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The Alaska State Troopers, officially the Division of Alaska State Troopers (AST), is the state police agency of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a division of the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS). The Alaska State Troopers are a full-service law enforcement agency and handle both traffic and criminal law enforcement. The Alaska State Troopers are also involved in apprehending fugitives as part of the Alaska Fugitive Task Force, an inter-agency collaborative of Alaska police departments that cooperates with police agencies throughout the United States and less commonly with Interpol in apprehending wanted men and women. Unlike many lower-48 states, Alaska troopers are both state troopers and game/wildlife enforcement officers. Because Alaska has no counties, therefore no county police or sheriffs, in its constitution, the troopers also handle civil papers and mental health custody orders and serve police throughout mostly all of rural Alaska. Alaska does have boroughs, which have some similarities but with lesser powers of lower-48 U.S. counties, but only the North Slope Borough police truly functions similarly to a lower-48 county police agency and thus relieves AST of a need to be the primary police agency in this particular region. Alaska troopers are the most geographically extended peace officers aside from federal officers in the USA. They have little, if any local backup; within the entire State of Alaska, only about 1,300 full-time sworn law enforcement officers patrol a state 1/5th the size of the entire lower-48 and other than troopers and state park rangers, the local officers remain in their communities except in extreme emergencies. This includes the only metropolitan police agency in Alaska, the Anchorage Police Department with almost 500 officers. The remaining officers are the over 300 Alaska troopers and smaller municipal agencies which have around 50 in towns like the state capital of Juneau or the second largest town in the state, Fairbanks. The remaining officers serve in small agencies with anywhere from one to ten officers on average. The DPS is headed by a Commissioner appointed by the Governor. This person is actually a civilian administrator, though historically a career law enforcement officer and administrator. The Commissioner, if a sworn officer upon being appointed as such, may be appointed a "Special Alaska State Trooper" to maintain police powers. The Alaska State Troopers (AST) and Alaska Wildlife Troopers (AWT) are headed by ranking officers with the rank of Colonel. ==History== The Troopers trace their heritage back more than a century, but there was no Alaska-wide police force until 1941, when the Territorial Legislature created the Alaska Highway Patrol. Territorial patrolmen only patrolled the main highways of Alaska and did not visit remote areas or regions. They were commissioned to only enforce traffic laws and were not police officers per se. They were eventually deputized as special deputy U.S. Marshals to fill this void in jurisdiction. The legislature refused to make them police officers until the agency was changed to Territorial Police and additional personnel were hired from the ranks of the U.S. Marshals. The new agency became the Alaska Territorial Police in 1953 after a number of titles. Other titles were the Alaska State Police after statehood in 1959, and ultimately the Alaska State Troopers in 1967. In a unique pilot program, AK Troopers even drove ambulances as patrol vehicles in the 1960s, serving as both ambulance and law enforcement service to remote areas. Before the founding of the Troopers, law enforcement in Alaska was performed by a succession of federal agencies: first the United States Army, then the United States Navy and Revenue Cutter Service, the U.S. Customs Service, and finally the United States Marshals Service after a civil government was formed in 1884. The need for law enforcement became critical in the late 19th century as gold was discovered in Alaska. Gold rush towns had crime rates per capita that dwarfed those of modern U.S. cities. Prostitution, gambling, murder, rape, robbery, arson, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and claim jumping incidents were rampant. Frightened citizens desperately cabled Washington for help. As a result, scores of Deputy U.S. Marshals were deployed to Alaska. The Alaska Peace Officer Memorial chronicles the many brave Deputy U.S. Marshals who died in the line of duty in early Alaska. The deputy marshals continued to be the main force of law in rural Alaska until the advent of the Alaska Troopers and many early-era troopers were former deputy U.S. Marshals. Some cities began to charter police departments in the early 20th century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alaska State Troopers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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