Anchorage Assembly: Public Safety Committee-of-the-Whole Committee Meeting

Being formed, but essentially it's going to— the oversight of implementation of a lot of the new policies that are in place right now and track those and work with the police department on those so that it's a more concentrated effort rather than intermixing that with the Public Safety Committee. Thanks. Thank you. I'll go to—. Sorry, I just had a question for President— uh, Member Perez-Verdia.

So is that going to be, I guess, through a resolution, ordinance, or I guess what chair setting that up because it's ad hoc. Yeah, question. The, the code allows the chair to create an ad hoc committee. So my intention is to, is to have a proposal today or tomorrow and also get some feedback from, from the police chief and municipal attorney. She has said that she had that committee.

And so once it's announced, so that's the, that's the process. I think it's just about setting it and then, and then I'll be reaching out to Duane to to sit on that and be a part of that. Thank you so much.

Yep. Okay, we will go to— first I have an update from OEM.

You can go ahead and start whenever you're ready. Yeah, good morning. I'm Sean McKenzie from Office of Emergency Management. Amanda Loach is out on vacation till the 13th, so I'll be acting director. Hello, Eva Gardner, Municipal Attorney.

Thanks for making a spot on the agenda for what I think will be a pretty quick update. This is just to bring to the committee, introduced last night at the Tuesday night meeting. It's AO-2026-130, would permanently amend the municipal code to allow the municipality to declare an emergency. Pastors outside of our own municipal boundaries require a significant municipal response. And the triggering circumstance for this was, you may recall, approximately a year ago, a series of storms hit western Alaska, which sent a lot of, um, to Anchorage.

And we, uh, this— the mayor declared an emergency. The assembly did a temporary modification to enable the mayor to declare an emergency, and we could activate all of our emergency resources, which has implications for, um, for how we provide aid and also expands the potential for reimbursement from the state or the federal government. And so this That was a temporary change that lasted for 60 days in code and this ordinance because it is a situation that is probably likely to recur since Anchorage is the, you know, of the state and hospitals and other resources. So yeah, and happy to field any questions, although again it is OEM to develop this ordinance.

I have some questions here, but if someone else has some other ones. Trying to get back into my— from the meeting. Just give me a sec.

So, because yeah, I was doing a little bit of research. I know, I know this is going to have to maybe answer some questions. So with this declaration of emergency, is there any limitation on the mayor's powers for it being specific for that, I guess, emergency. And so I guess what I could potentially happening is that the emergencies declared with the Western Alliance, there still be, I guess, eliminate limitations on like liquor stores. I mean, I mean, a bunch of, I guess, abilities for the mayor to kind of restrict that, that might not be related, I get that, to kind of the disaster funding.

Is there any limitations in code for a disaster that is not actually happening within the boundaries on what the mayor can essentially do? No, this would just roll it into the same definition of civil emergency. However, the Assembly always has— the Assembly essentially has to ratify that. So the mayor can declare an emergency for a certain period of time, the Assembly can always undo, and I can double-check and see, may only be at a time absent extent, like approval by the Assembly. So there's— and typically And really to this, but the powers that are exercised in an emergency are tailored to that specific emergency.

So for example, a year ago, 11-something months ago, for this emergency, broad restrictions placed on us specifically to activate certain resources. Oh yeah, I'm just gonna go on. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, there's a whole laundry list of emergency powers to enact. During the onset, were important were having the streamlined procurement process and making us more eligible.

But you're right, there's lots of things in there about restricting alcohol sales and doing temporary code, doing abatement and all kinds of things. But for an emergency, those are the ones that we typically use. And so I guess I've never been part of the emergency declaration. So I guess when that normally goes through the mayor declares an emergency, are there specific powers that they, I guess, are cited here at the emergency? So I guess if the assembly, because within 4 days the assembly has to essentially And when that happens, can you ensure, does that have to go back before the assembly or once declared?

