More than a decade and $40 million later, the Albuquerque Police Department is officially done with the Department of Justice. On Monday, May 12 U.S. District Court Judge James O. Browning dismissed the Court Approved Settlement Agreement, or CASA ending federal oversight of APD. The dismissal ruling comes a mere 3 days after the City of Albuquerque and the DOJ filed a “Joint Motion to Terminate” the CASA and to dismiss the case. The CASA was entered to by the City and DOJ in 2014 after a DOJ investigation showed a pattern of officers using excessive force and deadly force and a “culture of aggression” within APD and mandates 276 reforms of APD.
Under the watchful eye of the DOJ, APD has undergone new training emphasizing constitutional policing, meaning treating suspects equally regardless of race or gender, restructured multiple divisions for more supervision and oversight, appointed a superintendent to oversee officer discipline, expanded community outreach, and made its data available to the public to increase transparency.
Mayor Tim Keller said this in a statement:
“This ruling finalizes what the department and our community have worked tirelessly for over the last decade: we have earned back the right to run our own police department. I made it clear from day one, we would meet our challenges head-on, making hard changes, building new systems, and proving APD can uphold the highest standards on its own. This moment shows that reform and strong policing can go hand in hand, and that trust, accountability, and safety are not competing values — they’re connected. It’s also the beginning of the next generation of our police department, one that is transparent, admits mistakes, holds itself accountable and is fully capable of learning and continuing reforms as needed.”
Chief Harold Medina said this in a statement:
“It wasn’t an easy road, but we continued to push forward and slowly this team and all of our officers became accustomed to what was necessary to get into compliance. …This is a victory for the men and women of the Albuquerque Police Department who have changed their culture. They are the ones that have put the most blood, sweat and tears into this, faced the most scrutiny. They have done a wonderful job at changing the culture of the Albuquerque Police Department.”
The Court Approved Settlement Agreement was agreed to in 2014 following a DOJ investigation that revealed patterns of excessive force and deadly force by APD officers and a “culture of aggression” within APD. Since then APD underwent a rigorous transformation, embracing new policies, increasing transparency, and embedding accountability into its daily operations.
Mayor’s Office spokesperson Staci Drangmeister said this in a news release:
“This has been accomplished through the adoption of policies and training concerning the constitutional application of the use of force on suspects driven by the specific circumstances of that officer’s encounter.”
Drangmeister stated that other changes include:
- Restructuring multiple divisions — including the APD Academy, Special Operations Division and Special Investigations Division — to provide additional supervisory oversight, and creating new units like the Performance Metrics Unit and Compliance Bureau.
- Appointing a superintendent of police reform to oversee officer discipline, removing this function from the chief.
- Expanding community outreach via the ambassador program to better communicate with entities and groups impacted by pre-CASA policing.
- Ensuring that APD data is transparent and publicly available, furthering goals of maintaining the community’s trust in law enforcement. Officers are required to use recording devices to capture their interactions with the public. APD has created and maintained numerous dashboards showing underlying data to support its efforts.
With the changes, Drangmeister said the city and APD “reaffirm their pledge to continue building a modern, community-focused police department grounded in constitutional policing and public trust.”
Shaun Willoughby, the President of the Police Officer’s Association said this about the oversight coming to an end:
“The DOJ can’t leave fast enough. This has been a rollercoaster of destruction.”
It was in April when Shaun Willoughby told KOB 4 that a lot of officers only complied with the new training and regulations to keep their jobs. Willoughby said this:
“These officers have been dealing with this consent decree for more than a decade and it’s going to take time to train a lot of this craziness out of them”
EDITORS COMMENTARY: The words spoken by Police Union President Shaun Willoughby are pure political garbage and should be discarded as such. The union early on became an intervenor in the case, something the City failed to object to and should never had consented to. Willoughby was at the negotiating table when new use of force and deadly force policies were negotiated. It was the union that engaged in obstruction and delay tactics in the writing and implementation of the use of force and deadly force policies and the CASA reforms.
