Lawyers: Police union can’t renegotiate reforms

Agreement already provisionally OK’d

Attorneys for the city of Albuquerque and the U.S. Department of Justice say in court motions that the Albuquerque police union should not be allowed to intervene and renegotiate the agreed- upon police reforms.

Attorneys filed motions this week asking U.S. District Judge Robert C. Brack to deny a motion the Albuquerque Police Officers Association previously filed and argued in court.

The settlement agreement, reached between the city and the DOJ, “significantly undermines the collective bargaining rights of the APOA and its members,” union attorney Frederick Mowrer argued.

Mowrer said aspects of the agreement that would change how APD reviews and investigates its officers’ use-of-force stray from the union contract. He said the city, DOJ and police union should renegotiate those aspects before Brack approves the agreement.

“The APOA wants to send the parties through an expensive and time-consuming mediation process to rene- gotiate the entire settlement agreement,” the DOJ argued in a court motion this week.

Attorneys for the city argued the settlement agreement is just an outline for reforms, and the city eventually will craft and adopt policies if Brack approves the agreement.

“There is no basis to speculate that the rules the city ultimately adopts to carry out the terms of the settlement agreement will conflict with (the police union’s collective bargaining agreement) which, in all likelihood, will have expired,” the city’s motion states.

The current contract between the police union and the city will expire in July. It establishes many aspects of police officers’ working conditions, such as their work hours, insurance plans, retirement and discipline.

Attorneys for the DOJ argued that police officers and the police union played a role in crafting the settlement agreement through numerous meetings and that the rankand-file officers’ support of the agreement is crucial to the reform process.

“Officers of the Albuquerque Police Department are an important component in ensuring the success of this

historic reform effort,” the DOJ’s motion states. “It will be through the support and enthusiasm of these officers, including the officers represented by the APOA — that the Albuquerque Police Department will achieve the goals that the parties have set for it in the settlement agreement.”

Brack has said he “provisionally approves” the settle- ment agreement but it has not yet been signed.

The agreement was negotiated after the DOJ investigated Albuquerque police and found the department had a pattern of using excessive force, which includes police shootings.

The agreement outlines more than 100 pages of reforms that aim to address the DOJ’s findings. The reform process is expected to take years.