VPSO task force issues report on village safety

Tue, January 29, 2008
Posted in Alaska News, Top Stories

A task force looking into the need for law enforcement in rural communities has finished its report for the state senate. The Village Public Safety Officer or VPSO task force came up with 6 main recommendations for providing more officers in rural communities and retaining them.

Lori Townsend, APRN - Anchorage

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13 Comments to “VPSO task force issues report on village safety”

Donna L. Ewan on January 30, 2008 at 3:12 am

I really believe villages need Village Patrol Security Officers. They have so much violence and alcohol problems in the villages. Allot of nights in Copper Center, Alaska I had to patrol the village because Alaska State Troopers were off duty. There are so many underage people drinking and driving. I had to break up parties and get people out of cars. We don’t have Village Patrol in our village. It is needed in our Copper River area. Our State Troopers are overworked and can’t fulfull all the needs of our villages from Chitina all the way up to Northway Alaska and down Tanacross, Alaska. I feel for the villages up North and along the Yukon because they only have Village Patrol Officers. To take that away from them is sad. They need their services badly. I see so much violence going on up in those villages, you read about it in the papers. Please help those villages. We no longer have a police dispatch in our area, it is in Palmer, Alaska.
Eric W. on January 30, 2008 at 5:47 am

I submitted a draft bill to Rep. Harris’ office last year (and again this year) which would change the state statutes and allow for armed, volunteer reserve peace officers for the various agencies around the state. Currently, there is no such law allowing for or giving authority to reserve peace officers.

Further, VPSOs are not allowed to carry firearms and have minimal training requirements. The training requirements that would have to be met by the volunteer reserves (in this draft bill) is more than a full time VPSO is required to attend but less than a full time peace officer and would require no more of a time commitment that becoming and maintaining status as a volunteer EMT.

Having armed, volunteer reserve Troopers and City Officers is an ideal situation for policing of communities because the reserve officers are usually already respected members of the community. It also provides a very good recruitment pool for the various agencies because they will get to “test” their recruits. Given the fact that ALL of the state agencies are having recruitment and retention problems-having an on-hand pool of individuals who have already had some training and experience just makes sense.
mpb on January 30, 2008 at 9:07 am

Eric– one other suggestion is that we shift from a place-specific approach to a system (or community/regional) approach. That is, in many regions, all the villages are more analagous to neighborhoods in Anchorage– people visit and live in several places.

Also, many community people suggest officers (and others) find it difficult to be professional in their home locations but are effective in a neighboring location. Therefore, a means to support a profession of VPSOs would be more effective than to support a single VPSO.

In my previous experience with tribal police in New Mexico, the officers were given handgun training by BIA, but they didn’t have safety vests, flashlights, first aid kits, etc. Several of the officers among the eight tribes I worked for had combat experience so they formed their own informal or ad hoc support group for traumatic events.

Our officers need and deserve comprehensive support.

I’m not convinced that armed constabulary is appropriate; certainly not in the absence of recognition of the importance of VPSOs as measured by support, training, salary, retirement, scheduling, respect, etc.
Eric W. on January 30, 2008 at 11:20 am

MPB & Donna,
I agree with you both. Forgive me for not being more detailed about the provisions of the draft bill submitted to Rep. Harris. It is several pages long but does address some areas of concern you stated MPB.

While the draft would leave equipping the Reserve Volunteers open to the sponsoring agency it does specify that they be equally equipped to perform duty. It also provides that the Reserve Volunteers be “reasonably” supervised by a full time Peace Officer. Reasonable would mean that the full time officer has to be in close proximity (though not necessarily in the immediate area) of the Reserve while they are on duty. An example of this would be event policing, such as Arctic Man; Reserve Volunteers could augment the State Troopers at that location by patrolling the area without having to be with a trooper at all times.
So, it would be far from an armed constabulary.

That reasonable supervision clause also addresses any ethical concerns that may arise from a Reserve being a member of the local community. A Peace Officer (active or reserve) should be a member of the community - even if they aren’t from that community. It’s been my experience that officers who isolate themselves from the community except when they are policing don’t do so well - especially in rural communities.

The draft bill also includes provisions that would cover any Reserve on duty under the sponsoring agencie’s Medicare and Workman’s Compensation policy.

