History of law enforcement in Galena and the AK interior:

Galena developed as a village in the early 1900's as an Athabascan Yukon River fishing village.

In the early village years, residents almost always handled police matters and crimes internally. Little if any contact with law enforcement occurred, even for serious crimes. Unlike the neighboring town of Ruby, which grew rapidly during the Gold Rush at the turn of the last century, only to depopulate in the subsequent decades, Galena held steady in population in recent decades, even with the closure of Galena Air Force Base and Campion Air Force Station.

In 1942, the arrival of the US Army Air Corps (later the US Air Force) base in Galena in WW2 provided growth for the area by regularly-scehduled air service. The base was a lend-lease stop for aircraft going to the USSR to help the Russians fight the war. The base played a key role in the Cold War years from 1945 until 1993, when it closed.

Until Galena established a police force in the early 70's, Alaska State Troopers were based at Galena because of the hub airport. They handled major crimes in the region. This was a burden to the troopers, who also covered crimes in neighboring villages and were often over-extended, delaying response times to even serious calls.

The need for a Galena Police Department was addressed by the establishment of the police department in 1974. In the early 1980's with the Air Force personnel presence in the city at a hilt, Galena had a hotel, several bars and several restaurants to serve the fighter squadron at Galena AFB, which had over 300 Air Force personnel and family members. Another 300 troops were based at Campion Air Force Station.

Air Force security police provided protection to the base and exercised police presence over military personnel throughout the base and town for decades, both at Galena Air Force Base and at Campion Air Force Station, which closed in 1978. Military police could not however, handle incidents involving civilians off-post.

In historical perspective, law enforcement in AK, especially in the cold and isolated Interior, was done with almost no formal governmental action until the 1960's.

Garrisons of the US Army, Navy, Marines and Revenue Cutter Service (later the US Coast Guard) maintained limited peace and order after Alaska was pruchased from Russia in 1867. The US Customs Serivce also performed some policing as they enforced customs laws at seaports. The first real law enforcement in AK was the US Marshall Service, with Alaska suffering its first line-of-duty law enforcement death in 1897, when a Deputy US Marshall was gunned down in 1897 on Admirialty Island by a gang of thieves. The Great Gold Rush of that year brought over 40,000 prospectors from the lower US and elsewhere in a 4-month period. Crime skyrocketed in the Great Land. Alcohol was fueling an explosion of robbery, rape, theft, arson, claim jumping, kidnapping, fraud, mayhem and murder in gold rush towns and camps. Frightened citizens cabled Washington with desperate pleas for help. The federal government responded by sending droves of deputy US Marshalls to police the frontier. Gold was discovered in the Interior in 1903 in Fairbanks, which established Alaska's first city police department in 1904. Their Chief was murdered in 1905. Anchorage finally established a police department in 1920. Gold was later found all over the Territory and the Interior Town of Ruby was a bustling Gold Rush town of 10,000 in the early 1900's. As crime increased, no police presence was established in AK or the interior until the start of WW2. In 1941 the AK Territorial Legislature finally chartered a Territorial Highway Patrol in 1941, consisting of 15 officers who had no general police powers and could only enforce traffic code on the road system. These officers did not visit the remote Interior and major investigations were left to the FBI or the Marshall Service. Agents and Deputies almost never visited the Interior. To address rising crime, the federal government swore in the entire Highway Patrol as Deputy US Marshalls in 1945. The Alaska Territorial Legislature finally vested the Highway Patrol with general police powers in 1948 and formally converted the patrol into the Alaska Territorial Police in 1953 with just over 30 officers. When Alaska became the 49th State in 1959, the newly-renamed Alaska State Police added 20 former US Marshall Deputies and 10 recruits, bringing strength up to 78 officers. The agency changed its title to the present-day Alaska State Troopers in 1967.

Some cities began to appoint police chiefs and officers in the early 1900's. Following the establishment Galena's Police Department, the size of the agency varied from a Cold War height of a Chief and three officers in the early 1980's to only a Chief at various times since the early 1990's.

As a chartered Alaska First Class City, Galena provides a police department, unlike smaller cities that may have only a Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO). The VPSO is a first-responder officer, who is unarmed and enforces only misdemeanonr incidents and secures major or serious crime scenes but does not make felony or traffic arrests. These cases are handled by responding State Troopers. Some villages have volunteer Village Police Officers (VPO's) who are similar to town watchmen of earlier times in the lower 48.

The Galena Police Department presently is authorized two officers; a Chief and a Patrolman, who are required to meet all AK Police Standards Commission (APSC) standards. The Galena Police Department is also authorized a Reserve Officer and several Auxiliary Officers.

