The Alaska Department of Public Safety continues to update the Alaska Public Safety Network (APSIN) so that any Tribal Court Protective Order can be entered into the statewide criminal justice data system.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety in Partnership with the Alaska Department of Law, Alaska Tribal leaders, Alaska Native Justice Center, and RurAL CAP have made a significant and historic step forward in addressing public safety and improving protections for victims of domestic violence, specifically for Alaska Native Tribal members.
Governor Mike Dunleavy stated, “I am committed to improving public safety outcomes in rural Alaska, and this is just one example of the many initiatives that we are working on. Thank you to our Tribal stakeholders who had the courage to come forward with their concerns and work together with us to find solutions.”
Due to be fully activated in early 2023 after Tribal Court training and IT modifications are completed, law enforcement will be able to immediately validate Tribal protective orders in the same way that they would validate a traditional protective order issued by a State Judicial Officer. This will ensure that victims of crime are consistently protected statewide. In the current process, a suspect could potentially follow a victim to another area of the state and then violate the protective order by doing something that the Tribal Judge ordered them not to do. When a law enforcement officer responds, they would have no way to verify what the Tribal Judge ordered.
Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell stated, “These stakeholders came together to problem solve and identified that by using current laws they could modify procedures and leverage technology in a multipronged approach to enhance the enforcement of State and Tribal Protective orders.”