Anchorage businesses seek permanent funding for downtown police patrol

Downtown business representatives urged the Anchorage Assembly to permanently fund a police foot patrol at its Oct. 20 hearing on the proposed FY2027 operating budget. The mayor’s proposal does not include money to continue the patrol, and the Assembly took no action on the request at the hearing.

Is the patrol funded for next year? Not under the mayor’s current proposal. The budget remains under consideration, so continuation funding is not settled.

One-time funding supports the current pilot i

The reported patrol puts two Anchorage Police Department officers downtown from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, using overtime. The Assembly set aside $650,000 in 2026 Tourism-Improvement Projects bed-tax money for police foot-patrol overtime in high-tourism areas; the downtown pilot was supported by that one-time funding. The $650,000 allocation was for patrols in high-tourism areas, not identified as funding exclusively for downtown.

Municipal Office of Management and Budget Director Ona Brause told the Assembly that the one-time funding available for the patrol would not exist in 2027. The department’s reported reason for using overtime is that it does not have enough sworn officers to staff the patrol on regular time.

Downtown Partnership executive director Radhika Krishna said only a small portion of the pilot funding remained and she expected it to be spent soon. The exact balance was not established. Krishna argued that consistent, year-round staffing would improve downtown public safety. Anchorage Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Kathleen McArdle said businesses may turn to private security, strengthen building security or relocate when public safety is unavailable.

Testimony also included criticism of police spending and calls for a spending freeze and a room-tax increase. Alaska News reported that four of the seven people who testified on the operating budget supported the patrol. That count describes speakers at one hearing, not the views of all Anchorage residents or businesses.

Budget hearings continue in November i

The Oct. 20 meeting was the first of two scheduled public hearings on the FY2027 budget. The Municipality’s schedule lists a second hearing for Nov. 4, a budget-amendment work session for Nov. 6 and budget adoption for Nov. 17, 2026. The permanent-patrol request had not resulted in a formal funding amendment or Assembly commitment at the first hearing.