Public Safety

The beginning of the Shaktoolik coastal berm. Photo: Anna Rose MacArthur.

Travis Savetilik stepped into the role of Shaktoolik’s Village Public Safety Officer on July 12. He graduated from the Alaska Law Enforcement Training program in Sitka a month earlier.

A Coast Guard helicopter lands at the seasonal base in Kotzebue.

A crew from the Coast Guard’s Air Station in Kodiak opened the seasonal forward operating location in Kotzebue as a response to warming waters and increased ship traffic in the Arctic.

Close-up of a white Nome Police Department vehicle.

Police arrested twenty-year old Javen Slwooko of Gambell in the Hansons grocery store on an active arrest warrant. He was mandated to return to the Seaside Center after completing his shift at Hanson’s on Friday, April 23rd but did not– prompting authorities at Seaside to notify the Nome Police for Slwooko’s arrest.

The head of Alaska’s Wildlife Disease and Health Surveillance Program confirms that the City of Nome has a higher than normal case count of rabies in the red fox population.

Nome’s Public Safety Advisory Commission convened this month to discuss the drafted use of force policy. After several cancelled meetings due to COVID-19, and failing to make quorum, the commission did meet on Monday for the first time since October of 2020.

Nome courthouse staff confirm Bradley Gene Okpealuk was arraigned this morning and his case now moves onto a trial. In-person jury trials resumed in Nome earlier this month.

Man in green kuspuk holds green bottle while standing on beach on cloudy day

A local Shishmaref fundraiser is aiding residents who lost their home in a fire early Sunday morning. Law enforcement say other crimes took place leading up to the blaze that same day.

Wanted Suspect turned himself into State Troopers on July 22nd in Kobuk. Photo: Alaska State Troopers file.

On Thursday last week, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Alaska announced that 35-year-old Alfred Morgan of Aniak had been indicted on federal gun charges.

Two men looking at a building that has signs of fire.

An electrical fire on Wednesday caused no injuries but did some significant damage to the apartment units at 603 Seppala Drive in Nome.

Stack of papers and a rape kit supplies on a table.

Rep. Geran Tarr pre-filed House Bill 5 earlier this month which includes rape kit testing reform, further protections for underage victims of sexual abuse, and updates the state’s sexual consent law.