Alaska State Trooper captain re-elected for the NOBLE board

PALMER — Alaska State Trooper captain Tony April was recently re-elected to the national board of directors for the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. He was sworn in down in Hollywood, Florida, during NOBLE’s 42nd annual Training Conference and Exhibition on July 27, and now, he said that he will continue to “build the bridge” between law enforcement and the entire community he swore to protect and serve, without bias.

“This is a big deal for the Alaska State Troopers and the state of Alaska,” April said.

Founded in 1976, NOBLE is a borderless group of primarily black law enforcement CEO’s and command level officials. It’s headquartered in Washington, DC, with almost 60 chapters across the U.S. and beyond, including Canada, United Kingdom, Africa and so on.

When it comes to racism against African Americans, April said that he could only speak from his original community in Miami, Florida. Before he joined the U.S. Army, National Guard, FBI, and the AST, April said that he never would have guessed he would be a cop.

“But here I am!” he laughed.

Growing up in the Miami projects April said that he encountered racism at the hands of some “bad apples” in the law enforcement community.

“It’s no secret…. There were race riots across the nation,” April said.

He said there wasn’t any transparency, and a disconnect between the police and the people because they weren’t understanding each other, that there’s was an “us verses them” sort of mentality going around. Then, the infamous 1980 Miami riots stemmed from a public outrage following the acquittal of four Miami-Dade police officers in the death of Arthur McDuffie.

“The perception was that there weren’t any repercussions for when a cop did something that- in my mind- was a criminal activity,” April said.

April credited one Caucasian police officer in particular as one of his emerging influences back in Miami. He said that officer made his rounds and made it a point to be polite and engaged with the people living in April’s neighborhood.

“He set a different kind of tone… He has coffee with the blacks,” April said.

That officer was one of the turning points for April. He said that he began to look at the law enforcement system as a whole instead of focusing on the “bad apples.”

April joined the Army in 1984. He came up to Alaska joined the AST in 1997 while in service with the National Guard, retiring from the military in 2009. He joined NOBLE in 2006 and has been an active member since then, fostering equity, mentorship and “true community policing” with community engagement.

He’s worked all over state, from rural Alaska to the bustling city of Anchorage. One of his first assignments as an AST officer was in a small native village.

Historically, there hasn’t been much of an abundance of African Americans in Alaska. Thanks to colonization and assimilation efforts by earlier white settlers, the state became predominately white after the indigenous people were almost wiped out.

April said that there’s communities, especially the more rural places who rarely see black person and intentional or not, he’s encountered some forms of racism. He said that as a black man, he’s can tell when a white person racially stiffens up doing things like clenching their purse.

“You have literally, no idea what it’s like to be African American. You may think you have an idea but you don’t,” April said.

He said that in his 27 years with the AST, he used the same skills across the state, giving no special treatment. He said that when he was in the Native villages, he made contentious efforts to understand their culture and their own particular set of issues unique to those remote regions. He ate their traditional food, talked to their elders and listened to the voices around the community.

“I think being exposed to different things gives you a different perspective,” April said.

Since April has been in NOBLE, he’s presented several workshops, served as a consultant in matters dealing with parliamentary procedures, partnered with Alaska U.S. Senators, like Lisa Murkowski and her assistant Trina Bailey on policy input and development, and mentored the diverse, Alaskan youths.

“I’m tremendously encouraged by all this support!” April said.