Police Union President “Pops Off” About A “So Called” Culture Of Aggression

No surprise at all that the police union and its president are standing by how officers handled a welfare check for a 7-year-old child allegedly abused by her parents.

Mayor Keller announced that an Internal Affairs investigation into how up to six APD police officers responded to a teacher’s concerned and call about the child’s blood stained underwear.

In a television interview, Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association president Shaun Willoughby said:

“We stand by due process. We stand by the process to investigate these, and that these officers have rights too and that those rights are honored.”

The entire interview can be seen here:

http://www.koat.com/article/apd-union-president-stands-by-officers-who-responded-to-7-year-old-s-welfare-check/20969459

What is pathetic is that Willouby stands by the actions of the investigating officers, when on the lapel camera video released it showed the officer talking to the child’s teacher and the police officer did not show the slightest sign of curiosity, concern nor desire to take the child’s underwear and go back and talk to the child to find out if something was wrong like he had done just hours earlier.

The fact that the child was reported by the teacher to have been unkept, dirty and smelling of urine time and again and had blood stained underwear was sure the hell not “speculation” of child neglect and screamed out something was happening to the child, yet the officers did nothing.

The teacher testified in court that the APD officer told her that the child’s underwear was not kept in a secured place, that the court would have a field day with that, and that he could not tag it into evidence and for those reasons the officer trashed the blood stained underwear of the child.

Keller and APD interim Chief Mike Geier announce the department will begin implementing policy changes to improve the way things are done to avoid missteps on how child welfare calls are handled by APD.

The policy changes will include how evidence is handled, how body camera footage is retained and how officers are trained to conduct trauma-informed interviews.

Keller said during the press conference the policies aim to reform what he called an “old culture” within APD.

In response to the Mayor, Willoughby proceeds to “pop off” and says the “so-called old culture” has already been tackled since the U.S. Department of Justice began investigating APD’s practices.

That “so-called culture” Willoughby was referring to was the “culture of aggression” found within APD that has resulted in 32 police officer involved shootings and $62 million paid in settlements for civil rights violations.

The police union and its president have been part of the problem when it comes to the DOJ consent decree and implementation of the reforms and they have resisted change.

The police union has attended the court hearing and has participated in the rewrite of the use of force policies and deadly force policies and contributed to the delay in negotiations and implementation of city policies mandated by the consent decree.

Every time the union president speaks before the federal court, he complains and objects to the reforms.

The police union and its president also need to standby the department motto of “to serve and protect”, especially when it comes to the children of our community.

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About

Pete Dinelli was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is of Italian and Hispanic descent. He is a 1970 graduate of Del Norte High School, a 1974 graduate of Eastern New Mexico University with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a 1977 graduate of St. Mary's School of Law, San Antonio, Texas. Pete has a 40 year history of community involvement and service as an elected and appointed official and as a practicing attorney in Albuquerque. Pete and his wife Betty Case Dinelli have been married since 1984 and they have two adult sons, Mark, who is an attorney and George, who is an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Pete has been a licensed New Mexico attorney since 1978. Pete has over 27 years of municipal and state government service. Pete’s service to Albuquerque has been extensive. He has been an elected Albuquerque City Councilor, serving as Vice President. He has served as a Worker’s Compensation Judge with Statewide jurisdiction. Pete has been a prosecutor for 15 years and has served as a Bernalillo County Chief Deputy District Attorney, as an Assistant Attorney General and Assistant District Attorney and as a Deputy City Attorney. For eight years, Pete was employed with the City of Albuquerque both as a Deputy City Attorney and Chief Public Safety Officer overseeing the city departments of police, fire, 911 emergency call center and the emergency operations center. While with the City of Albuquerque Legal Department, Pete served as Director of the Safe City Strike Force and Interim Director of the 911 Emergency Operations Center. Pete’s community involvement includes being a past President of the Albuquerque Kiwanis Club, past President of the Our Lady of Fatima School Board, and Board of Directors of the Albuquerque Museum Foundation.