There was a 74% drop in documented “crimes against society” in Juneau, including a 66% drop in drug-related crimes, during the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period for 2023, according to an annual report published last week by the Juneau Police Department.
The unorthodox figures — which seemingly contradict headlines such as drug seizures at Anchorage’s airport nearly doubling in 2024 — are due to some changes in reporting practices as well as the crimes officers responded to, JPD Chief Derek Bos said in an interview Monday. He said other agencies such as the FBI are now picking up child pornography cases, for instance, and there were also significantly fewer weapons crimes and the focus on drug crimes shifted in 2024.
“We saw a decrease in drug and narcotic violations,” he said. “I think part of that is due to focus on more of the volume and more of the actual distribution into our community. Those are substantial cases that take more time to investigate, which decreases the number that we’re capable of doing.”
There were 11 drug and narcotics crimes reported during the first half of 2024, compared to 33 during the first half of 2023, according to the JPD report. In the larger category of “crimes against society” — which also includes offenses such as gambling, pornography, prostitution, weapons violations and animal cruelty — the total dropped from 61 during the first half of 2023 to 16 during the first half of 2024.
Most of the other categories didn’t show large variances from previous years, although “intimidations” dropped from 39 in 2023 to 17 in 2024. Bos said that generally refers to domestic violence cases, which are generally trending downward after an upward spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Examples of other crimes in the report include aggravated assault (61 during the first half of 2024, compared to 48 the year before), simple assault (153 and 140, respectively), larceny/theft (262 and 310, respectively) and fraud (63 and 47, respectively).
Notable in the report are crimes with zero offenses reported for the first half of both 2023 and 2024: murder, justifiable homicide, kidnapping/abduction, incest, statutory rape, human trafficking (either commercial sex acts or involuntary servitude), prostitution and bribery.
Bos said incest and statutory rape are considered consensual sex offenses, compared to non-consensual crimes such as rape and sexual assault (there were 29 non-consensual offenses reported during the first half of 2024 compared to 39 a year ago). As for the absence of murder cases — especially since the death of an infant in April of this year was almost immediately classified by the medical examiner as a homicide — Bos said the charge wasn’t filed in the case until the second half of the year and thus is omitted from the JPD report.
The report also notes JPD is continuing to struggle with workforce shortages, with 78 employees in a department that would have 96 full-time positions filled if fully staffed.
“We have significant vacancies throughout the department, including 21 Police Officers, 4 Dispatchers, 2 Community Service Officers, and 3 Administrative positions,” the report states. “There is some hope on the horizon, with 11 Police Officers and 1 Dispatcher in training.”
Bos, during a presentation of the report to Juneau Assembly members on Monday night, said there are also promising indicators in recruiting new officers.
“In 2024 we have 139 applicants for police officers being entry-level officers, which is a huge number over where we’ve been for previous years,” he said.
JPD handled a total of 36,175 service calls during the first half of 2024, about one-third initiated by officers and the rest by callers, according to the report. Of those 19,953 were classified as JPD “incidents,” with 3,851 of those resulting in case files. A total of 652 people were arrested and 377 formally charged, with 1,992 cases now considered inactive.
Bos told Assembly members having officers initiate one-third of calls shows a high level of community engagement since a typical goal for police departments is 10%. But he also noted JPD had 17 officers and sergeants working patrol during 2024, which equates to about 1,400 calls per officer.
“The national standard and our goal is 500 to 600 calls for service per officer per year,” he said, adding officers would be responding to just over 600 calls if the department was fully staffed.
Of the non-incident calls, 7,588 involved a response by Capital City Fire/Rescue and 4,783 were classified as “other.”
The JPD report also notes its annual honorees: Alex Vicario as Dispatcher of the Year, Terry Allen as Officer of the Year, Jacob Gentry as Civilian of the Year and Jeremy Weske as Leader of the Year.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
