Alaska’s crime rate is the lowest it has been since 1975, according to the most recent edition of an annual state report.
The Department of Public Safety released the 2021 Crime in Alaska Report, its annual publication detailing crimes reported in Alaska, which reveals a 15.2% decrease in Alaska’s overall crime rate.
This continues the downward trend in Alaska crime that started in 2018, after former Gov. Bill Walker was removed from office by voters. Walker had ushered in a crime wave with SB 91, which was repealed after he left office by the Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Alaska’s reported violent crime rate decreased by 9.7% last year; this included fewer instances of murder, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault. Alaska’s property crime rate decreased by 17.3% in 2021, and the total number of reported property offenses was at its lowest level since 1974.
“Public safety has been job number one for my administration since I took office, and we have made historic investments in law enforcement across the state,” said Gov. Dunleavy. “With the repeal of the catch and release SB 91 legislation, and the other major steps my team has made over the last four years to make Alaska a safer place I know that we will continue making positive movement towards reducing the high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault that plague our state.”
The Uniform Crime Reporting Program is a nationwide effort by federal, state, city, county, and tribal law enforcement agencies to report data on crimes reported in their jurisdiction. The report is a resource for measuring the trend and distribution of crime in Alaska. Under Alaska law, law enforcement agencies in Alaska are required to submit UCR data to the State of Alaska. In 2021, 31 agencies reported crime data to DPS. These agencies represent 99.5% of the state’s population.
2021 is also the first year that a significant number of agencies have participated in the federal National Incident Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, reporting model. This new reporting model captures additional details about the suspects and victims of crime to allow for additional data set tracking. Approximately 66% of Alaska’s law enforcement agencies reported using the NIBRS model.
“While the 2021 crime data continues to show decreasing crime rates, we must not become complacent as a state. Your Alaska Department of Public Safety will continue to work to improve public safety across the state in both urban and rural Alaska,” said Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell. “In 2020, crime rates began to increase across the lower 48, however in Alaska, our commonsense approach to public safety and the overwhelming support of Governor Dunleavy, the Alaska Legislature, and the citizens of our state continue to drive crime rates down and make our state a safer place to live, visit, work, and raise a family.”
Caution should be exercised when comparing data from year to year and making conclusions, as the report does not account for when an incident occurred; it accounts for when it was reported. For example, burglary or theft occurring in November of one year may not have been discovered and reported until February of the next year. The incident is not retroactively applied to a previous year’s data; it is counted in the year it was reported. Rape offenses are counted by victim, and each separation of time and place a rape occurs will also be counted. Sexual assaults spanning years will result in numerous counts of rape offenses being reported for a single victim.
The 2021 Crime in Alaska report was authored by the Alaska Department of Public Safety’s Division of Statewide Services. The Division of Statewide Services provides technical and specialized services to the Department of Public Safety and law enforcement agencies across the state. Past Crime in Alaska reports and felony-level sex offenses reports can be found online here.
The UCR and Crime in Alaska reports are based on the Federal Bureau of Investigation definitions of crimes, to ensure consistency and uniformity in reported offenses nationally. The definitions do not always echo state definitions; therefore, federal publications cannot accurately be compared to reports that use the state definitions for crimes as these are unique to each state. Additionally, the population counts for Crime in Alaska come from the US Census.
I have a bridge in Alaska I’d like to sell, but it’s only available to those who actually believed crime has dropped throughout the state.
Suzanne, I’m glad you added that disclaimer about “crime reports” not being the logical equivalent of “crimes”. A fall in reports does not necessarily entail an actual drop in crimes committed. Personally, I’m wary of placing my trust in government crime statistics.
Anecdotes are more reliable. My neighbor’s son told me that.
Keep the red wave
going strong through 2026, unless one wants more crime and lewd exposure then vote blue hahaha
Would be nice to see the demographic breakdown for murder, rape, armed robbery, and aggravated assault.
Are there certain segments of our society we should be focusing on?
Are there educational and/or intervention opportunities to stop or diminish certain crimes in certain communities?
