After an 11-year hiatus, 'Alaska State Troopers' is back

It's one of those shows that you either love or hate. I think I'm the latter. An IMBD review described it as "a better version of Cops." I don't particularly enjoy watching people at their lowest being filmed without their consent. There's something to be said about people who sign up and agree to be on reality television versus those who end up on it and become fodder.

But hey, let's get into it!

On Jan. 7, the newest season of Alaska State Troopers was released. Filming for Troopers began in late summer and ran through fall.

AST aired on the National Geographic Channel from 2009-2015, racking up nearly 100 episodes. The show came to a halt following several Trooper fatalities; the director at the time said personnel needed to "focus on the job of providing public safety without any added outside distractions."

AST had also done the job it set out to do, which was to increase recruitment. Michelle Theriault Boots recently reported that when Troopers was at its peak, the Department of Public Safety was receiving 2,000 to 3,o00 trooper job applications a month. Fast forward to now, it's more like hundreds.

'Oh wow, and a camera'

We start in Fairbanks at summer solstice 2025. The very first line of dialogue in the episode is a call from a dispatcher.

34, Matcom. Our caller thinks she found a human hand on the ground.

Spoiler: it was not a human hand. It was a bear paw.

Summer solstice, that can sometimes cause problems. Decent chance we'll have people drinking quite a bit, parties, DUIs, might have some fights, you just never know.

They jam-pack as much as they can in that first ep. People confine themselves in barricades, arson, drugs, "criminal mischief," and even a high-speed chase from Wasilla to Anchorage at 100+ miles per hour, and... they don't catch them.

Everyone featured on the show has to sign a release from the production company —even if their faces are blurred.

There is a driver who flees the scene (both in car and on foot), Troopers are later called to check on a man hitting his mom with a pillow.

When he walks outside, the man immediately clocks the camera (how could you not), even though he sounds pretty inebriated.

Oh wow, and a camera!

One of the Troopers says when there is so much daylight, the dispatch line is "constantly" taking calls. He starts to describe a horrible assault that recently took place.

The suspect got a pickaxe handle and struck a female victim in the head, also while she was trying to get away, he actually got ahold of a mallet and hit her across the head again, ended up breaking her arms, breaking her legs. She was unconscious for about three days, almost been a week now, and she's still in the ICU barely able to talk.

That is SO specific. Alaska is a small enough town that you could know who some of these subjects are, or be able to identify them based on the information they share. It took me maybe a minute to figure out the name of the offender.

I really couldn't care about him being identifiable, it goes without saying that what he did is appalling. But it does open up the question of true anonymization. If I could find someone so easily, I'm sure it wouldn't be a stretch to assume I could discover the identity of other forced participants.

For half of the segment, two Troopers are in the neighborhood chatting with neighbors (in their patrol car but not wearing their uniforms), and as they drive away, they see their colleagues arresting the suspect. They throw their vests over their 49th State Brewing shirt (the unofficial Troopers uniform) and join in on the arrest.

A different trooper sits in a "high crime neighborhood" – what looks like a drug house – and sees a guy parked on the road "that doesn't want to look up at us."

That trooper chases the man down, pulls A GUN on him and pins him to the ground before calling for backup. Absolutely nothing about that interaction needed to be so violent.

You know why I came to talk to you? Parking in the road and you saw me turn around, and you came running here to throw something.

The guy says he's dopesick and has nothing on him. While they have him cuffed against the hood of the cop car and are searching his car, another car pulls up and witnesses the interaction. The trooper asks the driver for his name, after they run it back through dispatch, the cops realize he's on probation.

They search him. He has drugs, and the cameraman makes sure to zoom in on his hands to show the track marks. The scene wraps with at least four cop cars at the scene.

That shows you right there what a simple encounter can turn into a short foot chase, a fight, multiple searches, and three people going to jail.

The title credit right after reads:

Someone on Reddit (per usual) summed it up better than me.

I don't really get my jollies seeing other people down and out. I have enough of my own problems.

After just one episode (watched in 2x speed), I'm not sure how much of AST I will want to write about in the future. For now, it's going back on the list... the bottom of it.

(total watch time: 42 minutes, 18 seconds // speed run: 21 minutes, 9 seconds)

Bravo baddies in the turret

Last weekend we had our Traitors season four watch party! AK IRL streamed it on Discord so paid subscribers could watch the first three episodes. It was a lot of fun. I'm officially adding "monthly watch party" to the perks that paying subscribers to AK IRL receive.

We're going to be streaming the rest of the season on Discord, every Thursday at 6 p.m. AKST. through Feb. 26.

I'm offering a free trial for the paid subscription option through my website, which gives you exclusive (temporary) access to a Discord channel where we can chat in real time about shows we're watching.

Thank you to everyone reading, especially AK IRL subscribers! 🫶🏼 your support allows me to do what I do and support my family.

A round of applause for friends who are beautiful and talented

Thank you and a shoutout to my bestie Elizabeth for drawing up such a perfect little logo for AK IRL. I yuv you!

Next week, we're talking about Outlast. If you like what I'm doing and AK IRL but aren't subscribed, sign up and you never have to miss a story.