On October 16, the US Department of Justice and City of Albuquerque (City), New Mexico, filed a joint motion seeking court approval to terminate certain portions of the consent decree covering the Albuquerque Police Department (APD). The joint motion follows the independent monitor’s 20th report, which was also filed on October 16, which concluded that the City and APD have reached 99% Operational Compliance the highest level of Operational Compliance ever achieved by APD. The federal monitor’s report indicates that APD’s compliance level reflects significant achievement in critical areas such as completing timely and high-quality use-of-force and misconduct investigations. These accomplishments take place against a backdrop of a 37% reduction in APD’s use of serious force in the last four years and 100% compliance in the Primary and Secondary Compliance levels
The joint motion asks the court to terminate 31 consent decree provisions with which APD has fully complied for at least two years. The provisions cover a range of topics, including:
- Use of electronic control weapons (commonly known as Tasers);
- Crisis intervention.
- Crisis prevention and
It is the third joint motion the parties have filed in the last year seeking to terminate a total of 183 paragraphs of the consent decree which amounts to 67% of the enforceable provisions of the settlement agreement.
APD has made substantial change in reaching compliance with provisions of the consent decree the parties seek to terminate, including:
- APD has properly trained all officers on using Tasers to ensure that officers only use these weapons when lawful and necessary.
- APD has trained specialized officers to respond to behavioral health crises and deployed those officers across the department. Albuquerque has also created a new agency called Albuquerque Community Safety to send trained mental health professionals to 911 calls involving behavioral health issues. Through these two initiatives, Albuquerque is working to ensure that people get the help they need.
- APD has improved supervision across the police department, ensuring that officers receive the guidance, direction and support they need to be effective and comply with the law.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said this in a statement:
“Our joint motion to terminate additional provisions of this consent decree demonstrates that the Justice Department has come even closer to its ultimate goal of ensuring constitutional and effective policing in Albuquerque. … Real reform is not only possible, but evident in Albuquerque. Since this consent decree went into effect, the Albuquerque Police Department has made significant and sustained progress in implementing policing practices that respect civil rights and promote public safety. We have seen a 37% decline in use of serious force over the last four years, and continue to move reform efforts forward. The Justice Department will continue to work with the City and its police department toward our shared goal of constitutional and effective policing—the community deserves nothing less.”
U.S. Attorney Alexander M.M. Uballez for the District of New Mexico said this in a statement:
“This partial termination proves that the hard work of the men and women of the Albuquerque Police Department and the persistent advocacy from the community are achieving real results. Where the existence of a consent agreement is a symptom of dysfunction, every paragraph terminated is evidence of progress. Effective policy, operational observance of those rules, and persistent compliance with reform have set up APD for success. The sustainment period which follows termination will ensure that APD delivers the police department the people of Albuquerque deserve.”
The link to the quoted news source is here:
20th th FEDERAL MONITOR’S COMPLIANCE REPORT FILED
It was on November 14, 2014, the City of Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Police Department and the United State Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a stipulated Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA). The settlement was the result of an 18-month long investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that found that the Albuquerque Police Department engaged in a pattern of “excessive use of force” and “deadly force”, especially when dealing with the mentally ill. The DOJ investigation also found a “culture of aggression” existed within the APD. Department of Justice investigators reviewed 20 fatal shootings by Albuquerque Police between 2009 and 2013 and found that in the majority of cases the level of force used was not justified because the person killed did not present a threat to police officers or the public.
The Court Approved Settlement Agreement mandates 271 police reforms, the appointment of a Federal Monitor and the filing of Independent Monitor’s reports (IMRs) on APD’s compliance with the reforms. There are 276 paragraphs in 10 sections within the CASA with measurable requirements that the monitor reports on. The ultimate goal of the settlement was to implement constitutional policing practices and it was aimed at making sure police officers follow policy and don’t use excessive force and deadly force.
The link to the 118-page CASA is here:
https://documents.cabq.gov/justice-department/settlement-agreement.pdf
20th Federal Monitors Report Filed
On October 16, 2024 Federal Court Appointed Monitor James Ginger filed his 20th report. The 20th Independent Monitor’s Report covers the time period of February 1, 2024, through July 31, 2024. The report is 72 pages long. It is the shortest report filed to date with the previous reports averaging about 300 pages. The link to read the entire 20th Federal Monitor’s report is here:
https://www.cabq.gov/police/documents/final-imr-20.pdf
The 20th Federal Monitor’s Report found that APD continued to sustain a 100% Primary Compliance rate, continued to sustain a 100% Secondary Compliance rate and increased Operational Compliance from 96% to 99%.
