Alaska State Troopers

Some call it Alaska's version of spring break—the annual Arctic Man Ski and Sno-Go Classic. For four days, the remote Hoodoo Mountains are transformed into the state's fourth largest city. National Geographic joins troopers patrolling this rowdy festival, where roughly 10,000 people convene for physically demanding winter sports. It's up to just 13 troopers to keep the peace, enforce the laws and perform dangerous search and rescue missions.

Unforgiving terrain mixed with big city crime makes challenging work for troopers in Soldotna—a city on the Kenai Peninsula. National Geographic follows the troopers as they investigate a collision between a motorcyclist and a semitruck, track down a 11-year-old runaway, and search for two hunters stranded in the southeastern wilderness—an area with one of the highest concentrations of bear maulings in Alaska.

Despite its small-town feel and remote location, the western outpost of Bethel has its share of big-city problems. In a city plagued with alcohol and drug problems, a special drug unit prepares for an undercover mission to bust an OxyContin dealer. Then, in the dead of winter, wildlife troopers gear up and head out on ATVs to patrol 20 miles across frozen lakes and swamps. And under the midnight sun of summer, people are up and out at all hours of the night—and so are the troopers, keeping the towns and highways safe.

Go inside one of the world's most unique law enforcement agencies as the Alaska State Troopers fight crime, enforce fish and game regulations, and conduct search and rescue operations in America's last frontier. Troopers fight crime on the streets of Wasilla, conduct a search and rescue operation on the frozen Yukon River, enforce hunting regulations in the wilds near Fairbanks, and train for survival in Sitka.

Meet the brave men and women fighting crime in the Seward Peninsula, an unforgiving region in western Alaska. During the winter, daylight lasts less than four hours—leaving a lot of time for trouble under the cover of darkness. On the Seward Peninsula, alcohol leads to more than 95 percent of all crime, and many villages have opted to ban booze, fueling a black market where a fifth of whiskey can go for $250 to $300.