Anchorage police officers now must intervene when a colleague uses improper force

Anchorage police have addressed 48 of 52 recommendations from an outside review of how officers use force, Police Chief Sean Case told the Anchorage Assembly at a work session Friday. On two pursuit tactics, the department chose not to follow the reviewers' advice.

The review, by the consulting firm 21CP Solutions, led to a rewritten force policy that took effect July 31. Among the changes:

• Duty to intervene. Officers now have a written duty to step in when they see a colleague using improper force.

• One threat standard. Policy now uses a single "imminent threat" standard: a person must have the ability and the opportunity to cause death or serious injury, and the danger must be immediate.

• Time off after a shooting. Officers who fire their weapons now get seven days off instead of four, plus a mental health check before returning to work.

The two departures involve vehicles. The PIT maneuver, in which an officer nudges a fleeing car so it spins to a stop, is now allowed at speeds up to 45 mph. 21CP recommended a 35 mph limit, and the report records that city officials argued for 45 and the firm rejected that. The policy also lets trained patrol officers pin a suspect's vehicle under specific conditions, while 21CP had recommended limiting pinning to specialized units with ballistic protection.

The report reviewed 5,719 use-of-force incidents from January 2021 through June 2025 and 11 police shootings from January 2024 through May 2025. It found that American Indian and Alaska Native people were involved in 45.4% of force incidents, compared with 7.3% of Anchorage's population in the 2020 census. It also found that 93% of the force used on them was at the lowest level the department tracks. Of the most serious force incidents, 19.6% involved American Indian or Alaska Native people and 34.8% involved white people.

Overall, force incidents fell 17% from 2022 to 2024. One kind rose: officers using a police vehicle to block or box in a person before they could flee, which went up 35.6%.

Of the four remaining recommendations, Case said three are underway as changes to how the department documents force. The last is adding a third internal affairs investigator to focus on use-of-force cases, which he said would come once the department creates more sergeant positions. He said the longer leave after shootings affects staffing: "It does cost overtime because we backfill those positions." 21CP recommended returning in about 18 months to review how the changes are working, and Case said a request to bring the firm back could come in 2028.

Asked whether the department would fund a cultural competency plan specific to Alaska Native people in Anchorage, Case said he was open to it. He said policy and training will have some effect, but not a meaningful one without broader work on health care, jobs and schools.