Under the terms and conditions of the CASA, once APD achieves a 95% compliance rate in all 3 identified compliance levels and maintains them for 2 consecutive years, the case can be dismissed. Originally, APD was to have come into compliance within 4 years and the case was to be dismissed in 2018. However, because of delay and obstruction tactics by both APD management and the police union to implement in full the reforms, a 5 year delay resulted.
COMPLIANCE LEVELS EXPLAINED
The 3 compliance levels are explained as follows:
PRIMARY COMPLIANCE
Primary compliance is the “policy” part of compliance. To attain primary compliance, APD must have in place operational policies and procedures designed to guide officers, supervisors and managers in the performance of the tasks outlined in the CASA. As a matter of course, the policies must be reflective of the requirements of the CASA; must comply with national standards for effective policing policy; and must demonstrate trainable and evaluable policy components.
SECONDARY COMPLIANCE
Secondary compliance is attained by implementing supervisory, managerial and executive practices designed to and be effective in implementing the policy as written, e.g., sergeants routinely enforce the policies among field personnel and are held accountable by managerial and executive levels of the department for doing so. By definition, there should be operational artifacts such as reports, disciplinary records, remands to retraining, follow-up, and even revisions to policies if necessary, indicating that the policies developed in the first stage of compliance are known to, followed by, and important to supervisory and managerial levels of the department.
OPERATIONAL COMPLIANCE
Operational compliance is attained at the point that the adherence to policies is apparent in the day-to-day operation of the agency e.g., line personnel are routinely held accountable for compliance, not by the monitoring staff, but by their sergeants, and sergeants are routinely held accountable for compliance by their lieutenants and command staff. In other words, the APD “owns” and enforces its policies.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 20th Federal Monitor’s report contains the following succinct summary of the 72-page report:
“The 20th monitor’s report shows that APD continues to work to implement the requirements of the CASA fully, and the work has been shown in our analyses of their compliance process. During this reporting period, APD continued to meet CASA requirements. That work has moved the CASA compliance levels to rates higher than all previous reports. Primary compliance stands at 100 percent. Secondary compliance also is at 100 percent. Operational compliance stands at 99 percent. These compliance levels are the result of focused executive-level commitment to compliance. As with any system, however, these processes require careful oversight of process, review, and reinforcement.
Although disciplinary practices have improved substantially, we have observed incidents in which Internal Affairs Professional Standards (IAPS) and Internal Affairs Force Division (IAFD) sustain charges against a member, only to find it “exonerated” or “unfounded” by the Pre-Determination Hearing (PDH) officer. This may be an issue reflective of the substantial policy and process changes within APD. [The monitor’s team] suggest that APD perform a substantial review of the current process and assess the cause of this intervention of external forces that change IAFD and IAPS findings. APD has developed a proposed solution to deal with these processes, which we will assess fully in IMR-21.
We continue to note that CPOA appears to be understaffed, and this understaffing continues to result in excessive workloads and missed timelines for investigations. We do note that the City has funded additional positions for CPOA investigators. We suggest that the CPOA Director and the City’s Human Resources Department work together to fill these positions so that CPOA investigations can be completed within the timelines established by the CASA.”
https://www.cabq.gov/police/documents/final-imr-20.pdf
The 20th Federal Monitors Report Concludes with the following one paragraph Summary at the end:
“During this reporting period, APD continued to meet CASA requirements. That work has moved the CASA compliance levels to rates higher than all previous reports. As noted, Primary Compliance stands at 100 percent. Secondary Compliance also is at 100 percent. Operational compliance stands at 99 percent. These compliance levels are the result of focused executive-level commitment to compliance and demonstrative of the hard work by the City of Albuquerque.”
APD BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION SCANDAL IGNORED
It was on Friday January 19, 2024 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed search warrants and raided the homes of 3 Albuquerque Police officers and the home and law office of prominent DWI criminal defense attorney Thomas Clear, III. All 6 of those targeted with a search warrant are allegedly involved in a bribery and conspiracy scheme spanning a decade to dismiss DWI cases.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman ordered the dismissed 196 DWI cases because of the scandal due to the main witnesses’ credibility being called into question which in all the cases are APD officers. A total of 9 APD Police officers have been implicated in the scandal and 7 have resigned during the Internal Affairs investigation, one is on paid leave and one has been terminated.
