An odd place to draw the line on moose killing, you might think, but the Alaska state troopers do not make the law. This one is floating in the middle of a lake and, as the narration informs us, 'killing a moose while it's swimming is illegal'. According to those in the know among the Alaska state troopers, 'the moose is not in an area where you would normally find a dead moose'.

I'm pretty certain someone shot it, actually – it's moose-hunting season – but I'm no expert. He spies a moose that may have died in suspicious circumstances. It's their job, although it's hard not to feel as if the police are interfering in an important system of Darwinist attrition – natural deselection, if you like.īack at his post near Fairbanks, Trooper Quist takes to the skies in a helicopter to patrol the moose hunting grounds. Policing Arctic Man involves strenuous days of mountain rescue followed by long evenings of breaking up fights and arresting the underdressed and incapable. 'Nobody goes to the beer tent alone,' he says. Lt Lonnie Piscona briefs his team in anticipation. For the 96 hours of its existence this idiots' jamboree becomes Alaska's fourth largest city, and just 13 state troopers are on hand to keep order: one for every 700 party-goers. Once a year, 10,000 souls descend on the middle of nowhere – a distinction for which much of Alaska qualifies, but in this case refers to a featureless white patch 400km north of Anchorage – for five days of heavy drinking and skimobile racing.

We begin at an event called the Arctic Man Ski & Sno-Go Classic. Still, a peek into the workings of a state that once allowed Sarah Palin to run things is always worth an hour of one's time on a slow telly night. At times the cameraman appears to be shaking with cold.

A laska State Troopers (National Geographic) is like Cops With Cameras crossed with Ice Road Truckers, and rather less than the sum of its parts: it's basically juddering footage of people getting arrested in the snow.

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