Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced this month that the state would partner with the Municipality of Anchorage to better address public safety concerns in the state’s largest city, according to the Associated Press.
During his final State of the State address, Dunleavy said Anchorage has a high crime rate compared with the rest of Alaska. He told lawmakers that in 2024 the city had 55% of the state’s murders, 51% of sexual assaults, 67% of car thefts and more than 78% of robberies, and he said that if Anchorage were taken out of the statewide figures, the state’s overall crime rate would be well below the national average.
Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case welcomed the help but said the governor’s take on Anchorage crime was narrow and selective. “It’s a lot more complicated and complex than that,” Case said, adding that he expects Anchorage’s crime rate to be higher than in Homer and other smaller jurisdictions that generally see lower criminal activity, based on crime statistics across the country.
Case said the state and city had been discussing for months how to address crime in Anchorage. He said the city typically prosecutes lower-level crimes such as misdemeanors, while the state focuses on felony cases, and that a lack of communication sometimes leads to cases slipping through the cracks. He said that “One of the first things that we talked to the state about is when some of those crimes disappear or don’t get prosecuted, that doesn’t mean there’s not a lower-level misdemeanor crime that the municipality could adopt.”
Attorney General-designee Stephen Cox said the partnership is divided into three prongs. The first prong targets “quality of life” crimes, including retail theft, public drug use and illegal camping. Cox said, “On quality of life matters, it’s our view that disorder, this public disorder, it breeds crime, and law and order prevents it.”
The AP reported that those “quality of life” offenses have also been the focus of local efforts. Anchorage police recently wrapped up a targeted focus on retail theft through the holiday season, and city leaders were set to vote on a series of code changes aimed at addressing public nuisances such as intoxication and indecent exposure.
Cox said the state’s goal is to support the city’s initiatives by providing additional prosecution help and by bringing in other departments aimed at addressing the crimes as they occur. He also said the state plans to roll out a process for training municipal prosecutors to handle felony cases, including the use of designation changes so municipal prosecutors can bring state felony retail theft cases directly with cross-designations. Cox said state prosecutors could also be cross-designated to handle Anchorage misdemeanors related to illegal camping and public nuisances.
Cox said the other two prongs would be focused on intercepting drugs heading into the state and reducing violent crime, including sexual assault. On drug-related issues, he said the state is in the early stages of an improved method of working with postal services and airports to better catch drugs when they first arrive in Alaska.
Case said he is hopeful the state can improve the prosecution of violent crime. He said the state can take on more of those cases, move them forward, take them to grand jury, and move the process further down the line. Case also said, “We have so many victims in the state, particularly when it comes to sexual assault, and as a state and as a city, that has to be one of our top priorities.”
Dunleavy said he expects all three prongs of the state’s partnership with Anchorage to be in place by spring. Cox, meanwhile, said he is awaiting a confirmation vote from the Legislature before he can officially become the state’s attorney general.