Of course, none of it will happen if the bill just sits in Rep Harris’ office and never gets worked through the committees to be voted on.

There is a lot to the draft bill, if APRN and its customers are interested in the details of the draft as I submitted it, I will be glad send it if they provide a point of contact.
mpb on January 30, 2008 at 11:54 am

Eric, my concern wasn’t for the ethics but for the often very difficult double-bind that officers sometimes face. As you say, community policing is most effective when peace officers are in the community and not isolated (also true of teachers and health types). However, I hope those in control of pursestrings etc realize the “community” encompasses more than just one named place.

If you don’t have a place to list the URL of your draft bill, click on my name and leave me a note there. I can help on that point.
Village 911 on February 21, 2008 at 2:50 pm

Reading yur comments I think there is a misconception or lack of real iformation on what training a VPSO recieves or what a VPSO does in their community.

To adress training. VPSO training is 10 weeks of intense learning at the DPS Academy. The only difference in corriculum is the lack of firearms training and drivers training and VPSOs recieve firefighter training. Other than that in a nut shell VPSOs have the same arrest powers, do the same paperwork, use the same court system and speak the same language, all with no guns and less assets.

If you look at the history of the program the primary duty was not law enforcement but prevention and emergency response. VPSOs are cross trained to respond to fire, EMS, Search and Rescue and law enforcement emergencies. On top of doing prevention programs in their respective communities.

Lets add cost of living due to logistics, limited resources, funding and emediate backup in bad situations, I think you would find a VPSO is very valuable to the communities served by one and trying to fill the shoes will be a distinct challenge. I have yet to meet a Trooper or Municipal officer that is willing to meet that chalenge and have heard comments by training professionals that have been in and understand the business of law enforcement wondering how a VPSO can do the job they do under the current conditions.

I believe if you want to comment or have a “fix” to the problem and have not spent a day with a VPSO to get the facts, travel to a rural community and seek out the VPSO and spend a day with him or her and come back and post from the experience gained. Anybody can read the paper and have a onesided opinion with half the facts. Go seek out a VPSO, shake their hand and ask some questions and I think some of you will have a different outlook.

Just one mans opinion.
Eric W. on February 21, 2008 at 3:13 pm

V911,
I have spent a lot of time with VPSOs and know full well what what their job actually entails. If you note in my original posting, I stated that VPSOs have minimal “statutory training requirements” and abilities as they apply specifically to law enforcement operations. Firefighting and EMS training as well as functioning in those positions is a merely a side note.
VPSOs certainly do far more than they really should or are required to and it shows a true dedication to duty. The bill I submitted to Rep Harris’ office would serve to further that dedication.
A Reserve Peace Officer’s function is to augment, not supplant full time law enforcement operations and community based policing efforts, such as VPSO.
Either way, the issue at hand appears to be dead in the water yet again this year with the Alaska Police Standards Council. Thank you for your comments, they are greatly appreciated.

Eric W.
mpb on February 21, 2008 at 11:24 pm

Eric W– did you ever get a place to host your draft bill so others could look it over?
Eric W. on February 22, 2008 at 8:16 am

MPB,
I didn’t, earlier you offered some assistance with that; is it your user name “mpb” I click on to follow to your URL? I only have the draft in a Microsoft Word document.

EW
mpb on February 22, 2008 at 9:32 am

Yes. My email is there so you can send the doc to me and I’ll figure out how to get it available. You can check the rest of the site to see if I’m legit or not.
Eric W. on February 22, 2008 at 4:32 pm

MPB,
I have no doubts about your legitimacy. I’ll get that off to you.

EW
Draft bill– Alaska Reserve Police Officers Act (VPSO/VPO) « Grassroots Science on February 25, 2008 at 5:10 pm

[...] , help wanted , preparedness , public involvement Tags: Bumsted, Grassroots Science, YKAlaska VPSO task force issues report on village safety was reported on APRN statewide public radio, Tue, January 29, 2008. There was a follow-up [...]
mpb on February 25, 2008 at 10:43 pm

The draft bill that Eric W mentioned is now posted at
Draft bill– Alaska Reserve Police Officers Act (VPSO/VPO) - http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/draft-bill-alaska-reserve-police-officers-act-vpsovpo/