Reducing police response to nonviolent incidents among ideas supported by Berkowitz, APD leaders

During a virtual town hall-style discussion Wednesday night, Anchorage’s police chief and mayor fielded multiple questions from residents about diminishing the police department’s budget to better fund social workers and mental health professionals.

Participants voiced concerns that matched calls nationwide to cut police department budgets in favor of bolstering social services, allowing for professionals with therapeutic training to arrive first on the scene rather than an armed officer when responding to a mental health crisis.

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Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, Police Chief Justin Doll and Deputy Chief Kenneth McCoy all voiced support for some transformation that would lessen how often police respond to non-violent offenses, though no specific plan for change was announced.

McCoy said the department is looking at the Crisis Now model, which focuses on a behavioral health-based approach rather than a traditional police response to some incidents police are currently dispatched to.

“Just bringing more resources to focus on the issues that we’re seeing, and to alleviate the police department from having to address those concerns, which we all recognize we’re not well-equipped to handle,” McCoy said.

The town hall meeting was the first of what the city has said will be multiple events to hear from community members about how they want to be policed. No dates for future meetings have been announced. Wednesday’s event ran for more than 90 minutes, with questions posed from about two dozen people.

The questions ranged from the physical fitness policy of officers to why police disciplinary records are kept from the public, but the most prevalent theme was asking about significant reform to how Anchorage is policed.

“We have the opportunity in this moment to create meaningful, substantive changes to the way we approach public safety,” one participant said via written comment.

“Policing communities is not the only path to public safety. Police departments themselves regularly point out how they are ill-equipped to respond to mental health, addiction and homelessness. I would like to see Anchorage shift our funding to other public safety resources, including the community resources that prevent crime.”

Berkowitz responded that he agreed, and most of the police he’s encountered agree with the sentiment as well.

Over the years, the burdens of public safety have shifted from various departments and fallen to police, he said. The Anchorage Health Department has 50 fewer employees than it did at its peak, Berkowitz said. There is a shortage of social workers.

“We’ve cut the funding for a lot of these other entities,” he said. “The police department and law enforcement in general has become the safety net that catches everything, and that’s not ultimately the way forward in terms of making sure law enforcement can do the job that it’s best trained to do.”

Right now, Doll said, there is no other department staffed up to handle many of the calls police receive that might be driven by underlying behavioral health issues.

“Those are things that could be off-loaded to other agencies, but I think right now we don’t necessarily have the resources for any other entity to step up and handle that,” Doll said. “I think from a law enforcement perspective, it’s always desirable for us to focus on criminal investigations.”

In addition to considering implementing a more social worker-heavy model, the city also plans to help fund an addiction treatment center, and voters recently passed an alcohol tax that will help fund more homelessness services, as well as measures to combat sexual, domestic and child abuse.

Berkowitz said that sort of model is the clear path to improving public safety in the city.

“We want to make sure that when there are behavioral health issues, that you have behavioral health specialists that are first on the scene, rather than calling the police,” Berkowitz said.

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