It has a lot of flexibility, the basket of kind of emergency powers there. So the mayor declares an emergency is being exercised, and that is what is then in place. And so it's not something that can be unilaterally without—. Yeah, it would be what's in the letter that the mayor signs. That's what we're limited to.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you. I don't see any other questions. And for the record, Co-Chair Gerker joined us. We have an update from the Anchorage Fire Department on opioid overdose dispatches.

Good morning, everybody. For the record, I'm Doug Schwage, Chief of the Anchorage Fire Department. Happy to have some time here to address the topic of—. By the fire department. I am joined here today by Chip Searns, who is a Battalion Chief in charge of assurance and improvement for the department.

He will be delivering today's presentation.

Good morning. Thanks for having me. I'm here speaking on behalf of Louis, EMS Division of Anchorage Fire Department. I have his data set here and information on our response to opioid overdose. My area of expertise is specifically treatment and research events, so this dataset is new to me, but I'll do my best.

And if there's questions, please, we can follow up and I'll work to get the answer to you. We can go to the— who's the slide advancer? Thanks. So here's a picture of 2025 opioid calls. We analyze by signals that people input, specifically patients who receive Narcan, I assume we all know that is the reversal agent that we deliver in response to an opioid overdose, breathing again, and to recover from their overdose.

So administration of Narcan, either by the public or by our agency, police department, if providers indicate that was drug-related, all of those form the DICSIs. Now you'll see a signal here. I think we more need more data over time to really understand like how that's gonna propagate. And we don't know why that's happening. I'm sure everyone in the room would like to know why that's happening, to have an answer for it, but we don't know.

Next slide. So what happens to those people? What is the business? Here's a picture. You can see we've stayed relatively steady.

You see 1,100 or 1,012 transplittal. It begs the question, it's worth spending some time thinking about what happens to these people who aren't transplanted. Certainly we care because it's time, money, resource to get somebody to a hospital, but this represents a lot of tragedy as well. A lot of these are people who are not candidates for resuscitation, who have succumbed fatally to their overdose. That isn't well represented in here, but I think is something that's worth spending some time thinking about.

More pleasantly, this also captures people who have refused treatment with Narcan, and then they are— they will refuse through our refusal process and not go. And more frequently, to cardiac arrest or an overdose and get there and the person is actually gone. That is because public Narcan has been administered and the person run off before we get there, which is a victory in terms of them being alive. But also guarantees that they recycle back into the system. So this, these transports, I think, should be taken with that knowledge in mind.

Let's move on to the 2025 to 2026 comparison. If you notice this numeric discrepancy that I showed to this one, I'm seeing a larger number of TAs. That this is because we are challenged, I think, in actually defining what an overdose is. There's language differences here that I think account for these numbers, but I will get with Chief Lewis and try to provide an account for why I'm seeing— nonetheless, Nevertheless, I think the signal remains. So what we suggested, 10% reduction of year-to-date right now compared to last year.

That seems positive. Again, it's a function of data over time, and I can't account for why this would be. I would like to account for it, but the variables are infinite. It could simply be a supply and demand problem of drug use or the problems with our data entry in terms of like how we define it. While that is encouraging, I don't know specifically what conclusion I can draw.

This is interesting information here. On the left side, we're seeing a scatter plot of where overdose events, calling it an opioid map. The criteria, these are events where fentanyl was identified in the notes, the dispatch notes, or in the providers where Narcan was administered at some point. And important to take away, and I think speaks to perhaps a public policy state, is that I think that this is a problem that social, racial, all divides, and it really is important as we message this problem as a community. This is not an unhoused problem that occurs only in the north part of Anchorage.

Absolutely not the case. Heartbreaking overdoses just as they happen north. Moving to the right side of the slide there, we're seeing Narcan administration over time, 2020 to 2024. First there, here's public Narcan, a steady increase and plateau to 2024. This is fantastic work that Narcan is being distributed certainly by the fire department, by the police department, and then a whole round of understanding of that our responders are are coming in, Narcan has already been administered, and this is saving money well spent and incredibly important.

