Anchorage Assembly resolution would create yearlong committee on police policy

Assembly Member Kameron Perez-Verdia has proposed a resolution to create a 12-month Assembly committee that would track how the Anchorage Police Department carries out use-of-force reforms and governs new surveillance tools. It is on the consent agenda for action at the Assembly's Wednesday, Nov. 4 meeting.

The Ad Hoc Assembly Committee on APD Policy Review and Implementation would meet in public at least monthly. It would report quarterly to the full Assembly and the Public Safety Committee, then issue a final report with any recommended changes to municipal code or police policy.

Perez-Verdia would chair the panel, with at least three more members appointed by the Assembly chair. The chief of police, the municipal attorney and a mayor's office representative are invited to take part.

The committee would be "a more concentrated effort rather than intermixing that with the Public Safety Committee," Perez-Verdia said at an Oct. 7 Public Safety Committee meeting, where he previewed the plan.

The panel would focus on two areas. The first is APD's work on recommendations from 21CP Solutions, the outside firm that reviewed the department's use of force, and from a review of a 2024 officer-involved shooting.

The Municipal Attorney released the 21CP final report on Sept. 2. It found use-of-force incidents fell 17% from 2022 to 2024. Of its more than 50 recommendations, APD reported that as of August it had fully integrated 49 of the actionable ones, with the rest in progress.

The second area is policy for the Real-Time Crime Center, drones, cameras and automated license plate readers, including which rules belong in code and how they protect privacy.

In September 2025, the Assembly approved a five-year, $11.8 million contract with Axon Enterprise for tasers, body cameras and a crime center able to receive up to 750 camera feeds, along with plate readers and drones. After the Public Safety Committee reviewed drafts, the chief adopted crime center, drone and plate reader policies effective Feb. 20, before deploying the tools.

The Assembly has been weighing a surveillance technology ordinance since Sept. 1 that would write limits on plate readers, crime center operations, live camera monitoring and data retention into code. Alaska News reported in August that the city bought the system before writing those rules.

The resolution bars the committee from directing personnel matters, individual investigations or employee discipline.

A proposal for a police oversight body, already stripped of any power to investigate, died for lack of a second, Alaska News reported Aug. 1.

If the resolution passes, Perez-Verdia and the chief would have 30 days to draw up a schedule of policy reviews for the committee's first meeting.