Unlike most state police agencies, AST is unique in that it performs duties unlike other similar agencies. Because Alaska has no counties and hence, no county police or sheriffs in its constitution, the troopers also handle civil papers, mental health custody orders and serve to police mostly all of rural Alaska. Alaska does have Burroughs, which have some similarities but with lesser powers of lower-48 US counties, but only the North Slope Burrough Police Department truly functions similarly to a lower-48 county police agency and thus relieves AST of a need to be the primary police agency in this particular region.