Change to shooting probes endorsed

APD would be kept out of investigations

Members of the City Council’s Finance and Government Operations Committee unanimously approved two bills aimed at reforming the police department: one requiring officer-involved shootings to be investigated by outside law enforcement agencies, and the other requiring that rape kits be tested within three months after receiving them.

The bills will be sent to City Council for a vote at a future meeting.

Much of the discussion at the Monday night meeting focused on the investigation bill, which was sponsored by Councilor Pat Davis, a former police officer.

Currently, in-custody deaths and those resulting from lethal use of force by a police officer are investigated by a multi-agency task force that includes an Albuquerque Police Department detective. Under the new measure, the department would be banned from “any APD involvement whatsoever in the investigation.”

“This is about public trust,” Davis said. “Our internal process has shown that sometimes we have failed to ask tough questions of ourselves.”

The measure drew opposition from State Police Chief Pete Kassetas, who said it would strain his agency’s resources. The city’s chief administrative officer, Robert J. Perry, also expressed disapproval, saying there had “never been a question about the quality of an (APD task force) criminal investigation.”

Davis strongly disagreed, and he said other states have implemented policies similar to the one he proposed.

After passing the investigation bill, the committee quickly approved the rape kit measure. A recent investigation by the state auditor found that New Mexico has the highest number of untested rape kits per capita in the nation. Of the 5,302 untested rape kits counted in November, more than 3,940 were collected during investigations in the Albuquerque metropolitan area.

APD representatives said the department does not have the resources to test new kits within a three-month period, let alone quickly work through

the backlog, but the committee said it wanted to send a message to the state about the importance of supporting sexual assault victims.

The meeting also included an update on the city’s investigation into allegations that the police department has altered video from police shootings, including the 2014 death of Mary Hawkes. Perry referred to the allegedly edited footage in the Hawkes case as a video “buffering issue” and said a report on the situation would be forthcoming.