical hazards caused by weather conditions, water safety, stings and bites, poisonous plants, altitude sickness, lightning and electrical shock, and flooding.

 

While traveling through their work duty areas Public Safety uses vehicles, four-wheelers, boats, and travel by plane. They have working conditions unlike those faced by other law enforcement in cities. The skills learned in the Public Safety curriculum give a foundation for what is needed to protect and serve the people of Alaska in remote places.

 

PUBLIC SAFETY CURRICULUM

 

1. Law Enforcement & Community Policing

 

2. Crime Scene Leadership & Evidence Preservation

 

3. Self-Defense Law, Martial Arts, & Physical Methods of Arrest & Control

 

4. Bush Survival, Survival First Aid, & Tracking for Predatory Protective Defense & Food Procurement

 

5. Boating Water Safety, Water Survival, and enhancing Water Rescue Observation

 

6. Search & Rescue Operations, Remote Transportation Crash Survival, & Self-Rescue Tracking

 

These are the skills that enhance the effectiveness of working in public safety in remote Alaska.