John A. Millan, a retired NC police chief has been the current Chief since 2007, upon the retirement of Chief Lowell Carlton. Other previous Chiefs in recent years were Dan Bennett, Merlin Eilers and Gerald Meece.

The department has a modern police station with a holding cell and now has a sub-office at the Galena Interior Learning Academy (GILA) campus, the city's pulic boarding high school. Vehicles include two 4X4 patrol trucks. Radios were recently upgraded and new Glock Model 22 .40 caliber pistols and .12 GA shotguns are now issued to full-time officers. In addition to standard police training, GPD officers are also cross-trained as Alaska Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT)or Emergency Trauma Technicians (ETT), whenever possible.

The Galena Police Department is the only city police department in the region, with the surrounding villages being provided police protection by Village Public Safety Officers (V.P.S.O.'s) and Alaska State Troopers. G.P.D. works closely with the Alaska State Troopers and federal officers to keep the area safe. District court is held in Galena, with the area jail located in Fairbanks. Galena has a very low rate of serious crime and the department's goal is to maintain a safe and vibrant community. Outreach to local school children is a specific priority, as is serving the diverse population of the region. The rich Athabascan native heritage of the area is a proud building block for the values of the town. The police department proudly recognizes the contributions and heritage of our local native population.

In addition to the Chief and regular part-time officer, the department is also authorized one paid reserve and up to three auxillary officers.

Being a police officer in Alaska's only Police Department between Fairbanks and Nome is a uniquely rewarding and challenging job! If you are interested, email the Chief at grizz_71@yahoo.com or call Galena City Hall at (907) 656-1301 for an application.

The Galena Police Department is authorized a number of part-time jail guards as determined by the chief, a reserve officer program of varied levels of proficiency as authorized by the Alaska Police Standdards Commission (APSC), a student senior-intern program each semester and unlimited members of the community watch program.

Interested applicants should download a personal history statement form from the Alaska Police Standards Council, complete, sign and notarize it and mail it to the police department, attention to the Chief.

Applications will be held on file indefinitely, though they may have to be updated depending on the date filed.

About Galena: Galena is only accessible by air year-round, with several regional airlines and charter services. The city has no connecting state highways to the outside region. The Yukon River connects the city to area villages. Boats visit constantly in warm weather, traveling down from Fairbanks and other communities. Tugboats tow cargo barges back and forth from Nenana located below Fairbanks up and down the Yukon, bringing vital and assorted supplies when the river is not frozen. Snow machines travel the frozen river in the cold winter periods.

Early history: Galena was originally a native settlement, with the forefathers of the area's present-day natives making a living by hunting and by fishing the salmon and other bountiful fish of the mighty Yukon River. Many native residents still fish the Yukon River in traditional fashion, stocking up on Salmon as a winter staple.

Cold War years: The US Air Force built a base here which was a vital link for US defense against possible Soviet attack in the cold war years, as Galena was the closest combat aircraft squadron to Soviet airspace. A squadron of fighter intercept aircraft stood the line for freedom for over five decades. Campion Air Force Station, a radar tracking station was also located five miles north of the city. It was part of famous Cold War General Curtis Lemay's Defense Early Warning (D.E.W.) Line, which monitored the skies of the U.S. and Canada for Soviet aircraft intrusions or for Soviet nuclear missiles coming over the horizon. Military and civilian Air Force personnel were the bulk of the original outsiders, many of whom married local residents, stayed in the area and settled their families here. Government employees, teachers and healthcare providers have also infused the community from the outside.

The flood: After a devastating flood in the 1970's, the city moved many buildings and homes from the "old Town" area on the riverbanks to the current area (New Town) located about 2 miles north and several blocks back from the river.

BRAC: With the Cold War over, the Base Realignment And Closure Committee (B.R.A.C.) recommended closure of the base in the late 1990's. Final and complete closure is slated for Oct. of 2008. Campion Station had closed in 1993 and is now the site of the city's landfill. Though many military towns fear ruin at the loss of a military base, Galena took opportunity from a possible setback, making the base into the State's only premier public school boarding school, which not only provides an Alaska high school diploma to young people from across the state, it provides career training and certificates in aviation, food service, cosmetology, automotive repair and construction, as well as maintaining standard educational programs, all provided in a residential setting. Young people from the frozen barrens of the North Slope to the lush panhandle attend the school. As the G.I.L.A. School continues to grow, the former Air Force base site continues to be a great potential for the city.