Annual Alaska Crime Report shows lowest crime rate since 1975

The Department of Public Safety recently released the 2021 Crime in Alaska Report, revealing a 15.2 percent decrease in the statewide crime rate.

According to a recent press release, these statistics reflect the lowest number of reported offenses since 1975 and continue a downward trend in crime that started in 2018.

Alaska’s reported violent crime rate decreased by 9.7 percent last year; this included fewer instances of murder, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault.

Alaska’s property crime rate decreased by 17.3 percent in 2021, and the total number of reported property offenses was at its lowest level since 1974.

“Public safety has been job number one for my administration since I took office, and we have made historic investments in law enforcement across the state,” Governor Mike Dunleavy stated in the press release. “With the repeal of the catch and release SB 91 legislation, and the other major steps my team has made over the last four years to make Alaska a safer place I know that we will continue making a positive movement towards reducing the high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault that plague our state.”

The Uniform Crime Reporting Program is a national effort coordinated by federal, state, city, county, and tribal law enforcement agencies to report data on crimes reported in their jurisdiction.

This report is used as a resource for measuring the trend and distribution of crime in Alaska. Law enforcement agencies are required to submit UCR data. 31 agencies representing 99.5 percent of the state population reported crime data to DPS in 2021, according to the press release.

The press release also indicated that was the first year that a significant number of agencies have participated in the federal National Incident Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, a new reporting model that captures additional details about the suspects and victims of crime to allow for additional data set tracking. About 66 percent of Alaskan law enforcement agencies reported crimes using the NIBRS model.

“While the 2021 crime data continues to show decreasing crime rates, we must not become complacent as a state. Your Alaska Department of Public Safety will continue to work to improve public safety across the state in both urban and rural Alaska,” Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell stated in the press release. “In 2020, crime rates began to increase across the lower 48, however in Alaska, our commonsense approach to public safety and the overwhelming support of Governor Dunleavy, the Alaska Legislature, and the citizens of our state continue to drive crime rates down and make our state a safer place to live, visit, work, and raise a family.”

DPS advises those comparing data from year to year looking to draw conclusions to utilize caution since the report does not account for when an incident occurred and just accounts for when it was reported.

For more information, visit dps.alaska.gov.