Anchorage police officials say they’ll enact a new body camera policy on Monday that mandates the release of footage of police shootings within 45 days.
Police Chief Sean Case said the most recent Anchorage police shooting of Damien Dollison on July 8 will be held to that 45-day standard, though footage of prior shootings may take a little longer.
“Although the policy won’t be followed to a T, we’re going to follow it the best we can, given we’re already two months past the first incident,” Case said. “So we’ll be allowing everything the policy has. And you should see that first officer involved shooting video be released probably within a week.”
Case was referring to the May 12 fatal shooting of Kristopher Handy, the first person shot by Anchorage police since officers were equipped with body cameras. There have been five total since May, including the shooting of Kaleb Bourdukofsky on June 1 and the fatal shootings of Tyler May on June 3 and Lisa Fordyce-Blair on June 19.
The shootings of Handy, Bourdukofsky and May all occurred more than 45 days before Monday’s policy enactment date.
Earlier this week, Alaska Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore provided a broad overview of how police body camera footage should be released, saying it should happen once a shooting has been reviewed by the state Office of Special Prosecutions. That office recently determined that the shooting of Bourdukofsky was justified.
Besides APD and other law enforcement entities sending over police reports, other agencies that provide records to the Office of Special Prosecutions for their investigations include the state medical examiner’s office, which handles autopsies, and the state crime lab, which deals with ballistics reports.
Case said that should work with the 45-day deadline for APD to release footage. He said his department’s policy is modeled after the one in Los Angeles, which has the same timeline.
Overall, Case says he hopes the new policy will help the department communicate better with the public.
“We want this information out as absolutely quickly as we can, so that we’re not waiting for months, the public’s not waiting for months to get an answer for a pretty significant incident,” Case said.
Case said footage of Anchorage police shootings will be released to the public on APD’s website once available.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
