On November 12, 2014, the city of Albuquerque and the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) after the DOJ investigation found a “culture of aggression” within APD and the use of excessive force and deadly force. The settlement mandates 271 APD reforms. The Postscript to this article lists in detail what has been implemented of the reforms over the last 7 years.

On Sunday, September 12 , in two front-page stories in the Albuquerque Journal, APD Chief Harold Medina and the Albuquerque Police Officers Union expressed strong objections and criticisms against the shortages of APD sworn officers, low morale and the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) mandated reforms. Not surprising on September 19, the Journal Editor’s followed up with and editorial entitled “DOJ REFORM PROCESS READY FOR A DOEOVER”; Albuquerque Needs constitutional policing and more officers on the streets.”

The titles and links to both of the Albuquerque Journal articles are here:

“APD’s thin blue line stretched thinner”
BY: COLLEEN HEILD AND ELISE KAPLAN / JOURNAL STAFF WRITERS

https://www.abqjournal.com/2428378/apds-thin-blue-line-stretched-thinner.html

“APD officers leaving force cite DOJ settlement”
BY COLLEEN HEILD / JOURNAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER

https://www.abqjournal.com/2428379/exiting-officers-cite-doj-settlement.html

The link to the Journal editorial entitled “DOJ REFORM PROCESS READY FOR A DOEOVER”; Albuquerque Needs constitutional policing and more officers on the streets is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2430195/doj-reform-process-ready-for-a-doover.html

NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT

The highlights of the data reported by the Journal in its stories can be summarized as follows:

The city budget authorizes up to 1,140 sworn officers. APD Police Chief Harold Medina says the needs 1,200 sworn. As of late July, APD sworn police numbered 939, leaving about 200 positions vacant. Forty-eight cadets are expected to join the ranks by the end of October. The new cadet class will bring the number of vacancies down to 152 vacancies of sworn police.

Excluding supervisors, 404 patrol officers are working the streets in uniform, which is referred to as “field services”. The 404 patrol officers consist of 369 patrol officers and 35 problem response team officers. The 404 is 74 fewer patrol officers than in May 2016. according to an APD staffing plan. The percentage of patrol officers on the streets is less than half of the force, compared with 57% five years ago in 2016.

During the first 8 months of this year, 101 officers have left APD. That compares with 82 departures in 2020 and 58 officers leaving in 2019.

Response times in getting officers to the most life-threatening 911 calls increased over last year. A Priority One call is taking nearly an average of 12 minutes for police to arrive on the scene, which is nearly two minutes longer than in 2020.

EDITORIAL HIGHLIGHTS

The September 20 editorial states in pertinent part to this blog article:

“The police union says too many officers face discipline for minor infractions. Medina says too many are tied up for hours on investigations for even minor use of force. He said a major reason cited in exit interviews by officers who leave before retirement is they are “very fearful of the DOJ and the discipline that has come down through the DOJ process.”
…
Officers who could be on patrol or working property crimes are assigned to internal affairs. Despite bonuses and other efforts, APD is at least 200 officers short of its budgeted level of 1,140. APD had 369 patrol officers in July – down 74 from 2016.
…
The argument Medina and Keller are making now boils down to this: Seven years and more than $26 million into the DOJ monitoring process, we have made significant progress and need to modify the oversight in a way that both guards against the kinds of abuses outlined above and lets us put enough officers on the street to respond to crime and empower them to discourage criminal activity.”

JOURNAL’S FAILURE TO REPORT

Both Journal articles and the editorial completely fail to provide any information on the extent of interference and tactics used by the police union to disrupt and impede the implementation of the DOJ reforms mandated by the Court Approved Settlement Agreement. Absent is any reporting on the recent steps taken by APD to change the disciplinary process of sworn police that are causing low morale nor improvements to the use of force investigation.

“QUOTABLE QUOTES”

In the Journal article “APD’s thin blue line stretched thinner” Chief Medina said that he is contending with officer vacancies throughout the department and that it’s not as easy as just adding more officers to patrol. Medina said:

“The field is short. I wish I had more people for investigations, but we don’t have them. … We still don’t have a property crimes division [in terms of staffing] like we had in 2012. …”

Reacting to officers leaving the department midway through their careers, Medina had this to say:

“We literally had one officer who left to be a security consultant. … I was shocked. He had eight or 10 years in, and [I said] ‘You’re giving all that up?’ He said, ‘Yeah, my family doesn’t want me in law enforcement anymore.’ ”

Medina was also critical of the criminal justice system, the so called “revolving door”, of releasing criminals and mandated police use of force investigations under the consent decree. Medina said:

“What also hurts us, is have you ever thought about the fact that we arrest people over and over, like auto theft. Those cases take a half or whole shift to process the case. Imagine if we had a criminal justice system where we arrested somebody once, maybe even twice and they stayed incarcerated? … So we’re not only losing officer time by having to investigate something a subsequent time [but] we’re also losing officer time through use-of-force investigations related to that hardened criminal we have to use force on.”

In the Journal article “APD officers leaving force cite DOJ settlement”, Medina said that exit interviews with APD officers who leave before they reach retirement show a primary reason for their departures is that:

“They’re very fearful of the DOJ and the discipline that has come down through the DOJ process. … [discipline concerns were] valid for a period of time because discipline was really high. … I didn’t agree with how [the new disciplinary policy] was rolled out [when the disciplinary policy was revised in July.]

REVISING APD DISCIPLINARTY SYSTEM REVISED

In one article, Medina noted that APD adjusted the way it disciplines officers for minor infractions that distinguishes misconduct from mistakes. The Journal failed to report the extent the disciplinary process has been changed.

On September 2, 2021, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) Compliance and Oversight Division filed its “14th Progress and Status Summary Report”. The report is APD’s version on the progress made in the 3 compliance levels of the settlement. The 14th Progress report covers the period February 1 to July 31, 2021.

SOP 3-46 is a CASA-related policy that APD recognizes as having a significant impact on personnel, establishing requirements for progressive discipline and the use of abeyance as recommended. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 3-46 Discipline System was revised and published in July 2021. On multiple occasions, APD worked with both the Independent Monitoring Team and DOJ in this policy’s revision, accepting feedback and making the necessary changes to develop a stronger policy.

According to APD’s report, it has worked diligently on an early intervention system since 2018 and believes the department has come a long way in the development of an in-house system while APD continues with an outside vendor to tailor an early intervention system to meet the department’s needs and requirements. The “Pareto Principle Method”, or 80/20 Rule, which means that 80% of successes or failures are caused by the actions of 20% of employees.

In February 2021 the method was approved by the monitoring team as the statistical application that will be used to measure both acceptable and unacceptable behaviors from officers as outlined in the CASA. The Performance Evaluation and Management System (PEMS) training plan was approved by the Independent Monitoring Team and the DOJ. Training began in August 2021, and is scheduled to be completed in December 2021.

APD USE OF FORCE INVESTIGATIONS

In one article, Medina said the settlement agreement is impacting the amount of time officers can spend fighting crime on the streets and said it requires time-consuming use-of-force investigative processes and staffing for Internal Affairs force investigations. Medina noted that even a show of force, such as an officer pulling out a Taser to try to get a suspect to comply, triggers nearly as lengthy an internal investigation even if the Taser is never fired. Medina put it this way:

“I think the community would be very upset to know [that relatively minor use of force incidents such as forcing a suspect’s hand behind his back can trigger an investigation] … And just imagine, we just lost that officer, the backup officer and a supervisor for five hours while they do a level one force investigation. … It kills me that I had to assign six more individuals to [use of] force investigations but the settlement agreement said we had to.”

A major problem area identified by the monitor in the 13th monitor’s report was failed progress in Use of Force Investigations. According to APD, it has made significant progress with Use of Force investigations. APD reported that In April 2021, it continued to improve the process of tracking policy violations relating to use of force investigations. To ensure use of force reviews are consistently factored into supervisor’s performance evaluations, APD included an additional evaluation process. Based on available data, the process includes the verification of employee performance documents reviews by commanders to confirm any violations related to Use of Force standard operating procedures.

Review and investigation by department personnel are documented within officer performance evaluations. This is needed to ensure the quality of supervisory work is evaluated and documented. APD expressed to the Court and the Independent Monitoring Team the need to clarify the use of progressive discipline and abeyance. Because of that concern, APD took major steps clarify the use of progressive discipline during the 14th monitoring period.

https://www.abqjournal.com/2428379/exiting-officers-cite-doj-settlement.html

RAW DATA PUBLISHED IN 3 MAJOR AREAS DEFECTIVE

The Journal article “APD’s thin blue line stretched thinner” provides data in 3 major areas without reporting the historical background and the astronomical cost to the city. Following is a review of those statistics, the background, and the accuracy of what the Journal reported:

1. NUMBER OF ALBQUERQUE POLICE OFFICERS BY FISCAL YEAR:

It was in 2016 under Republican Mayor Richard Berry that APD hit an all-time low of 821 sworn police. In 2014, and in response to the dramatic decline, the Republican Berry Administration lobbied the New Mexico legislature to change the Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) to allow APD police to retire and then to return to work and collect both their pensions and new salaries, which is referred to as “double dipping”. Berry’s efforts failed and the APD Academy continued to struggle in its recruiting and hiring of new sworn police.

On September 12, the Albuquerque Journal reported the following number of Albuquerque police officers by fiscal year without reporting pay.

2016: 833
2017: 870
2018: 941
2019: 924
2020: 1,004
2021: 939 (As of July 30)

Source: Fiscal Year 2022 Approved City Budget

The number of police officers in 2021 has declined even further. As of September 18, 2021, a review of APD payroll reflected only 913 sworn officers, from chief to patrol officer’s 2nd class. APD has lost 85 officers since April.

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/apd-manpower-slip-sliding-away

APD POLICE PAY RATES

Tim Keller was sworn in as Mayor on December 1, 2017. Within 5 months the Keller Administration negotiated a two-year police union contract giving lucrative hourly pay increases and large police longevity bonuses. The pay rates negotiated in 2018 remain in place today and the highest police pay in the city’s history. The pay rates are as follows:

Starting pay for an APD Police Officer immediately out of the APD academy is $29 an hour or $60,320 yearly.
Police officers with 4 to 14 years of experience are paid $30 an hour or $62,400 yearly.
Senior Police Officers with 15 years or more experience are paid $31.50 an hour or $65,520 yearly.
The hourly pay rate for APD Sergeants is $35 an hour, or $72,800 yearly.
The hourly pay rate for APD Lieutenants is $40.00 an hour or $83,200 yearly.

