Several APD personnel promoted

Cori Lowe will be the first woman deputy chief in over a decade

The Albuquerque Police Department has promoted several people up the ranks — including to two newly created deputy positions.

Cori Lowe will step into the role of deputy chief of compliance — a new position. Lowe, who was the commander over the compliance and oversight division, will be the first woman to hold a deputy chief position at the department in over a decade, APD spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins wrote in a news release.

For the past five months Lowe had been working as the acting commander of the troubled Internal Affairs Force Division, which has a severe backlog of cases and will soon be under the oversight of external investigators. Rich Evans will be the acting commander of IAFD until the department fills the position.

Deputy Chief Eric Garcia will still be the 2nd deputy chief but now he will also be the deputy superintendent of reform, under Sylvester Stanley. Garcia will oversee the Internal Affairs Division and will still be in charge of crisis intervention, peer support and behavioral sciences, Atkins said.

Joshua Brown, a commander for the Valley Area Command, will be the deputy chief over the Field Services Bureau. He is replacing Donovan Olvera — who had been drafted into that position when Harold Medina was named police chief. Olvera will be “re-retiring,” Atkins said.

APD now has six deputy chiefs, including Garcia who is also the deputy superintendent of reform.