An Analysis of Outpatient Accident Trends in Two Dry Eskimo Towns as a Measure of Alternative Police Responses to Drunken Behavior

Abstract

Two rural Eskimo towns of approximately 3,000 persons each have banned the sale but not the use of alcoholic beverages in their communities. In the town of Bethel, police pick up intoxicated persons and transport them to a sleep-off and treatment center. In the town of Barrow, police take intoxicated persons into protective custody. Each town uses its police practice as an alternative to arrests for drunken behavior, decriminalized by the 1972 Alaska State Legislature. At least half of the adult population is picked up in each place. The authors seek to measure the impact of these differing approaches on violence related to alcohol use by employing Indian Health Service data in lieu of poorly maintained police data.