One by one, the accused Albuquerque police officers have been turning in their badges and resigning rather than talking to Internal Affairs investigators about an alleged public corruption scheme involving DWI cases. The FBI and the DOJ is investigating the allegations as a criminal matter. U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez has said the probe focuses on alleged wrongdoing by “certain” APD officers and others. No one has been charged in the case. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing. In both 19th and 20th Federal Monitor’s, there is absolutely no mention of the DWI bribery and conspiracy scandal.
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The blunt truth is APD was expected to be found in compliance after the 19th Federal Monitors report came out saying APD fell 2% short of being in full Operational Compliance but at 100% Primary and Secondary Compliance. What called into question if APD would finally reach compliance was the Department of Justice and the FBI investigation into allegations that DWI officers took bribes to miss court dates which led to hundreds of pending DWI cases being dismissed by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office. The APD Officers reportedly worked with prominent criminal defense attorney Thomas Clear, III, and his paralegal to get the cases dismissed. Six of the nine officers implicated in the scandal have resigned from APD declining to be interviewed by APD Internal Affairs. No federal charges have been brought against any one over the scandal and the Department of Justice and the FBI say the investigation is ongoing.
It turns out that the biggest scandal of APD corruption did not even merit and acknowledgement nor a mention by the Federal Monitor in his 19th or 20th progress reports. What is truly disgusting and down right pathetic is that for the past 10 years APD management and the entire APD department was supposed to be the under the watchful eye of the Department of Justice, the Federal Court and a Federal Monitor, yet the bribery and conspiracy scandal to dismiss DWI cases ostensibly went totally undetected by the Federal Monitor over the last 10 years during which it occurred.
Under Secondary Compliance, the Federal Monitor and his so-called team of experts were required to review supervisory, managerial and executive practices and the enforcement of policies among field personnel and how they were held accountable by management and executive levels for wrongdoing. No doubt the monitor will argue it was not his job to ferret out scandal, nefarious or illegal conduct of APD officers other than use of force, but that sure damn well was the responsibility of the Department of Justice. The public perception is that the DOJ reform process really has not accomplished much other than making the Federal Monitor a wealthy man.
Excessive use of force and deadly by APD is what brought the Department of Justice to this City in the first place and damaged APD’s reputation to an extent. The reforms were an attempt to restore public confidence to an extent. There is absolutely no doubt that APD’s reputation has been trashed to a major extent because of the bribery and dismissal scandal. APD is viewed by many as again having just another bastion of “dirty and corrupt cops” who have brought dishonor to their department and to the department’s professed values of “Pride, Integrity, Fairness and Respect”.
This is so even before any criminal charges have been filed against anyone, before anyone else is fired from APD and before any action is brought against the police officers involved for government corruption and criminal conspiracy to dismiss cases working with a prominent criminal defense attorney. Should the criminal defense attorney be charged and convicted of the crimes, he is likely facing jail time in prison as well as disbarment from the practice of law.
There is little doubt that this whole DWI dismissal bribery scandal has shaken the public’s faith in our criminal justice system and APD to its core. The only way that any semblance of faith can be restored and for people to begin trusting APD again is if all the police officers involved in this scandal are held accountable and the lawyers involved are held accountable. That will only happen when there is aggressive prosecutions and convictions, the police officers are terminated, and they lose their law enforcement certification and disbarment occurs with the attorney.
HISTORIC MILESTONE
The announcement that APD, after almost 10 years, is now essentially in full compliance with the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) is a major milestone for the beleaguered department plagued by scandal. The 20th report from the monitor essentially continues to pave the road for APD to “effectively self-monitor”. Notwithstanding, the monitor’s 19th Federal Monitors report noted that APD still needs to improve supervisory oversight of in-field activities, something not fully addressed by the released 20th report. The monitor also said the Civilian Police Oversight Agency, which focuses on police accountability, needs to address timeliness and staffing issues.
The resulting settlement agreement with the DOJ led to an overhaul of APD use of force policies, recruitment, training, internal affairs procedures and field supervision of officers. The implementation of all the reforms took over twice as long as was originally agreed and required the expenditure of millions of dollars and oversight by an outside independent monitor. The Federal Monitor and his team have been paid upwards of $12 Million for their services and reports. The city has also spent over $40 to implement the reforms.