Willoughby spread the “big lies” that crime rates were up because of the consent decree and that cops were “handcuffed” and could not do their jobs. On April 27, 2021, it was widely reported by local news media that the Albuquerque Police Officers Association (APOA) launched a $70,000 political hit job ad campaign, which included 33 billboards, urging the community to speak out against the DOJ oversight and to discredit the DOJ mandated reforms saying the police reforms were preventing police officers from doing their jobs and combating crime.
Links to quoted or relied upon news sources are here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/2384284/apd-union-launches-campaign-against-doj-oversight.html
https://www.koat.com/article/as-murder-rate-climbs-apd-union-launches-campaign/36257496
https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/federal-oversight-of-apd-officially-comes-to-an-end/
JOINT MOTION FOR TERMINATION
It was on May 9, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the City of Albuquerque filed a “Joint Motion For Termination” seeking U.S. District Court approval to terminate the federal consent decree known as the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) covering the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) since 2015. The joint motion asserts that the Federal Monitor has determined APD is in full compliance with the consent decree and that the case can be dismissed. The Federal Court Appointed Monitor James Ginger and the Intervenor Albuquerque Police Officers’Association (APOA) concurred with the “Joint Motion To Terminate” and the dismissal of the case.
You can read the 22 “Joint Motion For Termination” at this link:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1399851/dl?inline
The 22-page Joint Motion to Terminate highlights the history of the litigation including major reports of the federal monitor and reaching compliance levels. As alleged in the Joint Motion to Terminate, the stated purpose of the CASA was: “[To] ensure that [APD] delivers police services that comply with the Constitution and laws of the United States and to further their mutual interests. …The provisions of [the CASA] Agreement are designed to ensure police integrity, protect officer safety, and prevent the use of excessive force, including unreasonable use of deadly force, by APD.”
Primarily, the CASA established requirements related to the use of force by APD officers. To achieve these goals, APD was required to “implement force policies, training, and accountability systems to ensure that force is used in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that any use of unreasonable force is identified and responded to appropriately.” In addition, APD was required to “ensure that officers use non-force techniques to effectively police, use force only when objectively reasonable under the circumstances, and de-escalate the use of force at the earliest possible moment.”
The Joint Motion for Termination states in part:
“[After 10 years] APD has become a self-assessing and self-correcting agency. These characteristics have enabled APD to demonstrate sustained and continuing improvement in constitutional policing. In the most critical area covered by the CASA—force— the data shows that APD uses force at a much lower rate than when this case began, and that the vast majority of force used meets constitutional standards. When it does not, APD has the systems and processes in place to ensure that the necessary review, training, and discipline take place.
The Motion to Terminate goes on to state in part:
“[APD has] vastly improved its use of force in a constitutional manner. … the City has shown its ability to conduct its own use of force investigations without outside assistance. … The City has achieved operational compliance with all of the requirements that measure use of force outcomes. … The City also achieved operational compliance of the reforms that help recruit, retain, train, and care for high-quality officers. Additionally, the City established systems for reliable, timely, and fair investigation of lower-level force, higher-level force, and misconduct and achieved operational compliance with paragraphs regarding application of discipline, including implementation of a disciplinary matrix. Finally, the City achieved operational compliance with paragraphs related to non-force issues such as citizen and community engagement, as well as paragraphs addressing officers’ response to especially vulnerable citizens through behavioral health training and specialized units.
The City and APD have devoted thousands of working hours and spent millions of dollars over the last 10 years to implement the CASA reforms. The Joint Motion to Terminate signifies that the DOJ is satisfied that APD has met its demands and has met all the requirements mandated by the CASA.
APD was forced to create entire management teams and Internal Affairs oversight divisions and rewrite use of force and deadly force policies. The city was required to implement police training in constitutional policing practices and de-escalation tactics to meet the 276 mandated reforms in the CASA. The city was also required to pay the Federal Independent Monitor and his monitoring team to oversee the progress of APD which cost the city taxpayers $13 million.
