Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said Wednesday he was injecting an additional $5 million into the city's 2016 public safety budget, in hopes of increasing the ranks of police and firefighters in the city.
Berkowitz spoke optimistically during a press conference at City Hall about increasing the police ranks, as next year APD will hold three academies. The task of overseeing those academies will be handed off to the new police chief, Chris Tolley, when current chief Mark Mew leaves the department this month. There were never three academies conducted in a single year during Mew's nearly six-year tenure.
"One of the things I want to emphasize is we've been hiring for some time, but we need to hire and recruit a lot this (next) year," Mew said. He estimated the third academy would bump the number of fully trained officers to 365, an increase of 25 positions.
The academies may result in as many as 84 new officers, but those leaving the department soften the increase in numbers.
Anchorage Fire Department Chief Denis LeBlanc said applications for a firefighting academy in March are already being accepted. That department aims to add 10 front-line responders by mid-June, increasing the number of firefighters to 325.
The additional firefighters will help AFD achieve a critical goal: response to emergencies in four minutes or less 90 percent of the time, LeBlanc said.
"By optimizing staffing levels, we can also lower the costs associated with overtime and hold our budget in check," LeBlanc said.
Berkowitz said his administration "moved some of the pieces of government around" to find the millions for public safety improvement. More details on where the money will come from and other components of the 2016 city budget should emerge soon, he said.
The city plans to raise fines to help pay for the academies, Berkowitz said, though no specific fines were identified. Some city fines haven't been changed in about 15 years, he said.
"(APD) did go through a period of time where they weren't running academies, so on consequence there's a bit of backlog in terms of need, and we want to catch up on that," the mayor said, adding the police department was 25 percent below staffing levels recommended by Police Executive Research Forum, commonly called the PERF report.
The report, published in 2010, was mentioned multiple times during Wednesday's press conference.
Currently, there are 340 officers at APD. That number doesn't include officers in training, Mew said. It's also about 40 officers fewer than the level of sworn officers recommended by the PERF report.
Officials hope the city has about 400 fully trained officers by the end of 2017. The increase will ultimately help the city save money, they said, adding that Anchorage will have to rely on its own funds now more than ever as the state can't offer the support it once did due to a budget deficit.
APD's staffing shortfall was coupled with the downsizing of specialized units that focused on thefts and traffic enforcement. Revitalizing those units is a priority; keeping them maintained is a goal in the 2010 study, he said.
With more officers doing specialized work and patrol officers conducting follow-up investigations, the city can hopefully start to address the underlying causes of crimes plaguing Anchorage.
For example, the synthetic drug known as Spice remains a significant problem, with daily emergency calls draining resources and time. The fire department responded to a Spice-related call just Wednesday morning, LeBlanc said. Spice use in the city has been sending people to area hospitals for more than a month.
By tracking down distributors and halting the availability of the drug, both firefighters and police officers can recoup those losses over time, Berkowitz said.
"It will result in a better financial situation for the city," he said.