Alaska Department of Public Safety releases Annual Crime in Alaska Report

WASILLA — The Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS) recently released the 2022 Crime in Alaska Report and Alaska Felony Sex Offense Report.

Both reports offer detailed property and violent crime statistics and analysis across Alaska.

The report indicated that the overall number of crimes reported decreased by 1.6 percent in 2022.

The total number of reported rapes decreased by 5.9 percent.

The total number of reported property crimes also decreased by 2.9 percent. According to a recent press release from the Alaska Department of Public Safety, this continues a decreasing trend from 2018.

“Public safety has been my administration’s top priority since day one. We’ve made progress by giving Alaska law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to protect victims and bring those responsible to justice,” Governor Mike Dunleavy stated in the press release. “Alaska’s overall crime rate is down, property crime is down, and the rate of sexual assault is down significantly with Western Alaska seeing a decrease of close to 9 percent in felony sex crimes. The backlog of untested sexual assault examination kits is cleared and in the system. While there is still work to do, I will not take my foot off the pedal and will continue to increase the resources toward public safety, corrections, and prosecutors.”

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a national effort led by federal, state, city, county, and tribal law enforcement agencies designed to report data on crimes reported in each jurisdiction.

The UCR is a resource that measures the trend and distribution of crime in Alaska. Under Alaska law, law enforcement agencies in Alaska are required to submit UCR data to DPS.

30 agencies reported crime data to DPS in 2022, according to the press release. These agencies represent 99.3 percent of Alaska’s total population.

2022 is also the second year that a significant number of agencies have participated in the federal National Incident Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, reporting model.

This new reporting model captures additional details about the suspects and victims of crime to allow for additional data set tracking.

"While the 2022 crime data continues to show decreasing crime rates in many categories, we also have significant work to do addressing violent crimes such as murder and aggravated assault," Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell stated in the press release. "Your Alaska State Troopers will continue to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to address crime across the state, so that every Alaskan feels safe in their community."

The Alaska Department of Public Safety's Division of Statewide Services authored the The 2022 Crime in Alaska report.

The Division of Statewide Services provides technical and specialized services to the Department of Public Safety and law enforcement agencies across the state. Past Crime in Alaska Reports and Felony-Level Sex Offenses reports can be found online.

For more information, visit dps.alaska.gov/Statewide/R-I/UCR.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com