In remote regions of Alaska In Alaska’s remote areas, justice and safety are difficult for survivors of domestic violence to find. Police are scarce and generally arrives only just after the incident has occurred. However, there is a method which allows police officials to end domestic violence prior to it even begins the process: a domestic violence protective order.
Domestic violence protection order also known as a DVPO is a type of law issued by a tribe or the state which requires the perpetrators of violence to keep away from the victims. The DVPO is not a criminal conviction. DVPO does not constitute a crime case and a violation of one is an offense.
Rick Garcia, a former District Court magistrate judge for Aniak and Hooper Bay, discovered that Alaska troopers from the state were unable to implement DVPOs that were issued by tribal governments couple of years in the past.
“Currently the situation with the tribal DVPOs is that they aren’t entered in the same manner as states or DVPOs. Therefore, officers can’t gain access to that data,” he said. “What this means for the tribal members who have survived is that they must carry a valid piece paper with them every time they go out to gain security.”
The 229 tribes of Alaska are able to establish their own laws as well as possess their own justice system. They all have the ability to have the power to issue tribe-specific domestic violence protection orders that state law enforcement officials should follow, in accordance with federal law. State-issued orders are easily included in the State Trooper database, the Alaska Public Safety Information Network.
Tribal DVPOs are not able to enforce; this is a major obstruction to enforcement.
Garcia has been working with federal and state government to fix the problem. Garcia along with his department, the Department of Public Safety worked to get the whole system changed to allow tribal orders to be included in the database. The new system should “go into effect” in January 2024, he stated.
“It’s definitely a better way to ensure that children and women are safe, and that those with protective orders are safeguarded, but it also raises tribal protection orders to the same level like state-issued protective orders which is what’s needed to protect Alaskans. Alaska,” he said.
The new law also brings the state in line to federal laws.
Credit and full faith
The 1994 Violence Against Women Act is an act of federal legislation that was designed to stop the violence that women suffer. It contains an Full Faith and Credit provision which requires every state within the United States to recognize and apply valid protection orders that have been that are issued by any jurisdiction within the United States — including tribes.
Credit and full faith means state troopers from Alaska are required to apply the tribal DVPOs.
The stakes of enforcing the law are extremely high. The law acknowledges it is true that Alaska Native people are overrepresented as victims of domestic violence by a staggering 250 percent. When compared to the other American Indian tribes, Alaska Native residents suffer the highest levels of sexual and domestic violence across the country.
Garcia currently works in the field of legal policy for Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center which is a non-profit tribal organization that is dedicated to ending the violence that women suffer. After an Alaska tribe approached him to assist one of its citizens were to get their domestic violence protection order implemented, he questioned the state troopers regarding “full credit and faith.” They each gave him different responses.
They believed they could enforce the tribal DVPO when the tribe paid the fee of $60 for enforcement and others believed that they weren’t authorized to apply tribal DVPOs in any way. This isn’t the case.
“It was often enough that we realized that it was a problem”
Capt. Andrew Merrill with the Alaska State Troopers has spent the bulk of his career in Alaska communities that are not part of the main roads, particularly located in Western Alaska. He is the supervisor of all troopers within the region, which includes his colleagues from Aleutians, Kodiak, Dillingham, Bethel, Nome and Kotzebue.
“That’s the area what my love for me has been to serve and work in these remote areas of Alaska,” he said.
He admitted that he was aware that tribal DVPOs could be difficult to enforce. If he surveyed his troopers, the majority of them believed that all of them have experienced encounters where they were asked to enforce a tribal rule and no one was able to get an exact copy of the order. “It was often enough that we realized it was a problem” he added.
He said he was shocked when he received the phone call from Garcia and discovered that a lot of employees were not aware of how “full trust and credit” operates.
Garcia and Garcia established a working group to address the issue which included State’s Departments of Law and Public Safety, Alaska State Troopers as well as a variety of non-profit organizations as well as The Alaska Native Justice Center.
Finding a solution to the issue of education was easy: Merrill said the the Department of Public Safety created the requirement for mandatory education for troopers of the state serving in rural regions. The first classes started in October, and about 100 troopers have attended these classes.
The issue of enforcement was a bit more complicated. There was no way to allow the tribal DVPOs to be able to enter the law enforcement apparatus of the state.
“We would like to enforce these orders in accordance with the statute,” Merrill said. “But we’re not able do so when the person hasn’t actually committed an offense.” That’s an offense other than a violation of the ordeal.
But he also said that officers are unable to apply an order when they don’t have evidence of its existence. Merrill stated that officers must prove that the order exists and the person who violated it is aware of the order. This means that when a tribal member claims they’re being victimized by a person who has been ordered to remain in peace because of an tribal DVPO then the State Troopers — often the only law enforcement agency in large areas of the state can’t intervene.
Merrill stated that remote and rural law enforcement officers were fortunate to have an official copy of tribal DVPOs However, even if they obtain them, they cannot integrate them into their systems. This means that regional officers may have access to the order however law enforcement from other areas of the state might not which is a problem in the event that a tribal member goes across the state.
“The main purpose of an order of protection is to offer some security. But, most importantly, for law enforcement, that is to provide us the tools to initiate immediate actions,” he said. “The good thing is that once a protective order is been issued and served when someone violates those orders, we have the ability to be able to arrest them right away.”
In order to enter the details of a DVPO or any other type of warrant in the database of the state for entry, it is required that Alaska State Troopers need to sign an agreement with the body that issued the warrant to ensure that accuracy of the information and will inform the Troopers of any change and notify them in the event that the warrant is removed. Municipal police departments all sign the warrants, he added. However, there was no procedure to be followed by tribes.
The Troopers have also contracted with contractors to modify to update the Alaska Public Safety Information Network system to ensure that tribes who sign the agreement will have their court orders integrated into the system, making it in line with federal law.
Merrill introduced the new system at his Tanana Chiefs Conference this year. He acknowledged that the state hasn’t always been a great partner or steward to tribes, which is why it was important to emphasize that the participation in the system is not mandatory. He noted that the reaction was very positive.
“A number of people were ecstatic about the event,” she said. “Afterwards they came to me. They were ecstatic about being able to show that the tribal court’s decision is easily viewed and enforced wherever in Alaska. Alaska.”
He explained that the process of solving problems was so effective on the issue that he plans to employ the same method in the future to tackle other problems.
This article was created as part of the Annenberg Center of USC Annenberg of Health Journalism’s 2023 domestic Violence Impact Fund. The article was first released by the Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.
A complete catalog of Alaska shelters and services for victims providers is available here. .