INVESTIGATION, LAWSUIT AND COURT APPROVED SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
The DOJ began investigating excessive force by APD in November 2012 after the Albuquerque City Council and police oversight advocates requested the federal government to investigate APD’s officers’ use of force and deadly force. An 18-month long investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that the Albuquerque Police Department engaged in a pattern of “excessive use of force” and “deadly force”, especially when dealing with the mentally ill. The DOJ investigation found a “culture of aggression” existed within APD. Department of Justice investigators reviewed 20 fatal shootings by APD between 2009 and 2013 and found that in the majority of cases the level of force used was not justified because the person killed did not present a threat or danger to police officers or the public and were more of a danger to themselves.
The lawsuit was filed in 2014 after the Department of Justice (DOJ) determined that APD had engaged in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force and deadly force in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was on November 14, 2014, the City of Albuquerque, the APD and DOJ entered into a stipulated Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA).
The CASA contains 276 paragraphs that mandate police reforms, the appointment of a Federal Monitor and the filing of Independent Monitor’s reports (IMRs) on APD’s compliance with the reforms. The ultimate goal of the settlement was to implement constitutional policing practices, and it was aimed at making sure police officers follow policy and do not use excessive force and deadly force.
The link to the 118-page CASA is here:
https://documents.cabq.gov/justice-department/settlement-agreement.pdf
It was the Republican Mayor Richard Berry Administration who negotiated the terms and conditions of the CASA in 2013. They did so by hiring two out of state negotiators to the tune of $1 Million dollars. The outside contractors had little to no understanding of APD nor of Albuquerque as a community and its diverse culture. The net result was a one-sided agreement in favor of the DOJ as the Bery Administration simply agreed to all the demands of the DOJ and rolled over. An agreement that was supposed to be implemented in 4 years and then dismissed lasted over 10 years. For the last 7 years the Keller Administration has been saddled with the CASA and implementing the reforms.
21ST INDEPENDENT MONITORS REPORT
On April 14, 2025, federal court appointed Independent Monitor James D. Ginger issued his sixty page 21st Independent Monitor’s Report (IMR) on the three compliance levels the APD has achieved under the CASA. The report covers the compliance efforts made by APD during the 21st reporting period, of August 1, 2024, through January 31, 2025.
Federal Monitor James Ginger’s 21st report found that the city of Albuquerque was at 99% operational compliance, which tracks whether officers follow policies and are corrected when they don’t.
Ginger found in his 21st report that the only remaining requirements to achieve 100% operational compliance is the Civilian Police Oversight Agency (CPOA), which investigates civilian complaints against officers and is not under APD’s control. Ginger found the timeliness of investigations by the CPOA was seriously deficient. However, Ginger reported that the CPOA was making progress toward compliance and had developed a “triage protocol” to prioritize cases that were “more likely to have sustained findings.”
Ginger’s 21st report also found APD recorded a 45% drop in annual use-of-force incidents since 2020. Although officers shot, or shot at, a record number of people in recent years, almost all of which were found in policy.
According to the Monitors Executive Summary, the City and APD have completed the majority of the requirements established by the CASA. At the end of the reporting period, APD’s compliance levels are as follows:
- Primary Compliance 100%
- Secondary Compliance 100%
- Operational Compliance 99%
For purposes of the APD monitoring process, there are 3 “compliance” levels: Primary Compliance, Secondary Compliance , and Operational Compliance. The 3 Compliance Levels are defined in the Monitors Reports as follows: .
PRIMARY COMPLIANCE
Primary compliance is the “policy” part of compliance. To attain primary compliance, APD must have in place operational policies and procedures designed to guide officers, supervisors, and managers in the performance of the tasks outlined in the CASA. As a matter of course, the policies must be reflective of the requirements of the CASA, must comply with national standards for effective policing policy, and must demonstrate trainable and evaluable policy components.