LONGEVITY PAY ADDED TO BASE PAY

In addition to the base pay rates, APD police officers are also paid longevity bonus pay added to their pay at the end of the year as follows:

For 5 years of experience: $100 are paid bi-weekly, or $2,600 yearly
For 6 years of experience: $125 are paid bi-weekly, or $3,250 yearly
For 7 to 9 years of experience: $225 are paid bi-weekly, or $5,800 yearly
For 10 to 12 years of experience: $300 are paid bi-weekly, or $7,800 yearly
For 13 to 15 years o experience: $350 are paid bi-weekly, or $9,100 yearly
For 16 to 17 years or more: $450 are paid bi-weekly, or $11,700 yearly
For 18 or more years of experience: $600 are paid bi-weekly, 15,600 yearly

In 2018, APD under the leadership of former Chief Michael began an aggressive recruitment of “lateral hires” of experienced officers from across New Mexico with upwards of 75 officers hired, with a lion’s share coming from Rio Rancho where Geier had retired. Most, if not all, of those lateral hires have since retired having boosted their high 3 years for retirement purposes. Mayor Keller referred to the recruitment plan as “poaching.”

Recruitment of new officers has been difficult to the point that APD is now offering hiring bonuses worth thousands of dollars. According to an August 2 KOAT TV news report, the bonuses are:

$15,000 for lateral police officers (officers from other departments)
$5,000 for cadets or new recruits
$1,500 for police service aides

https://www.koat.com/article/400-apd-patrol-cops-albuquerque-police-department/37203121

2019 AND 2020 LISTS OF 250 HIGHEST PAID CITY HALL WAGE EARNERS INCLUDES 160 SWORN POLICE EACH YEAR

At the beginning of each calendar year, City Hall releases the top 250 wage earners for the previous year. The list of 250 top city hall wages earners is what is paid for the full calendar year of January 1, to December 31 of any given year.

In 2019, there were 70 APD patrol officers in the list of 250 top paid employees earning pay ranging from $108,167 to $188,844. There were 32 APD lieutenants and 32 APD sergeants in the list of 250 top paid employees earning pay ranging from $108,031 to $164,722 because of overtime.

In 2020, there were 69 patrol officers paid between $110,680 to $176,709, 28 APD Lieutenants and 32 APD Sergeants who were paid between $110,698 to $199,001 in the list of the 250 top paid city hall employees paid between.

APD APPROVED BUDGET AND PERSONNEL NUMBERS

The city employs upwards of 6,400 full time employees to provide the essential services city wide. The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) is the largest budget department in the city out of 27 departments. The 2021-2022 APD Budget provides funding for 1,100 sworn positions and 592 civilian support positions for a total of 1,692 full-time positions or approximately one fourth of the city’s total of 6,400 employees. It also includes funding for new positions, including 11 investigators to support internal affairs and the department’s reform obligations under the Federal Court Approved Settlement Agreement.

On May 17, the Albuquerque City Council voted unanimously to approve the 2021-2022 APD budget of over $227 million city budget. Last year’s budget also had funding for 1,100 officers, but APD has failed over the last 7 years to reach budgeted staffing levels.

A major failure identified by the Federal Monitor was that APD’s Internal Affairs (IA) was not properly investigating serious use of force instances by APD police officers. On February 26, 2021 a stipulated order creating the new EFIT unit was entered into by the parties. The EFIT is an additional layer of review of uses of force cases by APD sworn. The EFIT team will train APD Internal Affairs (IA) investigators on how to properly investigate uses of force instances by APD police officers. The City agreed that at least 25 force investigators would be assigned to the APD Internal Affairs until APD demonstrates that fewer investigators are necessary to timely investigate uses of force by APD Officers.

Notwithstanding the approved funding for 1,100 sworn police the number of police officers patrolling the streets of Albuquerque is dangerously low. As of July 24, 2021, APD has 940 sworn police according to city personnel records, but only 369 are actually patrolling the streets of the city. The 369 filed service officers are divided into 6 area commands and 3 separate shifts.

According to an August 2 KOAT TV news report, APD patrol staffing is as follows:

369 patrol officers, for six area commands and 3 shifts
59 patrol sergeants
18 lieutenants
18 – 22 bike officers

https://www.koat.com/article/400-apd-patrol-cops-albuquerque-police-department/37203121

2. APD RETIREMENTS, RESIGNATIONS AND TERMINATIONS

The Journal reported APD retirements, resignations and terminations as follows:

2018: 47
2019: 58
2020: 82
2021: 101 (As of August 1)

SOURCE: APD Human Resources.

Over the last 20 years, APD’s attrition has been a consistent 60 police officers a year. That includes terminations, transfers and police officers who have decided they do not want to be a police officer anymore. Recruitment of new officers has been difficult to the point that APD is now offering “hiring bonuses” worth thousands of dollars as reported above, including $15,000 for lateral hires and $5,000 for new recruits.

3. APD RESPONSE TIMES

According to the Albuquerque Journal Albuquerque September 12 article “APD’s thin blue line stretched thinner”, response times for 911 priority 1 and 2 calls, the most serious, were:

2018: 12 minutes, 37 seconds
2019: 10 minutes, 30 seconds
2020: 10 minutes, 1 second
2021: 11 minutes, 50 seconds

The response times were provided to the Journal by APD.

The response times reported by the Albuquerque Journal are contrary to investigation reports by KOAT- TV 7 and KOB TV 4 reports.

A February 20th KOAT TV Target 7 investigation into APD’s response times revealed an alarming level of time it takes APD to respond to 911 emergency calls. The longer the time it takes for APD to respond to priority 1 and 2 calls increases the likelihood of physical injury and even death.

It was reported that it takes APD 23 minutes longer to get to an emergency call than it did 8 years ago. According to the report, there has been an astonishing 93% increase since 2011 with response times getting worse every year since. In 2011, the average response time to all calls, whether it was a life-or-death emergency or a minor traffic crash was 25 minutes. In 2019, that time period spiked to 48 minutes in the average response time.

The link to the full KOAT TV Target 7 report is here:

https://www.koat.com/article/apd-response-times-continue-to-climb/31028667

On August 11, 2021, KOB 4 did a report on APD response times. KOB 4 requested the response times from APD management for Priority 1 calls over the last few years. Priority 1 calls are calls made to 911 and include shootings, stabbings, armed robberies, sexual and aggravated assaults, domestic violence with weapons involved and home invasions. According to the data reviewed the time it takes a dispatch APD officer to get to a crime scene stayed relatively consistent between January 2018 to May 2021.

The response time data obtained by KOB 4 revealed some drastic differences in recent years. In 2018, clearing a crime scene ranged from an hour to 1 hour and 12 minutes. Fast forward to 2021 and APD is averaging more than 2 hours to write reports, gather evidence and interview witnesses, or a full 1 hour longer than three years ago.
The link to the full KOB 4 report is here:

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/abq-4ward-examining-apds-response-times/6204745/?cat=500

NEW 911 PRIORITY CALL DISPATCH SYSTEM

For decades APD had a 3 priority 911 dispatch system. On March 7, 2019, APD announced a major change in the way it was dispatching police officers to 911 calls and expanded priority the list from 3 to 5 categories. Call priorities on the scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the highest or most important type of call. A major goal of the 5-priority call system is to determine what calls do and do not require a police officer. The goal was to reduce the number of 911emergency calls for service responded to by APD sworn police. The addition of 2 new priority call types did in fact result in the desired just goal of reducing the number of sworn dispatch but also resulted in fewer Felony, Misdemeanor and DWI arrests.

For the Fiscal Years of F/Y 14 to F/Y 20 the total number of 911 calls for service were:

FY/14 # of Calls for service: 518,553
FY/15 # of Calls for service: 518,751
FY/16 # of Calls for service: 547,854
FY/17 # of Calls for service: 564,610
FY/18 # of Calls for service: 580,303
FY/19 # of Calls for service: 543,574
FY/20 # of Calls for service: 524,286

The sure volume of calls for service are staggering and always cited by APD upper command, but are easily misinterpreted. Without clarification, the raw statistics imply that sworn police were sent to every single call or that arrests were made. The numbers must be tempered with the actual number of dispatches of police, the number of sworn and that in turn ultimately result in arrests in 3 major categories of felony, misdemeanor and DWI.

For the Fiscal Years of F/Y 14 to F/Y 20 the total number of calls for service compared to arrests in each of the 3 major categories and the sworn police who were employed in all capacities and positions are as follows:

FY/14 # of Calls for service: 518,553
FY/14: Arrests: Felony 9,507, Misdemeanor 27,127, DWI 2,704,
FY/14: Total Sworn: 913

FY/20 # of Calls for service: 524,286
FY/20 Arrests: Felony 6,621, Misdemeanor 16,520, DWI 1,230
FY/20 Total Sworn: 1,004

The links to the approved city budgets from 2007 to 2022 that contain the statistics can be found here:

https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/budget/annual-budget

There was a dramatic decline in the number arrests in 2019 to 2020, the same time when the new priority calls were added. APD felony arrests went down from 2019 to 2020 by 39.51% going down from 10,945 to 6,621. Misdemeanor arrests went down by 15% going down from 19,440 to 16,520. DWI arrests went down from 1,788 in 2019 to 1,230 in 2020, down 26%. The total number of all arrests went down from 32,173 in 2019 to 24,371 in 2020 or by 25%. In 2019 APD had 924 full time police. In 2020, APD had 1,004 sworn police or 80 more sworn in 2020 than in 2019, yet arrests went down during the first year of the pandemic and response times went up.

SEPTEMBER 6 TRYNA VERBECK PRESS CONFERENCE

On September 6, Tryna Verbeck, the wife of one of the 4 APD officers recently shot pursuing a suspect in an armed robbery, held a press conference and in a very emotional and angry statement called out Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Police Chief Harold Medina as being “equally accountable” for her husband’s shooting.

In response to the Tryna Verbeck Chief Medina issued a very lengthy, convoluted statement. Following are the most pertinent Medina remarks relevant to this blog article:

“There is no doubt that morale among officers was impacted by several issues and events over the past year-and-a-half – from the anti-police protests in 2020, to the challenges of the pandemic and the struggles resulting from mandates by the DOJ settlement. As a result, we have lost officers to retirement or decisions to leave the profession. Those losses compounded the problem of not being fully staffed, even though we have hired hundreds of new officers.

I expressed many of those concerns to the DOJ and the monitors. The pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction where officers do not feel supported, or that they can do their jobs effectively and safely in all situations. At the same time, we can’t simply move every officer to patrol the streets, as some have suggested. I don’t have the authority to defy a court order. But we have to be honest about the reality we face. My responsibility is to the people of Albuquerque who want us to fight crime while protecting the rights of all individuals.
… . “

The link to quoted source material is here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/i-am-now-your-worst-nightmare-wife-of-apd-officer-addresses-mayor-police-chief/

In response Tryna Verbeck, Mayor Keller released the following statement:

“APD has been under intense pressure to change as a result of the DOJ settlement agreement, the time pressures from ever-changing court rules, and the shortage of officers that persists despite all of our hiring. Officers feel that pressure every day. We started the Metro Crime Initiative to pull everyone together to fix these system-wide problems. We have also expressed our concerns to the DOJ, the court monitors and the federal delegation because we can’t continue to improve if officers do not feel supported. …”

SEVEN YEARS OF POLICE UNION OBSTRUCTION

During the past 7 years Shaun Willoughby and his police union members have done everything they could to undercut the police reforms brought on by the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation that found a “culture of aggression” and repeated use of deadly force and excessive use of force.

