By ALEX GIMARC
KTUU ran a puff piece Tuesday lauding Anchorage Police Department, the Municipal prosecutor and even Mayor Suzanne LaFrance for what they called a surprising decrease in shoplifting this year.
As the story goes, APD created a special unit that targets holiday retail theft. What that unit does about other retail theft is not mentioned.
Police Chief Sean Case stated in a Tuesday press conference that the unit had investigated and charged 100 people for shoplifting in the last three months. Thirty-nine of the charges were felonies. Many arrested were chronic offenders. APD plans to continue the effort through the first part of 2026.
It was his explanation of what he thinks is going on that it troubling. Case was asked what people are stealing and responded that it was a variety of items from diapers to generators. He went on excuse the criminal activity with the following statement:
”We are seeing thefts of necessities, things people need because they don’t have the means to purchase that. It’s not the focus of these operations,” Case said. “The municipality has developed a whole host of other things to try and provide some assistance to people who are engaging in that type of theft so that maybe we can address the underlying issues.”
Great. As long as the perp has an excuse, so is the crime? Really? And rather than prosecuting the crime, the Muni hands out free money to “address underlying issues.”
The other troubling statement was the focus of both APD and the Muni Prosecutor’s office, now aimed squarely at “… higher level felony thefts and chronic offenders …” What happens to the other felony and misdemeanor thefts is apparently left to the merchant and their insurance company to sort out? Too bad for them. Too bad for the buying public.
Note that some merchants had to make some real changes in how they do business over the last year. Sportsman’s Warehouse in South Anchorage put all their rifle and handgun ammunition behind the counter because they believe over $90,000 of it walked out of the store last year. They did the same thing with knives, though no dollar amount was given.
The article ends with a bit of a chest thumping claim that after the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office was finally fully staffed (apparently following Mayor Bronson’s implied malfeasance in not staffing it), they are now prosecuting a whopping 44% of all referred shoplifting cases in the last three months, up from only 7% in 2024.
I don’t know if I believe those numbers. Either way, even with the new emphasis on “high level felony offenses “and “repeat offenders”, the Muni Prosecutor is prosecuting less than half of the perps brought before them. What is unknown and unsaid, likely intentionally. is what percentage of all known or suspected shoplifting cases are the higher level / repeat offender cases? 2%? 40%? 95%? Square root of -1?
Giving a percentage without including totals (real and suspected) and putting it in perspective is little more than an exercise in chest thumping propaganda.
APD is to be commended on progress, any progress in this. But if their political masters have told them to start making excuses for shoplifters based on the thieves’ personal need to whatever they choose to steal, we have a real problem, one what will take Anchorage yet another step on the road to Seattle, Portlandia or any other former garden spot on the Left Coast destroyed by liberals who prioritize good feelings over good law enforcement.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
Alex Gimarc: A place of quiet corruption, as evidenced by the city seal switcheroo
13 thoughts on “Alex Gimarc: Anchorage’s slide from law enforcement to excuse-making for shoplifters”
We are in the middle of a campaign by the current Mayor to trumpet the achievements and accomplishments of her administration. My view, probably shared by others, is that the current Mayor is all but eclipsed by the Leftist Assembly led by the worst-of-the-Left Christopher Constant. She is nearly invisible. I would be interested in a poll of residents to see how many can actually identify the Mayor by name without being prompted. This actually makes a lot of sense. If you don’t have many ideas and pursue a collective leadership style, there isn’t much to say. And with local infrastructure crumbling, fewer and fewer high-wage jobs, persistent street vagrants, cratering educational outcomes and a demand for a vast increase in taxes to create the next all-blue urban hell-hole, I couldn’t say much either.
I tested thar on my adult kids who live in Anchorage and they knew who the mayor was. Albeit they did not vote for her.
Ugh missed the typo.
That’s because they have you as their mother who is informed. We all are the 22% plus the other other 22% democrats paying attention to the muni
The rest of Anchorage I can attest do not even know their neighborhood council district, their senate and representative district, let alone who are the assembly and mayor over the muni .
It was always my impression that Suzanne LaFrance just like AQD likes the perks of the office (grandly giving employees time off or throwing a parade for her being in office for a year), but leaves the “governing” to the assembly and selected staff. There is clearly no separation of powers.
Prosecution is really the linchpin in this whole issue. Cops can arrest miscreants all day long, if they just waltz out of jail in no time flat, just to do it again and again….
Frankly if you need diapers for your baby, there are so many charities out there to help you out. Depriving others of their livelihood by theft isn’t acceptable.
Hos many of those prosecuted were themselves APD officers?
Is there anything Gimarc won’t complain about?
Similar to you, with your incessant whinging
At least Alex has a point and facts unlike you, who most of the time complains about semantics or other innocuous details.
If you get robbed, you want the powers you elected to prosecute the offender according to the law of the land. That’s what a peaceful and law abiding society does. Selectively excusing behavior leads to chaos, corruption, favoritism and upheaval and in the end “every one for themselves” anarchy!
The other thing failure to equally and fairly enforce and prosecute the law is a quick realization among the citizenry that the notion of equality under the law is a thing of the past. Don’t think the solution will be anarchy. I rather think that the solution will be street justice for the perps, a short return to the Vigilance Committees and public trials and executions in the street. Doesn’t happen often in the US, but has happened before. Keep this foolishness up and it will happen again, sooner than most of us would realize.
The LaFrance / Assembly cabal has forgotten the basic lesson that police are there to protect the perps from their victims, not the other way around. Kipling said it best more than a century ago: “The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.” Cheers –
Prosecutions should be at 100 percent, not 44 percent, which in my math is a FAILING grade. Just ask anyone who’s had a car stolen. Not fun!
Is that Alfred E. Neuman? Anyone..? Alfred?
It isn’t just shoplifting, it’s all types of crime.