The goal of the diversion program is to reduce the number of people who cycle in and out of the criminal justice system, said APD Chief Sean Case.
Anchorage police make an arrest at a Midtown strip mall on unauthorized entry and criminal mischief misdemeanor charges in October 2016. Anchorage police plan to begin offering people accused of some low-level crimes a chance to avoid arrest and prosecution in exchange for addressing substance misuse or other issues that played a central role in their offenses.
The Anchorage Police Department will soon open the bidding process for vendors interested in managing an initiative to deflect some who would otherwise face criminal charges to services designed to tackle certain problems, like untreated behavioral health conditions, that contributed to the crime they were accused of committing, officials said. The goal of the diversion program is to reduce the number of people who cycle in and out of the criminal justice system, said Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case. Those offered a spot in the diversion program would not be arrested or charged with a crime as long as they complete its requirements, he said. “There are some folks that get caught in the chaos and turmoil of the criminal justice system and they can’t get out of it,” Case said in a recent interview. “And sometimes, when you get in that cycle, it is really, really difficult to get out, even though we know the underlying problem is a behavioral health issue.”reducing strain on criminal justice system resources. Police are working to finalize the request for proposals and hope to launch the program in July, said department spokesperson Gina Romero.would be eligible to enroll, if police responding to a reported crime determine they are appropriate candidates, Case said. Those low-level crimes could include drug possession, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief, among others.Participants who leave the program or fail to complete their requirements could be arrested and charged with the crimes that originally led police to them, Case said. Case said the program will be rolled out slowly to allow officers to get used to the shift in strategy and receive training about how to work with potential enrollees and assess who is eligible. The program was also designed to be flexible in case adjustments need to be made, he said. An existing $400,000 grant will pay for the pilot program and should be enough to fund the initiative through this year and into part of 2027, officials said. Once that money runs out, Case said police would need to find funding sources elsewhere if the department wants to continue the program. If extended, Case told the Anchorage Assembly’s Public Health and Safety CommitteeAnchorage Police Chief Sean Case speaks with reporters on May 21, 2025 at APD headquarters. “The Mayor is excited APD and the Municipal Attorney’s office are looking at creative ways to help community members,” Morse said in a statement.Police hope to enroll between 20 and 30 new participants in the program each month, Case said. The vendor chosen as the case manager provider will help participants navigate the program and monitor their progression. Those accused of driving under the influence or of a domestic violence crime won’t initially be eligible to participate, though Case said those offenders could be allowed to enroll if the program expands beyond a pilot phase. Case said he expects only about 20% of participants to avoid prosecution by meeting their requirements because interventions like drug or alcohol treatment are often unsuccessful in the first few attempts.Regardless, police will publish enrollment numbers and success rates in a manner similar to the department’s camping and fire ban enforcement The initiative, Case said, will rely on the municipality’s growing number of services and partnerships with social service or health care providers.Municipal Attorney Eva Gardner said her office supports the plan and has advised police as they developed the proposal to ensure that unsuccessful participants are able to be prosecuted. Gardner also oversees Anchorage’s municipal prosecutors. “If this program can help defendants resolve their underlying issues, and reduce recidivism, that will be a win for public safety,” she said.for some that is similar to the pre-arrest one envisioned by Case. The prosecutors’ program has been “a wise fiscal strategy” to reduce costs on criminal justice systems through smaller inmate populations, fewer court hearings and reduced caseloads for prosecutors and public defenders, according to a 2017 While officials said the new diversion program could help reduce the caseloads of municipal prosecutors, Case said relieving pressure on the court system wasn’t APD’s motivation for pursuing the concept. Instead, he said the goal is to give people opportunities to fix the “underlying issues that they have.” “Downstream, when we talk about the prosecutors, there are some other benefits, but those just weren’t the motivating factor for us,” Case said. District Court Judge David Wallace presides over proceedings on Sept. 11, 2024 at the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage. Anchorage police point to Oregon’s Lane County as an example of how the deflection program would work, Case said during the Public Health and Safety Committee meeting in March. Lane County launched a pre-arrest diversion project in late 2024 after Oregon reversed a decision to decriminalize drug possession and made it illegal earlier that year to again possess personal use amounts. Lane County has a comparable population, has access to a similar level of social and health resources that Anchorage is expanding on and faces similar challenges, like reducing homelessness, Case said.. Nearly 100 were currently enrolled as of Friday afternoon, while 45 had successfully completed it in an average of about 160 days, according to the data. Of those who have been successful, the data show big jumps in those who have stable sources of income compared to when they started, or those who have reported having stable support systems or re-establishing contact with family. Lane County District Attorney Christopher Parosa said in an interview that he advocated for re-criminalizing drugs in Oregon and was initially skeptical that the county’s pre-arrest deflection project would work. But Parosa, who has more than 20 years of experience as a prosecutor, said he was encouraged by the early results — though it was premature to draw conclusions from limited outcome data. The “most critical part of the equation,” Parosa said, is hiring a skilled case management company. A vendor that can help participants easily overcome bureaucratic obstacles, like health insurance, and keep them engaged with “navigators” who share lived experiences with enrollees, could help ensure the project succeeded, he said.Establishing relationships with resource providers, ensuring capacity to meet the therapeutic needs of participants and building trust between police and service providers are also important to a project’s success, Parosa said. Anecdotally, the county is seeing deflection program participants encountering police less frequently and being “lower drains” on public and social services, he said.“As a guy who’s watched numbers in prosecution for many, many years and decades, our deflection program is having greater success at addressing substance abuse in our community than the criminal justice system ever had,” he said.. But pre-arrest deflection offerings are relatively new attempts aimed at reducing recidivism that began springing up over the last decade, the organization said.Although people facing criminal charges in Alaska have similar options to minimize criminal punishment in exchange for meeting requirements, those are only offered once a person enters the court system — which Case said can mean serious consequences “because you still went into the system.” Many also decline to accept offers to participate in options like therapeutic courts, he said, because the length of the program and court-ordered monitoring exceeds the jail time they face.APD’s pre-arrest diversion initiative would guarantee a successful participant avoids the crime becoming a public record that follows the person and other negative outcomes, like a lost job or housing, due to being arrested, Case said. “The idea behind pre-arrest diversion is that we bypass all of that, and we say, ‘Let’s see if we can minimize the negative impact that the criminal justice system has,’” he said.“If you’re not successful, we very easily can just forward those charges and have the municipal prosecutor’s office prosecute you, and they’re in the exact same situation they were from day one,” he said. “The fail of the system is kind of taken away because we still have the arrest option.”Chris Aadland is a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News covering breaking news, Indigenous issues and general assignments. He has previously reported for the Confederated Umatilla Journal, Underscore Native News/Indian Country Today, Montana Free Press, Casper Star-Tribune and Wisconsin State Journal. Contact him at caadland@adn.com. Open & Shut: Anchorage gets new eateries — Polynesian, Mexican and American with global twists — as well as a game board cafe and a cannabis shop Anchorage police developing pre-arrest diversion program to address ‘underlying’ factors that lead to cycles of crimeEurope seeks to increase deportations as some warn of Trump-like tactics
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