Medical group here, AFD administered Narcan. I think we're seeing that fluctuation there of our lesser amounts of overdose increasing over time, but this should be— if we get sent to an overdose, the odds are that we're gonna be delivering Narcan to these patients. I would like to see our administration of Narcan drop, ideally doses after they've been resuscitated by the member of the public. I'm not seeing that replicated in this slide. And the bottom group here matches transports to the 2020 group.

So in summary, I think this is a glimpse of how opioid overdoses are impacting us in data collection and how we talk about this as a community. An observation that this is a citywide problem, and this represents an ongoing, steady component of Anchorage Fire Department work. Any questions? Yeah, I got a question on this. So that District 2 is exempt from the opioid crisis.

—Stuff on that because I'd be interested to see. Forgive my ignorance, I don't know what district you're in. Oh, gotcha. No, I think you're definitely right. Eagle River needs to be on that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. I'd like to know if you can tell constituents where they can get a Narcan kit. My knowledge is limited to fire department activities. Like, we carry it now on supervisor vehicles and on ambulances when we go to an event where an overdose event occurs, I will hand that stuff out to the family.

That's my entry point, but to answer the question, I'm not a knowledge holder there.

Hi, Kimberly Rash, Anchorage Health Department. So the health department has Narcan kits that we hand out. Project HOPE also has Narcan kits. You can go to the stateofalaska.com, and they have a whole Narcan kits. We also have the vending machines throughout the community.

We have them at the libraries, and so If you know of a location that would like a vending machine, we are more than happy to get it stocked. We have an employee that stocks those on a monthly basis.

Thank you. I have a question for Narcan, I guess. How long do those last before they need to, I guess, be renewed after a couple of years? Yeah, no question there's an expiration date. I don't know the answer for you.

I could certainly find out. I know that if you ran on an event today and it was expired, I would give it anyway. But there is a right answer. Like, obviously we, uh, give ours away once it's expired and replenish it, but I don't know the date print. I can learn.

And is it on the, the actual item there? I've fortunately never had to open it. It should be just like any medication. There should be an expiration date on that. Yes, it does have an expiration date, um, and, uh, definitely use it.

So work after it has expired up to, I believe, 9 years. Um, it does affect the efficacy, um, as it is, but definitely still use it. We just want to make sure that if it, if it is in your car and it's frozen, that you do— so usually under your arms— warm it up and then give it. And then, so, but like doing that, just leaving it in the car where it's, it's constantly doing that, there's no issue with that, just as long as it's, it's warm, uh, for use? Yeah, I would just make sure it's not in direct sunlight.

So if it's in a bag, usually at the health department we have little baggies that we put it in, um, so at least like if it's on your dashboard, then that would be a concern. But as long as it's in your trunk, in the back seat, you should be fine. Okay, thank you so much.

Okay, and, um, I had, um, do you have a sense of, uh, the person responded to crisis team versus, um, just like the fire?

Sure, uh, I, I'm not prepared to give you any specific— the efficacy or triage center is pretty good. We're able to, through Interact, are able to identify which calls are with a high degree of certainty likely to be mobile crisis team type calls versus those, um, something other like, uh, an opioid overdose. And so I think the reliability is pretty high and there's not very much overlap. Do you have anything to add to that? Uh, something about is our buprenorphine program that's being developed by Dr. Jim Pearson, the CORE team, to help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms of opioid abuse.

So they are a limited work group, but one of their goals is to then resuscitate someone with Narcan, then approach that patient with the ability to then to symptoms and then enter treatment. This is small scale, by no means comprehensive enough to treat the needs of the entire community, but it's profoundly effective. And what I and the people I work with feel as a resuscitation team is you can wake someone up with Narcan and you feel like you have success, but they leave the hospital 2 hours later to repeat the process again. So her team's ability to intervene in the cycle is absolutely fundamental to success.

