ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anchorage police tallied use-of-force incidents at rates higher than those reported by the Northwest’s largest police departments, according to a newly released independent audit that makes a series of sweeping recommendations.

A relatively small group of officers were involved in a disproportionate share of the encounters involving force, according to the audit by national public safety firm 21CP Solutions.

The LaFrance administration hired 21CP Solutions in July 2025 to audit APD’s use-of-force policies and training protocols.

The audit request came after a spate of officer-involved shootings in 2024 that left four people dead, including a 16-year-old girl. This year, Anchorage police have been involved in seven shootings, four of them fatal.

The municipal prosecutor’s office on Wednesday released a 121-page final report on the audit’s findings and recommendations.

The consulting firm reviewed more than 5,700 of use-of-force incidents between January 2021 and June 2025. The audit also examined 11 of 13 officer-involved shootings in 2024, including the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Easter Leafa in August of that year.

In the Leafa shooting, one officer fired his weapon at the same time another officer discharged a less lethal 40 mm projectile. Indirectly referencing the Leafa shooting, the audit found officers “elected to bypass the strategic use of distance, cover and concealment” when interacting with subjects without guns. The audit also found that poor communication prevented the officers from trying the less-lethal projectile to see if the girl would drop her knife before resorting to the use of a firearm.

While the number of times an officer used force decreased by almost 5% from 2021 to 2024, the report recommended dozens of changes, such as requiring officers to try to de-escalate situations or use other non-lethal methods before resorting to deadly force. It also suggests the department provide better cultural competency and communication training.

“We’ll continue to monitor that number,” Anchorage police Chief Sean Case said in an interview Wednesday. “Hopefully that number continues to go down. That’s certainly the goal.”

As of last month, the police department had integrated 49 of the more than 50 recommendations made by the consultant, municipal officials said Wednesday. The remaining recommendations are “in progress,” they said.

Disproportionate encounters

The mayor’s office requested a two-phase analysis: the details of each incident and police actions that might have led to use of force; and department policies, training and other use-of-force practices.

The consultant found that American Indian or Alaska Native people accounted for just over 45% of the people involved in use-of-force encounters while they account for just over 7% of the city’s population.

Alaska’s Indigenous residents are also more likely to be victims of crime and experience mental and behavioral health issues, and are arrested at higher rates, Case said.

Case said he hopes recent APD initiatives, like crisis response teams, homelessness outreach personnel and a pre-arrest diversion program, lead to decreases in those statistics, including use of force.

“It’s our number. We own it,” he said. “But we’re doing everything we can to address that number, not just use of force but more broadly.”

People with confirmed or potential mental health issues were involved in over half of the cases reviewed in the audit.

The report’s release comes after the Anchorage Assembly killed a proposed ordinance that would have reestablished a public safety advisory commission. The ordinance was largely criticized for lacking more civilian oversight power as recommended by a community task force last year.

Besides shootings, the consultants listed dozens of policing techniques that would be counted as a use-of-force incident, regardless of whether a suspect was injured. Those tactics include kicking or tackling people, shocking them with a stun gun or using a K-9 to intimidate or bite someone.

The vast majority of Anchorage’s documented incidents involved lower-level force that didn’t result in injuries, Case said.

The audit recommended scaling back the use of police patrol vehicles to block suspects or end pursuits. Such tactics involving patrol vehicles also count as using force.

High tally, small group

In 2024, the full year with the lowest recorded incidents in Anchorage, the department’s use-of-force tally was the highest among five other cities the report compared the department to.

Anchorage’s rate of 397 use-of-force incidents per 100,000 people was nearly 105% higher than Portland’s and about 90% greater than Seattle’s despite having a significantly lower crime rates than both that year, according to the report.

New Orleans, the next highest rate to Anchorage in the comparison, logged a rate of 251 incidents per 100,000 people, according to the consultants.

The audit said Anchorage’s high rate “does not say anything about the appropriateness of force” that officers used because departments define use of, or track, force differently. APD’s sprawling patrol area could also mean officers have less support and opportunity to use other methods when responding to calls, according to the findings.

Anchorage’s relatively high violent crime rate also means officers are responding to riskier situations where force could be used, Case said.

About 400 Anchorage officers were recorded using force during the time period, the audit found.

But just 20 officers were linked to nearly 20% of the department’s documented use-of-force incidents, with six officers tallying 100 or more incidents, the consultants said.

The use-of-force concentration among a small group of officers may not be “problematic or worrisome” for the department if those officers are assigned to roles that increase their chances of encountering combative or non-compliant people, the report said.

The department was aware that a smaller group of officers used force more often but not concerned that they were unnecessarily more prone to responding with force, Case said.

Many in that group, he said, are assigned to tactical teams that handle some of APD’s most dangerous calls, such as high-risk felony traffic stops. Officers in those situations automatically respond with guns drawn, which counts as a force incident, Case said.

But he said he would like to see that group’s use-of-force numbers decrease because it takes an emotional toll on the officer and affects the broader community.

Changing too fast?

The report states that Anchorage police policy manual updates initiated during the audit addressed nearly all of the consultant’s recommendations, such as requiring officers to carry non-lethal tools and better training on the use of those tactics.

The unresolved recommendations involve publicly disclosing internal investigation findings in officer-involved shootings, and requiring officers involved in a shooting to be escorted from the scene by a supervisor and not a peer.

The report was based on police data, as well as interviews with APD personnel and community members, the consultant said.

Some department employees who spoke with the consultants for the report said department changes were occurring too rapidly, which resulted in confusion and concerns about some officers not being trained on new procedures and practices.

“I am not a fan of the notion of ‘this is how we’ve always done it,’” one APD employee told the consultants. “But I think we are changing quickly without as much thought or planning as we need.”

“Sometimes it feels like I’m working on achieving something, then the direction changes all of a sudden,” another member of the department told auditors.

The department has made around 200 changes to policy or training over the last couple of years, Case said. Police also have also started offering new resources, like mental health and wellness services, that he said could help reduce use-of-force numbers.

Police don’t currently have plans for additional changes in response to the report to allow those updates and new training demonstrate whether they are effective before pursing more changes, Case said. Officers are also “maxed out” and can’t digest any more changes at this point, he said.

“We’re at that point where we’ve set up a lot of dominoes right now,” Case said. “It’s not that we’re going to stop the forward progress. It’s that we’re going to let those dominoes to start to move.”

The report suggested several metrics that could be used to measure the department’s progress on meeting recommendations. Those included tracking detailed statistics about use of force incidents, when de-escalation strategies are used, and excessive force complaints and their outcomes.

The audit and progress on its recommendations will be the subject of a public meeting led by CP21 Solutions and Anchorage police officials starting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Fairview Community Recreation Center. The findings and recommendations will also be presented at the Assembly’s Health and Public Safety Committee meeting the following day.

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