Kudos to APD for clearing first reform process hurdle

The Albuquerque Police Department and the community received some encouraging news this week.

The final APD staffing plan predicts the department likely will reach its goal of 1,000 sworn officers by 2020 or sooner. An earlier draft was less optimistic, saying the department was likely to be understaffed for 10 to 15 years. Police officials blamed mathematical errors for the draft estimate, particularly in the number of police academy cadets expected to graduate each year.

In a separate development, the court-approved monitor who is overseeing the settlement agreement had some welcome praise for APD’s progress in rewriting policies to reform the department. James Ginger told the public, “I think we’re in good shape here.” That’s quite different from criticism he has leveled over the past year.

On the staffing front, the police force has hovered around 850 sworn officers for several years, though it is budgeted for 1,000.

APD developed the plan as part of a settlement between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice, which, after an investigation, determined APD had a pattern and practice of aggressive use of force and violating people’s civil rights. The plan also suggests some possible policy changes to more efficiently use staff to focus on serious calls where people’s lives may be in danger over responding to lower priority calls like car wrecks and unconfirmed burglar alarms. Chief Gorden Eden said the suggestions are being considered.

The department also is banking on recruiting hires from other police agencies, a better incentive package and the Legislature finally passing legislation allowing retired officers to return to policing while collecting their pensions. Lawmakers have refused to approve the law twice, though the city has done its homework and showed it will not affect pension solvency. City officials plan another run at it in 2017; lawmakers who care about public safety should give it a thumbs up.

Union officials have objected to other suggestions, such as Eden’s plan to reassign some detectives and more senior officers from the Downtown headquarters to area commands to work with rank and file officers in community policing. Their objection is self-interested and short-sighted. What matters is keeping the community safe when crime happens — not at arm’s length from 9-5 office jobs.

On the monitor front, Ginger says the federal court has approved 36 of 37 policies governing how officers do their jobs and he’s given the final policy preliminary approval.

That approval completes the first phase of the reform process. Now, the effort turns toward training, although some officers have already been schooled on the new use-of-force policy, the first to be rewritten.

Ginger still says it may take more than four years for the entire reform process to get done. Yet this week’s updates are full of good news, with the promise of better staffing and finalized policies that will make the department more responsive and accountable to the community it serves.