Village Police Training

Department of Public Safety
Discretionary grant application
73-DF-10-0001

     Since 1971 nearly three-quarters of a million dollars has been invested training village police officers, including $542,000 in funds from the LEAA.
     This provided training for a total of 292 people since the inception of the training program conducted by the Department of Public Safety.
     But, in a report presented to the Governor's Commission on the Administration of Justice during its December meeting in Anchorage, it was estimated that only about 70 village officers who received training are still serving in that capacity in their villages.
     It was also reported that of the 73 percent of the Alaskan villages with full-time police officers, only 42 per cent were served by officers trained under this program. The officers in a majority of the villages have received no training under this program.

First Evaluation

     The report was the result of a study commissioned by the Criminal Justice Planning Agency and was conducted under a contract with the Criminal Justice Center, and with the cooperation of the Department of Public Safety.
     It was the first extensive evaluation of the training program that has been conducted since its inception and contained recommendations to solve some of the problems observed in the program.
     These recommendations were addressed primarily to reducing the cost of the program and establishing some stability in the villages to stem the high rate of attrition among trained village police officers.

Recommendations

     Among the specific recommendations presented to the Governor's Commission were:
     • As a first step, more detailed information should be collected on the actual conditions found in the villages which would better define the desirable role and responsibilities of the village police officer. This could then be used to develop curricula that would better prepare the police officers for their working conditions.
     • Some means should be developed and implemented to stabilize the village police employment situation and reduce the turnover rate to a reasonable level.
     • Develop a more economical village police training program which, after initial LEAA support, can continue without further LEAA funds. It was recommended that this be accomplished in a cooperative effort between police agencies and other agencies such as the Alaska Skill Center in Seward.
     • The Alaska State Troopers should take an active part .in whatever reorganization occurs in village police training.
     • The Alaska State Troopers should increase their support of the village police and should be actively involved in whatever reorganization of village police training occurs. It was further recommended that specific attention should be given to preparation of policy and procedural statements in any action programs developed.

No Lack of Commitment

     Whatever problems that were found ir the village police training program, they were not from a lack of commitment by the Department of Public Safety.
     The department has invested more time, effort and money in the training program than was required in the series of grants supporting the program.
     The department provided more hours of training for more people than the minimum requirements of the various grants. In addition the Alaska State Troopers appeared to have invested considerably more time and effort in the field training of village police officers than was required.

History of Training Program

     The training program developed by the Department of Public Safety consisted of a series of one-week basic training courses held in regional locations such as Bethel, Nome, Dillingham and Ft. Yukon; four-week advance training courses conducted at the Public Safety Academy in Sitka; and follow-up field training in the officers' villages conducted by state troopers.
     This latter was a unique feature of the training program and provided continuing support for the village police officers and [page 12] general assistance to the villages in addition to law enforcement services.
     This training program underwent an evolutionary development since its inception. In the beginning the emphasis of the program was on educating the village police officers, magistrates and village members about the Anglo-American criminal justice system, and on training the village police officers in preservation of the crime scene until the arrival of a state trooper.
     Specific attention was given to the educating village members and village councils on the operations of the Anglo-American criminal justice system. The understanding and support of the villages was viewed as necessary to the functioning of the village police officers.
     But, in 1973 Region X of the LEAA disallowed further expenditure of LEAA funds for this purpose in spite of appeals by the Department of Public Safety.
     Since then the training program has been devoted exclusively to village police officers.
     The curricula presented in both the basic and advanced courses continued to evolve with increasing emphasis in actual law enforcement training.
     Faced with the high attrition rate of trained officers, the Department of Public Safety expressed the belief that it was not all lost, for where the trainees remained in the village it had the effect of improving village understanding and support for the remaining officers.

Criticisms Expressed

     Criticisms of the program contained in the report included the following:
     • The apparent confusion or ambiguity of the stated goals expressed in the various grant applications which made evaluation of the program more difficult.
     • The low priority given to the evaluation requirements of the grant applications and where accomplished little was done to record and report the results.
     • Too little attention was given to the actual nature of the village police officer's role and responsibilities which deal more with problems of public safety than law enforcement. This might be noted and acted upon if more thorough evaluation had been conducted during the course of the program.

An Expensive Program

     As recognized by the Department of Public Safety in its 1973 grant application, the cost of village police training is high. The $542,000 in LEAA fund alone amounted to an average cost of $1,473 for each of the 292 people trained under the program. The actual costs were even higher considering the additional expenditures by the Department of Public Safety.
     The largest portion of these costs was not for actual training, but for transportation and per diem. For instance, in the 1975 grant for $153,201, $96,200 was for travel and per diem for 50 trainees and their instructors.
     This need to reduce the cost of the program and the need to establish a permanent training program which can exist without continual LEAA funding were the bases for the recommendations for a cooperative effort in establishing a permanent training program. It was noted, for instance, that the Alaska Skill Center has stated it could provide a residential program in Seward at a cost of $200 a week in contrast to the $500 a week at the academy in Sitka.
     The Alaska State Troopers, or borough police where they have been established, must be actively involved in any reorganization that is undertaken, according to the report. The troopers have an established legitimacy in providing this training, they have considerable experience in this area and established contacts with the villages, and it is the troopers or borough police who will provide the follow-up field training for the village officers.

Stability Must Be Established

     But, stability remains a critical problem, and this is tied to the economic situation within the villages themselves. In most of the villages in Alaska there is very little economic activity, little actual paid employment. The average pay for village police officers is about $837 a month and is as low as $65 a month. Further compounding the problem is the fact that in at least 40 percent of the villages the officers are paid from CETA funds—which are presently in danger of being terminated.
     As a consequence, subsistence hunting and fishing often take precedence over police duties, and the attraction of commercial fishing and other job opportunities attract many trained officers away from their villages.
     Some recommended solutions to this problem were:
     • increased direct support from the state,
     • arrangement with the Native corporations,
     • arrangements developed under borough governments, or
     • reorganization within the Department of Public Safety.

(Editor's note: The Governor's Commission in December awarded $110,506 to the Police Standards Council to continue Village Police Officers' training.)

      A promising possibility suggested in the report is the village public safety officer concept organized within the Department of Public Safety similar to the arrangement proposed by Bill Nix and James Messick for the Aleutian Region.

Concluding Note

     In conclusion, it was stated in the report that, "At this point in time, the precise nature of a village police officer's work and related problems is still unknown. We do not know with any certainty how the village police job can, should or might be modified, and for sound village police training, it is important that information bearing on these areas be obtained and used as a basis for the curriculum of training programs."