The Federal Court Appointed Monitor has labeled the union interference with the reforms as the “County Casa Effect”. The Federal monitor has defined the Counter Casa Effect as a group of “high-ranking APD officers” who are union members and hold the ranks sergeants and lieutenants and who are thwarting the settlement reform efforts.

In his 10th report Federal Monitor Ginger referred to the group as the “Counter-CASA effect” and stated:

“Sergeants and lieutenants, at times, go to extreme lengths to excuse officer behaviors that clearly violate established and trained APD policy, using excuses, deflective verbiage, de minimis comments and unsupported assertions to avoid calling out subordinates’ failures to adhere to established policies and expected practice. Supervisors (sergeants) and mid-level managers (lieutenants) routinely ignore serious violations, fail to note minor infractions, and instead, consider a given case “complete”.

“Some members of APD … resist actively APD’s reform efforts, including using deliberate counter-CASA processes. For example, … Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) disciplinary timelines, appear at times to be manipulated by supervisory, management and command levels at the area commands, letting known violations lie dormant until timelines [mandated by the union contract] for discipline cannot be met.”

In his 12th Monitor’s Report, Dr. Ginger states:

… “[There] are strong under currents of Counter-CASA effects in some critical units on APD’s critical path related to CASA compliance. These include supervision at the field level; mid-level command in both operational and administrative functions, [including] patrol operations, internal affairs practices, disciplinary practices, training, and force review). Supervision, [the] sergeants and lieutenants, and mid-level command, [the commanders] remain one of the most critical weak links in APD’s compliance efforts.

… Supervision, which includes Lieutenants and Sergeants in the union, need to leave behind its dark traits of myopia, passive resistance, and outright support for, and implementation of, counter-CASA processes.”

POLICE UNION PUBLIC RELATONS CAMPAIGN TO DISCREDIT REFORMS

On April 27, 2021, it was widely reported that the Albuquerque Police Officers Association (APOA) launched a $70,000 political ad campaign to discredit the Department of Justice (DOJ) mandated reforms saying the police reforms are preventing police officers from doing their jobs and combating crime.

The Police Union political ad campaign consisted of billboards around the city and testimonials on TV, radio and social media from former Albuquerque Police Department officers. The public relations campaign is urging the public to tell city leaders that crime matters more than the Police reforms mandated by the settlement.

The public relations campaign includes providing an email template for people to use and contact civic leaders. The template says APD has made progress with the reforms and says we are “tired of living in a city filled with murder, theft and violence. … I’m urging you to fight for this city, stand up to the DOJ, and help us save the city we love, before it’s too late. ”
APOA Police Union President Shaun Willoughby described the need for the public relations campaign this way:

“You can either have compliance with DOJ reforms or you can have lower crime. You can’t have both. We think it’s time that our city leaders hear from the public that crime matters more because it does. … They want to focus on the growing crime problem, instead of wasting millions of dollars on endless Department of Justice oversight. … This conversation of reform needs to come back to common sense. …

“The whole [reform effort] system is set up to fail and the taxpayers and the people that live in this community like me and my family are the ones that are taking the brunt of [violent crime]. … Really look at this process. … It is absolutely out of control. … The entire department and the processes within it are out of control. Your officers are running out the door. Really look at every single state or agency that’s been involved in this process. … What is happening? Did it bring harmony and trust with the community? I don’t think so.”

On Monday, September 13, when US Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled new rules governing federal monitors responsible for overseeing police reforms and implementation of court approved settlement reform measures, Shaun Willoughby, the President of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association had this to say:

“They don’t come in here with policies that are considered best practice and a huge blank check book to train police officers … So this whole blue print called the DOJ consent decree and the monitoring process, it’s a joke.”

Links to news sources quotes are here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2384284/apd-union-launches-campaign-against-doj-oversight.html

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/albuquerque-police-union-starts-campaign-to-push-back-against-doj-requirements/6087348/

https://www.koat.com/article/as-murder-rate-climbs-apd-union-launches-campaign/36257496
https://news.yahoo.com/apd-union-launches-campaign-against-040100177.html

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/doj-releases-new-rules-for-cities-under-consent-decree/6237220/?cat=500

On Friday, August 20, Police Union President Shaun Willoughby was quoted as saying:

“It’s officers that are hesitating to do their job because they don’t want to get in trouble … It’s the brazen acts of criminals that know that Albuquerque police officers are handcuffed … We have stepped away and de-policed this city. … .

The link to the quoted news source material is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2421142/california-man-charged-in-shooting-of-apd-officers.html

In an interview with KOB 4, Police Union President Shaun Willoughby said increases in deadly situations involving police is frustrating and angers his union membership. He also increased his false political rhetoric laying blame for the violent crime in the city and said:

“We’ve been telling this community that this was going to happen. … I believe that the violent crime and the uptick of violent crime is directly related to this police department being de-policed and having policies where they are not able to do their job. … We have de-policed the city of Albuquerque to the extent where officers carry around a little card with a list of misdemeanors that they can’t even arrest people on.”

NEW RULES GOVERNING FEDERAL MONITORS

On Monday, September 13, during an online speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, unveiled new rules governing federal monitors responsible for overseeing police reforms and implementation of court approved settlement reform measures. The new rules include setting limits on federal court appointed monitor’s tenure, budgets for their services and requiring them to undergo more training.

5 PRINCIPALS, 19 ACTIONS

Since Garland was appointed Attorney General, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has undertaken “pattern or practice” investigations of police departments in Minneapolis, Louisville and Phoenix. It was in 2013 that such an investigation occurred with the Albuquerque Police Department. The DOJ found that APD engaged in a pattern of “excessive use of force” and “deadly force” and a “culture of aggression”. The DOJ investigation of APD resulted in a Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) entered into by the City and the DOJ mandating 271 police reforms.

The biggest and most pervasive complaints involving the settlement agreements are that they go on, and on for on years, they harm police morale and frustrate community residents. Monitoring teams, such as what Albuquerque has, are usually composed of former police officials, lawyers, academics and police-reform consultants. The monitoring teams typically bill local taxpayers between $1 million and $2 million per year. In Albuquerque, Federal Court Appointed Monitor James Ginger has been paid upwards of $8 million over the last 7 years and his team has prepared 13 Independent Monitor’s Report filed with the federal court. Each time a report is release, the Federal Court has an all-day briefing in the case.

The Department of Justice said in a press release:

“The department has found that – while consent decrees and monitors are important tools to increase transparency and accountability – the department can and should do more to improve their efficiency and efficacy. The Associate Attorney General [Vanita Gupta] has recommended – and I have accepted – a set of 19 actions that the department will take to address those concerns.”

Associate Attorney General Gupta for his part had this to say:

“Consent decrees have proven to be vital tools in upholding the rule of law and promoting transformational change in the state and local governmental entities where they are used. … The department must do everything it can to guarantee that they remain so by working to ensure that the monitors who help implement these decrees do so efficiently, consistently and with meaningful input and participation from the communities they serve.”

The 19 actions are outlined in the memo released released by the DOJ. There are 5 principals outlined in Gupta’s memo that will require future monitorships of state and local governmental to meet. Those principals are:

1. Monitorships should be designed to minimize cost to jurisdictions and avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
2. Monitors must be accountable to the court, the parties and the public.
3. Monitors should assess compliance consistently across jurisdictions.
4. Sustained, meaningful engagement with the community is critical to the success of the monitors.
5. Monitoring must be structured to efficiently move jurisdictions into compliance.

The new rules and principals announced by Attorney General Garland for the federal monitoring of consent decrees are the first time the Department of Justice has taken action to deal with pervasive criticism that consent decrees go on and on indefinitely with no end in sight, cost way too much and have a major impact of local law enforcement.

The Keller Administration made it known it has been meeting with the DOJ over the past few months and is already taken steps and intends to ask the New Mexico Federal Court assigned the case to apply the principles to the City’s consent decree is a major development. It creates the opportunity for the city to move forward and ask for further relief from the court to modify the existing consent decree. The city should ask for a termination hearing and ask for a dismissal of the case or a significant reduction in the monitoring.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2021/09/14/att-general-garland-announces-new-rules-for-federal-monitoring-of-consent-decrees-city-and-apd-react-police-union-president-shoots-off-big-mouth/

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

All you get from Mayor Keller, APD Chief Medina and Police Union President Shaun Willoughby is perpetual harping and complaining about how shorthanded APD is, how morale is at an all-time low and how the DOJ consent decree is the problem. The complaints are perpetual after the City Council gives APD $227 million dollar budget, virtually every cent of the millions that they have asked for, yet APD has upwards of 200 sworn police vacancies. The lions share of the $227 million dollar budget goes to pay APD sworn police making them some of the best paid in the country with one of the most lucrative retirements in the country.

What makes the Albuquerque Journal articles misleading is that both articles fail to disclose the extent of the financial resources that have been dedicated to APD for the past 4 years. There was absolutely no acknowledgement nor admission in the Journal articles by Mayor Keller, Chief Medina nor the Police Union that many of the problems complained about the Department of Justice reforms fall squarely on the shoulders of Mayor Keller, Keller’s appointed APD Chief Medina and his 3 Deputies and the Police Union leadership and their resistance to the DOJ reforms. It is their actions, failures to act, resistance and negligent personnel management that are the real causes of the problems they complain about, especially with the DOJ reforms. All of the complaints and problems have been going on for the past 7 years, before the pandemic and before the national movement of police scrutiny and accountability of police misconduct.

POLICE UNION HAS NEVER SAID WHAT DOJ REFORMS INTERFERING

The police union leadership have said in the past and in open court that the mandated reforms under the consent decree are interfering with rank-and-file officer’s ability to perform their job duties. According to Police Union President Sean Willoughby, police officers are afraid to do their jobs for fear of being investigated, fired or disciplined. The police union has never articulated in open court and in clear terms exactly what it is about the reforms that are keeping rank and file from “doing their” jobs.

What the union has been doing for the last 7 years is disrupting the reform process. Instead of fighting the consent decree, the police union should have embraced the reforms from the get go and helped to implement them.

