DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02938.v1
title: Turnover Among Alaska Village Public Safety Officers, 1994-1999
title: Version 1

description: The study was designed to examine the high turnover rate in
 Alaska's Village Public Safety Officers (VPSO) program. The goals were
 to help guide the design of future delivery of public safety services
 to Alaska villages and to add to what was a limited understanding of
 policing in places with tiny populations. The survey instrument was
 administered to former and currently-serving VPSOs from October 1998
 to January 1999. Information was collected on the respondent's
 motivation for becoming a VPSO, length of time working as a VPSO, if
 the respondent was satisfied with the pay, retirement benefits,
 training, housing, and safety, if it was difficult for the respondent
 to enforce laws against relatives, the respondent's perception of the
 community's support and expectations, and their job-related stresses,
 role conflicts, duties, and demands. Those who had left the job were
 also asked about their post-VPSO employment. Demographic variables
 include the respondent's age, race, sex, marital status, education,
military experience, and whether the officer was an Alaska Native.
description: Alaska's Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs)
 endure working conditions unlike those faced by others responsible for
 law enforcement. These officers usually serve in a geographically
 isolated Alaska Native village by themselves and are sometimes an hour
 or more away by air from back-up law enforcement. VPSOs are expected
 to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to deal with the
 problems that arise in what are some of the most violence- and
 accident-prone places in the nation. Since 1983, the first year for
 which adequate records are available, turnover in the VPSO program had
 averaged 36 percent per year. This study was designed to examine the
 high turnover rate in the VPSO program. The goals were to help guide
 the design of future delivery of public safety services to Alaska
 villages and to add to what was a limited understanding of policing in
 places with tiny populations. Previous researchers had commented on
 the relative lack of research about police departments with very few
 officers. Of the research that had been conducted, officer turnover
 had been mentioned as a prime difficulty in these small
 departments. The present study builds upon that research by examining
 both the amount of turnover in the VPSO program as well as the factors
thought to be associated with it.
description: The survey instrument was administered to former
 and currently-serving VPSOs from October 1998 to January 1999. Two
 slightly different versions of the questionnaire, primarily involving
 changes in verb tense, were developed for currently employed officers
 and for formerly employed officers. The survey questions were
 developed from three different perspectives: (1) general police
 research that focused on the role of job stress and dissatisfaction
 with salary and benefits, (2) research on the problems faced by rural
 police officers, and (3) research regarding the difficulties of
 policing Alaska Native communities using Alaska Native
 employees. Draft copies of the survey were sent to the regional
 nonprofit corporation VPSO coordinators for their comments on the form
 and content of the questions. The draft of the survey was also
 examined by Alaska State Troopers affiliated with the VPSO
 program. The former VPSOs were offered $10 as incentive to
 participate, and both current and former VPSOs were offered a chance
 to win a $500 gift certificate to Wal-Mart for their participation. A
 total of 109 surveys were mailed out to former VPSOs during the first
 week of November 1998. Six weeks after the first mailing, a reminder
 letter was sent and follow-up telephone interviews were attempted with
 nonrespondents. A second reminder letter was sent to nonrespondents in
 mid-January 1999. About half of the surveys of the 75 current officers
 were administered at one of two regional training sessions held in
 October 1998. The remainder of the surveys were mailed to the current
 VPSOs at the beginning of November 1998. A reminder letter was sent to
 the current VPSOs in mid-December 1998 combined with follow-up
telephone calls.
description: Information was collected on the respondent's
 motivation for becoming a VPSO, length of time working as a VPSO, if
 the respondent was satisfied with the pay, retirement benefits,
 training, housing, and safety, if it was difficult for the respondent
 to enforce laws against relatives, the respondent's perception of the
 community's support and expectations, and their job-related stresses,
 role conflicts, duties, and demands. Those who had left the job were
 also asked about their post-VPSO employment. Demographic variables
 include the respondent's age, race, sex, marital status, education,
military experience, and whether the officer was an Alaska Native.
description: Response Rates: There was an overall response rate of 61 percent
(48 percent former VPSOs, 81 percent current VPSOs).
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used.
description: Convenience sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Turnover Among Alaska Village Public Safety Officers, 1994-1999
description: Former and current Village Public Safety Officers in
Alaska.
description: The user guide, codebook, and data collection
 instrument are provided by ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF)
 file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated
 and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
 Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.