The Anchorage Assembly is considering reinstituting a public safety advisory commission that was allowed to sunset in 2024.
The old commission was supposed to advise city leaders on a variety of public safety issues, but some argued the group didn’t do much to involve the community in its discussions.
Now, the Assembly is set to vote on establishing a new commission aimed at bringing citizens and the city closer together when it comes to addressing public safety.
In 2023, Anchorage police were working to get body cameras on officers, after voters approved a tax levy to purchase the cameras two years before. Rich Curtner, an attorney who works with the Alaska Black Caucus, said he wanted to get more information on how the process was going.
“I attended a couple of meetings of the Public Safety Commission,” Curtner said. “The people who sat on that commission were basically retired law enforcement, and it didn't really do anything that I could see.”
City officials said the commission’s lack of consistent staffing and its failure to represent the city’s broad perspectives resulted in it being phased out in January 2024.
Over the course of that year, Anchorage police shot eight people, five of whom died.
“After these shootings, there was some public outcry for some kind of public and civilian oversight of the police department,”Curtner said. “That's where it all started.”
Anchorage Assembly members held a series of meetings with community stakeholders in 2025 in an effort to reimagine the public safety commission.
Former Assembly member Felix Rivera was one of the main organizers. From the start, there was stark debate on how the commission would operate, he said.
“I think there are some folks who probably wish that we didn't do this ordinance at all and we didn't have a public safety commission,” Rivera said. “And then there are other folks who wish that we went all the way, sort of full steam ahead, allowed for investigation, subpoenas, all that stuff.”
The final proposal is more of a middle-ground approach, Rivera said.
If approved, it would establish a commission made up of nine community members who have experience interacting with law enforcement, are subject matter experts in relevant public safety fields or work in mental or behavioral health treatment. There’s also a restriction on the number of members who can be former Anchorage police, fire, emergency response or state Department of Law employees, limiting those types of commissioners to three.
There would also be five ex-officio, or non-voting, members representing the Anchorage police and fire departments, emergency management, Department of Law and Department of Health.
In addition to advising city leaders, the commission would have the authority to review public safety policies, hold public hearings, receive public records and request independent follow-up reviews of specific incidents once an initial investigation wraps up.
Rivera said he wants the commission to work to foster community feedback.
“I want this commission to go out and hear from the public and hear their concerns, their praises for public safety, and everything in between,” Rivera said.
The Alaska Black Caucus was one of the organizations advocating for the commission’s reinstatement. The goal is to build a better relationship between the public and the city’s public safety agencies, Curtner said.
“We want to put the public back in public safety,” he said. “Not that we're making the decisions, necessarily, but we're advising, and we're working with and we have oversight over what's going on in the city. And that way, I think that will develop the trust of the community.”
Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case said the department has made significant progress in transparency and community engagement in recent years.
“Conversations about public safety and accountability are important, and I value the perspectives that have been shared throughout the process,” he said in a written statement.
But some residents think the new commission doesn’t go far enough.
Michael Patterson is part of the Party for Socialism and Liberation Anchorage. For years, the group has pushed for increased police transparency and accountability with the public, including advocating for body cameras on officers and working with the families of police shooting victims.
The commission proposal is fundamentally flawed, Patterson said.
“It's not civilian oversight,” he said. “It is a backroom deal between the sponsors of this ordinance, Chief Case and the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association. It's not what people have been asking for for the last six years.”
The high number of police shootings in recent years and the lengthy process to get cameras on officers has led to mistrust of law enforcement in the community, Patterson said. He wants the Assembly to pass an ordinance that gives the commission more oversight.
“Supplement it with an ordinance that is going to actually give this body investigatory powers, the power to compel APD to cooperate with investigations and also to recommend disciplinary measures to the chief of police,” Patterson said.
Curtner said he understands the desire to expand the commission’s powers, but he thinks the current proposal is a good jumping off point.
“The language in the ordinance is broad enough. It can be very effective, whether you call it advisory or not,” Curtner said. “I think it can be really effective if you have the right people at the table, if they're all committed and if they work together.”
As Assembly members finalize the proposal, Rivera said he’s hopeful that the commission can start working soon.
“In a perfect world, it would be great if, by the fall, we have a fully staffed commission that's starting its work,” he said.
Assembly members are set to hear public testimony on the proposal to reestablish the public safety commission at their meeting on May 26. They could vote on it the same day.