It’s likely what the police union feels what is interfering with its membership from doing their jobs includes the following mandated reforms:

1. The mandatory use of lapel cameras by APD.
2. APD police can no longer shoot at fleeing cars.
3. APD police can no longer use “choke holds” to subdue suspects.
4. APD police need to use less lethal force and not rely on the SWAT unit.
5. APD police must use de-escalating tactics.
6. All APD officers must be trained in crisis intervention.
7. APD management must now hold all subordinate police officers accountable for all levels of violations of standard operating procedures.
8. Sworn police do not like or oppose the Ethical Policing is Courageous (EPIC) program which trains officers to support peer intervention. The EPIC program has evolved into the Active Bystander for Law Enforcement (ABLE) project, which trains officers to support peer intervention. ABLE aims to create a police culture in which officers routinely intervene to prevent misconduct, avoid police mistakes, and promote officer health and wellness. Old guard police officers likely view the ABLE system as a “snitch” program where officers turn on fellow officers or partners.
9. Subordinate police officers believe that many standard operating procedures (SOPs should not be enforced as being to petty or serving no useful function. Examples would be SOPs on grooming restrictions, prohibition against eating or smoking in assigned units.
10. The mandatory “paper work” associated with any degree of use of force is too cumbersome.
11. APD Police officers are required to intervene when they witness and are concerned about other officers use of force.
12. Mandatory notification to superiors for investigation by police officers who witness another officer’s “excessive use of force” or violations of CASA reforms.

The Police Union and critics of the Federal Monitor have said that the monitor is “nitpicking” when the monitor points out specific incidents of APD management’s failure to enforce standard operating procedure. The policies are APD’s policies, not the monitors. Answering the charge of “nitpicking”, why bother having the policies if officers are not going to follow them and management refuses to enforce them.

A FAILURE TO ARREST OR REFUSAL TO ARREST

Based on the statistics for the budget years of 2019 and 2020, a very strong argument can be made that crime is up because APD is not doing its job of arresting people. This point is painfully clear in the statistics that arrests for both felony and misdemeanor offenses are down dramatically. APD statistics for the budget years of 2019 and 2020 reflect the field officers, who are all union membership, are simply not arresting people.

APD CHIEF HAROLD MEDINA

APD Chief Harold Medina told Tryna Verbeck in part in response to her press conference:

“The pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction where officers do not feel supported, or that they can do their jobs effectively and safely in all situations. At the same time, we can’t simply move every officer to patrol the streets, as some have suggested. I don’t have the authority to defy a court order.”

Absolutely no one is asking Chief Medina to defy a court order. To be blunt, it is his department after he squeezed out former Chief Michael Geier. Medina now has complete management and control over APD. The control includes the department’s $227 million dollar budget, all of its resources and personnel. Medina has the power to reorganize the department and make appropriate changes and assignment of personnel as he sees fit. Even after being fully budgeted for 1,100 sworn police for the last 4 years, APD has failed to recruit, train and hire.

Instead of exercising authority and managing the department, both Keller and Medina prefer to lay blame on the lack of personnel and the CASA reforms. Chief Medina has been part of APD’s upper command staff, including being the Deputy Chief of Field Service dealing with personnel assigned to the field since the day Keller was sworn in as Mayor on December 1, 2017. For the past 4 years, Medina knew what was wrong with the staffing and assignment levels and yet did nothing other than to undermine former Chief Michael Geier in order to replace him.

NEW RULES GOVERNING FEDERAL MONITORS

The fact that the Keller Administration has already taken steps and intends to ask the New Mexico Federal Court assigned the case to apply the principles to the City’s consent decree is a major development. It creates the opportunity for the city to move forward and ask for further relief from the court to modify the existing consent decree.

The city should ask for a termination hearing to present evidence of what is going on within APD and ask for a dismissal of the case or a significant reduction in the monitoring given what has been implemented.
_________________________

POSTSCRIPT

The consent decree was negotiated to be fully implemented during a 4-year period and then after two years of compliance dismissed. Over 7 years have now elapse and APD is still struggling to implement the all 271 mandated reforms agreed to by the City and APD in 2014.

CASA REFORMS IMPLEMENTED

On November 14, 2020, it will be 6 full years that have expired since the city entered into the CASA with the DOJ. Based on a review of the Federal Monitor’s reports and news reports, the City and APD have completed the following 15 mandated reforms under the Court Approved Settlement Agreement:

1.After a full year of negotiations, new “use of force” and “use of deadly force” policies have been written, implemented and all APD sworn have received training on the policies.
2. All sworn police officers have received crisis management intervention training.
3. APD has created a “Use of Force Review Board” that oversees all internal affairs investigations of use of force and deadly force.
4. The Internal Affairs Unit has been divided into two sections, one dealing with general complaints and the other dealing with use of force incidents.
5. 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.
6. “Constitutional policing” practices and methods, and mandatory crisis intervention techniques and de-escalation tactics with the mentally ill have been implemented at the APD police academy with all sworn police having received training.
7. 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.
8. APD has revised and updated its policies on the mandatory use of lapel cameras by all sworn police officers.
9. The Repeat Offenders Project, known as ROP, has been abolished.
10. Civilian Police Oversight Agency has been created, funded, fully staffed and a director hired.
11. The Community Policing Counsels (CPCs) have been created in all area commands and the CPCs meet monthly.
12. The Mental Health Advisory Committee has been implemented.
13. The CASA identified that APD was understaffed. The City and APD are spending $88 million dollars, over a four-year period, with 32 million dollars of recurring expenditures, to hire 322 sworn officers and grow the department to 1,200 officers. As of January 1, 2020, APD has 949 full time police officers, up from 878 sworn police. The expansion thus far is attributed primarily to hiring from other departments and returning to work APD retirees.
14. Under the terms and conditions of the CASA, once APD achieves a 95% compliance rate in 3 compliance areas, and maintains compliance for 2 years, the case can be dismissed. For the purposes of the APD monitoring process, “compliance” consists of three levels: primary, secondary, and operational compliance levels. In the 11th audit report that covered the time period of August 1, 2019 and ended in January 31, 2020, the federal monitor found APD was 100% in primary compliance, no change from 10th report, a 93% in secondary compliance, a change of 14.8% from the 10th report, and 66% in operational compliance, a change of 3%.

Links to related blog articles are here:

APD Police Union Spends $70,000 To Discredit Federal Court Order After Impeding And Resisting APD Reforms For 6 Years; Tactic Likely Grounds For Contempt Of Court By A Party For Interfering With Court Order

APD Personnel Meltdown Continues; Staffing Shortages Prompt $15,000 Recruitment Bonuses; APD Shift Changes Announced

US Attorney General Garland Announces New Rules For Federal Monitoring Of Consent Decrees; City And APD React; Police Union President Shoots Off Big Mouth

This is a guest column written by Rudolfo Carrillo submitted for publication on this blog.

Rudolfo Carrillo is a native New Mexican and was the news and music editor at Weekly Alibi from August 2015 until March 2020, where he used the pen name “August March” to write about Albuquerque culture, history and politics. He is a graduate of the University of New Mexico’s fine arts program. His award-winning writing and analysis have been featured at international academic conferences, in notable literary journals as well as in local media outlets like the Albuquerque Journal. His latest work can be read at Infinity Report with the link here:

http://infinityreport.blogspot.com

EDITOR’S DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this article are those of Rudolfo Carrillo and do not necessarily reflect those of the political blog www.petedinelli.com. Rudolfo Carrillo was not compensated for the guest column.

HEADLINE: People, Politics and the Profession; A Humanized March Contemplates the Future

My first job was working for the Albuquerque Publishing Company, delivering copies of the Albuquerque Tribune to homes in the far Northeast Heights.

Every day, after school—and on Saturday afternoons, too—my brother and I would pick up 420 copies of the Trib from a fellow named Joe Archuleta. We’d roll the papers up with rubber bands and spend the next four hours distributing them to humans who enjoyed reading the latest in Albuquerque news.

One of my favorite customers was an elderly gentleman named George Savarese. He’d come out of his house every day to greet me and talk about what was in that day’s Home Edition of the Albuquerque Tribune.

Mr. Savarese told me he appreciated our conversations about local politics; he didn’t talk to anyone much anymore, but liked to write letters to Ralph Looney, the paper’s editor. He counseled me to do the same, saying writing would give me an opportunity to tell more people about the ideas we would discuss on his front lawn as roadrunners sprinted by and the late-summer sun bathed the city in a warm, golden glow.

Anyway, I wrote a couple letters to Looney. He published them on the letters page and then wrote me back in the fall, asking if I would like to be an intern at the Tribune or Journal. By the time I was 16, I was working in both newsrooms, but, because of my school schedule, most of the action I saw was at the Journal.

At the Albuquerque Journal, I got to work with folks like Tom Harmon and Jim Belshaw. It was fun and a great learning experience. I wrote all sorts of articles for the Youth page in the Trends section. At the Albuquerque Tribune, when the opportunity arose, I chased copy up and down the stairs for Howard Bryan and Looney.

Looney was an interesting, super-informed generalist. He also wrote a column that featured a fictional character named Feedlot Joe. Looney used his literary invention to candidly and successfully speak to many issues that might otherwise have been anathema to the Trib’s older, more conservative readership.

More importantly, Looney was a champion journalist, to his readers, publishers and staff. Upon his death, veteran Tribune reporter Howard Bryan wrote, “He knew what interested people. Looney was interested in the history of the state as well as the news of the day. And he took a personal interest in the people who worked for him. We weren’t just bylines to him.”

[“Ralph Looney Obituary”, September 8, 2000, in The Albuquerque Journal. http://obits.abqjournal.com/obits/show/120692]

That brings us to the overarching theme—as well as offering some insight into the inspiration for the narrative style contained therein—of today’s guest column. A grand tip of the hat then, to Mr. Looney. Without him, there would never have been a Feedlot Joe nor an August March.

COOKING WITH AUGIE

The other day I happened to be Downtown purchasing gasoline when I turned and saw a large, soundless puff of smoke appear in the distance behind me. I swear by hizzoner Tim Keller’s love for sportsball that, at first, I feared the growing apparition in my rearview mirror might be some sort of demonic visitation; perhaps Manny Gonzales had finally succeeded in getting some private funding after all and now Ol’ Scratch was here in town to check things out, you know, collateral-wise.

Of course, I was wrong about that. Gonzales ain’t about to walk down to the crossroads anytime soon; there would be too much of a chance that he might run into his mentor—an association he wants voters to forget all about as Election Day approaches.

[“Sheriff’s visit to Trump White House draws ire”, by Elise Kaplan in the Albuquerque Journal, July 22, 2020:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1478217/sheriffs-visit-to-trump-white-house-draws-ire.html]

Anyway, it turned out the smoke was just August March getting ready for work. I know this to be true because—following my deepest journalistic instincts—I tracked down the billowing formation and had a word or two with the old lunatic.

“What have you been up to, compadre?” I gravely inquired, as I approached March. Fanning the voluminous smoke away with my bare hands, I noticed he was wearing a chef’s uniform.