SECONDARY COMPLIANCE
Secondary compliance is attained by providing acceptable training related to supervisory, managerial, and executive practices designed to (and effective in) implementing the policy as written, e.g., sergeants routinely enforce the policies among field personnel and are held accountable by managerial and executive levels of the department for doing so. By definition, there should be operational artifacts such as reports, disciplinary records, remands to retraining, follow-up, and even revisions to policies if necessary, indicating that the policies developed in the first stage of compliance are known to, followed by, and important to supervisory and managerial levels of the department.
OPERATIONAL COMPLIANCE
Operational compliance is attained at the point that the adherence to policies is apparent in the day-to-day operation of the agency, e.g., line personnel are routinely held accountable for compliance, not by the monitoring staff, but by their sergeants, and sergeants are routinely held accountable for compliance by their lieutenants and command staff. In other words, the APD “owns” and enforces its policies.
https://www.cabq.gov/police/documents/doc-1095-imr-21-april-2025.pdf
REFORMS ACHIEVED UNDER THE CASA
On November 16, 2024, it was a full 10 years that expired since the city agreed to the CASA with the DOJ. It was originally agreed that implementation of all the settlement terms would be completed within 4 years. Because of delay and obstruction tactics by APD management and the police officers’ union which was found by the Federal Monitor it has taken another 5 years to get the job done.
After over 10 full years, the federal oversight and the CASA have produced results. Reforms achieved under the CASA can be identified and are as follows:
- New “use of force” and “use of deadly force” policies have been written, implemented and all APD sworn have received training on the policies.
- All sworn police officers have received crisis management intervention training.
- APD has created a “Use of Force Review Board” that oversees all internal affairs investigations of use of force and deadly force.
- The Internal Affairs Unit has been divided into two sections, one dealing with general complaints and the other dealing with use of force incidents.
- Sweeping changes ranging from APD’s SWAT team protocols, to banning choke-holds, to auditing the use of every Taser carried by officers and re-writing and implementation of new use of force and deadly force policies have been completed.
- “Constitutional policing” practices and methods, and mandatory crisis intervention techniques an de-escalation tactics with the mentally ill have been implemented at the APD police academy with all sworn police also receiving the training.
- APD has adopted a new system to hold officers and supervisors accountable for all use of force incidents with personnel procedures implemented detailing how use of force cases are investigated.
- APD has revised and updated its policies on the mandatory use of lapel cameras by all sworn police officers.
- The Repeat Offenders Project, known as ROP, has been abolished.
- Civilian Police Oversight Agency has been created, funded, fully staffed and a director was hired.
- The Community Policing Counsels (CPCs) have been created in all area commands.
- The Mental Health Advisory Committee has been implemented.
- The External Force Investigation Team (EFIT) was created and is training the Internal Affairs Force Division on how to investigate use-of-force cases, making sure they meet deadlines and follow procedures.
- Millions have been spent each year on new programs and training of new cadets and police officers on constitutional policing practices.
- APD officers are routinely found using less force than they were before and well documented use of force investigations are now being produced in a timely manner.
- APD has assumed the self-monitoring of at least 25% of the CASA reforms and is likely capable of assuming more.
- The APD Compliance Bureau has been fully operational and staffed with many positions created dealing directly with all the reform efforts and all the duties and responsibilities that come with self-assessment.
- APD has attained a 100% Primary Compliance rate, a 100% Secondary Compliance rate and a 99% Operational Compliance rate.
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The “Motion To Terminate” has been expected for some time and did not come as any surprise. Likewise, the federal Court Order granting the motion and dismissing the case was expected given that the motion was also agreed to by the Intervenor Albuquerque Police Officers Association and the Federal Monitor. What was not expected is the fact that U.S. District Court Judge James O. Browning entered the order granting the Motion To Terminate the CASA and dismiss the case without a hearing and a mere 3 days after a weekend.