Poverty has always been, and will always be the primary indicator of crime.
I dunno. Trump’s not poor.
Now that thar is downright funnioly, it is.
But only in the Liberal Dream World.
In the real world soft on crime Democrat policies are always the primary indicator of crime.
This is great news, and it confirms my own gut sense on the declining risks, since my 1972 arrival in Alaska, of becoming a victim of serious assault and robbery while “out and about” in the communities of our great state. The Alaska statutes for the concealed carry of handguns were a great leap forward for everyone, providing a palpable protection for both the armed and the unarmed. One rarely hears of armed robberies in parking lots nowadays. SB91 was a grave setback in law and order, but both Gov. Walker and that malign statute are behind us.
Obviously, crime and punishment remain a major societal problem throughout the USA. The advent of “woke” district attorneys in the great urban centers, easy bail, the plea bargaining of felony crimes to misdemeanors, lengthy delays in trials, short prison sentences, and early release are all to blame for the nation’s rising crime rates. We Alaskans must look critically at these problems, too.
Let us not fail to be alert, and to join hands in bringing our grievances to the attention of our governor and legislators. As for me, I am focused on crushing the continuing Alaskan plague of reckless and drunk driving. The street signs that read “Please Don’t Drink and Drive” greatly offend me, and I would replace them all with signs reading, “Drunk Driving = Imprisonment.”
What a joke. Rapes and assaults in Rural Alaska are at record high. Part of our homeless problem is women fleeing from Rural Alaska. Guess taking State Troopers from Rural Alaska and sending them to MatSu made lots of sense. Mayor Bronson has said the State should help with our homeless problem. Guess property crimes and people sleeping in your backyard is low on the list.
Thank you, Governor Dunleavy. You have our entire family’s votes. Bill Walker AND John Coghill we’re to blame for SB91.
I have lived here over 50 years, and my perception is that crime is worse than ever. Not prosecuting and plea-bargaining felonies to misdemeanors results in “fewer crimes” and “less serious crimes”.
I have also lived here over 50 years, and my perception is that crime in Anchorage is way less than during the pipeline construction years and the decade or two afterwards, even property crimes. Conversely, crime in the Valley is exponentially greater simply because 50 years ago, there were very few out here. The population is over 1000% greater out here than in the early ’70’s while the Anchorage population has increased by @ 200% or so.
“…….Walker had ushered in a crime wave with SB 91, which was repealed after he left office by the Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy……..”
Let’s give complete credit where it’s due:
SB91 was sponsored by Sens. John Coghill, R-North Pole, Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, Click Bishop, R-Fairbanks, Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, and Dennis Egan, D-Juneau.
Yeas included Sens. Bishop, Coghill, Costello, Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, Egan, Ellis, Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks, Anna MacKinnon, R-Anchorage, McGuire, Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, Micciche, Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak and Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage.
Sens. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla, and Bill Stoltze, R-Wasilla, voted no. Sen. Berta Gardner D-Anchorage, was excused and Sen. Sonny Olson, D-Nome, was absent.
The measure was transmitted to the House, where it passed 28-11, with one excused.
Yeas included Reps. Ivy Spohnholz, D-Anchorage, Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, Dave Talerico, R-Healy, Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage, Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks, Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole, Adam Wool, D-Fairbanks, Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, Harriet Drummond, D-Anchorage, Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham, Neal Foster, D-Nome, Les Gara, D-Anchorage, Lynn Gattis, R-Wasilla, David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks, Bob Herron, D-Bethel, Shelly Hughes, R-Palmer, Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbnks, Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, Sam Kito, D-Juneau, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka, Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, Cathy Munoz, R-Juneau, Benjamin Nageak, D-Barrow, Curt Olson, R-Soldotna, Dan Saddler, R-Anchorage, Paul Seaton, R-Homer, Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski.
Nays: Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, Liz Vazquez, R-Anchorage, Jim Colver, R-Palmer, Delena Johnson, R-Palmer, Joe Josephson, D-Anchorage, Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake, Dan Ortiz, unaffiliated-Ketchikan, Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage, Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River.
