Just tell us what happened
Why do the New Mexico State Police and the Santa Fe Police have to be badgered into releasing basic information after a police shooting?
Their stance only creates distrust and raises questions about credibility.
On Saturday, a Santa Fe officer shot and killed a man after a stolen car was located near Eldorado. A State Police officer was also present.
On Sunday, the State Police released a statement that contained a few sentences of information. A “suspect” managed to get away from the officers, get into a Santa Fe police car, place it in drive, and pinned a Santa Fe officer between a tree and the patrol car’s driver’s side door, knocking the officer down. In a subsequent struggle, the officer shot and killed the suspect, the statement said.
Was there a chase before the confrontation that led to the shooting? Police can’t say. Did the “suspect” live at or near the location where the shooting took place? Not suitable for public release by New Mexico law enforcement. The part about the car door and tree is simply not clear — if you’re pinned between a car door and a tree, how do you fall down?
Pretty basic information except in the eyes of the State Police and the SFPD.
No names were released. That finally happened on Wednesday. For unexplained reasons, the State Police maintained they were waiting for an autopsy before releasing the name of the man who was killed — the first time we can recall using a procedure that determines cause of death as a way to figure out someone’s identity.
Reporters, after filing formal requests with the regional dispatch center, managed to find out that, yes, there was a chase before the shooting and that the driver of a car reported stolen sped the wrong way in lanes of Interstate 25 with his headlights off, based on recordings of radio communications among officers. No way such delicate information could be released quickly and voluntarily by police without compromising the investigation, right?
It’s hard to imagine law enforcement agencies getting away with such stonewalling anywhere else in the country after an officerinvolved shooting, particularly with the heightened tensions over confrontations involving police officers that turn violent.
The police in our neighborhood for years have tried to use the phrase “the case remains under investigation” as an excuse for not releasing records or more information. There is no “under investigation” exception to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.
There are very limited exceptions, including to protect confidential sources. In this case, the Santa Fe city attorney also has twisted a 10-year-old legal agreement between news organizations and the State Police — intended to further limit how police agencies can withhold information — as justification for not quickly releasing officers’ identities.
As has been said in this space before, the Santa Fe police have a good record on restrained use of deadly force. Going silent after a police shooting just raises questions about the investigation and leads to suspicion about whether the days of withholding details are intended to allow more time for shaping a narrative.