Hastily called meeting: Mayor LaFrance apologizes to police for disparaging them last week at press conference

After a meeting with the head of the police union in Anchorage and the chief of police earlier this week, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance asked her allies on the Anchorage Assembly to hold a “special meeting” of the Assembly’s Public Health and Safety Committee. That way, she could get an apology she had promised to police on the record for her prior comments, which were made at a press conference last week and appeared to disparage uniformed officers.

LaFrance went on at length describing how devastated she was upon learning of the loss of the life of a 16-year-old earlier this month, who was shot dead by police after she came at them with a knife. Her comments last week poured all of her sympathy into the family of the victim, and made no recognition of the difficulty police have not knowing if they will see their families again after each shift. She had poured gas on the fire that liberals have created which has made police into the bad guys.

LaFrance admitted on Wednesday that she needs to listen more and hear the concerns of officers.

Evidently her newfound understanding of police came after a meeting in which many members of the uniformed officer staff attended and expressed their dismay at her public comments.

“Multiple things can be true at once,” LaFrance said Wednesday, adding that her grief for the family of the teen, who was going through a homicidal phase, does not undermine support for sworn officers, and vice versa.

She and Police Chief Sean Case, who was also at the Wednesday meeting, laid out the basic plan that she has for the investigation into the shooting. Last week, she had indicated she was taking away the power of the internal affairs officials and getting an outside third party to do an investigation.

While last week she referred to the routine investigation that is done by the State Office of Special Prosecutions, today LaFrance acknowledged that the state investigation will have to come before the third-party investigation, and it all may take weeks or months.

Assembly members Felix Rivera, Daniel Volland, and Meg Zaletel are working on creating a citizens accountability group that will oversee the police. Surprisingly Assemblyman Chris Constant counseled the Assembly to slow down and wait until the facts come in about the shooting and other shootings this year involving officers.

Much of the meeting focused on the need for an expansion of the Mobile Intervention Team, which is a combination of mental health clinicians and paramedics who can respond to behavioral health calls. There is currently not enough staff or funding or staff to support the unit on a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week basis. Part of the funding for the unit comes from the alcohol tax passed by voters.

LaFrance did not issue a written apology or press release regarding her statements on Wednesday. She spoke her words into a meeting that was not advertised to the public and which had no agenda that had been released.

Watch the meeting here: