For the past few years, Michael Patterson has been advocating for Anchorage families that have lost members to police shootings.
“I’m tired of talking to families and meeting really good, you know, regular working class people and having to discuss with them, ‘Well, your loved one was killed in an incredibly violent and vicious way,’” Patterson said.
Patterson is an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation – Anchorage, or PSL. The far left-wing group of roughly a dozen organizers formed in 2020 and had previously lobbied for the adoption of body cameras for police officers. Since May, PSL-Anchorage has been calling for the release of police body camera footage to the public.
In the wake of five police shootings in Anchorage in less than two months, PSL-Anchorage is pushing for the city to establish an independent police review board to increase transparency and accountability.
“What we want is an independent police review board that has the ability to investigate police officers for misconduct, refer criminal complaints to the state of Alaska, and recommend changes to policy and procedures and stuff like that,” Patterson said.
A citizen review board would be staffed by professional investigators who would be guided by a board made up of Anchorage residents. Patterson said his group has been working with the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, a national group that has established best practices for these types of boards. He hopes to model Anchorage’s board after other cities in the Lower 48.
“People like to forget this, but the police are the government, who have guns,” Patterson said. “The government is killing people. And there’s literally no accountability and no transparency about why it happens, or if it’s okay if it happens.”
Patterson said the case for an independent oversight board is clear: Since mid-May, Anchorage police have shot five people, killing three of them. All five were armed. These are the first shootings since police were outfitted with body cameras, though none of the footage has been released to the public. Anchorage police say they’ll make the footage available after internal and state reviews, but Patterson said the process has been drawn out.
He is not making the case quietly.
As Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance was sworn in on July 1, Patterson and about a dozen other protesters chanted nearby. While some have criticized the group for being disruptive, Patterson said local officials have done enough talking over the years over how the police can better serve the community.
“We are past a conversation,” Paterson said. “We’re here for action. You know, you can’t have the police shoot four people justified or not justified killing three of them justified or not justified in a really I think, under 50 days, and then say, ‘Oh, there’s no crisis.’”
One group PSL-Anchorage isn’t working with is the Alaska Black Caucus, even though the nonprofit was instrumental in outfitting the Anchorage Police Department with body cameras, which voters approved in 2021. Patterson said he has not reached out to the group because they’re too deferential to the city.
While Alaska Black Caucus leaders say they want an oversight board and they are open to working with PSL, president Celeste Hodge-Growden said her group doesn’t want to alienate people.
“We are wanting to work in harmony to get, as I shared, to our end goal,” Hodge-Growden said. “So anybody that has conflict or confrontation, we’re not interested in working with them.”
The concept of a civilian oversight board does have some city support. Assembly member Felix Rivera said he’s in favor of some sort of civilian oversight of APD.
“This doesn’t have to do about trust with APD,” Rivera said. “This really is about how we can have civilian oversight, much like many, many, many cities in the Lower 48 do, and build a better relationship between the community and APD.”
Mayor LaFrance’s new police chief, Sean Case, took office at the beginning of the month, and has publicly stated he’s focused on improving the relationship between the police and the public.
At a press conference Thursday about the city’s fifth police shooting this year, he was asked by Alaska Public Media if he supported a civilian oversight board.
“Probably isn’t the right time to do it,” Case said. “If you think about it, from the officers perspective, going from one level of oversight to another level of oversight, that can really, you know, kind of kind of hurt the morale and desire to get up every day and come to work, knowing that it’s, we just keep stacking these things on top of each other.”
Case said there are already several layers of accountability for the department, including press conferences and other media engagements, as well as opportunities for elected officials to express their concerns to the police. Right now, he said the department is focused on improving the body camera policy.
Patterson with PSL-Anchorage said his organization is reaching out to community stakeholders to sign on to a compact, agreeing to come together to discuss what a review board would look like in Anchorage. The goal is to present the proposal to the Assembly and get it before voters as a ballot initiative.
PSL-Anchorage is holding a community event at the Umoja Coworking space on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to educate the public on what a civilian oversight board could look like. Officials with the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement will also present.
