APD awards $1.66M opioid settlement contract for deflection program

The Anchorage Police Department has recommended a four-year contract with True North Recovery, Inc. for deflection navigation services and case management, with a total not-to-exceed value of $1.66m. The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to take up the contract award at its Tuesday meeting.

The contract, identified as Request for Proposals 2026P017, would fund a navigator who connects people in substance use crises to treatment services rather than the criminal justice system.

The base year runs $397,900 for 2026, funded entirely from the Anchorage Health Department's Opioid Settlement account, not the police operating budget. Three option years follow: $409k in 2027, $422k in 2028, and $434k in 2029.

The recommendation memorandum, dated June 8, 2026, was prepared by Leilah Lawyer, resource manager, and routed through Chief of Police Sean Case to Purchasing Director Chris Hunter. "Negotiations with the selected proposer, True North Recovery, Inc, for the above referenced project are completed and we recommend the contract be awarded to the contractor," the memo states.

How deflection works

Deflection programs intervene before arrest. When an officer encounters someone in a substance use crisis, a deflection navigator connects that person to treatment rather than booking. Under the negotiated contract terms, the contractor will provide both deflection navigation services and case management.

The second pending True North funding decision

The deflection contract is the second pending Anchorage funding commitment to True North Recovery this week. The Assembly is scheduled to vote July 7 on a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant supporting True North's acquisition of the Access Alaska building in Fairview — a revised proposal that came after community concerns prompted True North to drop its original plan to run on-site crisis services from that location. Under the revised proposal, the Fairview building would house outpatient behavioral health services and a mobile command vehicle rather than crisis response.

Taken together, the deflection contract and the Fairview building grant would establish True North Recovery as a substantial municipal contractor in Anchorage's substance use and behavioral health response — a relationship that Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day raised sustainability concerns about earlier this month, particularly regarding mobile outreach service-line revenue.