Since 1997, the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court’s Recovery Court Program, known by many as Drug Court, has been a leader in addressing the community concerns of repeat DWI offenders.

The Metropolitan Recovery Court Program is a highly critical program that has an impact on people’s lives by offering repeat DWI offenders a chance at rehabilitation and recovery instead of incarceration.

The highly successful program blends judicial oversight by a program judge, supervision by probation officers, a designated court calendar, use of incentives to reward and improve performance, graduated sanctions for non–compliance, and comprehensive substance abuse treatment and ancillary services to address causative factors associated with DWI.

The program has been a key component in the Metropolitan Court’s efforts to enhance community safety, promote evidence–based practices for offender accountability, and support offender rehabilitation.

The DWI Recovery Court program team consists of one judge, seven probation officers, a program manager, and a programs division director.

Metropolitan Court Judge Edward L Benavidez is the Chief Judge of the Metropolitan Court.

Judge Benavidez has been a judge at Metropolitan Court for the past 10 years.

For the past 4 years, Judge Benavidez has worked with and presided over the Recovery Court Program while at the same time carrying out his duties as presiding judge and a full case load.

Following is a guest commentary by Judge Edward L. Benavidez:

JUDGE EDWARD L. BENAVIDEZ GUEST COMMENTARY

“Repeat DWI offenders who are facing from 90-364 days in jail have the
option of entering into the program instead of going to jail. The
program is an intensive rehabilitation process that demands sobriety,
maintaining employment, and involves a commitment to counseling in an
effort to make the participants responsible members of society who no
longer endanger themselves and our community.

The program runs for a minimum of fourteen months. There are five
phases that must be completed prior to graduation. Depending on
success with phase requirements, participants transfer phases every
three months. Participants are sentenced at the end of the program
which involves suspension of any jail jurisdiction that remains.

The first phase is the toughest. Participants are responsible for
attending AA or another community-based support group three times
weekly. They must work at least 28 hours per week or perform
community service. They are required to attend group and individual
counseling session with our contracted counselors. They are required
to check in weekly with their probation officer at Metro Court and
they meet with the Court every two weeks in our open court sessions.
The court sessions are open to the public and it is a forum where the
individuals progress is publicly discussed.

As participants move from phase to phase the requirements are
lessened. Graduations are the culmination of a hard-earned program
where participants have demonstrated the ability to maintain sobriety
and in effect have recovered their lives. The road to recovery and
graduation can be difficult. Sometimes participants experience
relapses and miss program requirements. These issues are dealt with
by sanctions that include additional community service hours and
increased counseling and testing as warranted.

Our success with the program is measured by recidivism, which is the
number of graduates that pick up a new DWI charges after graduation.
After four years into the program, our recidivism rate is at 4.4
percent. I have had 327 graduates with only 13 people having
reoffended to this point. Nationally, the drug court recidivism rate
is about 7 per cent.

Alcohol and drug abuse touch many people. Anyone who is reading
this likely knows of a friend or family member who has struggled.
Many people suffer trauma of some sort that can lead to alcohol and
drug abuse. Fortunately, Metropolitan Court offers help.

Aside from the community safety benefits and recovery of the
participants, the program creates huge tax dollar saving to the
citizens of Bernalillo county. The program costs $17.00 a day to run
as opposed to $120.00 a day to incarcerate someone at the Metropolitan
Detention Center.

With an average of one-hundred participants in the program at any
given time, the tax dollars saved are over one million dollars
annually. The funding to run the program is primarily obtained
through Federal Grants.

Open court sessions are in Courtroom 700 at the Bernalillo County
Metropolitan Court on Thursday mornings of every week. Drug court
rehabilitation is the key to reducing criminal recidivism, creating a
safer community, and saving millions of taxpayer dollars. I would
personally, extend an invitation to any of you who are interested to
attend a session. Your thoughts and comments are welcome.”

Respectfully yours,

JUDGE EDWARD L. BENAVIDEZ
Chief Judge of the Metropolitan Court.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Metropolitan Court Judges are initially elected in partisan elections to full terms and then after serving the term, they must go before voters for retention.

Every election cycle where Judges appear on the ballot, the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission evaluates judges by sending out confidential surveys to lawyers, court jurors and others who interact with the court to grade the Judges and the Commission then rates the judges and recommends to voters who they should vote to retain.

All to often, Judges who run afoul of certain segments of the New Mexico Bar are targeted by attorneys who give low marks to Judges because they do not like the Judge’s rulings and want the Commission to make a negative recommendation at election time.

Any Judge who does not secure a “yes” vote from 57 percent of those voting on their retention are removed from office and the Governor then appoints a judge to fill the vacancy who then must run in the next general election in a partisan race.

All State of New Mexico Judges are strictly prohibited by the Code of Judicial Conduct from holding any elected or appointed positions in political parties.

All state Judges are strictly prohibited from endorsing any candidate for office and cannot solicit donations for elections and must have registered measured finance committees to raise money for them to prevent the Judges from knowing who donated to their campaigns.

