Alaska State Troopers, AFSCME Members Profiled on National Geo Channel

by Mike Hall, Nov 22, 2009

Alaska state troopers and AFSCME members (from left) Aileen Witrosky, Honie Culley and Anne Sears.

State trooper Ann Sears patrols 15 villages from an off-road post in Nome, a western Alaskan city of 35,000 residents. Riding in a boat or a snowmobile or flying a small plane, she responds to all calls—from drunkenness to domestic assaults—frequently without backup. 

“I’m often out in the middle of nowhere by myself. Law enforcement is tough enough but it’s a lot tougher in a state where just about every resident is armed, the weather is treacherous, and wild animals are always nearby.”

Sears is among 400 state troopers the National Geographic Channel profiles in its series on Alaska State Troopers—members of Public Safety Employees of Alaska (PSEA)/AFSCME Local 803. 

Each Wednesday at 10 p.m. EST, the show highlights those whom it describes as “the first line of defense on the last frontier,” women and men who often travel hundreds of miles over the rugged and unforgiving terrain of the nation’s largest state to enforce the law where nearly every resident is armed. The next episode is Dec. 2. 

The series captures a mixture of raw nature and criminal activity throughout the Alaskan wilderness and its remote village.

Sears says the television series—filmed over 10 months last year—gives viewers “a glimpse of the reality of what we do serving the people of Alaska.” 

Because of the unusual challenges we face every day, we are unlike any law enforcement agency anywhere else in the U.S. 

Click here for more information, photos and video clips. A tip of the hat to AFSCME webmaster Clyde Weiss for alerting us to the show.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (1)