Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson is requesting $350,000 to hire mental health clinicians to work on the police department’s Crisis Intervention Team, but his refusal to move forward on Anchorage Fire Department’s Mobile Crisis Team may jeopardize his plans.
Last year, the Assembly came to an agreement with the administration to fund 24-hour operation of the Mobile Crisis Team, but Bronson has not yet implemented it. Two Assembly members, Meg Zaletel and Austin Quinn-Davidson, said they are reluctant to approve the funding for CIT unless Bronson moves both teams forward. The funding for CIT would need seven votes for Assembly approval.
The Mobile Crisis Team is designed to operate alongside CIT, which is operated by the Anchorage Police Department. The teams fill different roles in community mental health response. CIT responds with an armed officer to mental health calls involving a higher threat level, and the Mobile Crisis Team consists of mental health professionals who respond to calls involving lower threat levels.
Since he took office, Bronson has attempted to divert funding away from the Mobile Crisis Team. He removed funding for the team in 2021, and again in 2022. Both times, the Assembly reinstated funding. In November 2022, the Administration finally agreed to a plan championed by the Assembly to move the Mobile Crisis Team to 24/7 operation, but has since refused to implement it. Former Municipal Manager Amy Demboski led the agreement effort on the administration’s side, but was fired by Bronson in December.
According to the Alaska Mental Health Trust, responding to mental health crises with law enforcement can lead to negative outcomes such as unnecessary violence and additional trauma, as well as diverting public safety resources away from crime prevention and law enforcement.
Micheal Riley, who responds to mental health calls as a part of a two person Mobile Crisis Team, told Alaska Public Media last year that the team responded to over 1,000 calls and of these 800 were able to avoid going to an emergency room or a jail.
During a Public Safety meeting Wednesday, Assembly members advocated for using both APD and AFD teams in an integrated approach, and expressed frustration with the lack of support by the administration for the Mobile Crisis Team. Several members expressed a reluctance to approve the funds requested by the mayor for a mental health provider to work alongside APD without also moving forward on the Mobile Crisis Team.
Assembly member Daniel Volland asked Acting Municipal Attorney Anne Helzer if she had been briefed on the issue.
“Not as much as I would like to be,” she said before suggesting that the Assembly present solutions to the administration’s inability to implement the program.
“Both these projects, it does seem like they have been languishing and taking a lot of time to get off the ground, which is very unfortunate,” Assembly member Kevin Cross said. “Our departments want them, they see the value in them, they see that this is a magnificent benefit to our community. It’s painful because our constituents keep asking us why isn’t this going? …‘I’m working on it is a sadly not adequate excuse anymore.’”
The Assembly will vote on approving funding for APD’s CIT program at Tuesday night’s Assembly meeting.
