City working to get APD oversight right
18 months in, use-of-force cases go through multiple layers of review
In its Oct. 10 editorial, the Journal criticized the Albuquerque Police Department’s lack of civilian review of serious uses of force, including officerinvolved shootings.
As the director of the Citizens Police Oversight Authority (CPOA) has publicly acknowledged, attempts under the previous administration failed to empower that agency to review these cases. That’s why we began over 18 months ago to work closely with advocates to ensure that APD policy gives the CPOA the tools to provide independent oversight.
It is simply incorrect to suggest there has been no oversight of officer-involved shootings. To the contrary, the director of the CPOA is immediately contacted after every officer-involved shooting; he goes on scene during the preliminary investigation of these shootings, and he is present for briefings provided to APD’s command staff. APD also notifies the federal monitor within 12 hours of every officer-involved shooting, which is required under the Department of Justice settlement agreement.
In addition, a multi-agency task force conducts investigations of every officer-involved shooting. The task force includes detectives from APD, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department and the New Mexico State Police. Federal monitors have determined the Task Force is in full operational compliance. The monitoring team also reviews the investigation by the task force, as well as all serious uses of force.
The District Attorney’s Office also reviews officer-involved shootings for criminal charges. When no criminal conduct is found after investigation, the DA issues declination letters. Those letters are public.
Furthermore, under my leadership, APD has been more transparent than ever, consistently holding media briefings following officer-involved shootings. We share video, audio and other evidence with the public. We do this because we know the public must have confidence in our investigations into officer-involved shootings. I have personally addressed groups like APD Forward and the ACLU following a police shooting in order to answer their questions.
The Journal editorial also took aim at our efforts to develop more effective Force Review Board policies. All of the parties to the settlement agreement have worked hard to modernize the board, which is charged with reviewing officer-involved shootings, serious uses of force and tactical activations. APD has adopted a process of submitting policies to the public and stakeholders, and allowing them to provide input before adopting policies. This process may present a bureaucratic challenge and certainly slows down the policy development process. But we do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past, when policies and processes were rushed, and they failed. We are not going to do that again. We want to get it right and save taxpayer money.
Advocates have been supportive of our approach to get it right. The board is currently reviewing tactical deployments and we anticipate that all aspects of the Force Review Board will be fully functioning within two months. With the Force Review Board reviewing cases, the CPOA will be able to achieve our goal of engaging in additional meaningful, independent oversight.
My top priority when I took the job as chief of police was to fulfill the (Mayor Tim) Keller administration’s vision of attacking crime from all sides and rebuilding the public trust in the Albuquerque Police Department. We are making progress, but we know we have a long way to go to reach those goals. We are changing the culture at APD to support people trying to do the right thing. Culture change is not always swift, but, done right, it is empowering and enduring. That is exactly what APD and the Department of Justice committed to in 2014.