A Judge is also prevented by the Code of Judicial Conduct from making “extrajudicial comments” to the media or groups that may reflect on their fairness and impartiality.

Once the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission issues its ratings, there is virtually no recourse for Judges to dispute a none-retention recommendation rating given to them other than to campaign vigorously for votes.

Judge Edward Benavidez is seeking retention on the Metropolitan Court and his name appears on the November election ballot.

On October 23, 2018, the Albuquerque Journal issued its editorial advocating voters keep all Metro Judges on the bench, including Judge Edward L. Benavidez.

This is what the Albuquerque Journal had to say about JUDGE EDWARD L. BENAVIDEZ:

“Benavidez has served as Metropolitan Court chief judge since May of 2017, overseeing the court’s $27 million budget and 300 employees. And he has presided over DWI Recovery Court for the last four years. Of the 335 offenders who graduated from the program, only 13 have re-offended, an astonishing success rate and proof this program is making a difference. And he’s juggled these duties while presiding over regular cases.

In surveys, 82 percent of court staff and 77 percent of resource staff (police officers) recommended Benavidez be retained. But only 51 percent of attorneys surveyed recommended retention. Benavidez, who has been a Metro Court judge for 10 years, says he ran afoul of defense attorneys and [the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission] JPEC in part because he still sets bonds for defendants he feels are a danger or flight risk. He has a 94 percent affirmation rate on appeal while also maintaining the highest case clearance rate in Metro Court.”

You can read the Journal recommendations for retention of all the Metro Judges here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1236297/voters-should-keep-all-18-metro-judges-on-the-bench.html

Judge Edward L. Benavidez has done and impressive job with the Metropolitan Court Recovery Program and voters should vote “YES” to retain him so he continue with his work.

Four years ago, on October 31, 2014 the City of Albuquerque entered into a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice after the Department of Justice (DOJ) found the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) displayed a “pattern and practice” in the use of excessive use of force and deadly force.

After the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) was signed, law enforcement consultant Dr. James Ginger, along with his team of consultants, was appointed by the Federal Court to monitor and audit the reform efforts of APD over a 4-year period at a cost of $4.5 million paid by the city.

The Federal Court Monitor contract will be up in the 2019 fiscal year.

Under the CASA, the federal monitor only has authority to audit APD’s progress and report to the federal court.

The Federal Monitor has absolutely no management nor command control over APD under the CASA.

Under the CASA, the Federal Monitor does not have the authority to write “use of force” and “deadly force” policy nor write policy reforms.

The CASA mandates that the parties to the lawsuit must write use of force and deadly force policy and implement the process for reporting, reviewing and investigating use of force and deadly force policy.

NO PROGRESS WRITING USE OF FORCE POLICY

On September 10, 2018, a status telephone conference call was held with the United States District Court Judge Robert Brack who is presiding over the reforms underway at APD under the CASA.

Ginger reported that the statistics he uses to audit, monitor and track progress show that APD has achieved 99.6 percent compliance with primary tasks, 75.4 secondary compliance and 59.5 percent operational compliance.

According to Ginger, it’s the first time APD has achieved above 50 percent operational compliance.

To complete the CASA and have the case dismissed, APD must reach and maintain 95% compliance in all three categories.

Ginger said those statistics will be in his next monitoring report, which will be released in November.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1232650/judge-gives-high-marks-for-reform-efforts-at-apd.html

During the September 10, 2018 status conference, Federal Monitor James Ginger reported there remains a problem with the “use of force policy” when he said:

“I hate to be the one to rain on the parade, but I just simply have to report the facts.I received the latest use-of-force document, 2-52, from the parties last week.I found it lacking in multiple key aspects. It was missing key components. Issues that needed to be dealt with in a Use-of-Force Policy were not dealt with. I had questions about enforceability. So I’m working on writing the resolution document … I found it necessary to basically rewrite the policy. There were, at last count, 50-plus changes that I saw as needing to be made. So, it’s been a fairly complex process. Those have been made. They’re in draft form. As soon as I finish proofing that draft, it will go out to the parties immediately.”

COSTLY PUBLIC SAFETY EXPERTS

Including Federal Monitor James Ginger, there are now four civilians employed by the city writing and implementing APD “use of force” and “deadly force policies”, the DOJ reforms, and other APD policies at a minimum cost of $4,730,000 to taxpayers and counting.

The 3 additional public safety experts and policy writers are:

JUDGE LORENZO F. GARCIA

Judge Garcia is a retired federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico. Former Judge Garcia was hired by APD early in 2016 by the former Berry Administration to help write police policy even though he had no prior experience writing police policy. Judge Garcia was hired to help draft APD standard operating procedures after the city attorney acknowledge that the so called “inhouse experts” at APD consisting of high-ranking command staff were having difficulty and unable to write the policy. Judge Garcia has been paid $230,000 and word has it the Keller Administration renewed his contract, but his billings and work product have never been disclosed to the public.