“Well, sir, I’ve plumb given up on all that journalism and PR stuff I was telling you about earlier this summer.”

“You mean that time you galumphed outta some other dimension to complain to me about your suffering at the hands of merciless capitalists? Yes, I vaguely recall …”

“Well, hombre, I have no reason to complain now; as you can see, I am fixing to spend a luxurious and profitable day cooking up Italian food for the masses.”

“I sorta get that. How did that happen and what about your expanding career as a media expert?”

“It’s the job market, brother. Restaurants all over this town are hungry for intelligent, hard-working individuals. Meanwhile, industries like the press and public relations realms seem to be beleaguered with uncertainty. Heck, I applied at all sorts of places that said they wanted a communications manager or something like that. A few places even interviewed me more than once. The funny thing is that I never heard back from any of them.”

[Restaurant Industry Shows Signs of Strong Recovery, But Sales Remain Down By $110 Billion from Pre-Pandemic Projections”, by Alicia Kelso, in Forbes, August 31, 2021.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciakelso/2021/08/31/restaurant-industry-showing-strong-recovery-but-sales-remain-down-by-110-billion-from-pre-pandemic-projections/?sh=4386af766336]

[Longtime publication SF Weekly shutters ‘indefinitely’ after decades in San Francisco”, by Joshua Bote in the SF Gate, September 10, 2021. https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/sf-weekly-alt-publication-shuts-down-indefinitely-16450041.php]

“C’mon, Augie, didn’t you at least try and reach out to them?”

“What’s the point? If they really were serious, you can damn well bet they’d call, and I can prove that if you let me tell you about my new job.”

A COMMUNITY OF WORKERS

“Go on, Augie.”

“After I waited for a few weeks to hear from three different professional jobs that I interviewed for, I decided to take matters into my own hands and so stopped in at a local joint that had a help wanted sign on the door. The manager was friendly and accommodating. They found out I had a college degree, did a thorough background check and then called me the next morning with a training schedule.”

“And you don’t mind doing that kinda work, even after getting to hang with and write about this town’s high and mighty?

“Heck no. It’s good, hard work; I can get lost in it. I don’t have to use any of the abstruse intellectual or artistic tools at my disposal; it’s very zen, very pure, a sort of kind ego annihilation, making food for others. Then when I get home, I’ve got all that creative urge stored up and can use it to write interesting stuff and make awesome paintings and sculptures.”

“Is it a lot different than the other jobs you’ve had?”

“Mostly. Though it sorta reminds me of the time I worked as a projectionist. Everyone works together, people from all walks of life. So far, there’s no sign of climbers or bullies or racists. People in the kitchen talk honestly, they are blunt but respectful. Here’s an example: At my last job, a young writer in my department, for Crissakes, used to bully me relentlessly because she wanted my job so badly. She would aggressively call my cellphone daily to ask if she could have my desk and computer. The situation became unpleasant enough that I often chose to work from home rather deal with her inappropriate behavior. Meanwhile, at my new job, they just hired an 18-year-old dishwasher. After they introduced themself, they kindly asked if I would mind demonstrating some basic cookery skills, since they wanted to be a cook, and it seemed like I knew my way around the place.”

“WHAT ABOUT YOUR CAREER?”

“Well, me and the missus did a soft launch of our nascent PR firm last year. That’s doing pretty, pretty good; we’ve even got us a couple of for-realz rocanrol star clients and we’ve been economically self-sufficient for a long time. But the truth is that the pandemic plumb near wiped us out, physically, emotionally and economically. That’s something that the folks over at these professional jobs I applied for just don’t seem to get, especially the ones run by affluent citizens. I think restaurants get it because they’re in the business of feeding people.

Don’t get me wrong, Carrillo. If I had my druthers, I’d be working as a reporter or information officer. But I ain’t going back to any places that don’t practice transparency, don’t put the workers first, don’t foster a real sense of community or places that tolerate unprofessional behavior from the overly ambitious because they are young and have “potential.” I never want to be just a byline, ever again. And I’m gonna let the Tao do its work this time. Maybe someone will call after all, someday. Besides, I make a mean Neapolitan pie.”

“Well, that sounds like a plan. Now, how do you feel about anchovies? … And do you think choices like that might somehow come into play during the home stretch of the upcoming mayoral election?”

You know, I’ve said all along that there is something fishy going on with this year’s race and, in fact, if people around here don’t like that sort of salty accoutrement—and they still feel the urge to vote—they can always write my name in! How’s this for a campaign slogan: ‘A steamin’ bowl of fresh fettuccini or a large 3-topping pie in every pot!’”

“Now you’re cooking, dude.”

On Monday, August 16, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that she had order 35 New Mexico State Police ( NMSP) officers to begin “proactive operations” and crime suppression operations in the Albuquerque area starting on Tuesday, August 17. The State Police were sent to the city in the wake of the killing of 13-year-old, eighth grader Bennie Hargrove being shot and killed at Washington Middle school by another student as well as the city breaking the all-time homicide rate with 81 murders, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham sent 35 New Mexico State Police Officers to the city.

The assignment of State Police was the second time in as many years that the Governor has ordered state police to the city. The first time had 50 State Police officers from around the state target specific Albuquerque neighborhoods to fight violent crime. The end result was 14,674 traffic stops and 738 arrests at a price tag of around $1 million. The first State Police initiative resulted in accusations of heavy-handed policing and shootings during the operation and resulted in local leaders and advocacy groups to criticize the effort.

The second time is dramatically different. It was in May, 2019 following the shooting of the University of New Mexico baseball player Jackson Weller outside of a Nob Hill bar that 50 state police officers were pulled from communities all over the state and patrolled the metro for two months. The state police arrested 738 people and doing more than 14,000 traffic stops. The 35 state police being sent this time will be tasked with concentrating on outstanding warrants for violent crimes.

The recent 35 NMSP officers were assigned to a 3-week-long operation in Albuquerque. State Police Officers have conducted operations along I-25 and I-40 in Bernalillo County. They were on highways during peak traffic hours. The operation involves 35 officers, 25 of whom were already working in and around Albuquerque, and is similar to the “Metro Surge Operation” in the summer of 2019. Currently, 42 state police officers are stationed in the metro area, but they patrol the area from Bernalillo to Los Lunas and Grants to Edgewood. The 35 State Police concentrated exclusively on Albuquerque.

The NMSP have been working with the New Mexico Department of Corrections and Adult Probation and Parole Department. The state department has worked together to target criminals who have outstanding warrants for violent crimes and are believed to be involved in ongoing criminal activity in the city.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham had this to say in a statement:

“We know from our last effort there were a lot of arrests made. We think this is going to make an impact and we’re going to continue to go after fugitives right and we’ve got felony warrants, people out. It takes all of us working together to get these people picked up and held.”

Tim Johnson, Chief of the New Mexico State Police, had this to say in a news release:

“Proactive crime suppression efforts can help solve crimes and often help prevent crime in the Albuquerque Metro area. … “Citizens have described the driving on the interstates in Albuquerque as chaotic, often leaving them feeling unsafe or frightened. Shootings, murder and overall violent crime feels like a daily occurrence in the metro, we hope our plan can help slow this trend.”

160 ARRESTS

On September 14, it was reported that the New Mexico State Police arrested nearly 100 people on felonies during the agency’s ongoing operation combatting crime in Albuquerque. According to Governor Lujan Grisham’s spokesman Tripp Stelnicki, NMSP officers have made 93 felony arrests and 67 misdemeanor arrests since August 16 when the Governor announced the State Police initiative. Stelnicki said 58 of those arrested on felonies were people with “violent criminal histories.”

The tactical response began August 17. NMSP plans to resume its targeted efforts throughout the county and metro area for at least one additional week after the conclusion of the New Mexico State Fair.

The New Mexico State Police report the following as part of the tactical response:

13 stolen vehicles recovered
21 DWI arrests
160 total arrests, including felonies and misdemeanors; this number includes 58 arrested individuals with violent criminal histories
15 narcotics seizures, including methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl
6 illegal firearms recovered

NEW MEXIO OFFICIALS REACT

Governor Lujan Grisham said in a statement that the operation has “made a real difference” in combating crime in the Albuquerque area and had this to say:

“I believe state police officers have made a real difference in these few weeks. This targeted effort has brought in dozens of offenders with violent criminal histories, and that is and must continue to be our North Star in combating crime in our state: Keeping as many of the worst of the worst off of our streets as we possibly can. It’s why I will support a significant investment in hiring 1,000 new community-oriented officers statewide in the upcoming legislative session. And it’s why I will support a rebuttable presumption for violent offenders, because bail reform is necessary to help our officers and criminal justice system prioritize the repeat and violent offenders who have no business on our streets. I look forward to continued good work from our committed officers, and I thank them, and their partners throughout the criminal justice system, for their ongoing service to New Mexico.”

Public Safety Secretary Jason Bowie had this to say:

“This metro operation is an outstanding example of the continued commitment to statewide law enforcement support provided by the Department of Public Safety and the New Mexico State Police. … Effective partnerships between law enforcement and community stakeholders are crucial to public safety. The dedication and commitment exhibited in this partnership was vital and has not gone unnoticed. More work is still ahead of us.”

State Police Chief Tim Johnson said in a press release had this to say:

“By arresting violent fugitives who were wanted on charges including aggravated assault, armed robbery, and drug distribution, we not only take repeat offenders off the street, but we are also able to derive valuable intelligence that help solve additional crimes and take down larger criminal operations in the area.”

Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office, said in a statement that Lujan Grisham is committed to addressing violent crime in a multi-pronged way that involves the justice system and other key agencies and said:

“The governor believes addressing violent crime requires an entire criminal justice system — from cities and counties to beat cops and courts — working together to find and arrest and bring to justice violent offenders.”

Links to quoted source material are here:

https://news.yahoo.com/state-police-unit-helping-albuquerque-150300292.html#:~:text=State%20police%20reported%2093%20felony,officers%20have%20recorded%20160%20arrests.

https://www.krqe.com/news/crime/nmsp-make-almost-100-felony-arrests-during-tactical-operation/

https://www.abqjournal.com/2429166/state-police-operation-nets-93-felony-arrests.html

https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/non-local-news-releases/67404-state-police-tactical-response-in-bernalillo-county-nets-almost-100-felony-arrests-targeting-violent-offenders

https://news.yahoo.com/state-police-unit-helping-albuquerque-150300292.html#:~:text=State%20police%20reported%2093%20felony,officers%20have%20recorded%20160%20arrests.

NUMBER OF APD ARRESTS LAST 7 YEARS

When it comes to the Albuquerque Police Department, arrests are broken down into 3 major categories: Felony Arrests, Misdemeanor Arrests and DWI Arrests. The number of Felony Arrest, Misdemeanor Arrests and DWI Arrests for APD over the last 7 years can be gleaned from all the fiscal year budgets.

