26-year Anchorage police veteran set to be first woman to lead the department

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson on Tuesday named Bianca Cross as the next police chief, which will make her the first woman to head the Anchorage Police Department in the city’s history.

Cross, a 26-year veteran of the department, brings “a wealth of knowledge, expertise and a deep commitment to community policing,” Bronson said at a news conference at City Hall.

Cross currently serves as captain over the police department’s Detective Division. She said she was committed to leading the department with “compassion, inclusivity and transparency.”

She will replace Michael Kerle, who has been chief since 2021. She is expected to assume the role of chief designee April 30, when Kerle retires — just before Bronson will go up against Suzanne LaFrance, his mayoral election opponent, in a runoff election in May. The timing means LaFrance, if elected, could inherit a police chief freshly appointed by Bronson.

Bronson insisted the timing of Kerle’s retirement was not political. Kerle, he said, had scheduled a vacation that made the previous plan to retire July 1 — with the election resolved — not possible.

“Chief Kerle is going on a cruise,” Bronson said. “You can’t have a department without a police chief.”

Cross must first be confirmed as chief of police by a majority vote of the Anchorage Assembly before taking the position permanently. Bronson did not say exactly when he would request the Assembly to confirm Cross but noted that the Assembly has rejected some of his executive appointments in the past.

However, Bronson said, “We anticipate this one to be pretty quick.”

Bronson said he chose Cross due to her “aptitude and resume” and said he’d spoken with officers about who would make a strong successor to Kerle.

“I went to rank-and-file police officers, and I said, ‘Hey, you know, someday, who would make a good police chief?’ And her name always kept coming to the top,” Bronson said.

Cross is a Service High School graduate and said she worked in the insurance industry before discovering she loved the teamwork of policing on a ride-along with the department.

“That night, they had an emergency situation. They had someone who ended up holed in an apartment with a gun, threatening other people. And really, it was the teamwork. It was the — everybody dropped what they were doing and (had) come to the scene to help that officer, those officers. That was the icing on the cake for me. I liked the teamwork. I like the collaboration, and the fact that everybody came to someone else’s rescue is appealing,” Cross said.

In her 26 years with the department, Cross has worked mostly in the detective unit, investigating violent crimes, sexual assaults and supervising units including homicides. She has also been a crisis negotiator and instructor. She was named captain overseeing the police department’s Detective Division in August.

Her priority for the department is to focus on the transition from Kerle’s retirement to her tenure as chief, she said.

“We have issues with homelessness and crime in the city. So we’ll stick with the basics initially, and then we will work our way through and find a plan for everything else,” she said.

When asked whether APD’s deputy chief, Sean Case, would remain in the second-in-command position, Bronson said “Those announcements will be made later.”

”Bianca and I will be making those decisions,” Bronson said.

In a terse statement, the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association union said it was blindsided by the announcement.

“Until today, the APDEA was unaware of the appointment of Bianca Cross as Designee Police Chief,” the union’s president, Sgt. Darrell Evans, wrote in a statement. “Chief Kerle’s planned retirement comes right in the middle of a runoff election for Mayor. The mayor did not discuss any of these command changes with the APDEA, the representative for the 500+ rank-and-file employees who are continuing to fulfill our community’s law enforcement needs as best they can during a time of unprecedented staffing woes.”

The union “would like to see better communication from the Mayor’s Office and at least have a seat at the table for the discussion,” the statement said.

Of 630 positions authorized within the department, APD has 117 vacancies — including 82 vacant sworn officer positions — though 30 of those are set to be filled by new hires currently in training or academy, leaving a total of 87 unfilled positions, according to an April 1 staffing report. On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for APD said vacancies have changed since the April 1 report, and the department is now at 84 unfilled positions, rather than 87 in the April 1 report.

In an interview Tuesday, LaFrance said she is grateful to Kerle for his many years of service to the community.

“Congratulations to Captain Cross,” LaFrance added.

LaFrance also criticized Bronson for what she said is a lack of a plan from the mayor to fill vacancies in the police department. LaFrance acknowledged that it’s unusual for a mayor to make this sort of leadership change a few weeks out from an election.

“It’s not totally surprising,” she said. “It’s more of the same from Dave Bronson: election-time distractions and then no plan or process on the big issues we’re facing like this severe staffing crisis at APD.”

Asked about the timing of the announcement, Bronson told reporters Tuesday: “There is no agenda. The chief told me in December he’s going to retire and there’s a cruise involved on this — a month-long cruise, so this was planned on his part.”

“The politics don’t figure into this,” Bronson said.

Asked whether she would keep Cross as chief of police if elected mayor, LaFrance said she will “make that determination when it’s time.”

“I’m committed to a thoughtful, intentional transition and hiring of the most qualified people for the job,” LaFrance said. “So I’ll be watching this process closely and to see if the Assembly confirms (Cross).”

Assembly Chair Christopher Constant voiced some skepticism over the appointment.

“We haven’t been briefed on her qualifications,” he said, noting she had been in the position of captain for less than a year. “... I look forward to learning more about her qualifications to run a $120 million organization.”

“I’m baffled by the mayor’s timing,” Constant added.

Voters are about to decide whether to replace Bronson, he said. The mayor has been in second place, behind LaFrance, in the regular election’s preliminary vote counts, while Anchorage’s last three incumbent mayors handily won reelection and avoided a runoff.

“To sum it up, I have a lot of questions,” he said.

Reporter Tess Williams contributed.