JAMES B. LEWIS

On February 26, 2018, former New Mexico State Treasurer James Lewis was appointed by the Keller Administration as “Senior Public Safety Advisor” to oversee police reform and help implement community policing. Mr. Lewis is paid on contract $75,000 a year. Mr. Lewis is assigned to work for APD in the Albuquerque Police Department Compliance Bureau which deals with policy and his duties include helping with “the implementation and oversight of the Department of Justice mandated reforms” and working with the APD command staff.

DAMON MARTINEZ

On October 18, 2018, the Keller Administration announced that former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Damon Martinez was hired full time to write police policy and is paid $118,000 a year. As US Attorney, Mr. Martinez was instrumental in leading the DOJ efforts to get the Albuquerque Police Department to agree to a reform effort and settlement agreement. Mr. Martinez recently ran for congress in the Democratic primary. Mr. Martinez will also serve as the department’s primary civilian liaison with the 2nd Judicial District Attorney, 2nd Judicial District Court, the District Court for the District of New Mexico, tasks that are normally a function of the City Attorney. Mr. Martinez is tasked with overseeing the development of strategic policies designed to improve APD’s ability to fight crime and ensure the successful prosecution of criminals.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

No rational has been reported on why Judge Lorenzo’s Garcia’s contract to write policy has been renewed nor any report given on what policy he has written over the last two years.

Both James B. Lewis and Damon Martinez are highly respected within the community, they are highly talented and possess managerial skills far superior to many of the appointments made by Mayor Tim Keller.

Both James Lewis and Damon Martinez have been relegated to positions far below their pay grades, talents and abilities with little authority given to them to have an impact other than for providing public relations.

Under the terms of the Court Approved Settlement Agreement, the federal court appointed monitor can only audit and report to the federal court on the reform process and cannot write any new policy, even though he has the expertise.

The rewriting of the “use of force” and “deadly force” and implementation and training is where the “rubber hits” the road and is the most critical purpose of the CASA.

Repeatedly over the last three years since his appointment, Federal Monitor James Ginger has said it is not his job to write the “use of force” and “deadly force policy” even though he has said privately he could do so very easily in short order and without difficulty.

The parties to the CASA have taken well over a year to negotiate the “use of force” and “deadly force” policy and the negotiations contributed to the significant delay in the implementation of the reforms.

Amazingly, Ginger reported to the Court on September 10, 2018 that he “received the latest use-of-force document, 2-52, from the parties last week. I found it lacking in multiple key aspects. It was missing key components. Issues that needed to be dealt with in a Use-of-Force Policy were not dealt with. I had questions about enforceability. So I’m working on writing the resolution document … I found it necessary to basically rewrite the policy.”

Ginger is now rewriting use of force and deadly force policy when the City and APD have hired high paid public safety experts and policy writers such as Judge Garcia, James Lewis and Damon Martinez, not to mention the highly cumbersome and elaborate process for writing and approving APD policy

The CASA is clear and unambiguous that the Federal Monitor does not have any management nor control over APD staff nor command staff.

Under the CASA, Ginger’s only court authority is gathering information from APD and auditing and reporting to the court.

With the cumbersome policy process outlined in the below postscript, it is a wonder that anything really gets done in writing new policy, yet the city taxpayer continues to be on the hook paying an enormous amount of money to people to write and implement policy for APD.

When Dr. Ginger’s next status report is released in November, perhaps the public will get a better idea how much longer the Federal Monitor will be around.

The next Federal monitors report should give an indication of how much longer we have to pay people outlandish salaries to write policy for APD and the command staff and to implement the DOJ reforms.

Given that fact that Ginger’s contract will soon be up for renewal, taxpayers can anticipate he will say APD needs more time and he will need more time and no doubt will want another $4.5 million and 4 more years to help write policy and to audit.

Given the City’s record for hiring people to write policy or implement the DOJ reforms, do not be surprised if another $4.7 million will be paid out over the next 3 years in contracts with even more “public safety experts” hired to convince the public something is being done to reform APD.

__________________________________________________________________________

POSTSCRIPT ON USE OF FORCE POLICY DRAFTING

The Department of Justice Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) mandates a very elaborate and cumbersome process used to draft and approve new or revised APD standard operating procedure policy.

The process for developing APD policy, practices and procedure is essentially by committee and committee referrals.

The mandatory steps followed to draft APD policy under the Department of Justice Consent decree are as follows:

1. Existing standard operating procedure (SOP) goes to the Office of Policy Analysis (OPA) where all the stakeholders give input.
2. The Office of Policy Analysis (OPA) drafts new or revised SOP.
3. The new SOP goes to the “SOP Review Committee” and input is given by “subject matter” experts and a final draft of SOP is prepared and APD proposals are also considered.
4. The new SOP goes to the “Policy and Procedures Review Board” (PPRB) for review and they send it to
5. Office of Policy Analysis (OPA) for final review to ensure appropriateness and consistency with other APD Policy and then it is sent for
6. Review and approval by Chief of Police and City Attorney to see if it relates to the settlement agreement
7. If Chief and City Attorney do not approve, it goes back to step one, and the process starts all over again.
If the SOP is approved by Chief and City Attorney, it then must be reviewed and approved by all the parties to the lawsuit and consent decree.
8. The revised or new SOP goes to the federal monitor who must approve it and then it is sent to the federal judge for final approval.

