During a Juneau Chamber of Commerce presentation on crime Thursday, Juneau Police Department Police Chief Bryce Johnson seized the opportunity to instead, as he put it, “wax nostalgic.”
Johnson recently accepted a new position in Idaho and is set to leave Juneau at the end of the month after a four-year stint as chief.
He called his tenure with the department a “very satisfying, rewarding time,” despite the community having been rocked by four murders in 2015.
Juneau historically has seen low homicide rates. According to FBI statistics, there were no recorded homicides in Juneau between 2010 and 2014 and just one recorded homicide per year from 2007-2009.
No one has been arrested as of yet in a double homicide from November of 2015, but Johnson said he has “no doubt” those murders will be solved.
The chief also pointed to the officer-involved shooting of Jeremie Shaun Tinney in December 2016 as a notable incident in his career in Juneau, happening as it did against a background of increased nationwide scrutiny of allegations against police officers.
“That was a big deal,” Johnson said. “For me, it was very satisfying to see the community come together and support our officers. … They gave us the time we needed to investigate.”
Looking back on his four years, Johnson said rates for crime in general have increased, particularly in the last year and a half, but that violent crime has dipped. He noted that property crime has increased but he believes it has leveled off and even is trending toward a slight decrease.
“We have real problems here,” he said. “I don’t want to sugar-coat anything.”
Johnson linked property crime to drug use and noted that importing drugs to Juneau is attractive to criminals because controlled substances sell for far higher prices than in Seattle.
“We’re working on the supply side,” he said, adding that his department has seized a tremendous amount of drugs recently thanks to its work with a new postal inspector and by using the department’s K-9, Buddy. “But we have a heck of a demand problem. It’s a challenge.”
Johnson also fielded a number of questions from the chamber audience regarding challenges faced by JPD. He told them the department was not designed to deal with the current crime rate and said its challenge right now is to fill its vacancies and to retain staff.
“They stay five years and then they go, for a lot of reasons,” he said. “We have to adapt.”
Johnson said his department, like others in Alaska, has faced a surge in crime caused by three major factors — an opioid epidemic, state budget constraints and criminal justice reform.
“They all occurred at the same time,” he said, adding that he could not single one factor out more than the others.
While Johnson agrees that jail diversion programs work, he said Senate Bill 91 rolled back jail penalties for many drug offenses more than a year before the programs were put into place.
“It makes it hard to respond” effectively, he said.
He had a harsh reality to impart to Juneau residents: “This community needs to change the way they care for their valuables. … If it’s not bolted down or locked up, someone is going to steal it.”
• Contact reporter Liz Kellar at 523-2246 or liz.kellar@juneauempire.com.
