WHERE TO TURN?

Every Cop Has Been Convicted of Domestic Violence in This Alaska Village

With low pay and little demand, small Alaska communities readily take on convicted felons to lay down the law, according to a report.

All of the police officers in Stebbins, Alaska, have pleaded guilty to domestic-violence charges within the past decade, according to an investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica. Stebbins, a coastal town of fewer than 600 people, is not very different from many towns in the state. With low pay and little demand, small Alaska communities readily take on convicted felons to lay down the law, according to the report. In some cities, even someone who has admitted to a sex crime or was recently released from prison can be hired with public money to work as a police officer. In Stebbins, only one of the officers has received any formal law enforcement training, and their police chief has pleaded guilty to throwing a teenage relative to the ground and threatening to kill her.