Okay, thank you for that.

Um, Thea Agnew-Benben with the Mayor's Office. Just to add to your data, so I think as, as we have a crisis, a municipal crisis response team our work group that meets monthly that includes all of group has developed a dashboard that we've been sharing with the committee on a quarterly basis. So we're due for that November. And that does include the answer to the question that you just asked, which is like, what's the total calls for service? How many are being served by our different response teams?

The ones that the fire department manages, the one the police department manages, and also our health department. With the reconfiguration of the committees, I think it's a little bit unclear whether you want that presentation to occur here now that you've renamed it Public Safety, as you know, as you're hearing, include a lot of healthcare responses. The other committee is now called Health. The crisis response serves people all over the community, whether they're housed or unhoused. So, do you want where you would like those quarterly presentations to come from?

And then this data and the rest of the crisis shared as a whole, which I think you see the full breadth of the services the municipality is offering.

Thank you. I think we can share them in this committee. Thank you. Do we have any other questions? Thank you.

Appreciate your work.

Okay, next we will talk about retail theft update. We are going to do the retail theft portion of this. Next meeting, was not able to be here today, but we will have the prosecution update.

And I think that was Eva Gardner, but I don't actually So we'll go on and maybe we'll come back to that if I see her come in to create, um, regulations and impacts. And that's, uh, the Health Department. Uh, thank you, Chair. Um, I have been working with Member Perez-Fordia and Vice Chair Voland on, uh, ordinance since about June, and because there were some changes in recommendations from the federal government, we had to revise that somewhat. And I see Director Rash looking like she has something to say about that.

No, we have—. We can kind of go over that as well. Yeah, I think I'm on the agenda here. I've got AHD first for their presentation, and then you can speak after.

Perfect. All right, thank you so much. Again, with the Anchorage Health Department, Katie Stodgill. I'm the director at the Anchorage Health Department. All right, so a little bit of back history on this.

Back in December of 2024, former Assemblymember Salt had brought some legislation that included kratom but was not specific to kratom. And so conversations have been occurring since that time. When Member Park became a member, we are revisiting it now, and we have it in its new form here today that we are working on. In addition, Ms. Saja will be giving the update on the health effects, and then Member Park will go over the memorandum that was put together.

And just— joined us probably about 11:25.

Thank you all for letting us be here to present about kratom. I am Katie Stodgill. I'm the Public Health Division Manager at the Anchorage Health Department. Like 10 minutes today, we're going to go over where the federal regulation of kratom stands and what we know. Next slide.

So first, what do we mean by kratom? The leaf itself comes from a tree that's native to Southeast Asia. There's going to be a test on how to say this later, is mitragynine, and the second alkaloid, 7-OH, is only a trace component of the natural product. The products driving today's concerns are different. Manufacturers concentrate and convert mitragynine into 7-OH and sell it as tablets, gummies, shots.

7-OH acts on opioid receptors. The FDA has said that it can be more potent than morphine, As far as, um, at the far end are the synthetic derivatives. The word kratom covers all three, but them are not the same. Next slide.

A quick glossary because the names come up a lot. Mitragynine is the main natural alkaloid in the kratom leaf, and it is not controlled. 7-OH, short for 7-hydrogenine, of the created products on the shelves are made by converting mitragynine into 7-OH. The other 3 compounds derived from it, MGPI is a chemical rearrangement, have been found in products on the shelves since 2024. MGM-15 and MGM-16 were synthesized for research.

In animal studies, they are about 50 to 240 times more potent than morphine. MGM-15 has appeared in products. So far, MGM-16 has not been, but all 3 of those are now Schedule I. Next slide. Just a little bit of foundation, the federal picture, Controlled Substances Act sorts drugs into 5 schedules based on 2 questions.