The Associated Press and local news media report that the Keller Administration and the Albuquerque Police Department has hired an out of state law enforcement veteran to manage APDs Real-Time Crime center who was accused 19 years ago in a lawsuit of using excessive force while conducting a traffic stop as a New Jersey state trooper.

https://apnews.com/b326e9f0b3ee4a73b731f5291e1c519a?fbclid=IwAR1dzafYZkk6J8EHSc3QnvVc50xtS7zH2PYutUhkA8Adx5mhp6eJ2YOfvds

The lawsuit, which also included racial profiling claims stemming from other incidents involving troopers, was eventually settled, with state payouts ranging from $25,000 to $200,000.

In 1996, newly appointed APD Real Time Crime Center Leonard Nerbetski was accused of twisting the arm of an Egypt-born woman in her 20s and holding a gun to her head.

In 1999, Leonard Nerbetski was also named as one of two New Jersey State troopers accused of using excessive force and roughing up Laila Maher and Felix Morka, both minorities and both law students at the time, during a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.

While the State of New Jersey admitted to no wrongdoing under the settlements, the traffic stop involving Nerbetski and the other trooper led to changes in how the New Jersey State Police handle complaints of misconduct.

For the past 4 years, APD and the city have been struggling to implement mandated reforms agreed to in a Federal Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) after a U.S. Justice Department investigation in 2014 found a “culture of aggression” within the Albuquerque police ranks and excessive use of force and deadly force.

From 2010 to 2017, there were 42 police officer involved shooting and the city has paid $62 million in settlements in excessive use of force and deadly force cases and civil rights cases.

GROWING THE DEPARTMENT BY POACHING LATERALS

The Keller Administration is proposing to spend $88 million dollars, over a four-year period, with 32 million dollars of recurring expenditures, to hire 322 sworn officers and expand APD from 878 sworn police officers to 1,200 officers in order to return to community-based policing.

For the first fiscal year of the four-year plan, the 2018-2019 budget provides for increasing funding from 1,000 sworn police to 1,040.

Recently, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) issued a recruiting status report giving statistics summarizing APDs recruiting efforts to increase the number of sworn police.

On October 1, 2018, APD had 853 full time sworn police officers and just graduated a lateral class of 29 which brings the department to 882 sworn police officers.

APD’s has aggressively recruited more than 60 sworn police officers from other law enforcement agencies in in order to “grow” the size of the department by 100 officers in the 2018-2019 fiscal year that began July 1, 2018.

ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

Old law enforcement bad habits, attitudes and philosophy are difficult to overcomer, even with new training, but can easily be hidden before a hire is made unless a proper vetting process occurs.

Albuquerque police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said in a statement that Leonard Nerbetski was hired for his expertise in crime analysis and running a “high-level smart policing program.”

Mayor Tim Keller said his hiring was among several intended to help manage “a more effective and community-focused APD.”

APD is essentially saying the public needs to look the other way when it comes to the hire because it happened 19 years ago and it is a management hire.

Why does this sound so damn familiar? Because it has happened before with lateral hires!

APD and the city cannot afford to pay another $61 million in police misconduct cases for excessive use of force and deadly force cases and civil rights violations nor hire APD management who have no problem with such conduct or who find excuses for such conduct.

The Keller Administration prefers to ignore that the conduct led to changes in how state police handle complaints of misconduct so the conduct must have been pretty egregious and then did not result in much of an Internal Affairs investigation.

This is the type of hire and justification for the hire that creates a credibility gap with the public and the Keller Administration that proclaims it is doing a stringent vetting process.

The news story identifies the very problem associated with lateral hires for APD, including those hired for management positions, predicted by many.

A major problem with hiring “laterals” is that lateral hires contributed to the “culture of aggression” and that very argument was alleged in a civil lawsuit against APD that resulted in a $900,000 judgment against the city.

The Keller Administration recently graduated a lateral class of 30 and intends to hire another 30.

Notwithstanding the claims of a strict vetting process, the prospect of even a few officers, including management, being hired when they should not be hired looms large.

APD officials said they are closely vetting all lateral hires during the current hiring push claiming all lateral hires are vetted just as stringent as the new hires.

Background checks to work for APD are part of the vetting process before a person is hired.

It has not been reported if a background check was done on Nebreski for the management position and if so, did the Keller Administration hire him anyway.

APD Spokesman Gallegos did not disclose if Leonard Nerbetski notified the city of the previous lawsuits he was involved with for excessive use of force.