For the Fiscal Years of F/Y 14 to F/Y 20 the total number of arrests in each of the 3 major categories are as follows:

FY/14 Arrests: Felony 9,507, Misdemeanor 27,127, DWI 2,704
FY/15 Arrests: Felony 9,049, Misdemeanor 22,639, DWI 2,213
FY/16 Arrests: Felony 8,744, Misdemeanor 19,857, DWI 1,720
FY/17 Arrests: Felony 9,527, Misdemeanor 18,562, DWI 1,338
FY/18 Arrests: Felony 11,257, Misdemeanor 19,923, DWI 1,403
FY/19 Arrests: Felony 10,945, Misdemeanor 19,440, DWI 1,788
FY/20 Arrests: Felony 6,621, Misdemeanor 16,520, DWI 1,230,

The links to the approved city budgets from 2007 to 2022 that contain the statistics can be found here:

https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/budget/annual-budget

2022 ADOPTED APD BUDGET CONTAINS TOTAL APD ARRESTS FOR 2019 AND 2020

The City’s 2022 adopted budget contains APD’s arrests statistics for 2019 and 2020. APD’s budget is a performance-based budget and the department is required to submit a number of statistics to justify its budget. Arrest numbers for felonies, misdemeanors as well as DWI are reported in the budget.
The link to the budget is here:

https://documents.cabq.gov/budget/fy-22-proposed-budget.pdf

Following is the breakdown of arrest for the years 2019 and 2020:

NUMBER OF FELONY ARRESTS:

2019: 10,945
2020: 6,621

NUMBER OF MISDEMEANOR ARRESTS

2019: 19,440
2020: 16,520

NUMBER OF DWI ARRESTS

2019: 1,788
2020: 1,230

TOTAL NUMBER OF ARRESTS FOR 2019: 32,173
TOTAL NUMBER OF ARREST FOR 2020: 24,371

2022 APD Budget, page 151:

https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/documents/fy22-approved-budget-numbered-w-hyperlinks-final.pdf

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The arrest of 160 criminals, which included 50 violent criminals, is much appreciated by APD and the public but given the sure volume of arrests made in Albuquerque a year, it is a real stretch of the imagination for the Governor and other law enforcement state officials to believe the arrest of 160 felony and misdemeanor criminals is a major accomplishment. It is more like 160 grains of sand in and entire bucket of sand. The blunt truth is that those arrests will not have much of a major impact on the city’s crime rates. They are kidding themselves and the public if they believe 160 arrests will have and impact when APD makes 24,000 to 32,000 arrests a year. To have an impact on crime there needs to be sustained operations and tactical plans for at least a full year. A 2 to 3 week period of arrests during a major event such as the State Fair or for that matter the International Balloon Fiesta will have little if any effect.

If Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is truly committed to have an impact on Albuquerque’s high crime rates, she should advocate that the 1,000 sworn police she wants funding for be permanently assigned to the city of Albuquerque. Now THAT would make difference! With that many added police officers patrolling the streets of Albuquerque and being proactive making arrest, crime rates would go down dramatically.

On Friday, August 28, during a Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) held in Taos, it was revealed that the State is experiencing an all-time high windfall of more than nearly $1 billion higher than what was projected in February of this year. The estimates released to the legislative committee by executive and legislative economists project that New Mexico will have nearly $1.4 billion in additional money in the coming year. The $1.4 Billion is the the difference between expected revenue and the state’s current $7.4 billion budget. The cause of the windfall is surging oil and natural gas production and a rise in consumer spending.

The projected revenue total does not include more than $1.5 billion that will automatically flow into a state “rainy day” fund and an early childhood endowment fund over the next two years. It also does not include the $1.75 billion in federal relief funds that have only been partially earmarked by the Lujan Grisham administration.

According to a report to the Legislative Finance Committee:

“Revenues are up $851.3 million from the February 2021 estimate, due primarily to higher-than-expected gross receipts tax and income tax collections that accompanied increased consumer spending and growth in high- and mid-wage employment in the first half of 2021. … Additionally, strong recovery in the oil and gas markets are pushing severance tax and federal royalty collections well above their five-year averages, resulting in large transfers to the newly created early childhood trust fund.”

REVENUE PROJECTIONS

Two separate funds were created by the New Mexico Legislature to ensure that there is adequate funding to continue to provide essential services and deal with bad economic times such as when the pandemic hit and at the same time state revenues plummeted as a result of the oil boom bust.

The two funds are the Tax Stabilization Fund and the Early Childhood Trust Fund.

The Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund is referred to as the “rainy day fund”. It was created by the legislature in 2017. The revenues for the fund come from royalties or tax collections on the oil and natural gas industries that exceed a five-year rolling average.

The Early Childhood Trust Fund was created by the legislature in 2020 at the insistence of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. The funds revenue source is the same revenue source when total state cash reserves amount to 25% or more of the state’s approved spending level. Funds also come from mineral leasing payments on federal land. The trust fund makes annual distributions to help fund early childhood programs statewide, a major priority of the Lujan Grisham Administration.

According to the Legislative Finance Committee, both funds are projected to spike considerably over the next 2 fiscal years with the following projections made:

TAX STABILIZATION RESERVE:

Fiscal year 2021: $1.8 Billion Fiscal Year 2022: $2.2 Billion Fiscal year 2023: $2.3 Billion

EARLY CHILDHOOD TRUST FUND:

Fiscal year 2021: $334.7 Million Fiscal Year 2022: $505.4 Million Fiscal year 2023: $283.6

Note that based on revenue estimates released a total of $1.8 billion is projected to be in the Tax Stabilization Reserve fund at the end of the current fiscal year that started on July 1, 2021 and ends June 30, 2022, or more than half the state’s estimated $3.1 billion in total reserves. Also not that upwards of $1.1 billion is projected to be transferred into the Early Childhood Trust Fund over a three-year period ending in June 2023.

House Speaker Brian Egolf said in a statement that the revenue projections were proof that Democrat’s policies are working and said:

“With roughly $1.4 billion in new revenue, investments in infrastructure, families, and communities will continue to be central to our work to diversify and guarantee sustainable, long-term growth for our state. ”

According to the Legislative Finance Committee over the last decade New Mexico’s revenue levels have gone up and down from as low as $5.7 Billion in 2013 to now a projected $8.8 Billion in 2023. and fluctuated widely from year to year”. The reported breakdown by fiscal years is as follows:

2013 – $5.7 billion
2014 – $6 billion
2015 – $6.2 billion
2016 – $5.7 billion
2017 – $5.7 billion
2018 – $6.8 billion
2019 – $8 billion
2020 – $7.8 billion
2021 – $8 billion (estimated level)
2022– $8.1 billion (estimated level)
2023 – $8.8 billion (estimated level)

The link to the Journal article reporting on fiscal years breakdowns is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2423653/nm-revenue-levels-projected-to-soar-to-all-time-high.html

GOVERNOR’S REACTION

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s press secretary Nora Meyers Sackett said in a statement that the Governor’s Office has been conducting preliminary agency-by-agency budget meetings in recent weeks in order to make a formal budget recommendations this fall. According to Sackett:

“[The Governor is] incredibly optimistic about [the revenue projection.] It underscores and validates the sound fiscal stewardship of her administration, which has, despite the unprecedented events of the last 18-plus months, put New Mexico in perhaps its best financial position in more than a decade. … The governor’s budget priorities have been clear throughout her term and they are unlikely to change. [Those priorities are] public education, economic development, environmental protection and crime and criminal justice reform. … Within that framework is where we will continue to focus our efforts to respond to and invest in the areas New Mexicans care most about.”

LEGISLATORS DEBATE ON HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH FOR A “RAINY DAY”

The 2022 legislative session is a 30 day session, called a short session, and is convened to deal almost exclusively with the budget, financial matters and taxation. It is the Governor who set the agenda in those sessions. The 30 day session begins January 17, 2022.

The debate between legislator’s is already beginning as to how the additional funding should be used.

Representative Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, the chairwoman of the Legislative Finance Committee, said that she has asked legislative staffers to look into possible changes to the Early Childhood Trust Fund including a possible cap on the fund’s total balances. Lundstrum had this to say:

“I don’t want money sitting in funds when we have so many needs”.

Senator George Muñoz, D-Gallup, the vice chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee suggested the revenue windfall should be spent on one-time expenditures not part of the state budget and had this to say:

“There’s going to be a lot more money than we know what to do with in the next few years, but it’s not going to last forever. … Now is the time to tackle the structural issues of New Mexico. We’re going to think big … We’re not going to pull around our little wagon anymore. … We’re going to load our armored trucks, and we’re going to develop and make New Mexico grow. ”

House Majority Leader Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, had this to say:

“[The tax stabilization reserve fund] is getting pretty big, and I think we need to take a look as a Legislature at how it’s structured.”

Representative Antonio “Moe” Maestas, D-Albuquerque, proclaimed the state could withstand 2 consecutive decade long economic downturns, given the amount of money in the savings funds and said:

“Money sitting in an account is actually counterproductive to the future of our state.”

Senator Crystal Diamond, R-Elephant Butte, said legislators should be mindful of the historic volatility of oil and gas revenues noting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and said:

“We do not know what the future holds, and as such, we should think twice before spending exorbitantly simply because our coffers appear to be full today.”

Republican Senator Pat Woods raised concerns about widespread inflation and said:

“I think New Mexico is very flush with money. … And it’s all about the money that poured into this state.”

The links to quoted source material are here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2423653/nm-revenue-levels-projected-to-soar-to-all-time-high.html

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/new-mexico-projects-nearly-1-4-billion-budget-windfall/article_391f5c9c-0741-11ec-88c4-bb0bacd4cb1f.html

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Although New Mexico’s financial out look is looking better, it is too easy to forget how quickly things can change practically overnight.

It was in 2019 that the New Mexico oil industry’s historic energy production was enabling unprecedented investment by Mew Mexico in education. In FY 2019, the oil and gas industry contributed $1.36 billion to public education, representing a 28% increase over FY 2018. Public schools and higher education received $1.36 billion from state oil and gas revenue in FY 2019, up a staggering $300 million from FY 2018. It included upwards of $1.06 billion for primary and secondary education, and $302 million for state universities, colleges and other higher education institutions.

