Service + Solidarity Spotlight: AFSCME Recognizes First Native Woman to Serve as Alaska State Trooper

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Anne Sears, a former member of the Public Safety Employees Association, AFSCME Local 803, is being honored by her union following her retirement from decades of public service as Alaska’s first native woman to work as a state trooper. In 2017, the trailblazer won an AFSCME Never Quit Service Award for going above and beyond the call of duty in serving her community. Sears, her husband, Jay, who was also a state trooper, and their colleagues were also the stars of the reality television series, “Alaska State Troopers,” which aired on the National Geographic Channel from 2009 to 2015.

“That show opened a lot of doors for me just in the villages alone because people would, of course, recognize me; they’d want to take pictures with me,” she said. “Even folks I was dealing with that I was having to arrest, eventually, after things, you know, settled down, we would talk about the show and seeing me on the show. It was an amazing thing to be a part of.”