The blunt reality is APD was expected to be found in compliance after the 19th Federal Monitors report came out saying APD fell 2% short of being in full Operational Compliance and at 100% Primary and Secondary Compliance.
What called into question if APD would finally reach compliance and the case dismissed, at least in the public’s mind, was the DOJ and the FBI investigation into allegations that DWI officers took bribes to miss court dates which led to hundreds of pending DWI cases being dismissed by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office.
It turns out that the biggest corruption scandal in the history of APD did not even merit an acknowledgement nor a mention by the Federal Monitor in his 19th, 20th or 21st monitor’s reports. What is truly down right pathetic is that for the past 10 years APD management and the entire APD department was supposed to be the under the watchful eye of the Department of Justice, the Federal Court and a Federal Monitor, yet the bribery and conspiracy scandal to dismiss DWI cases ostensibly went totally undetected by the Federal Monitor over the last 10 years during which it occurred.
Under Secondary Compliance, the Federal Monitor and his so-called team of experts were required to review supervisory, managerial and executive practices and the enforcement of policies among field personnel and how they were held accountable by management and executive levels for wrongdoing. Accepting bribes to get cases dismissed has never been a policy of APD. No doubt the monitor will argue it was not his job to ferret out scandal, nefarious or illegal conduct of APD officers other than use of force and deadly force, but that sure damn well was the responsibility of the Department of Justice.
Despite all that has been accomplished by the CASA as noted above, the public perception is that the DOJ reform process really has not accomplished much other than making the Federal Monitor a wealthy man.
Excessive use of force and deadly by APD is what brought the Department of Justice to this City in the first place and damaged APD’s reputation to a great extent. The reforms were an attempt to restore public confidence in APD to an extent.
There is absolutely no doubt that APD’s reputation has been trashed to a major extent by APD’s history of excessive use of force and deadly force as well by the corruption, bribery and DWI dismissal scandal. APD is viewed by many as nothing more than a bastion of “violent, dirty and corrupt cops” who have brought dishonor to their department and to the department’s professed values of “Pride, Integrity, Fairness and Respect”.
There is little doubt that the killings of civilians and the bribery corruption scandal has shaken the public’s faith in our criminal justice system and APD to its core. The only way that any semblance of faith can be restored and for people to begin trusting APD again is if all the police officers involved in corruption and wrongful death actions are held accountable. That will only happen when there is aggressive prosecutions and convictions, the police officers are terminated, and they lose their law enforcement certification.
REVERTING BACK TO OLD WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS BIGGEST THREAT
The announcements that APD, after almost 10 years, is now in full compliance with the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) and the case has been dismissed by a federal judge is long overdue and are major milestones for the beleaguered department plagued by scandal and corruption.
The implementation of all the reforms took over twice as long as was originally agreed. It required the expenditure of millions of dollars and oversight by an outside independent monitor.
The Federal Monitor and his team have been paid upwards of $13 Million for their services and reports. The city has also spent over $40 to implement the reforms.
The words of union President Shaun Willoughby need to be considered a threat by the police union to APD management of its intent to undermine the reforms now that the DOJ and the Monitor will be gone:
“[Officers only complied with the new training and to keep their jobs.] These officers have been dealing with this consent decree for more than a decade and it’s going to take time to train a lot of this craziness out of them.”
Willoughby’s garbage attitude and words reflect the real danger and the biggest risk that APD leadership and management are now faced with. They need to emphasize to the rank and file, especially the union, that the reforms will remain in place, training in constitutional policing practices will continue and violations will result in disciplinary action including and up to suspension or termination. APD management cannot afford to become lazy or complacent as it has been in the past and allow APD rank and file to fall back into the old ways, habits and attitudes that created the “culture of aggression” in the first place and brought the DOJ to the city.
The link to a related article is here: