ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) program, the latest in a long line of programs designed to bring law and order to the Native communities of Alaska. It argues that the development of policy and the imposition of Western law and its enforcement in villages was the result of ad-hoc and pragmatic initiatives taken, in the absence or even in violation of formal regulations, by middle-level bureaucrats rather than a planned result arising from some larger, long-range design and purpose. The chapter describes the organization and functioning of the VPSO program and its place in the long history of policing in Alaska. Interpretations of the origins of and requirements for proper and effective policing or the provision of public safety services reflect their larger theoretical contexts. Descriptions of the conditions of rural and Native Alaska echo similar themes.