Anchorage Republican Mike Hawker was excused.
When the measure was returned to the Senate for its concurrence with House changes, the final vote was: 14 yeas, five nays and one absent.
Voting yes were: Sens. Kelly, MacKinnon, McGuire, Micciche, Olson, Stevens, Wielechowski, Bishop, Coghill, Costello, Egan, Ellis, Gardner and Meyer.
Voting no: Stedman, Stoltze, Dunleavy, Giessel and Huggins.
Sen. Hoffman was absent
This makes me wonder about how crimes were reported 47 years ago compared to today. I can tell you that one could not throw a rock in Spenard in 1975 and not break a window of a house of Ill Repute, with names like Suzy’s Massage, where a flashing sign in front of the establishment boasted that her customers always come first.
Sadly a decrease of crime in a given year might really only mean that we have merely filled up an increasingly larger Alaskan Gulag.
Are we doing anything to help those incarceration? I wonder.
Much as I agree that repealing SB91 was the right thing to do and very effective, I have to call BS on this report from DPS. The reason they are not showing the crime rate as high as it really is is because people simply quit calling the cops – in Anchorage in particular, people know the cops won’t do anything unless there is serious bodily injury so they quit trying. Theft in Anchorage is still VERY high.
How do you know people aren’t calling the cops or that theft is very high? If there are any statistics to support your claims, I hope you’ll share them with the DPS.
When just a few citizens hide in their homes and make only short dashes to places, and back, it may only be anecdotal evidence that crime is up. When a large part of the citizenry do the same, then the anecdotal evidence becomes difficult to ignore.
As far as the statistics you’re asking for; Lies, damned lies, and statistics………..
I can only hope that the Walker voters enjoyed having their cars stolen and the break-ins caused by his administration. Of course, nobody remembers.
Thank Dunleavy for being tough on crime, compared to so many governors in blue states that have advocated for defunding the police. Our local police departments as well as the state troopers have done an admirable job keeping law and order. Thank God we’re not like San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle. Although, many want us to follow that path, mainly the elected (I use the term loosely) officials in Anchorge and Juneau.
In case you don’t think that it is important to be able to walk where you want, try Los Angeles or San Francisco, or even Seattle. Even Rodeo Drive businesses have been hit by gangs taking what they want and wrecking the stores. All this is courtesy of no-bail, or arrest and release laws. Anchorage and Fairbanks people, wise up. Get Walker or Gara back in and this will be only one of the problems you will face, along with added high taxes. The reason Governor Dunleavy couldn’t get his initiatives to have Alaskans vote on any new taxes, or to have the PFD added to the Alaska Constitution put on the ballot was the blocking by forces in the Alaska Legislature who want all economic power for themselves. State Senator Bert Stedman said as much. And how about all of those millions of future democratic voters who were able to spill over the southern borders from Mexico? Near 4 million and counting. And since they were not vetted, these include M13 members, increased traffic in persons and Fetanyl, with the Mexican cartels running the borders. Do Alaskans want any of these problems? How about ballooning deficits? When you listen to those “wonderful” plans put for by Walker and Gara, ask yourself where they will get the money? Then Rank the Red.
Fear is a powerful motivator.
Indeed it is, Lucinda:
.
1) Covidian hysteria and overreaction to what was essentially a bad flu season, entailing draconian, and socially and economically ruinous, restrictions, mandates and lockdowns,
2) The rabid Russophobia of the warmongering neocon political establishment,
3) Putative and imaginary “racists” and “white supremacists” hiding under every bed and in every closet,
5) Wildly overhyped ‘climate change’ hysteria,
4) Orange Man Bad.
Hard to believe with the amount of street crime from the rampant homeless, but OK …?
I guess it’s possible things were so bad earlier regular bad is an improvement.
I leave stuff out that is worthless to anyone, but the thieves steal it just for the practice. This saves me the time and expense of taking it to the land fill, and gives the city crews something to fill out their work day.
Whenever the thieves become that reliable, then something is really wrong.
As a board certified victim of violent crime I rise today to say Good Job to the community, and our leaders. Mike Dunleavy and Dave Bronson. Fantastic work.