APD should avoid hiring police officers that have a history of personnel problems to the department they are leaving.

APD must avoid and make sure it does not hire any police officers from other agencies, including management, who are not fully committed to the Department of Justice agreed to mandated reforms.

The city cannot afford to pay another $61 million in police misconduct cases for excessive use of force and deadly force cases nor have APD management who have no problem with such conduct and who may look the other way when it does happen.

UPDATE

On October 20, 2018, it was reported that APD is standing by its decision to hire an out of state law enforcement veteran Leonard Nerbetski to head up the real time crime center who once was accused of racial profiling and excessive force in a nearly 20-year-old lawsuit where there was a settlement payout.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1235400/apd-stands-by-hire-facing-accusations.html

APD is also saying it will reach out to Leonard Nerbetski’s former employer to get more information about his background.

The Keller Administration also said the hire came highly recommended by the Federal Monitor.

There are two takeaways from this story:

FIRST: APD did not do the “stringent vetting” they claimed they were doing with all lateral hires.

SECOND: Why is the Federal Monitor recommending anyone for a job when for the last 3 years he has failed to weigh in on any other hires, including Gordon Eden and Assistant Chief Huntsman?

Huntsman was in charge of SWAT when a number of the 12 shootings occurred by SWAT that the DOJ investigated and as Assistant Chief with the rewriting use of force policies.

Huntsman also secretly recorded a conversation with the Federal Monitor that resulted in an admonishment from the Federal Court.

Now we have the Federal Monitor serving a function of human resources when his duties are strictly suppose to be monitoring the progress of the consent decree.

APD must avoid and make sure it does not hire any police officers from other agencies, including management, who are not fully committed to the Department of Justice agreed to mandated reforms nor management who may look the other way when it comes to police misconduct.

You can read more on lateral hires and rehires at the below links:

Do Not Rebuild A “New APD” With Old Problems

APD Needs A New Generation Of Police Officer

On October 16, 2018, reporter and editor Dennis Domrzalski of ABQ Report published an investigative report that APD’s Public Information Officer and Patrolman First Class Simon Drobik has earned $146,000 so far this year and is on track to make $200,0000 this year as a result of overtime pay.

You can read the entire ABQ Report here:

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/10/16/APDs-200000-Man-PIO-Made-146000-So-Far-This-Year

According the ABQ Report article, Drobik’s’ base pay is around $48,500 a year but he has made nearly $100,000 in overtime so far this year.

That works out to 60 hours a week in overtime.

If you count Drobik’s regular 40-hour week, he appears to be working, or claiming to work, an average of 140 hours each and every week.

ABQ Report sent APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos an email asking for an explanation of how Drobik has been able to make $146,000 so far this year.

APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos’ responded to ABQ Report in an email as follows to:

“Officer Drobik has historically worked overtime, doing duty as a master patrolman and as a uniformed Public Information Officer, often working 7 days a week. When the new administration took over, we advertised for a full-time, uniformed PIO to help carry the workload, but no other officers expressed interest. We appreciate that Officer Drobik stepped up and continues to do patrol work in addition to PIO duties. We are cognizant of the need to reduce overtime in the department. With the influx of new recruits and lateral officers being hired, we plan on filling many positions where we currently rely on overtime to cover essential services. Officer Drobik has agreed to serve as the full-time PIO during weekdays as his primary assignment.”

Readers may recall that former APD officer James Geha was indicted in early October for time card fraud while he was employed by APD.

Geha is alleged to have bilked the city out of $13,000 through the time card fraud.

FORMER APD SARGEANT DAN KLEIN

On October 17, 2018 an article by former APD Sergeant Dan Klein was published in ABQ Report.

You can read the entire Klein ABQ Report article here:

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/10/17/Klein-Audit-APDs-Human-Robots-Time-Sheets

Dan Klein demands to know who at APD has been approving Drobik’s time sheets and overtime.

Klein proposes to put APD’s payroll and human resources functions under the city’s Human Resources Department

Another point raised by Klein is it appears Drobik is claiming he is working 100 hours each and every week, seven days a week

Klein goes on to suggest the payroll records and time sheets of Simon Drobik need to be audited to find out who at APD has been signing off on what looks like an outrageous and impossible amount of overtime.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Under the City’s personnel rules and regulations, supervisors and managers, such as department heads and deputy positions, are not paid any overtime.

Supervisors and managers are paid significantly more than the average employee and for that reason are expected to work whatever time is necessary to get their jobs done.

APD patrolmen first class are all part of the police union bargaining unit and are paid hourly and are entitled to be paid time and a half for anytime worked over a 40-hour work week so long as they get approval in advance and apply for it.

APD Sergeants and Lieutenants, although supervisors and managers, are part of the police union bargaining unit and can be paid time and a half for all overtime.

Patrolmen first class earning excessive overtime is nothing new and has been going on for years at APD.

