Recordings of a 2021 Anchorage Police Department (APD) Internal Affairs investigation obtained by the Landmine reveal that now-APD Chief Sean Case faced serious internal pushback when he attempted to implement a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) system that would treat APD applicants differently based on gender and race.

According to the recordings, Case wanted APD to allow certain applicants to miss mandatory appointments, create a separate off-site testing location at the Cook Inlet Tribal Council building that would segregate minority applicants from white males, allow minority applicants who failed an APD test to re-take it in three months instead of the standard six month waiting period, and prioritize minority applications.

The Internal Affairs investigation resulted from an unsubstantiated accusation of an alleged racist comment made after a meeting Case held with Lieutenant Shaun Henry and Sergeant David Abbott regarding recruitment. After the recruitment meeting, someone made a complaint to Internal Affairs alleging that Lieutenant Henry told Captain Josh Nolder – his former captain – “All Alaska Natives are drunks and rapists.”

In his Internal Affairs interview, Nolder stated that Henry had never made that comment.

Nolder told Sergeant Bryan Ranger, who was conducting the investigation, “He [Henry] never said – because I’ve already heard this reported now – he never said all, he never said natives. He said ‘Alaska Natives,’ but he didn’t say all Alaska Natives are drunks and rapists. He never said that.”

After the recruitment meeting with Case and Abbott, Henry went to Nolder to express concerns he had with Case’s ideas to modify recruiting. In his Internal Affairs interview with Sergeant Ranger, Henry said he and Abbott “strongly objected” to Case’s ideas because they wanted to keep the testing process “fair and impartial.”

Henry told Ranger, “Case alluded to that he intended to have this testing cycle done with applicants that had previously failed the test when taking it at the APD facility. And he wanted to invite the failed applicants back but not include the white applicants that had failed, just the people of color.”

In his Internal Affairs interview, Case claimed that after the meeting with Henry and Abbott, he had heard that they told their subordinates, “Case wants to eliminate the white applicants.” Case stated that Henry and Abbott “weren’t willing to think about increasing diversity.” Case was unhappy that his subordinates and other officers were not on board with his recruitment ideas. 

“I would say that the level of resistance to having this conversation was so high, they probably heard about ten percent of what I was saying. For instance, they really got stuck on fair. This isn’t fair,” Case told Ranger.

Later in his interview, Case said he spoke with Nolder after Nolder had spoken with Henry. According to Case, Nolder told him that Henry had said Alaska Natives had a hard time getting through the hiring process because “they’re busy drinking and raping their women.” Nolder made it clear to Internal Affairs that Henry had never said this.

Henry stated that he went to talk to Nolder after the meeting with Case because he was concerned “this whole topic had the potential to cause some serious liability issues to the department. And so I wanted to go to Captain Nolder as a peer of Captain Case and see if maybe they had spoken at captain level about it.”

Nolder, who said he does not have the best memory, told Ranger that Henry had told him, “What’s wrong with Sean [Case]? Is he going crazy?” Nolder said he tried to get Case and Henry to understand each other’s perspectives, which he said was easier for Henry because he shared Henry’s views. 

Nolder said that he believed it was important to have a process that’s fair for everybody. “If we have barriers in that process, we figure out what those are and we deal with those. We don’t circuit the system or short circuit the system to create more people to be able to get through the process based upon the color of their skin,” Nolder told Ranger. 

Nolder said that his conversation with Henry went sideways when Henry made a comment along the lines of “Alaska Natives have a higher rate of sexual assault, or SAM, one of the two, sexual assault of a minor or one of the two, and alcohol related crimes or alcoholism. He said something along those lines. Now, I had a visceral reaction to it, which is part of the reason why I can’t exactly remember what he said. But I was like, immediately stopped and said, you can’t talk that way. I understand what you’re saying. Like, I guess statistically that that all may be true, but it’s not appropriate for us to say it like that.”

It’s not clear if Case was the person who made the complaint to Internal Affairs about Henry. But in his interview, Nolder said that Case had texted him asking exactly what Henry said because he wanted to launch an Internal Affairs investigation. Nolder said he felt this was not necessary.  

In Henry’s interview he said he did not recall making derogatory comments to Nolder about Alaska Natives, and was surprised to hear the accusation. “Everything I did was trying to prevent potential liability for the department and expressing my disagreement with Captain Case’s proposal. And I was pretty firm, adamant, on that. But nothing that was derogatory or defamatory or anything towards anybody.”

Henry also told Ranger about a different meeting he had heard Case had with Abbott and a Sergeant Jensen. Henry told Ranger:

And he [Case] told them back in this meeting in January, I was not present, but they came to me afterwards and relayed that “the days of hiring white male cops are over.” And I kind of took at the time as a flippant remark, just sort of like, hey, you know we need to work on increasing our diversity, which I’m 100% for.

I’m all about increasing our recruiting efforts in that field, trying to find more diversity. But I believe firmly that when it comes to the actual investigation and selection process, it needs to be fair and impartial to everyone, regardless. It doesn’t matter what their skin color is or their sex or anything. They all get the same shake. So that was my strong objection to this proposal.

After Mayor Suzanne LaFrance defeated former Mayor Dave Bronson in 2024, she appointed Sean Case as police chief. Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson told the Landmine that he was unaware of this investigation, but did say that Case was never going to be chief while he was mayor. 

Case and APD did not respond to several questions from the Landmine, including whether Case was implementing, or wanted to implement, the DEI policies that he had advocated for in 2021.

The Landmine repeatedly requested comment from Captain Nolder, Lieutenant Henry, Sergeant Abbott, Sergeant Ranger, and APD Internal Affairs. None responded.

The full interviews are below:

Sean Case

Josh Nolder

Shaun Henry