Hey DC: APD reforms are working, don’t undo them

“We need to help police departments get better, not diminish their effectiveness, and I’m afraid we have done some of that. So we’re going to pull back on this.” — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on settlement agreements

Considering where the Albuquerque Police Department and the community it protects and serves were in 2014, it would be a travesty if Sessions’ decision to have the U.S. Department of Justice review all existing — and even contemplated — settlement agreements between the DOJ and law enforcement agencies ends up scuttling the hard work and progress being made.

Consider that in 2010, Albuquerque police fired their weapons about once every two weeks. That those injured or killed in those shootings included a schizophrenic man shot in the back in his parents’ backyard, a suicidal Iraq war veteran shot outside a convenience store as he pointed a gun at his own head and a man armed with a spoon during a domestic disturbance.

And consider those three shootings alone cost city taxpayers nearly $15 million.

Now consider that there were fewer police shootings in 2016 than any other year since 2009, that APD officers fired their weapons just seven times in the line of duty last year and the SWAT team hasn’t fired a shot in the line of duty since 2014. Police officials credit the hours of training officers have completed and policy changes called for in the city’s settlement with the DOJ.

So Sessions’ uninformed comment, and the Trump administration’s propensity to undo many policies implemented by the previous administration, should give serious pause to everyone in communities trying to improve their law enforcement departments.

APD is one of about 20 law enforcement agencies nationwide operating under court-enforced settlement agreements seeking police reforms. In APD’s case, the reforms are a result of a DOJ investigation that found Albuquerque police had a pattern or practice of using excessive force, which included an inordinate number of police shootings. The agreement calls for a series of reforms, policy changes and mandatory police training or retraining over the next several years.

How far Sessions’ “pull back” might go is anyone’s guess, but any effort to curb the progress being made would affect numerous agencies, groups and individuals already working to make APD a better police department.

That includes U.S. District Judge Robert Brack, who has been overseeing reform efforts since the agreement was signed and is probably as familiar with the intricacies of the process as anyone. James Ginger, the court-appointed, independent monitor who brings outside expertise into the process. The revamped Police Oversight Board, which reviews the Civilian Police Oversight Agency’s work and makes policy recommendations to APD. And APD Forward, a community watchdog coalition that includes the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, La Mesa Presbyterian Church and others that help ensure the reforms are adequate and carried out.

These groups don’t always agree, and the moves forward have not been without criticism, including the pace at which they are being implemented, the effectiveness of that implementation, and the cost of the changes.

But it is important to note Luis Saucedo, an attorney in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Mayor Richard Berry and police chief Gorden Eden have said they are squarely behind the reform efforts.

And Albuquerque has been a leader in some policing policies — APD was among the first to outfit its officers with on-body cameras. It now has developed policies for their use, and APD trains officers for dealing with people with mental health issues.

While critics say the reforms aren’t coming quickly enough, nobody has said let’s go back to not providing our officers with adequate training for what they will face in the field, to let’s shoot first and pay later or to let’s skip police reform that is already showing benefits.

Sessions was in New Mexico Thursday talking border security. There’s a lot more going on in the Land of Enchantment that he needs to be brought up to speed on — including how counterproductive, even devastating, it would be to undo much-needed police reforms just for the sake of undoing them.