At least 22 published Alaska police shooting reviews cleared the officer

Alaska prosecutors have completed at least 22 reviews of officer-involved shootings since January 2024, and not one has led to charges against an officer, according to the Department of Law's own published record. That record is incomplete. It establishes a floor, not a full accounting.

The department's Office of Special Prosecutions publishes a release when it finishes reviewing an officer-involved shooting. Twenty such releases sit on the department's news index, all dated after January 2024: 11 published that year, six in 2025 and three in 2026, the most recent going out Tuesday. Each states the officer was legally justified or that no charges were filed. A single release published Sept. 16, 2024, closed eight cases at once, including those of Kristopher Handy, Tyler May and Steven Kissack, under a heading declaring officers justified in the use of deadly force. Three of those eight cases never received a release of their own, meaning the true number of completed reviews may be higher than the index shows.

Three Anchorage police officers have been cleared twice each. Jacob Jones was cleared in the May 2024 shooting of Kristopher Handy and the May 2026 death of Emil McCord. Alexander Roman was cleared in the August 2024 shooting of Easter Leafa, 16, and again in the McCord case. Isaac Kimball was cleared in the June 2024 shooting of Tyler Jacob May and the February 2025 shooting of Francis Rochon.

The reviews span the Anchorage Police Department, Alaska State Troopers, Juneau and Homer police, the North Slope Borough Police Department and a court services officer, with shootings in Anchorage, Juneau, Marshall, Gambell, Kasilof, Soldotna, Utqiagvik, Healy, Anchor Point and Fairbanks. The releases vary widely in detail. A July 31, 2024, release on a Marshall shooting by Trooper Christopher Green did not name the person shot, Angella Polty, whose name appeared seven weeks later. A Juneau release from October 2025 runs two sentences. The McCord release describes the 911 call, the commands given and the shots fired.

The department described its process in a July 17, 2024, release, reporting nine officer-involved shootings statewide to that point in the year, five in Anchorage since May. "OSP does not investigate criminal matters," it says. The office reviews investigations completed by law enforcement agencies and decides whether charges are appropriate, filing them only when consistent with justice and when the evidence could convince a fact-finder beyond a reasonable doubt. The review does not address policy violations or civil liability.

According to the department, the office has reviewed every officer-involved shooting in Alaska since 2009, though no statute requires it. What appears to have changed in 2024 is the practice of publicly announcing completed reviews. The archive cannot establish whether any review before 2024 produced a charge, and the office has not said whether any review since 2009 has, or how its charging standard accounts for that record.

Attorney General Treg Taylor said the reviews "protect the due process for the person shot and the officer." Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore said they ensure "that officers continue to follow the criminal law in their use of force." He defended withholding body-camera video before a review concludes, citing "a tension between the public's desire for transparency and the constitutional due process rights of potential defendants."

No one else is quoted in any of the twenty releases. Twenty-one people who were shot are named across the documents. No relative, attorney or representative is quoted.

The Tanana Chiefs Conference has argued the process, in which police investigate police and prosecutors alone decide on charges, is insufficient. In a 2020 resolution, the tribal consortium called for an independent investigative body and a civilian review board.

Press release indexes for 2021 through 2023 carry 288 releases combined, none announcing a completed review. Recent releases note: "Due to resource constraints, we no longer post links to referenced records," directing readers to the court system or public records requests. The department has given no statewide shooting count since that figure of nine. Two cases listed as pending in September 2024, involving officers Nick Beebe and Damien Dollison, do not appear in any later release.