Albuquerque City Councilors Pat Davis and Brad Winter along with the Berry Administration are once again pursuing their efforts to hire a private corporation or 30 private investigators who are former cops who will work exclusively on property crime and auto theft investigations for the Albuquerque Police Department (APD).

See http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/city-councilors-pat-davis-brad-winter-property-crime-unit-albuquerque-police-apd-mayor-chief-staff-gilbert-montano-/4349143/#.WFlj4QcvEt8.facebook for full story.

Davis and Winter suggest that the 30 investigators could be police service aides or retired police officers, but who exactly will be hired is not made clear and is intentional misleading on their part.

The truth is that this is an attempt to privatized APD and law enforcement functions.

It could cost up to $1.3 million a year to pay for the property crime and auto theft program being proposed by Councilors Davis and Winter.

APD has only four (4) full time sworn police officers assigned to the Auto Theft Unit with each police officer handling upwards of 1,000 open cases.

Seven years ago the APD Auto theft unit had between eight (8) to ten (10) full time sworn officers assigned to the unit.

Current APD statistics reveal a car is stolen in the city every hour and 41 minutes.

Albuquerque’s violent and property crime rates have hit a 10-year high.

In 2015, there were 34,082 property crimes with a 15% increase.

Murders spiked in Albuquerque from 30 in 2014 to 46 in 2015.

In 2015 Albuquerque’s violent crime jumped by 9.6% and property crime increased by 11.7%.

Seven years ago APD had 1,100 sworn police officer and response times had been brought down below the national average and Albuquerque’s crime rates were at historical lows.

Today APD has 830 sworn police officers and only 430 patrolling our streets and response times at historical highs with calls to APD taking hours instead of minutes to respond, endangering public safety.

Mayor Berry spent $60,000 for a study to tell him why crime has spiked when the answer is that “community based policing” does not exist anymore in Albuquerque, he has a feckless chief of police and a mismanaged, out-of-control police department.

Albuquerque needs at least 1,200 full-time sworn police officers with 650 spread out over three shifts, patrolling our streets and neighborhoods to get the job done that will have an effect on violent and property crime rates.

Mayor Berry’s sorry excuse for a Chief of Staff Gilbert Montano says of the proposal “It allows for better customer service ability for qualified individuals come out and do the same function as a sworn officer.”

Mr. Montano’ s comment is a reflection of a total ignorance of law enforcement and confusing law enforcement functions and criminal prosecutions with customer service as if it were a consumer product of some sort.

The Davis-Winter proposal is a very bad idea and is tantamount to trying to privatize law enforcement.

Law enforcement is a very basic essential service that must be provided by a municipal government.

The hiring of private investigators to do investigations of auto thefts or property crimes is a pathetic attempt to find an alternative solution to APD’s personnel crisis.

Seven years ago APD had 1,100 sworn police officer and response times had been brought down below the national average.

Seven years ago, Albuquerque’s crime rates were at historical lows.

Today APD has 830 sworn police officers and only 430 patrolling our streets and response times at historical highs with calls to APD taking hours instead of minutes to respond, endangering public safety.

We must demand what we pay for as taxpayers when it comes to law enforcement.

Part of the problem with hiring private investigators is that APD is operating under a federal Department of Justice (DOJ) consent decree.

APD has had enough problems with resisting civilian oversight.

The Davis-Winter proposal is taking the functions of law enforcement and giving it to the private sector.

A serious question is who will the private investigators be responding to and reporting to and will they be required to follow consent decree mandates and constitutional policing practices mandated by the DOJ consent decree?

The Mayor and City Council need to make it a priority to increase APD’s personnel ranks with sworn police officers with an aggressive recruitment program, increased wages for rank and file and sign on bonuses rather than trying to privatize a basic municipal function.

Please see my November 21, 2016 blog article “It’s Time to Clean Out APD’s and City’s Halls Sewer Lines” on what I feel needs to be done to improve APD” on my blog PeteDinelli.com