Albuquerque interim chief gets job full-time

ALBUQUERQUE — The man who has been Albuquerque’s interim police chief since a new mayor took office last year has been picked to oversee the department moving forward, officials said Wednesday.

Mayor Tim Keller announced Michael Geier’s appointment as police chief for New Mexico’s largest city in a statement that touted the veteran officer’s twodecade career with the Albuquerque Police Department and recent stint as police chief of Rio Rancho, an Albuquerque suburb.

The Keller administration said Geier was selected after a lengthy process that allowed for public input, both online and through seven community listening sessions. A spokeswoman for a coalition of Albuquerque organizations advocating for police reform, however, said it had concerns about the transparency of the application process, saying they only learned on the day of the announcement that there had been more than two dozen applicants.

The administration also disclosed Wednesday the names of the other finalists for the job. They included a police chief in Oklahoma, an assistant chief for Seattle and an investigations chief for the San Francisco district attorney.

Jeronimo Rodriguez, the candidate from San Francisco, also previously served as a former deputy police commissioner in Baltimore.

“This is one of the most important decisions this administration will make,” said Nancy Koenigsberg, the senior attorney at Disability Rights New Mexico and a member of APD Forward, the local coalition advocating for police reforms. “We had expected a more deliberate process. It appeared rushed to us.”