Mayor Dave Bronson named Bianca Cross as the next police chief. She’ll be the first woman to head the Anchorage Police Department in the city’s history.
Bianca Cross, center, makes comments after she was announced by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, right, as the new chief of the Anchorage Police Department at a news conference on April 9, 2024. Chief Michael Kerle, left, announced his retirement. Bianca Cross as the next police chief, which will make her the first woman to head the Anchorage Police Department in the city’s history.
Cross, a 26-year veteran of the department, brings “a wealth of knowledge, expertise and a deep commitment to community policing,” Bronson said at a press conference held at City Hall on Tuesday. Cross, who currently serves as captain over the police department’s Detective Division, said she was committed to leading the department with “compassion, inclusivity and transparency.”. She is expected to assume the role of chief designee April 30, when Kerle retires — just before Bronson will go up against Suzanne LaFrance, his mayoral election opponent, inAt a press conference at City Hall on Tuesday, Bronson insisted the timing of Kerle’s retirement was not political.
“Chief Kerle is going on a cruise,” Bronson said. “You can’t have a department without a police chief.” Cross said she was from Anchorage and a Service High School graduate, and had worked in the insurance industry before discovering she loved the teamwork of policing on a ride-along with the department. In her 26 years with the department, she’s worked in homicides, in the special victims unit, as a patrol sergeant, on a crisis negotiation team and other positions, according to her professional biography.Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News.
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