In March of 2017, a city internal audit report revealed that the Albuquerque Police Department spent $3.9 million over its “overtime” budget resulting in $13 million paid in overtime when the actual budget was for $9 million.

In 2016-2017 fiscal year, five (5) APD Patrol Officers First Class were listed in the top 250 city wage workers as being paid $146,971, $145,180, $140,243, $137,817 and $125,061 respectfully because of overtime making them the 6th, the 7th, the 10th, the 12th and the 20th highest paid employees at city hall.

What is new is that a person holding a public relations position of public information officer (PIO) is being paid almost $200,000 a year claiming they are holding and performing two separate jobs at one time and demanding time and a half of hourly pay for overtime pay for both positions.

The big difference between all other patrol officers first class and Simon Drobik is that he is a public information officer (PIO) for APD.

Simon Drobik has become the face of APD given his repeated-on camera and media appearances, briefings and interviews and by all accounts is the main spokesman for APD over all other PIO’s for the department.

Simon Drobik should be classified as a supervisor because he has the supervisor authority to demand information from anyone at city hall when it comes to APD issues including sworn officers as well as others in the chain of command.

APD Public Information Officer Simon Drobik has been given unprecedented authority to speak for Chief Geier and Mayor Tim Keller.

It is common to see Drobik on all 3 local TV news casts on any given day when there is a major crime being reported on when it would be far more appropriate for the Chief or a Deputy Chief to brief the media.

On May 30, 2018 Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Geier called a press conference to announce an Internal Affairs Investigation to investigate if policy and procedures were violated by APD’s encounters with relatives and teachers of a 7-year-old female child.

The child’s blood-stained underwear was collected by a teacher and APD refused to tag it into evidence and just threw it away.

Mayor Keller made the stunning admission that he and Chief Geier were not initially given the full story of the police department’s handling of the case, something that should have been investigated and known by Simon Drobik.

Keller and Geier spoke initially at the press conference for about only 5 minutes each and then sat down at a table turning the entire press conference over to APD Spokesman Simon Drobik for 45 minutes.

Drobik then proceeded to contradict the need for the Internal Affairs investigation when he said “We can’t just generate complaints based on speculation. … Somebody has to say something happened.”

The fact that the child was reported to have been unkept, smelling of urine time and again and had blood stained underwear was sure hell not “speculation” of child neglect and screamed out something was happening.

Normally, Public Information Officers for APD do not carry any kind of caseload, make no arrests, do not wear an APD uniform and do not appear in court.

APD is claiming that APD Public Information Officer Simon Drobik works full-time as PIO during weekdays as his primary assignment, working 7 days a week, and he also works as a patrol officer entitling him to be paid for that position as well, in essence holding down and being paid for two positions.

APD Public Information Officers do not need to be sworn police officers and should not be paid an hourly wage of a sworn police with the duties assumed by citizen staff under the direction and supervision of the Mayor’s Office and the Mayor’s Public Information Officer.

A mandatory “cap” on the amount overtime any sworn police office can be paid needs to be established that is fair and equitable for all sworn personnel to make available overtime to more sworn police officers in the department.

All Public Information Officers for the City should be made at will employees amd paid a set yearly salary with no overtime paid and work out of the office of the Mayor under the direction of the administration.

APD Sergeants and Lieutenants are supervisors and managers and should be removed from the police union bargaining unit and be prevented from being paid time and a half for all overtime.

Mayor Tim Keller campaign and promised transparency and accountability and he should order a payroll audit of APD.

An audit of APD payroll clearly needs to be conducted to determine if there is yet another abuse of overtime pay and policies within APD.

For other articles on APD overtime abuse see:

Associated Press Story On APD Police Overtime

APD Overtime Pay Abuse And Recruitment Tool

An extremely short but revealing story about the New Mexico Republican Party accompanied the Albuquerque Journal’s front page story on the October 16, 2018 gubernatorial debate between Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham and Republican Steve Pearce.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1234136/gubernatorial-debate-turns-into-verbal-slugfest.html

Following is the short story article that appeared on page A-5 of the Journal:

“GOP offers ‘makeup’ insult
As Tuesday’s debate ended, the state Republican Party mocked Lujan Grisham’s physical appearance, asking on Twitter if she’d used “Richard Nixon’s makeup artist from the 1960 debate? She looked just like him!”
The message was sent from the party’s verified Twitter account and not signed by any staffer in particular.
Lujan Grisham’s makeup didn’t look unusual Tuesday.
Members of her campaign called the tweet “despicable” and sexist and said the Republican Party should apologize.
A spokesman for the party said the tweet was referring to Lujan Grisham’s debate performance.”

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

It is so damn laughable when the New Mexico Republican party tries to justify the nasty and pathetic tweet saying it was referring to Michelle Lujan Grisham’s debate performance as being akin to Richard Nixon’s performance against President John Kennedy in the famous 1960 televised debate where Nixon was said to have looked very tired with a bad makeup job.