A report by the New Mexico Tax Research Institute released in January, 2020, revealed that the oil and natural gas industry contributed more than $3.1 billion in tax revenue for fiscal year 2019, a dramatic 41% from the $2.2 billion generated the year before. The $3.1 billion was an increase of $910 million from 2018. Oil and natural gas represent 39% of New Mexico’s General Fund revenues, the highest share of all industries in recent history.

https://www.energyindepth.org/oil-industry-sets-new-record-with-3-1-billion-in-revenue-for-2019-new-mexico-budget/

https://www.abqjournal.com/1410518/nm-earned-31bn-in-oil-gas-revenue-in-fy-2019.html

https://www.nmoga.org/FuelingNewMexico

On February 20, 2020, the New Mexico legislature ended having enacted a $7.6 Billion dollar budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The enacted budget raised annual spending by $536 million, or by nearly 8% over last year’s budget. The increase in spending was a result of record-breaking oil production in the Permian Basin with the state originally anticipating at least an $800 million increase in state government income during the coming budget year. The legislature also enacted a separate $49.5 million in capital outlay projects. The 2020-2021 fiscal year begins July 1.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/oil-price?type=wti

Passage of the $7.6 billion budget plan for the 2021 budget year was predicated on oil averaging $52 per barrel. The price of crude oil per barrel plummeted to an alarming $20 dollars a barrel and was expected to go down even further. With each $1 drop a barrel in oil prices, the state loses upwards of $22 million in direct oil and gas revenue over a full year.

Just when things were looking great in 2019 with respect to oil and gas royalties to finance state government, BAM the corona virus hits, a global oil price war intensified, and New Mexico got hit even harder in the process, all within one month since the adjournment of the New Mexico legislature on February 20, 2020. The global oil price war hit hard the state’s revenue boom, harder than anyone expected. It caused the state budget surplus to evaporate. The New Mexico Legislature’s finance analysts had pegged oil prices for the budget year that ends in June to an average $52 per barrel but oil prices per barrel of crude hit an all time low $21.

As the result of the financial crisis in revenues, Governor Lujan Grisham was forced to call a Special Session on November 24, 2020 to deal with the revenue shortfall and pandemic relief.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/11/25/special-legislative-session-begins-and-ends-within-8-hours-and-spending-330-in-coronavirus-19-pandemic-relief-aide/

One thing is for certain is that New Mexico lawmakers did not envision the spike of billions of revenues in such a short period time. After all the financial gloom and gloom of the past two year, New Mexico is rebounding. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the Legislature will soon be releasing their own separate proposed budgets before the start of next year’s 30-day legislative session. Both those budgets will act as the blue prints for enactment of a final budget. Let’s hope the legislature and the Governor thinks big and invests widely in infrastructure and economic development that will improve the lives of all New Mexicans and that will leave a lasting legacy well beyond the times when they are no longer in office.

On Tuesday, September 13, First Judicial District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid upheld the Albuquerque City Clerk’s decision to deny public financing to Sheriff Manny Gonzales. During the hearing, Gonzales’ attorneys argued that even without the signatures in question, Gonzales still had enough to qualify for the funding. However, city’s adopted campaign finance rules allow the clerk to deny public financing, no matter how much fraud is found, no matter how minor it is.

Judge Biedscheid in announcing his ruling from the bench said:

“There has been really nothing presented to the court [today] to indicate that the clerk’s initial finding was fraudulent, arbitrary, capricious … that it wasn’t’ supported by substantial evidence.

While much is made and much effort is expended trying to paint Mr. Watson as the instrument of the mayor, that is not legally true. … He is the Albuquerque city clerk that has been vested with authority and duties under Albuquerque ordinances.”

Gonzales’ attorneys argued that even without the signatures in question he still has enough to qualify for the funding. However, the the city election rules are clear and allow the clerk to deny public financing, no matter how much fraud is found.

Sheriff Manny Gonzales during an afternoon press conference called the Judge’s decision a “bad” and “unethical” decision.

GONZALES SEEKS PRIVATE FINANCING

After Judge Biedscheid’s ruling to deny him public finance, Manny Gonzales held a news conference and announced his campaign’s plan to move forward with raising private financing. A defiant Gonzales said he and his supporters will not be “hushed” and had this to say:

“This is something that has never happened to another campaign. And I think that’s going to be the driving force, and the motivation, and the inspiration for us winning this race. … What we want people to know is that not only am I more inspired than ever but I’m also ready to win this race on behalf of the people.”

Gonzales also came out swinging blaming the Democrt Progressives for undermining his campaign all because of his support of President Trump and accepting federal funding last year for a law enforcement initiatives. Gonzales appeared with then Attorney General William Barr at an Albuquerque Press conference and later Gonzales traveled to the White House to attend a Presidential Press conference on a crime initiative where Albuquerque was identified as one of 7 cities that would have federal agents sent to deal with violent crime.

Gonzales now has less than 8 weeks before the November 2 election to get private contributions for his mayoral campaign.

Links to quoted news source materials

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/district-court-judge-upholds-denial-of-gonzales-public-financing/6237898/?cat=500

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/elections/district-court-judge-denies-public-financing-for-manny-gonzales-again/

https://www.abqjournal.com/2429152/sheriff-changes-course-after-loss-in-court.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/2429152/sheriff-changes-course-after-loss-in-court.html

ORIGINAL DENIAL BY CITY CLERK

On June 18, City Clerk Ethan Watson posted on the city web site his office had reviewed and verified that Gonzales submitted more than the required 3,000 valid signatures and more than the 3,771 valid qualifying donations. The city clerk rejected 745 petition signatures and rejected 573 Qualifying $5.00 contributions submitted by the Gonzales campaign. Ostensibly with the posting, no forgeries were found in the 3,000 nominating signatures and the 3,771 qualifying donations approved by the city clerk.

The Keller campaign submitted to the City Clerk 149 examples of alleged forgeries on documents submitted to the City Clerk by the Gonzales campaign. The Keller campaign also filed signed statements from upwards of 40 people contacted by a private investigator hired by Keller campaign. Most of those contacted said the signatures on Gonzales’ nominating petition was theirs and half confirmed they had contributed $5 to Gonzales’ public financing effort. Nearly all said signatures on the $5 qualifying donations were forgeries.

The city’s Office of Inspector General investigated the qualifying $5.00 contribution receipts and found that there were problems with 15% of the 239 randomly selected Gonzales campaign receipts it reviewed. According to the Inspector General, the voters identified and contacted in those instances said either that they signed the receipt but never gave money or that they never signed the receipt or gave $5.

Complicating things for Gonzales is he admitted that signature forgeries were on both nominating petitions and the $5.00 qualifying donations. On July 14, after repeated denials of any wrong doing by the Gonzales campaign, and in a written response to an ethics complaint filed with the Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices, Gonzales’ campaign stated.

“It does appear, upon the Gonzales campaign’s own investigation, that many of the qualifying-contribution (“QC”) receipts…were signed by someone other than the voter.”

In a letter dated July 9, Albuquerque City Clerk Ethan Watson notified Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales’ that the city was denying his campaign $661,00 in public financing citing misconduct in the qualifying process and forgery of signatures on $5 qualifying donations. City Clerk Watson wrote Gonzales he could not confirm that Gonzales had complied with the city’s Open and Ethical Election Code and associated regulations.

It is Part C of the regulations entitled “Qualifying Period and Qualifying Contributions” that outlines the certification process relating to the $5 qualifying donations for all the candidates.

Paragraph 15 entitled “Certification of Participating Candidates for Public Financing” provides in part as follows:

“The City Clerk shall certify as a Participating Candidate, all Applicant Candidates who meet the requirements of the OEEC and submit an Application for Certification.

If the Clerk makes … the finding … above, the Clerk shall not certify the Applicant Candidate as a Participating Candidate.”

The link to the regulations is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/documents/2021-regulations-for-the-open-and-ethical-election-code.pdf

Gonzales appealed Watson’s denial of public finance and the case was assigned to a city hearing officer. Within a week, a hearing was scheduled and held.

HEARING OFFICER RULING

On Monday July 19, city hearing officer Ripley Harwood issued his written ruling on Manny Gonzales’ appeal of the City Clerks denial of $661,000 in public finance. Harwood found Manny Gonzales had failed to prove that Clerk Ethan Watson had acted inappropriately in denying him $661,000 in public financing. Harwood specifically found that it was Gonzales’ responsibility to keep fraud and forgery in the gathering of the qualifying donations. In his ruling upholding the city clerk, Harwood wrote:

“I endorse the view that it is the duty of candidates to manage and oversee their campaigns in a way that assures that fraud and falsifications do not occur. I would view this as a non-delegable duty even if (Gonzales) had not signed a document acknowledging responsibility for the acts of his key subordinates. … Failing to detect and eliminate a multitude of forged qualifying contribution forms bearing the signatures of his key subordinates constitutes failure to exercise ordinary care in the management of a campaign and meets the ‘knew or should have known’ standard of [the “Open and Ethical Elections Code” regulations.]”

FIRST BIEDSCHEID RULING

Gonzales appealed the city hearing officer’s ruling to state district court. All Second Judicial District Judges disqualified themselves from hearing the case and First Judicial District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid was assigned the case by the Supreme Court.

On Friday, August 27, Santa Fe District Judge Bryan Biedscheid reversed Albuquerque City Clerk Nathan Watson’s decision denying Sheriff Manuel Gonzales the public financing for his mayoral campaign. The Court ruled that Watson denied Gonzales due process of law.

In making his first ruling in the case, Judge Biedscheid emphasized that Gonzales was denied the opportunity to answer the allegations of fraud against him in the collection of the $5 qualifying donations for public finance. Instead, the City Clerk decided to withhold certification of the funding unilaterally by interpreting and applying election rules and regulations he wrote an issued in September of 2020.

The Judge also ruled the city clerk could ultimately deny Gonzales the public financing, but to do so, the City Clerk will need to determine that Gonzales has been found to have violated regulations and make specific factual findings on those allegations. The judge further ordered the City Clerk must establish and carry out a process by next week giving Gonzales due process. The judge stressed that Gonzales has to be given the opportunity to answer the allegations against him.

NEW MEXICO SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO INTERVENE

On September 1, the Gonzales campaign filed a PETITION FOR WRIT OF SUPERINTENDING CONTROL asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to intervene. On September 8, the New Mexico Supreme Court denied the petition and dismissed the case.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

At the very least it is downright embarrassing and the very worst very pathetic that Sheriff Manny Gonzales would actually say Judge Biedscheid’s decision was “bad” and “unethical” decision and essentially taking absolute no responsibility for the illegal conduct of his campaign. Sheriff Gonzales has 30 years of law enforcement experience. As an elected Sheriff, he is also held to a higher standard and he is not above the law. There is no doubt that Gonzales knows that forging a person’s signature is a 4th degree felony with a basic sentence of 18 months in prison and that fraud to secure $661,000 in financing would be a second degree felony punishable by a basic 18 years in prison, yet Sheriff Gonzales allowed fraud and the forging of signatures in an effort to secure $661,000 in his campaign financing.

