Alaska News

Police audit suggests changes in aftermath of Rollins cases

On the heels of costly settlements the Municipality of Anchorage paid to victims of ex-police officer and serial rapist Anthony Rollins, auditors released results Friday from an independent review of the city's police force aiming to stop similar cases from happening again.

Last year, a jury convicted Rollins, 45, of sexually assaulting five women while on duty and in uniform. A judge sentenced him to serve 87 years in prison in April, effectively putting him behind bars for the rest of his life. Early month, officials announced that the municipality paid more than $5.5 million to Rollins' victims to settle their personal injury lawsuits.

On Friday, the International Association of Chiefs of Police released the results of its audit of the police department, suggesting improved screening of recruits, better oversight of officers and more opportunities for the people they contact to report problems, among other recommendations.

The 10-point plan included in the audit, titled "Mitigating Sexual Misconduct," recommends:

• Surveillance cameras in police substations, where some of Rollins' sexual assaults occurred. This has already been accomplished, Police Chief Mark Mew said.

• Cameras that can record video inside police vehicles to capture the words and actions of both the officers and anyone inside. Some vehicles have the cameras and some don't, Mew said. The department is looking for grant money toward that end, he said.

• Better supervision of officers on special details, such as Rollins, who came into contact with at least two of his victims while working a special traffic enforcement detail. The audit report notes that such supervision was described as "loose" and that police officials intend to make changes for better oversight of officers on special details.

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• Better supervision of patrol officers by creating more supervisory sergeant positions. This is something Mew said was accomplished about a year ago.

• Assigning sergeants to rotating two-week stints with the department's Internal Affairs Unit. "They have to see the ramifications of what happens when we don't supervise officers properly," Mew said.

• Early intervention to prevent sexual misconduct by officers like Rollins, who showed signs of sexual misconduct on the job before his actions turned criminal. Mew said an Internal Affairs computer system now tracks complaints against specific officers and alerts supervisors if bad behavior is "slipping through the cracks."

• New protocols for polygraph tests that recruits must pass before they're hired as full-fledged officers -- essentially a more rigorous screening, Mew said. The audit says that, while the department's polygraphers have been retrained, there is a risk that officer-selection practices may "atrophy" over time because "hirings are becoming less frequent."

• A more intense screening process for new hires that will find "errors, omissions, or areas of concern" with applicants. A panel comprised of higher-ups at the department will more closely scrutinize new recruits, Mew said. "It's not, 'How do I look at this guy and get him hired?', it's, 'How do I get this file thrown out?' " Mew said.

• Business cards for officers that include a number on the back that people can call if they have something to report about an officer. It's a new practice now in place to provide a kind of "quality assurance," the chief said.

Mew said the department will eventually put all the recommendations to use, however long that takes. The chief said he welcomed the opportunity to delve into the Rollins case to search for solutions because it caused such a huge erosion in the public's faith in the police.

"We walked in, and we had to inherit the last chapter or two of the Rollins matter. There's been lots of media coverage, and rightly so," Mew said. "The public's asking us questions. ...It caused us to ask ourselves, 'I wonder what we're doing that got us into these problems and how are we going to change them?' Any police chief would ask themselves that."

Mew said the department had also retooled its sexual misconduct policies after the Rollins scandal.

"(Before) they were more vague. 'You will not behave with conduct that is illegal. You will not engage in conduct that would bring disrepute to the department. You will not conduct personal business on the taxpayers dime,' " Mew said. "These kinds of things would have been covered in the Rollins affair, but now we're saying specifically what they're not allowed to do."

"It defines sexual misconduct," Mew said. "It's an R-rated policy."

But would making the changes suggested in the audit -- which cost the municipality about $30,000 -- have prevented Rollins from sexually assaulting women?

"That's a tough one," Mew said. "Because what we don't know is whether Anthony Rollins had these things in his past that could've been picked up or whether his behavior didn't begin until long after he was at the APD. We don't know the answer to that question."

Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.

By CASEY GROVE

Anchorage Daily News

Casey Grove

Casey Grove is a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. He left the ADN in 2014.

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