First question: has to use. Second: does it have an accepted medical use? Schedule I is the most restrictive and no expected medical, so it cannot be prescribed. You can think of heroin. Drugs like fentanyl and oxycodone also have a high potential for abuse, but they have an accepted medical use, so doctors— Schedule III through V carry a lot lower risk.

So the difference between Schedule I and Schedule II, dangerous the drug is, is whether medicine has an accepted use for it. Next slide. So how does scheduling work? The FDA recommends schedules. On a standard path, FDA and Health and Human Services review the evidence and recommend, and the DEA goes through rulemaking before any type of permanent placement.

That can take many years. The DEA also has an emergency path. If it finds an imminent hazard to public safety, it can give 30 days notice and temporary— since in Schedule I for 2 years with a year of permanence, uh, one more year permanent placement is decided. The DEA actually tried that with kratom back in 2016. It used that PADDIC component.

So here is where things stand today. Kratom are not federally controlled. 7-OH is proposed for Schedule 1 only above a specific threshold. That's on September 10th with nearly 36,000 comments submitted. And as of this morning issued a decision on that.

MGPI, MGM-15, and MGM-16 through August of 2028, but nothing kratom-related is scheduled too. Okay, so common side effects related to kratom are nausea, constipation, dizziness, and drowsiness. Serious effects can include seizures, heart and breathing injury with long-term heavy use. Newborns— a regular FDA has flagged 7OH gummies quite concerning because they are very appealing to children.

Nationally, kratom reports to poison centers rose about from 2015 to 2020. Poison centers reported 33 kratom for that decade, and 79% involved other substances. Among 7OH exposures alone, one imp is associated is not the same as caused. These counts mean that kratom was present in the case, not that kratom was proven to be the cause, and most of the deaths as well. Next slide.

An important distinction is all of this data is national. Anchorage-specific data is not currently available, and AHD does not have a way to test kratom products or track kratom use. Where AHD can help is supporting clinician awareness, public education, and connecting people to treatment through referrals and warm handoffs, and we will happily update A Makes a Decision on 7OH. Next slide. We have a question slide, but anticipating a lot of questions, we also did a handout with a lot of questions that you may have.

Any questions? You may have touched on it. I'm curious about the recent national sort of discussion around this. It seems to have changed, different from a year ago. What's changed and how do we go from it being something that we were questioning whether it was now to being critical?

I think how it's changed, and a lot more discussion about it. We know, you know, back in 2016 when they originally proposed the kratom schedule, we didn't have the high concentration of 7-OH that we're seeing now. And how we need to think of 7-OH is like, although it's not as an opioid, if somebody is going through a kratom overdose, like Narcan works the same to pull that person out of a kratom overdose because it acts on the same receptor. I think one, the product has become a lot stronger, and thankfully, much in conversation about what's taking place. And then just one other follow-up.

Where does one acquire this? What kinds of outlet stores, places, is it through—. All of the above. So you can buy it at convenience stores, you can buy it at liquor stores. One of the concerning things that we're seeing nationally is a lot of places that haven't— there are 17 states that really haven't taken them, and the concerning side is, you know, they sell it in gas stations to anyone of any age.

So when they see a gummy bear and it's a kratom gummy bear, they have no idea that they're real bad and you don't want them doing it. Um, we'll go to Park for her part of the presentation. Thank you. So I became interested in kratom because I read some articles in the National and, uh, in opiate use. Um, kratom has been banned in 12 states.

A major lawsuit by the state of Missouri against the manufacturer. The problems is that most of this product comes from China, comes in huge volume, it is not analyzed, it is not regulated in any way, and contain other harmful substances including fentanyl, including alcohol, and so the strength, which is not consistent, getting, and also there is currently no restriction to selling it to children. So anybody could, if obviously if they can't walk into a vape shop or a head shop, they could go into Mini Mart, and in fact there's a lot of anecdotal evidence about kids doing just that and becoming severely addicted.

One of the locations here, and this sort of segues into something about finding that it is a common problem at stores, particularly on 36th. And the community council in Spinard just sent me this— a resolution requesting a ban on the sale of kratom and associated drugs this evening. And the— around that location have been severely impacted by substance use disorders. And many of the people who have opiate use disorder are all bolstering their ability to stay out of withdrawal by purchasing these substances at the mini-mart there on the corner. I'm told that early in the morning, people line up at the Circle K waiting for them to open so that they can basically get their fix there from this.

So that's created a, you know, a serious problem in that neighborhood. Well, as the fentanyl and other substances that are being distributed in that area, we, Ms. Bimman-Agnu and Chief Case and Bob Dole to Brown Jug Management regarding the kind of activity that we're seeing there, and a lot of open prostitution and theft at those locations, but also the 37th location. Find out is that is willing, hopeful, and trespass from those locations. An ongoing problem has been that the— whether they don't feel they have the authority or they're reluctant to do so, they're not the people who are using and distributing drugs from those locations. And we've been— they are going to try to be more proactive in that, but that part of the problem lies with Circle K, any that's outside of Alaska.

Question from a member? Yes. A member handling? Oh no, I have a few. Africano.

Okay. And so they are, they're invested in the community as, as Brown Jug. So we are hoping to set up that will include the Circle K management. But I think there are a couple of things that could be useful. I think that the ban would actually be very helpful in, first of all, in preventing minors from having access.

And I think, um, have had some brown jug that they are willing to cut some of the, the folia where people are, um, that they are willing to call the police more often and verbally trespass people, even though they don't have the iqam, but they can take pictures, they can provide a list and say this person is trespassing on the property selling drugs. It appears that the kratom is somewhat of a magnet for the same population that is using that location, 36 location. So I think the Health Department covered it. Member Handeland. Not a question, just, I mean, a comment.

I mean, I'm really glad to see this going forward. I had actually emailed Assembly meeting, as one does during the summer, and saw that this topic had gotten postponed indefinitely. Can we get this? And he said, no, hey, I'm already working on it with 2 other members right now. Can't discuss it.

So I'm really happy to see this. Yes, my only— any of this stuff is that only impacts our quality here, and so across the connect there, someone can go and purchase this, be bringing it in. And so I would legislature to take some action as well, and maybe that's something we can talk about during the legislative meeting of trying to have a resolution or something to put forward there so that the whole state— I do really appreciate the sponsors for bringing this forward. I have a question. Can it be purchased through the mail?

Yes. Okay. Can I respond to Member Handley? Yes, yeah, through the chair. Our community, kratom is banned on base.

It cannot be on base at all and is or service members to use it or to be under the influence. So it does affect our military as well, and it is a readiness issue.

Chair, could I respond to Member Handeland? Yes. I think it's a really good point. What, you know, just encourage us a little bit though, because when Anchorage takes a stand, like for example, when we passed our smoke-free workplace law, which is, I don't know, 8, 10 years ago now, a lot of momentum for state-level action and even just for other locales to pass. And that's different about the Matsuburo, for example, is Matsuburo doesn't have health powers, so they actually can't pass that kind of law, but we can do it here.

And then that creates that sort of precedent for state-level action. So I think it's a great considering this carefully and then making a good effort to address this really can have a huge prevention role right now because it hasn't gone totally nuts. Get in on the front end and really prevent some of it. I'm super happy that we're talking about this.

I have another question. I'm not quite sure who this would be for, but can you talk a little bit about the difference between the botanical leaf and then the concentrated 7-OH and the E of both, and then also what your proposed ordinance would do with both, if it separates them at all, or—. So the ordinance talks about the difference and designates for the possession, use, or administration of kratom products for the purpose of providing medical care by a medical provider licensed by the state or provided by the Board of Pharmacy, not in any way change the designation, unaltered, so that that tea that's available can, but when you're looking at concentrated products, they're like 100 times stronger in the amount of 7-OH or mitragynine. It's a big difference. Okay, thank you.