Sheriff Gonzales embarrassingly argued that fraud and forgeries go on all the time in political campaigns. That may be true, but it was the Gonzales campaign that got caught. The blunt truth is that Biedscheid ensured that Gonzales was given “due process of law” and an evidentiary hearing and then and only then was the public financing taken away. One thing Gonzales may have learned out of all of the mess he created is that even the guilty are entitled to due process of law, and once due process occurs, a decision is made as to the consequences. If there was any unethical conduct in this whole damn mess it came from the Gonzales campaign.

Gonzales will find it extremely difficult to raise money. The municipal election is scheduled for November 2, giving Gonzales 8 weeks to raise private financing an extremely daunting task. It will require major donors to raise sufficient financing to run a viable campaign. Now that Manny Gonzales has been denied $661,000 in public financing for the 5th time, it is also more likely than not that whatever support he had from conservative Democrats, Trump Republicans and Independents will implode as his reputation in law enforcement has been severely tarnished. Donations to the measured finance campaign supporting and promoting Manny Gonzales began to decline when his trouble with the city clerk emerged and now he has had almost 2 full months of negative press that has sullied his before good reputation.

WILL THERE BE A RUNOFF BETWEEN KELLER AND ARAGON?

Incumbent Mayor Tim Keller no doubt benefits from having his most viable opponent’s public finance funding zeroed out by the courts. Keller has qualified and been given the $661,000 in public finance. Further, the measured finance committee “Build Back Burque”, organized to raise money and to promote Keller has $51,770 on hand to promote Keller or tear down Gonzales or Eddy Aragon for that matter. Sources have confirmed that Mayor Tim Keller is already taping and preparing video campaign ads that will likely be release come October 1.

Der Führer Trump Republican candidate Eddy Aragon will also benefit from Gonzales’ downwards spiral and loss of public finance and support. Aragon is a private finance candidate and the only Republican who qualified for Mayor securing the 3,000 nominating signatures in an impressive two-week period. Further, the Republican Party has now endorsed Aragon and that will likely also bring in donations, but if it will be nearly enough to run an effective campaign is the ultimate question.

At this point in time, 8 weeks before the election, incumbent Mayor Tim Keller is the front runner. With that said, with a low voter turnout, which is expected, Mayor Tim Keller may not secure the necessary 50% of the vote plus one to avoid a runoff. As the Gonzales campaign continues to nose dive and if the Eddy Aragon campaign gains traction, or major event happens that tests Keller’s leadership and he fails, there could be a runoff between Mayor Tim Keller and Eddy Aragon with neither getting 50% of the vote and Gonzales coming in 3rd.

In a runoff, Keller will consolidate the Progressive and Moderate Democratic vote, Aragon will consolidate the Republican and conservative Democrat vote. Under such a scenario, the city could see a repeat of the Democrat Tim Keller and Republican Dan Lewis election 4 years ago with Keller ultimately winning.

Fasten your seat belt and stay tuned!

On Monday, September 13, during an online speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, and former US Court of Appeals Judge, unveiled new rules governing federal monitors responsible for overseeing police reforms and implementation of court approved settlement reform measures. The new rules include setting limits on federal court appointed monitor’s tenure, budgets for their services and requiring them to undergo more training.

5 PRINCIPALS, 19 ACTIONS

Since Garland was appointed Attorney General, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has undertaken “pattern or practice” investigations of police departments in Minneapolis, Louisville and Phoenix. It was in 2013 that such an investigation occurred with the Albuquerque Police Department. The DOJ found that APD engaged in a pattern of “excessive use of force” and “deadly force” and a “culture of aggression”. The DOJ investigation of APD resulted in a Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) entered into by the City and the DOJ mandating 271 police reforms.

The biggest and most pervasive complaints involving the settlement agreements are that they go on, and on for on years, they harm police morale and frustrate community residents. Monitoring teams, such as what Albuquerque has, are usually composed of former police officials, lawyers, academics and police-reform consultants. The monitoring teams typically bill local taxpayers between $1 million and $2 million per year. In Albuquerque, Federal Court Appointed Monitor James Ginger has been paid upwards of $8 million over the last 7 years and his team has prepared 13 Independent Monitor’s Report filed with the federal court. Each time a report is release, the Federal Court has an all day briefing in the case.

The Department of Justice said in a press release:

“The department has found that – while consent decrees and monitors are important tools to increase transparency and accountability – the department can and should do more to improve their efficiency and efficacy. The Associate Attorney General [Vanita Gupta] has recommended – and I have accepted – a set of 19 actions that the department will take to address those concerns.”

Associate Attorney General Gupta for his part had this to say:

“Consent decrees have proven to be vital tools in upholding the rule of law and promoting transformational change in the state and local governmental entities where they are used. … The department must do everything it can to guarantee that they remain so by working to ensure that the monitors who help implement these decrees do so efficiently, consistently and with meaningful input and participation from the communities they serve.”

The 19 actions are outlined in the memo released released by the DOJ. There are major 5 principals outlined in Gupta’s memo that will require future monitorships of state and local governmental to meet. Those principals are:

1. Monitorships should be designed to minimize cost to jurisdictions and avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
2. Monitors must be accountable to the court, the parties and the public.
3. Monitors should assess compliance consistently across jurisdictions.
4. Sustained, meaningful engagement with the community is critical to the success of the monitors.
5. Monitoring must be structured to efficiently move jurisdictions into compliance.

The steps the department will take going forward in all monitor agreements to ensure that these principles are outlined as follows:

1. Budget Caps: Future consent decrees will include an annual cap on monitors’ fees to increase transparency and help contain costs.

2. No Double Dipping: To dispel any perception that monitoring is a cottage industry, lead monitors in future consent decrees will no longer be able to serve on more than one monitoring team at a time. Editor’s Note: The APD Federal Monitor has served in the past as a consent decree monitor in other cities, but only one at a time.

3. Monitors Should Prioritize Stakeholder Input: To ensure that monitors selected are able to understand of a variety of interests and perspectives of the stakeholders in the process, including impacted communities, law enforcement and victims of official misconduct.

4. Term Limits: To ensure that monitors are being held accountable, consent decrees will impose specific terms for monitors that can only be renewed after a process of judicial evaluation and reappointment.

5. Effective Practices Guide, Assessment Tools and Training Materials: To ensure that monitorships are being conducted consistently across jurisdictions, the department will convene a group of stakeholders to create a set of effective practices for monitors, training programs for new monitors and judges overseeing monitorships and assessment tools for monitors to use to evaluate jurisdictions.

6. Termination Hearing After No More than Five Years: To ensure that monitorships are designed to incentivize monitors and jurisdictions to move towards compliance as efficiently as possible, future consent decrees will require a hearing after five years so that jurisdictions can demonstrate the progress it has made, and if possible, to move for termination. To the extent that full compliance has not yet been reached by five years, the hearing will be used to solidify the plan for getting over the finish line in short order.

The changes will not automatically impact the city of Albuquerque’s court-mandated reform effort. Notwithstanding, Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement that his administration “will approach the U.S. District Court in New Mexico to ensure the same standards are applied to [the Albuquerque Police Department’s] settlement agreement.”

Links to quoted source material are here:

https://www.policemag.com/618380/ag-garland-announces-new-rules-regulating-consent-decree-monitors

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-department-set-new-rules-court-appointed-monitors-police-departments-n1279051

https://www.axios.com/justice-department-police-reform-monitors-b4c31809-29c5-4631-9ff9-2334d54042e5.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/2428874/doj-unveils-changes-to-monitoring-of-future-consent-decrees.html

CITY AND APD REACT TO ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND’S ANNOUNCMENT

The changes announced by Attorney General Garland pertain immediately to any future consent decrees negotiated but will not automatically impact the city of Albuquerque’s Court Approved Settlement Agreement. Notwithstanding, APD and Albuquerque city officials praised the changes.

APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the Keller administration has been meeting with DOJ officials for months and has worked with the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Gallego said the Keller met with DOJ officials “to outline several concerns about [the] existing process used by the DOJ to monitor the Albuquerque Police Department. … For example, the Keller administration highlighted the exorbitant cost paid by Albuquerque taxpayers for the work of out-of-state monitors who oversee APD’s reform process.”

Mayor Tim Keller for his part had this to say in a statement:

“[We appreciated the Attorney General for listening to the city’s concerns and for] making changes to reflect the realities we’re facing. … “In this city, we want to make reforms that are actually meaningful to our local communities rather than out-of-state consultants. … I believe that Albuquerque has what it takes to do that while supporting our officers, tackling crime and making our city safer for people from all walks of life.”

APD Chief Harold Medina has said recently the Court Approved Settlement Agreement has interfered with his ability as Chief to put more resources toward fighting crime. In a statement, Medina said APD has made “tremendous progress” in changing the culture in the department and said:

“But the public also deserves a fully staffed police department that has the resources to focus on fighting crime. … The pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction where officers do not feel supported. We need the local flexibility to ensure we can balance fighting crime while protecting the rights of all citizens.”

The link to quoted source material is here

https://www.abqjournal.com/2428874/doj-unveils-changes-to-monitoring-of-future-consent-decrees.html

APD POLICE UNION REACTION

Shaun Willoughby, the President of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association had this to say in an on-camera interview with Channel 4:

“They don’t come in here with policies that are considered best practice and a huge blank check book to train police officers … So this whole blue print called the DOJ consent decree and the monitoring process, it’s a joke.”

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/doj-releases-new-rules-for-cities-under-consent-decree/6237220/?cat=500

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The new rules and principals announced by Attorney General Garland for the federal monitoring of consent decrees are the first time the Department of Justice has taken action to deal with pervasive criticism that consent decrees go on and on indefinitely with no end in sight, cost way too much and have a major impact of local law enforcement. The fact that the Keller Administration has already taken steps and intends to ask the New Mexico Federal Court assigned the case to apply the principles to the City’s consent decree is a major development. It creates the opportunity for the city to move forward and ask for further relief from the court to modify the existing consent decree. The city should ask for a termination hearing and ask for a dismissal of the case or a significant reduction in the monitoring.

The City and APD for over 7 years have been struggling to implement the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) and the 217 mandated reforms. Millions have been spent. Not at all surprising is Shaun Willoughby, the President of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, shoots off his big mouth about the consent decree, babbles on and on with his false characterization of the consent decree. Willoughby now disparages the new rules for federal monitoring of consent decrees calling the consent decree and the monitoring process “a joke”. The real joke is that the police union, its membership of sergeants and lieutenants and the union President say they are supportive of the consent decree reforms yet have done everything they could for the last 7 years to oppose and undermine the consent decree reforms.

Hope springs eternal that the day will come when Willoughby for just once will speak the truth when he gives interviews to the local news media and the media in turn will fulfill their responsibility and report the truth contrary to what Willoughby has to say.

The link to a related blog article is here:

City And APD File “14th Progress and Status Summary Report” In Federal APD Police Reform Case