APD Reform Stalls: An Interview with State Representative Antonio “Moe” Maestas

By Gail Stephens

Six years ago, the city of Albuquerque and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) signed an agreement to begin a process of reform that would end the Albuquerque Police Department’s (APD) demonstrated problems with the use of excessive force in arrests. An independent monitor, Dr. James Ginger, was selected by DOJ to oversee the process. Last month, Dr. Ginger issued his 12th report which reported “system-wide failures related to the oversight of force by APD officers and supervisory and command review of those uses of force.” After several years of work, Dr. Ginger found “APD is on a path that reflects deliberate indifference to the requirements” of the Albuquerque-DOJ agreement.

Dr. Ginger’s critical assessment prompted DOJ to act. The DOJ Special Counsel presented a proposal to jumpstart the reform process at a hearing held by US District Court Judge James Browning on December 4. If the city of Albuquerque agrees, an external team of experienced investigators will be appointed by DOJ to oversee APD investigations of incidents which appear to involve an excessive use of force. APD will still conduct the basic investigation but the external team will review all the information and write the incident reports, proposing penalties in case of infractions. Their report would then be passed to the APD command structure for decision but the external DOJ team would be kept informed.

Albuquerque officials have thus far agreed with the monitor’s assessment and have said they will not contest proposals to solve the problem. In fact, the city took action in September to remove the former chief of police, Mike Geier, replacing him with his deputy Harold Medina, now interim chief of police. Albuquerque officials have also started a nationwide search for a new chief of police.

Representative Antonio “Moe” Maestas, a criminal justice lawyer and Westside member of the state legislature, is a proponent of police reform, familiar with the APD issue, and not surprised by the latest developments. His assessment is that APD has made changes in response to the DOJ agreement but thus far they have only addressed the low-hanging fruit. They have created policies, they have done the training, but in the end, the current chain of command is uninterested in actually penalizing their officers for use of excessive force. The independent monitor and DOJ have been patient, but have concluded APD will not make the hard decisions, so DOJ has decided to create an external team to drive the use of force inquiry and decision process.

Representative Maestas believes the external team investigation proposal is worth a try. In fact, he thinks it might become an important method of policing. Police are simply not good at investigating themselves, while external experts have much clearer vision about performance issues.

Representative Maestas is all for hiring a new police chief from the outside. He or she will bring new ideas and with city support, can set about creating a new command staff with a positive attitude about change.

In the upcoming January legislative session, Representative Maestas will introduce two pieces of legislation to make New Mexico police forces more accountable. The first bill is aimed at repealing the 1991 “Peace Officer’s Employer-Employees Relations” Act. It gives police rights not granted to any other set of workers. Moe finds two provisions particularly troubling. One provides that a police officer under investigation must be told who is in charge of an investigation into his conduct. The other provides that no document containing negative comments about an officer’s behavior can be entered into his personnel files until he has seen and signed the document.

Representative Maestas will also introduce legislation to improve the disposition of police licenses. Every New Mexico policeman is licensed by the state. Currently, police licenses are handled by the New Mexico Department of Public Safety’s Law Enforcement Academy. It’s a training academy, the wrong place to manage licensing. Moe thinks the best place for dealing with police licenses is the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, which handles licensing for all other professions in New Mexico. One of their basic jobs is regulating licenses. Monitoring license status is important because if a police officer commits an infraction which causes him to lose his license, he cannot be hired by any other New Mexico police force.

Other police reform legislation will be introduced in this legislative session, including an end to qualified immunity and a ban on forceful restraint tactics. Representative Maestas says there is a real push to reform the police this year. He and other legislators know we need the police, but we also need police who recognize that all citizens have a right to be treated with respect.