Unacceptable backlog
After six long years of federal oversight, our police department has yet to actually police itself
It’s getting as routine as the change of seasons. The independent monitor tasked by the U.S. Department of Justice with overseeing reforms at the Albuquerque Police Department issues a scathing report. The latest one says APD lacks the “appetite for taking serious approaches to control excessive or unwarranted uses of force” and its leadership “is willing to go through almost any machination to avoid disciplining officers who violate policy.” They aren’t new concerns.
In response to the report, city leaders emphasized leadership changes and described progress they said has been made in the lag time between the reporting period and now. They also pointed out that the pandemic’s social distancing restrictions precluded important aspects of training, another area criticized by DOJ.
But the most concerning area involves use-offorce investigations, which are required under the DOJ settlement agreement for any time an officer uses force regardless of whether there is a complaint.
This month we learned understaffed APD internal affairs investigators have routinely missed deadlines to investigate such incidents. That’s important — not only because DOJ requires them but because the police union agreement requires investigations be completed within 90 days — or 120 days if an extension is granted — for an officer found in the wrong to be disciplined.
The backlog has gotten so bad APD has let up on investigating complaints from 2020 and shifted its focus to reports and complaints filed this year, while officers can still be disciplined.
It should be noted that a finding of improper force, even if found after the deadline, will go on the officer’s record to be considered if future issues arise.
Independent Monitor James Ginger has a right to be upset. Despite six years of DOJ oversight, more than three of those years under this mayor, his latest report found APD has gone backward in holding officers accountable. Ginger’s report covering August 2020 through January 2021 found about 60% of force investigations opened over the past year had not been completed. More than half had already passed the extended 120-day deadline.
In order for APD to be in compliance with the court-approved settlement agreement, 95% of force investigations have to be completed within 90 days. But only 1% — you read that right — of the 244 cases causing injury and 4% of the 54 cases causing hospitalization or death were completed in the last reporting period. As of early February, investigators had not finished investigating any cases that had been opened since September.
That should be as unacceptable to Mayor Tim Keller as it is to the public.
New leadership
A ray of hope is the assignment of Cori Lowe as acting commander of APD’s Internal Affairs Force Division. Lowe, who used to run APD’s compliance division, is showing the gritty zeal needed to get on top of the workload, getting APD to prioritize cases that can carry discipline. But there are currently only 10 investigators in IAFD, with four more in training, when they are supposed to have 25.
Rather than force police officers to work in IAFD, the city wisely decided to hire civilian investigators to work in IAFD alongside sworn officers. The city’s proposed budget includes $965,000 to hire 11 civilian investigators, nine of whom will work in IAFD and two who will investigate civilian employees such as dispatch and crime lab personnel.
Lowe says APD received 17 applications and will likely have to advertise the positions again. More resources are clearly needed because each use-offorce investigation requires hours just to review all the on-body video footage from every officer involved.
Sylvester Stanley holds the city’s newly created position of superintendent of police reform. The no-nonsense, four-time police chief in New Mexico was hired in March to oversee training, internal affairs and the police academy. “It’s no news that we have some problems there,” he told the Journal recently. Let’s hope he has what it takes to tackle those problems. Because APD cannot move forward with the public’s confidence until it gets on top of policing itself.
Chief Harold Medina and the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association are in agreement that useof-force investigations take time and officers away from the field. With the ongoing crime epidemic that has the city on a record-busting pace for homicides — including three homicide victims being dropped off at a Northeast Albuquerque hospital Wednesday afternoon — that’s a bitter pill to swallow.
But constitutional policing is not, and should not, be up for negotiation.