ANCHORAGE – Spurred from the spike in deaths related to drunk driving, the Anchorage Police Department has ramped up patrols.
Their efforts, however, are having some unintended effects, according to information tracked from November through December.
“The department has suppressed DUIs in the downtown area, but in the process we may have moved some of the activity around,” said Police Chief Mark Mew on KTVA’s Daybreak Thursday morning.
In other words, police patrols have displaced activity from one location to another. The patrols targeting DUI enforcement in the city will now focus on the midtown.
“We will eventually be able to do predictive policing with it — not only figure out if we’re able to suppress crime completely, but where is it going to occur tomorrow,” Mew said of their current computer software and analytics.
According to Anchorage police, most of the midtown DUI arrests occurred on Tudor Road and Northern Lights Boulevard.