The report is well done and objective in its portrayal of facts.
Note the analysts properly add the important disclaimer:
“Caution should be exercised when comparing data from year to year and making conclusions.”
This proves what great lengths they will go for $.
Everyone knows Alaska is worst in the nation.
I am sure the local FBI would agree with that.
Maybe crawl up the DPS ass while they are at it.
It could be to counter the new TV show “Alaska Daily” ; and that’s not going to paint the rosey pic the DPS is trying to project. Northern Exposure.
Excerpted from the Daily Mail, Oct 4, 2022:
“Alaska has the highest violent crime rates: 837.8 per 100,000.
Alaska topped the list with 837.8 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people, according to a breakdown of FBI data from 2020 on rates for murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and assault across the U.S.
A spokesman for the law firm said in a statement there were ‘considerable difference between the rates of recorded violent crime between the states that feature at the top and bottom of this list’.
Criminologists told DailyMail.com there were few surprises in the study.
Alaska has long had among the highest crime rates in the U.S. — an effect of men significantly outnumbering women, excessive alcohol consumption, and because lawmen are spread thin across the vast territory.
Clark Neily, a legal analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said Alaska also had a large indigenous population — 19.6 percent of the state’s total —according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”
“Excerpted from the Daily Mail, Oct 4, 2022……..”
Ummm, that can all be true, and our crime rate might still be lower than it has been for years. I still remember the 1970’s here being like the Old West. I personally knew people who had been murdered.
Alaska is a sick society if you could call it that. Alaska needs to get saved. The schools do not produce enough excellent scholars. Everyone aspires to government sitting around. There is no fellow feeling. There is only contempt for our fellow man. Marital bonds are shady and shallow. Everyone is at risk from international liberty snatchers and the dems are on the pronoun boat to hades and proud of themselves far it. Alaskans always want to know what’s “on”.
We have musher Jesse Holmes in the hospital in Anchorage after being airlifted with serious injuries first to Fairbanks and then to Anchorage while trying to help out the people in Western Alaska impacted by the recent storm. The last Iditarod winner, Brent Sass was also there with Jesse and spent an anxious 3 minutes digging Jesse out from a pile of boards and trash which had collapsed on top of him. No, there are Alaskans helping other Alaskans every day without getting any publicity. Incidentally, there is a GoFundeMe for Jesse, who has medical bills over $21,000 at this point. Plenty of others also showed up. And another storm is on the way. As governor, this is what Mike Dunleavy is dealing with, as he cancels fundraisers and concentrates on the emergencies coming down the pike. As for the schools, try electing different school boards. Also, the Biden Administration is pushing the Woke agenda so hard that it is threatening to deny school funds to any place not going along with all of its Woke nonsense. Where are most of Alaska’s schools? In democrat strongholds Anchorage and Fairbanks. Clean them up and solve the problems.
The numbers are very deceiving. Many actions that used to generate a new “crime” are now considered “non-criminal violations or infractions.”
Matters involving driver’s license status and more importantly, Violation of Conditions of Release are no longer necessarily considered criminal. DWLR, DWLS, and VCOR becoming non-criminal is a HUGE chunk of that drop.
Also, and already mentioned, there is significant under-reporting by the public now of new crimes. A common consensus is that much of the public has given up on the judiciary and District Attorneys.
The last few years have greatly increased this question from the public: what will happen if you catch him?
Trooper usual answers…”I’ll give him a ticket with a date in court” or “I’ll arrest him and he’ll be released before I get home” or “I’ll send it in the to the District Attorney and he’ll decide if he can prove it to twelve disinterested jurors.”
There’s little motivation to report most crime except for insurance claims.
B.S.
Absolutely B.S.
I own a business, and I get siphoned regularly.
Anything outside that is not bolted down and protected by shotguns is pretty much gone by morning.
Our Police blame me for presenting myself as a victim.
And I would go to prison for the rest of my life if I set a trap-gun or rubbed one of these bastards out.
And that, is the truth.
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