Anchorage Assembly to consider $15,000 donation for police program steering people to treatment

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday, Oct. 6, will consider accepting a $15,000 donation for training and printed materials for Anchorage police staff who steer people toward treatment instead of jail. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted the item, and the administration recommends approval.

The money comes from the Alaska Behavioral Health Association, which the Assembly memorandum says administers Alaska's statewide opioid settlement funding, and is designated for the Anchorage Police Department's Pre-Arrest Deflection Program. Under the memorandum's budget, $10,000 would pay for travel to nationally recognized training programs and $5,000 would cover printing educational materials for officers, people in crisis and community partners.

The memorandum says the training would focus on co-response models, pre-arrest diversion strategies and trauma-informed practices. Co-response pairs officers with behavioral health workers; trauma-informed practices account for past trauma in how people are approached.

Deflection, in which officers refer people to treatment rather than arrest them, is the department's newest alternative to arrest, according to the memorandum. It joins the Mobile Intervention Teams and the HOPE and IMPACT units, which the memorandum says work to connect people with treatment and keep them out of the criminal justice system.

On June 23, the Assembly voted 11-0 to award True North Recovery a deflection navigation contract, with a $397,900 base year drawn from opioid settlement money, according to the meeting minutes. At a Sept. 16 Assembly committee meeting, APD diversion director Steve Williams said the program lets patrol officers quickly hand a person off to a provider and get back to patrolling.

The donation is separate from the broader opioid settlement money coming to the city, which a municipal resolution says may total $4,186,674.