Presumably with the analogy, the State Republican Party thinks their candidate Steve Pearce looked like John Kennedy during the debate.

I was too young to ever meet John Kennedy, but I do know Steve Pearce, and Steve Pearce sure the hell does not look like John Kennedy and Steve Pearce is no John Kennedy.

With that one nasty little tweet against Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, the New Mexico Republican Party showed it has adopted and believes in the tactics of President Donald Trump to degrade woman and is just as bad as Trump.

For over 30 years, President Trump has degraded woman with inflammatory and sexist comments.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/

Trump has called women he does not like “fat pigs”, “dogs”, “slobs”, and “disgusting animals”, has referred to “blood running out of places” of women when talking about a female news caster and says women need to be punished if they have an abortion.

One of the most famous comments made by Trump was a recorded conversation with Billy Bush:

“You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women] — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

You would think Steve Pearce and the New Mexico Republican Party would be ashamed of the tweet regarding Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham and her looks and apologize, but no, the New Mexico GOP is just as bad as Trump in degrading of woman, but no, the tweet was taken down without further comment.

Steve Pearce has also defended many things Donald Trump has said:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/01/13/congressman-steve-pearce-breaks-back-bending-over-to-defend-racist-trump/

Governor Lujan Grisham will have the last laugh once the election is over.

The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) issued a recruiting status report giving statistics summarizing APDs recruiting efforts to increase the number of sworn police.

APD’s has aggressively recruited more than 60 sworn police officers from other law enforcement agencies in the State in order to “grow” the size of the department by 100 officers in the 2018-2019 fiscal year that began July 1, 2018.

APD is projecting that by the summer of 2019, it will be staffed with 973 sworn police.

As of October 1, 2018, APD has 853 full time sworn police officers.

In December, 2018, the APD Academy is expected to graduate 34 police officers.

On October 16, 2018 the APD Police Academy graduated a lateral class of 29 officers recruited from other departments.

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/apd-adds-nearly-30-officers-from-other-agencies/5111017/?cat=500

The January, 2019 the APD Academy expects to graduate another lateral class of 30.

In 2019, the APD Academy is projecting that there will be 47 new police officers and lateral hires to complete the Spring academy.

APD has projected that there will be a loss of 20 police officers to retirements.

MONEY TALKS

The Keller Administration and the APD Union negotiated and agreed to a 2-year contract.

The approved contract provides that the pay rate for officers with zero to four years of experience went from $28 to $29 an hour.

Under the contract, officers with 4 to 14 years of experience are paid $30 an hour.

The new contract will also raise the pay of more senior officers to between $30 to $31.50 an hour.

Officers with 15 years of more are now paid $31.50 an hour.

The rate for sergeants has gone from $32 to $35 an hour, and lieutenants pay has gone up from $36.70 to $40.00 an hour.

The approved longevity pay scale became effective August 1, 2018 for the 2018-2019 fiscal year is as follows:

For 5 to 9 years of experience: $100 will be paid bi-weekly, or $2,600 yearly
For 10 to 14 years of experience: $150 will be paid bi-weekly, or $3,900 yearly
For 15 to 17 years of experience: $200 will be paid bi-weekly, or $5,200 yearly
For 1 to 19 years of experience: $300 will be paid bi-weekly, or $7,800 yearly
For 10 to 20 years or more: $500 will be paid bi-weekly, or $13,000 yearly

Specialty pay and longevity bonuses offered by APD can add $100 to $600 to an officer’s paycheck.

Time employed by lateral hires recruited from other law enforcement agencies qualify for the longevity bonuses.

IMPACT ON OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

The Albuquerque Police Department’s new pay structure and increased longevity pay incentive bonuses are allowing APD to recruit experienced police officers from other New Mexico law enforcement agencies.

It is reported that police officers who are leaving other agencies to join APD are some of the more experienced and highly trained officers at the agencies they are leaving.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1233680/apd-growth-shaking-up-other-police-departments.html

Starting pay for an APD officer right out of the APD academy is $29 an hour.

APD’s hourly pay is significantly higher than what officers and deputies make in other law enforcement agencies in the state and for example include:

Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies make $27.03 an hour.
Rio Rancho police officers start out making $20.30 an hour.
Santa Fe police officers make $19 an hour.

According to the statistics released, 59 lateral hires will be made and with the regular academy classes added, the Keller Administration hopes to have 973 sworn police by the summer of 2019.

CITY’S CRIME RATE STATISTICS

Albuquerque’s violent crime and property crime rates are more than triple the national crime rates.

Since 2010, violent felony crime rates and property crime rates have steadily increased in Albuquerque.

On Monday, September 24, 2018 the FBI released its “Crime in the United States” report providing the statistics on all the crimes reportedly committed in Albuquerque and comparing the statistics to other cities and states and providing national rankings.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1224917/fbi-abq-crime-rate-up-in-2017.html

In 2016 and again in 2017, New Mexico had the country’s highest per capita rate of property crime and the second-highest per capita rate of violent crime.

