Justice Dept. offers emergency funding for law enforcement in Alaska Native villages

Attorney General William Barr declared a law enforcement emergency in rural Alaska on Friday, allocating more than $10 million be made available to state authorities for critical law enforcement needs in Alaska Native villages.

The Justice Department said that $6 million from the Office of Justice program’s Bureau of Justice Assistance will go toward hiring, equipping and training village public safety officers, village police officers and tribal police officers working in rural Alaska.

The Department of Justice’s Office on Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) will also award $4.5 million in funding for 20 officer positions, equipment and training.

{mosads}“In May, when I visited Alaska, I witnessed firsthand the complex, unique, and dire law enforcement challenges the State of Alaska and its remote Alaska Native communities are facing,” Barr said in a statement.

“With this emergency declaration, I am directing resources where they are needed most and needed immediately, to support the local law enforcement response in Alaska Native communities, whose people are dealing with extremely high rates of violence,” he said.

Alaska has the highest per capita crime rate in the country, and the Justice Department says the state’s geography poses unique problems for law enforcement. 

The agency cited estimates and studies saying that one-third of Alaskan villages have no local law enforcement personnel at all, and more than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native adults have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime. 

Barr said the Justice Department would work with local and tribal officials.

“I want to be sure that the support this Department offers to Alaska Native communities will support solutions identified by the communities themselves,” he said. “The only way for us to provide effective support is to work in partnership with others. This is true in Alaska and throughout Indian country.”