Anchorage’s criminal justice system is clogged and leaking

We are experiencing the “perfect storm” of trying to deal with a nasty crime wave and the opioid epidemic, with woefully inadequate resources. Since 2015, thousands of arrested suspects have been dropped out of the justice system every year and are back out on the streets. Many of them are cheerfully back to their criminal activities and reckless behavior.

The enforcement piece of our crises starts with an excellent, but woefully undermanned, police force. We have far fewer sworn officers than we need for a city of our size. When Anchorage Police Department officers are called, it is sometimes hours before they can respond because they are responding to assaults, car wrecks and shootings. They often do not have the time to do investigations of lower-priority property crimes. Many of the criminal cases that are a component of our “homeless issues” get minimal attention. The APD administrative staff are so overwhelmed that we often cannot pay tickets online, accident reports regularly take months and stolen property is not promptly entered into the tracking system. Residents and businesses have grown weary of the process and often no longer report thefts.

When criminal cases are referred to prosecutors, the attorneys are under staggering case loads of 250-300 files. This is twice the nationally recommended standard. This logjam is compounded with the state prosecutors, who are similarly overloaded, being reluctant to accept the prosecution of felonies, and the state crime lab is taking months to process blood samples from accused suspects. The unhappy result is we have examples of thieves and impaired drivers getting their third arrest before they have been arraigned for the first arrest. The result is not only more crime and public danger, but also a growing contempt for the legal system.

Many if not most of our property crimes, as well as some of the assaults, are perpetrated by individuals with significant mental health and/or drug-related issues, and our state is woefully short of treatment capacity. The result is tragic. Judges impose treatment when there is no treatment available for months. The result is very needy and impaired people are either out on the street or being warehoused in local jails. Mentally incompetent people cannot be tried criminally. That is reasonable, but the capacity to evaluate these people at API is mostly unavailable.

This sad tale goes on. Our state, under financial stress, fired an extraordinarily capable Commissioner of Corrections, stopped some of the most effective treatment programs and closed the Palmer prison. The unhappy result is recidivism is back up, our prisons are overloaded, and the state chose to once again look at sending our prisoners Outside.

Public safety is the highest responsibility of government. I believe that there is no credible reason to hope that our state’s financial crises will be resolved in the foreseeable future. We must face this issue forthrightly and support the costly resources needed to “take a bite out of crime.” If we are not willing to “put on our big boy pants” or just be responsible adults, then we are, by default, saying we are approving the deplorable status quo concerning crime.

Our Assembly is wrestling with these issues now. The most comprehensive proposal before it is a seasonal sales tax, 2% in summer and 1% in winter, that would be in place for six years with the proceeds going equally to support public safety and to significant property tax relief. If voters want, they can extend or modify this program at any time. This proposal is structured to exempt basic life expenses to minimize the impact on disadvantaged people. This ordinance mandates that funds not spent on public safety will default to additional property tax relief. A rigorous audit by a third-party firm will supervise the spending. We expect the property tax relief will be a significant help to homeowners and small businesses. Hopefully potential investors will see our town as an even more attractive market.

We are all predisposed to avoid taxes, but we now have an unavoidable choice. Do we want to drift on with intolerable crime, or are we willing to pay a small sales tax, assisted by our million visitors, to help make Anchorage safe again?

Fred Dyson is a member of the Anchorage Assembly and former state legislator.

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