According to the annual report released, the number of violent crimes in the specific categories of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, in Albuquerque increased by 23% in 2017 even though the City’s population remained essentially the same.

The 23% overall all increase in Albuquerque’s violent crime for 2017 is larger than the 2016 increase when violent crime rose 15.5 percent.

In 2016, there were a reported 6,245 violent crimes in Albuquerque, for a rate of 1,112 per 100,000 residents.

In 2017, the number of violent crimes in Albuquerque jumped to 7,686, for a rate of 1,369 per 100,000.

The property crimes of burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft increased by 7 percent from 38,528 to 41,350, for a rate of 7,366 per 100,000 residents.

In 2016, the spike property crimes was significantly higher with a whopping 41.8 percent increase.

All the statistics for Albuquerque are in sharp contrast with national trends that crime is going down in the United States as a whole.

According to the FBI report summary, in 2015 and 2016, violent crime had been increasing across the United States but in 2017, violent crime decreased 0.2% with the overall rate falling 0.9% percent.

In response to the rising crime rates, the Keller Administration is proposing to spend $88 million dollars, over a four-year period, with 32 million dollars of recurring expenditures, to hire 322 sworn officers and expand APD from 878 sworn police officers to 1,200 officers in order to return to community-based policing.

For the first fiscal year of the four-year plan, the 2018-2019 budget provides for increasing funding from 1,000 sworn police to 1,040.

ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

The hiring of fifty-nine lateral hires from other agencies is a significant number.

The major problems that APD must avoid is to make sure APD is not hiring police officers from other agencies that are not fully committed to the Department of Justice agreed to mandated reforms and that APD not hire police officers that were a problem to the other department they are leaving.

It’s not the first time that APD has grown in size by increasing salaries, offering bonuses and incentive pay to recruit new and lateral hires from other departments.

From 2005 to 2010, the department hired a significant number of officers from outside agencies and conducted an advertising campaign to recruit.

By late 2009, APD was fully staffed at 1,100 police officers, and APD was the best trained, best staffed and best equipped agency in the state and fully committed to community-based policing.

In 2009, APD had 1,100 police officers and for 8 years under the previous administration the number of APD officers declined to 850, or by 250 sworn police officers.

APD at the beginning of 2018 fiscal year had 878 sworn police notwithstanding the approved funding for 1,040 sworn police.

One major lesson learned from growing APD too quickly before is that lateral hires can result in hiring personnel from other departments that have a history of disciplinary problems and individuals not fully trained in constitutional policing practices.

A major problem with hiring “laterals” is that lateral hires contributed to the “culture of aggression” and that very argument was alleged in a civil lawsuit against APD that resulted in a $900,000 judgment against the city.

According to a lawsuit brought by the family of Alan Gomez, who was killed by a police officer in 2011, the city hired police officers by lowering standards and minimum qualifications in the hiring of laterals.

One cadet class in particular had an inordinate number of police officer involved shootings that were part of the original 18 deadly use of force cases that brought the Department of Justice to Albuquerque in the first place.

The Keller Administration and APD officials said they are closely vetting all lateral hires during the current hiring push claiming all lateral hires are vetted just as stringently as the new hires.

According to APD Police Academy Commander Angela Byrd, lateral hires must pass a psychological evaluation and a polygraph test, even if they already had completed those at their other departments.

Further, lateral hires are put through a nine-week police academy that covers Albuquerque police firearms and use-of-force training.

The lateral APD academy also covers training that is required as part of the city’s settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

From 2010 to 2013, APD had a major spike in excessive use of force and deadly force cases which resulted in a federal investigation of APD and the finding of a culture of aggression within APD.

The primary goal of the Department of Justice Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) is to correct a pattern of excessive force found during a review of 20 police shootings from 2009 to 2012, and other use-of-force cases that happened from 2009 to early 2013.

From 2010 to 2017, there were 42 police officer involved shooting and the city has paid $62 million in settlements in excessive use of force and deadly force cases and civil rights cases.

Notwithstanding the claims of a strict vetting process, the prospect of even a few officers being hired when they should not be hired looms large.

Old law enforcement bad habits, attitudes and philosophy and past training are difficult to overcomer, even with new training for lateral hires.

There is no doubt Albuquerque needs to hire experienced laterals that will help with rising crime rates in that they have special skills that you do not get with a young officer in their mid-twenties who has recently graduated from the academy.

However, working as a police officer in “small town” New Mexico where you have the time to get to know everyone is dramatically different than working as a police officer and patrolling the streets of one of the most violent cities in the country and having to work extensive overtime to keep up with calls for service.

APD needs to curb its efforts on hiring more lateral hires and concentrate now on hiring younger new generation of police officer to begin their law enforcement career and to rebuild APD from the ground up.

With that said, congratulations and welcome to the recently hired laterals, the city is glad to have you, and get home safe after your shifts. Best wishes and be safe.