And then, um, yeah, yeah, I think that's a solid explanation. So one thing, like, the current federal action is aimed at the concentrated and synthetic products. So the proposed 7-OH threshold, threshold is really to like capture the products that are— and leaving the ordinary leaf alone. So the ordinary leaf, it's like 7 OH, but it's, it's like tea. Um, and that's why they're, they're leaving that alone and focusing heavily on synthetic that are real world.

Okay, thank you. Member Handlin. Yeah, one other question. So legal there. So I mean, it says kratom is a tropical tree here.

Uh, so I'm just kind of curious. I mean, similar to indecision, Does anyone have, I guess, like a recreational kratom tree that they could theoretically be using that under? So whether— no, if— because if that's an utterly ridiculous thing of who's going to have something like that, or trees required, or—. Yeah, unfortunately this is, uh, Dean's handiwork and not mine, but we will get back to you.

And Member Park, I'd just like to add that earlier this week there was a death of two Ole Miss students who were using kratom, and wherever the facility was that made the sale have been charged with a felony death.

Okay, do we have any other questions? Great, thank you, appreciate it. Next, we will go to our prosecution update.

Hello, Eva Gardner, Municipal Attorney again. So we had planned to provide a retail theft prosecution update on retail theft enforcement, so at this point we will plan to do when APD is here. Thank you. I had an email from you were going to do your part. Sorry for the confusion.

That was not communicated to me, so, but I think it would make sense in committee to see them looking at them a month apart. Okay, sounds great. Thank you.

We will go to audience participation.

You will have 3 minutes.

All right. One of these is, uh, Jamie Lopez, East Anchorage, formerly Coalition for the Homeless. So, um, say I really enjoyed, uh, the Anchorage Fire Department's— and, um, I'm interested to know how many deaths there are. That information is not being reported, but I'd like to see it. Pertaining— excuse me— pertaining to retail thefts and the prosecution.

So the annual surveillance report, which was due by June 1st every year for the past 3 years, was not produced. And so that led towards a large sort of scramble to get a backlog of stuff out. And they claim there was no facial recognition tracking. Well, that's not exactly sort of honest. It's banned by the muni, but it says if information is obtained, and it doesn't specifically say by staff or if somebody gives it to you.

And it's used for prosecutions, uh, every single one of those instances is supposed to be sort of included in that annual surveillance report. And so that means anything coming out of the task force, the Quality of Life Task Force, where they have, uh, things are provided to them by retail partners that are using Aura, which uses facial recognition tracking to identify people, should be included in that report. And then in the case of, uh, I think it was the June 17th shooting involving DeAndre Robertson. I'd basically, uh, when 3 APD officers came up and all he had was food in his bag— that has not been released publicly, but that's all he had. And I know this because his girlfriend, um— and so people should be looking at this and questioning whether or not that system is something that you really want in effect, because it could be leading to escalations and deaths, uh, and you don't know where it's going to go as a result of somebody being confronted.

Uh, there was something else. So obviously there's a concern, uh, about strange things or afoot at the Circle K. Uh, I will not go into all of this, but what I will say is, uh, the Davis Park situation— when they invaded Davis Park on June 17th, 2025, there was a show of force, uh, basically to push people out of an area, to claim victory. But more or less, 70, 80 people just went in the neighborhood. They still need to eat. They still had to survive.

And people steal more when you— doesn't mean the drug just go into the alleys and everything else and you cannot help people. Well, what happened was the amount of theft increased exponentially within the period of a month. Then Circle K decided to shut down that location. There was over $1 million in operating losses at the Mountain View location. And, you know, so obviously I know when they made the decision because I bumped into the regional director.

Earlier this spring. And, um, so, um, let's just say that, um, you know, the party moves and it shifts. And just because you crack down on one location, it's just going to move into another area, just like it's moved sort of out of Mountain View into other areas. Now, uh, you need to have a long-term plan for where you're going to put people and then try to address and support and stabilize people, because right now we don't have that. Testimony.