Return-to-work law is still the best way to increase APD staffing

As expected, it’s come down to this: raiding other law enforcement agencies.

The Albuquerque Police Department, like Farmington before it, is resorting to offering signing bonuses and higher pay to lure experienced officers from other departments to its understaffed ranks. APD has been below its authorized 1,000-member force for several years. Currently, it stands at 855 sworn officers.

For lateral hires, the $8,000 signing bonuses would be paid over a period of about two years. Officers would start at $28 an hour. Regular cadets get $5,000 signing bonuses and don’t get to $28 an hour until after about two years — but then, they don’t have several years on the job under their belts.

APD is hoping to fill a 25-member special academy for lateral hires in November.

You can expect other law enforcement agencies to object to — or try to win — what amounts to a bidding war for experienced officers. Farmington already offers signing bonuses ranging from $3,000 to $15,000. Santa Fe has raised concerns about APD’s move and is looking at incentive packages to retain its officers.

Many cities across the country face the same staffing problem, fed by rising retirements of officers who joined up in the 1980s and 1990s, recent shootings of police officers and of civilians by police officers, as well as a general increase in civil unrest.

Compounding the challenge here are new policies and training required by the city’s agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice after a DOJ investigation determined APD had a pattern and practice of using excessive force and violating people’s civil rights.

APD, Mayor Richard Berry and a coalition of leaders from other cities and counties around the state have tried four times to get state lawmakers to pass return-to-work legislation that would allow some veteran officers approaching retirement to stay on a few years longer and collect both regular pay and retirement pay. The most recent effort passed the House, where Republicans hold a majority, but died in the Democrat-controlled Senate in the 2016 session, despite evidence it wouldn’t hurt state pension programs.

Bonuses may help bolster APD’s ranks with experienced officers, but the best solution would be for lawmakers to get off the dime and pass return-to-work when they return to work in Santa Fe in January.