Anchorage Assembly to consider $15,000 opioid settlement gift for police deflection training

The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to consider a $15,000 donation Tuesday, Oct. 6, that would fund training and printed materials for police staff who steer people toward treatment instead of jail.

The money comes from the Alaska Behavioral Health Association, which administers Alaska's statewide opioid settlement funding, and is designated for the Anchorage Police Department's Pre-Arrest Deflection Program. Under the Assembly 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 donation is separate from the broader opioid settlement money flowing to the municipality, which a municipal resolution says may total $4,186,674.

The memorandum says the training would focus on co-response models, pre-arrest diversion strategies and trauma-informed practices. APD Grant Manager Tina Verheyen prepared the request. Police Chief Sean Case approved it. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted it, and the administration recommends approval.

Deflection is the department's newest alternative to arrest. 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.

The program is still new. Alaska News previously covered the pilot's phased launch on Sept. 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. At a Sept. 16 Assembly Housing and Homelessness Committee meeting, APD diversion director Steve Williams said the program lets officers "relieve the patrol officer quickly so that they can hand that off, that individual off to the provider, and then get back out on the street patrolling their shift."

The resolution, AR 2026-277, would take effect immediately if the Assembly passes it.