In April 2023 and then again in September 2024, two separate Albuquerque City Council’s took to task APD Director of Communications Gilbert Gallegos for using APD’s “X ” Account, formerly known as TWITTER, to engage in highly personal attacks against private citizens all because they are very vocal critics of APD. Twice the Albuquerque City Council condemned “mean tweets” posted by Gallegos on official APD social accounts in response to private citizen complaints. The city council demanded he cease an desists with his “mean tweets”.
Using official APD social media accounts, Gallegos maligned former APD Chief Michael Geier, the immediate predecessor of APD Chief Harold Medina, private attorney Tom Grover, who is a retired APD cop and who has sued APD and represents police officers in personnel matters, Darren White, former Bernalillo County Sherriff and former Public Safety Cabinet Secretary who has commented to the press about inappropriate APD conduct. Gallegos has accused prominent businessman and commercial property owner Doug Peterson of being a whiner and complainer and a racist because of his complaints about APD mishandling of the homeless. The Citizens Police Oversight Agency has sustained a complaint against Gallegos finding misconduct with his use of social media accounts.
Notwithstanding the City Council’s objections to the conduct of Gilbert Gallegos, APD Police Chief Harold Medina and Mayor Tim Keller refused to put a stop to the “mean tweets” by Gallegos. Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief Harold Medina proclaimed the “mean tweets” are legitimate push back against APD critics. They both expressed no problem with “mean tweets” even acknowledging the tweets violate city policy which states when replying to posts on city accounts, city employees are supposed to, “keep it professional and avoid confrontation.”
APD Chief Harold Medina said this:
“These are not random people. We are pushing back against the same individuals who use their positions to pursue a political agenda against APD. … .”
When asked if the tweets followed city policy, Medina said “some of them may not, but some of them bluntly point out differences. And I’m okay with that.”
Mayor Keller for his part said he and his office “supports the department in their efforts to push back against misinformation on social media.”
RESOLUTION CALLING FOR NEW SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY MANDATING GUIDELINES AND ACCOUNTABILITY
On September 13, 2024, in direct response to the conduct of APD Director of Communications and Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos, District 9 City Councilor Renée Grout introduced resolution R-24-89 . The resolution is aimed at improving the use of official City social media accounts. The resolution directs the Keller Administration to develop a comprehensive social media policy that outlines clear guidelines for appropriate use, accountability, and consequences for misuse.
The resolution emphasizes the role of City government is to promote the public’s health, safety and growth. It directs the City Administration to create, implement, and enforce a comprehensive social media policy to be applied to all City public media accounts that includes:
- Behavioral expectations: Establishing clear guidelines for respectful and professional online conduct.
- Content specifications: Defining appropriate and inappropriate content for City social media accounts.
- Response guidelines: Providing guidance on how to respond to comments and messages, including those that may be negative or inflammatory.
- Monitoring and review: Implementing a system for regularly monitoring and reviewing social media accounts for compliance.
- Disciplinary actions: Outlining consequences for misuse of official social media accounts.
The resolution also requires the City Administration to make the social media policy easily accessible to the public and to establish a mechanism for reporting potential violations.
The link to the quoted source material on the Grout sponsored city council resolution is here:
City Councilor Renee Grout said that personal attacks against regular citizens by city government employees are unacceptable. Grout said this:
“[Gallegos’ conduct] disturbed me greatly. It also disturbed many others, it’s embarrassing to have this kind of behavior. We can’t respond that way. … As City officials, we are in the customer service business. … . Anything posted on a City social media account should be true, helpful, and respectful. … We just need to have accountability and remember what we’re here for. … [W]e need to do a better job of responding to our customers and which are our constituents and help them out better”
I’m disappointed that it happened again and so we need lessons learned. We’re not going to do this again. So, we need to set expectations for the for the behavior. It needs to be outlined how, what is appropriate content to be posted? We need to set guidelines for, what is posted. We need to have guidelines for the appropriateness to, to respond to the negative or inaccurate posts, inflammatory comments and there needs to be discipline defined, discipline when things go wrong. There does need to be a disciplinary procedure.
We’re supposed to be following the law. We do have to take the higher road. What I say as a representative of the city of Albuquerque is very important. So, I need to be mindful of what I’m saying. We need to remember we’re representing the city of Albuquerque. We also would like to have social media policy put on the city’s transparency web page. So, we can all see it and we can all follow it.”
When asked about what’s the difference between her resolution and the new social media proposal and the city’s current social media policy and what she hoped to achieve with the new policy, Grout said this:
“The one that is in place doesn’t have the appropriateness. It doesn’t mention anything about the appropriateness of posts and what should be posted. It’s important that we remember that our personal opinions need to be left out. We need to remember that we’re representing the city of Albuquerque.
So, our personal opinions, personal attacks, those things are never OK. … Setting guidelines for employees is an administrative function. That’s why the Resolution directs the Administration to develop the social media policy but identifies things that the policy should include.
There needs to be a disciplinary procedure and what is appropriate or what is not appropriate, and then what are the consequences for the inappropriate behavior.”
It was in April 2023 that then City Council President Pat Davis, who did not seek another term and is no longer on city council, vowed to work personally to defund Gilbert Gallegos position and to prohibit APD from using the social media account unless the conduct stopped.
Grout stated that she is not seeking for the City Council to defund the position. Grout said this:
“That is not something that we can actually do. We can’t personally defund something. We can’t really defund the position because then there is a separation of powers. We can create a policy. The administration spends the money.”