The Court Approved Settlement Agreement requires 95% Operational Compliance by APD. Operational compliance tracks whether officers follow policies and whether they’re corrected when they don’t. According to this latest report APD is at 99% Operational Compliance. Since October 2019, APD has been and has remained at 100% Primary Compliance, meaning all required policies and procedures are in place. APD is also at 100% Secondary Compliance regarding the training of officers.
The achievement of 99% of Operational Compliance allows APD to to continue with implementation of the settlement terms directed towards a full dismissal of the case. If compliance can be sustained at 95% or more in all 3 compliance levels for two years, the case can be dismissed. With the filing of yet another Motion to Self Monitor more provisions of the settlement APD should be able to move toward self-monitoring with all remaining sections that have not already been dismissed by the court.
REFORMS ACHIEVED UNDER THE CASA
On November 16, 2024, it will be a full 10 years that has expired since the city entered into the CASA with the DOJ. It was originally agreed that implementation of all the settlement terms would be completed within 4 years, but because of previous delay and obstruction tactics by APD management and the police officers’ union found by the Federal Monitor as well as APD backsliding in implementing the reforms, it has taken another 5 years to get the job done.
After 10 full years, the federal oversight and the CASA have produced results. Reforms achieved under the CASA can be identified and are as follows:
- New “use of force” and “use of deadly force” policies have been written, implemented and all APD sworn have received training on the policies.
- All sworn police officers have received crisis management intervention training.
- APD has created a “Use of Force Review Board” that oversees all internal affairs investigations of use of force and deadly force.
- The Internal Affairs Unit has been divided into two sections, one dealing with general complaints and the other dealing with use of force incidents.
- Sweeping changes ranging from APD’s SWAT team protocols, to banning choke-holds, to auditing the use of every Taser carried by officers and re-writing and implementation of new use of force and deadly force policies have been completed.
- “Constitutional policing” practices and methods, and mandatory crisis intervention techniques an de-escalation tactics with the mentally ill have been implemented at the APD police academy with all sworn police also receiving the training.
- APD has adopted a new system to hold officers and supervisors accountable for all use of force incidents with personnel procedures implemented detailing how use of force cases are investigated.
- APD has revised and updated its policies on the mandatory use of lapel cameras by all sworn police officers.
- The Repeat Offenders Project, known as ROP, has been abolished.
- Civilian Police Oversight Agency has been created, funded, fully staffed and a director was hired.
- The Community Policing Counsels (CPCs) have been created in all area commands.
- The Mental Health Advisory Committee has been implemented.
- The External Force Investigation Team (EFIT) was created and is training the Internal Affairs Force Division on how to investigate use-of-force cases, making sure they meet deadlines and follow procedures.
- Millions have been spent each year on new programs and training of new cadets and police officers on constitutional policing practices.
- APD officers are routinely found using less force than they were before and well documented use of force investigations are now being produced in a timely manner.
- APD has assumed the self-monitoring of at least 25% of the CASA reforms and is likely capable of assuming more.
- The APD Compliance Bureau has been fully operational and staffed with many positions created dealing directly with all the reform efforts and all the duties and responsibilities that come with self-assessment.
- APD has attained a 100% Primary Compliance rate, a 100% Secondary Compliance rate and a 99% Operational Compliance rate.
CITY SHOULD SEEK DISMISSAL OF CASE AND NOT WAITE ANY LONGER
Over the last 10 years, APD has devoted thousands of manhours, and the city has spent millions of dollars on the reform process, creating and staffing entire divisions and roles and rewriting policies and procedures. APD has implemented oversight outside of the CASA requirements, implementing 6 month reviews of police shootings to identify shortcomings and possible solutions.
Despite the fact that the Court Approved Settlement Agreement mandates 2 years of sustained compliance of all 3 levels, it can be said that the spirit and intent of the CASA have now been fully achieved. Given the extent of the compliance levels, the work of the Federal Monitor is done. The purpose and intent of the settlement has been achieved.
The city should seek to negotiate a stipulated dismissal of the case with the Department of Justice (DOJ) sooner rather than later. Should the DOJ refuse, the City Attorney should move to immediately to dismiss the case under the termination and suspension provisions of the CASA by filing a Motion to Dismiss the case and force the issue with an evidentiary hearing and let the assigned federal judge decide the issue of dismissal.
The link to a related blog article is here: