Anchorage police say there has, without a doubt, been an increase in violent crime at the beginning of 2015. There were four homicides in January, two in February and two more, so far, in March. Plus, there have been dozens of reported shootings.
The Anchorage Police Department’s new violent crime task force has been busy tracking trends and arresting suspects. Deputy police chief Myron Fanning joined Mayor Dan Sullivan for the task force’s first progress report.
“What’s changed? I think we’ve taken a lot of violent criminals off the street already,” said Fanning.
Sullivan says a spike in crime doesn’t mean Anchorage is a dangerous place to live. He says, it’s just that — a spike.
“When we saw this spike, we wanted to make sure, through the task, that this is not something insidious or a huge gang-related problem,” said Sullivan. “And so far, it doesn’t look like that’s the case.”
Except for the double-murder at an East Anchorage apartment complex, Fanning says the task force has solved all of this year’s homicides. The force has also made 26 arrests and seized 40 illegally owned guns.
Fanning says most shootings this year have been alcohol- or- drug-related.
The new task force has seized 284 grams of meth, 42 grams of heroin and a considerable amount of marijuana.
“Eventually, it will slow down, because we will arrest all the people we think are responsible for the violent crime spike,” Fanning said. “But right now, our numbers are staying pretty high.”
The task force is still working to figure out what factors caused the surge in the first place.
“Once we see that we are comfortable with the numbers where they’re at and we no longer have a spike, then we’ll probably disband the task force,” Fanning said.
But for now, Fanning says there is still work to do to make Anchorage safer for all who call the area home.