THE KELLER ADMINISTRASTION RESPONDS
Ava Montoya, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, issued a very dismissive statement regarding Councilor Grout’s new social media accountability resolution:
“The City already has a social media policy that’s posted online, and we welcome anyone to take a look at that.”
In a previous response to the controversy, Montoya said this”
“We’re focused on big issues, we don’t micromanage twitter banter. We support the department and their ability to push back on misinformation online.”
CIVILIAN POLICE OVERSIGHT AGENCY RESPONDS
On September 5, KOAT TV reached out to Civilian Police Oversight Agency executive director, Diane McDermott regarding Gilbert Gallegos’s X postings from APD’s account. She was asked if there has been any form of discipline following Gallegos’s use of the department’s twitter X page? If not, she was asked if there was a reason as to why? Also, she was asked what’s next, in terms of handling the situation?
McDermott made the following statement to KOAT TV over the phone:
“The Civilian Police Oversight Agency no longer investigates complaints regarding civilian employees. Due to an ordinance change, they’re investigated by the internal affairs within Albuquerque Police Department. We received a complaint, and it was forwarded to Internal Affairs Professional Standard.”
McDermott also sent KOAT TV the following statement:
“The Civilian Police Oversight Agency must receive a citizen complaint to initiate an investigation. Due to an ordinance change in 2023, the CPOA Agency does not generally investigate APD civilian employees. Civilian employees such as operators, administrative personnel, or, in this instance, the PIO are investigated by Internal Affairs Professional Standards.
The Council wanted the CPOA’s primary focus to be on policing within the community. If a complaint is received regarding a civilian employee, it is transferred to IAPS unless it also involves the activities of sworn personnel, and then the CPOA will retain that investigation. Non-sworn employees will also be investigated by the CPOA performing similar police functions, such as Police Service Aides or APD Transit Safety personnel.
Regarding the question of discipline for Mr. Gallegos, the CPOA only recommends discipline, and so the question would have to be directed to the Office of Police Reform to determine if discipline has been imposed.
What is next would also be directed to the Department, but if a citizen complaint is received, it will be evaluated and, if it only concerns PIO responsibilities of non-sworn personnel, forwarded to IAPS for investigation.”
Links to quoted and relied upon news sources are here:
https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-social-media-policy/62195610
https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-department-chief-medina/62049109
https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-social-media/62073908
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
Councilor Grout’s resolution was introduced at the September 16 city council meeting. It will be heard by at least one city council committee and it will be several weeks until the full 9 member city council votes on it. If approved, the city would have 30 days to develop the new policies. The City Council should vote unanimously to enact the legislation and also vote No Confidence in Gilbert Gallegos and ask for his removal as APD Director of Communications.
The function of PIO’s is to interreact with the press and the public and distribute accurate information to the public and the press and give interviews where necessary. APD Spokespersons historically have been sworn police officers. Gilbert Gallegos is a civilian at will employee, is paid upwards of $120,000 a year, he is a former newspaper reporter and former spokesperson for elected officials and is essentially a public relations political hack..
Chief Medina and APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos have a warped misunderstanding of their role when it comes to dealing with the general public, processing citizen complaints and talking to the public in general. Their attitude as reflected by “mean tweets” is that unless you agree with APD and all of its actions, you are “anti-cop” or you are a “cop hater”.
Chief Medina enabling a public relations political hack such as Gilbert Gallegos to attack a private citizen because they are critical of APD is not appropriate. It is not cyberbullying as Medina has proclaimed. Calling a businessman who is exercising his right of free speech a racist as Gallegos did is not keeping it professional nor is it avoiding confrontation but libelous. Making fun of a former Police Chief implying mental infirmity affecting recall is offensive. Gilbert and Medina have a warped understanding of the concept of “to protect and serve”. They know the “mean tweets” generate extreme hostility and mistrust towards private citizens they target. We also have a Mayor who allows them to do it.
A citizen who has what they believe are legitimate complaints about APD does not mean APD has the right to vilify them or take issue with them and just presume that what they say is inaccurate requiring a public “push back”. It does not mean APD has the right to engage in libel and slander nor violate people’s first amendment rights of free speech.
Gilbert Gallegos has no respect for the wishes of the Albuquerque City Council as he continued with his attacks on private citizens after they demanded that he stop. Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief Harold Medina have no respect for the City Council in that they have condoned and supported the conduct of Gilbert Gallegos.
It is clear that the current city policy on the use of social media by city government employees is very inadequate especially when its totally ignored an unenforced by the Mayor and Chief of Police. The very dismissive statement by Ava Montoya regarding the proposed resolution was nothing but further evidence the Keller Administration see no problem with the abuse of social media accounts to attack private citizens. Councilor’s Grout Resolution should be enacted by the full council but it should also be the first step to get a handle on a very serious problem.
City Councilor Rene Grout is very misinformed, or simply does not understand, the city council does have the exclusive authority to defund the position. The city council has exclusive authority over all city finances and appropriations and can fund and defund entire programs and positions as they see fit and when they deem it necessary and appropriate. Not more than a few years ago, the City Council reduced or defunded APD sworn personnel positions from 1,100 to 1,000 because APD had failed to fill 100 positions for an number of years that had not been filled.
The City Council needs to take a vote no confidence and demand the termination of Gilbert Gallegos and go so far as defund the position if Mayor Tm Keller fails to act.