Is Albuquerque a safe place to live? Has crime, rogue cops, guns, drugs, racism and chronic poverty turned our city into a teeming swamp of murder, theft, random violence and lawlessness that strikes the innocent like lightning out of the blue? Are the police so violent and unrestrained here that they’re as fearsome as the “criminals?” That’s what the nightly, blood and guts TV news here seems to think.
But as a police reporter for the Albuquerque Tribune in the 1960s, I’d have to say “certainly not, all the time” to those questions, especially the last one. It’s still true today, as it’s always been, that when you need a cop, you really need one. And, generally speaking, the officers who respond to our distress prove to be not only polite but useful and good at what they do in troubled situations. If you’ve been in a traffic accident, or find yourself locked out of your house, are terrified your child is missing, have taken a fall on the stairs, or are otherwise being harassed by “the slings arrows of outrageous fortune,” a good police officer can truly be a life saver.
But when you run into a bully cop, an abusive cop, a racist and sexist cop, a cop that uses excessive force, a cop who punches, cuffs, sprays, tasers or even shoots first because you, or someone else, are not stereotypically like the cop thinks a person should be — then watch out! That’s the most frightening kind of violence of all. And you have no defense against it.
But I think it’s safe to say that bloodshed and excessive force are largely invisible in Albuquerque, as they are in any city, until they stalk you, catch you unaware, batter you and take from you what’s yours. There are few things more unsettling than going into a parking lot and realizing that your car is missing, that it has, in fact, been stolen. Or to be a woman or a vulnerable elder at night in any part of town that isn’t well lit and full of people. Or coming home to find your front door smashed in and your house ransacked, or meticulously picked clean of electronics and other valuables. We know that murder is usually committed by someone who knows the victim. Most of us don’t know many people, thank heaven, who’ve been murdered. But many of us do know people who’ve been robbed, or threatened. And many of us have experienced it ourselves. But it is still a grave exception, despite all the rumors, bad press and political posturing that would have us think otherwise.
But we do have a problem in Albuquerque, and New Mexico in general, with some police officers using excessive force. As state police told KOB-TV last week, New Mexico has had 34 law enforcement shootings so far this year, well over the 20 that took place over the whole of 2020. That’s one of the reasons, sadly, why many New Mexicans don’t trust the police and are out-and-out afraid of them. It’s a situation that’s been going on for a long time and seems, at times, impossible to fix in a gun-saturated world like ours where cops are afraid for their lives at every traffic stop they make. But we know there are law enforcement systems around the country and the world that are not out of control — in Great Britain, France and with the New Mexico State Police. So it’s possible for Albuquerque Police Department (APD) to change.
It’s not all on the police, though, and not all on police culture in many places around the state. The general attitude of a police department and its officers is the result, obviously, of a combination of political leadership, of the ethical standards inculcated by police training, of peer pressure and, importantly and largely overlooked, of the public’s overall response to police officers and their encounters with them.
If we treated the police like firemen and emergency medical personnel, I think we’d be living in a different kind of place than we find ourselves. The public has a real part to play in the general attitude of police officers and their conduct. If we treat them like scapegoats, abuse them, are rude to them, dump our psychological problems on them, then we set the tone for their renegade behavior. It doesn’t help, though, if excessive force has become an institutional issue, primed by paranoia, race prejudice, and an “us against them” internal culture. It puts everyone on edge and civilized, thoughtful behavior can be hard to come by.
The problem is a real one. In November 2014 the U.S. Department of Justice sued the City of Albuquerque alleging that APD regularly uses “excessive force,” and even “deadly force” during arrests which violates the Fourth Amendment, depriving them of their right to be protected from government action without clear “probable cause,” usually determined by a judge issuing a warrant. The use of excessive force in punishment without judicial sanction and proof of guilt. After the settlement agreement, Dr. James Ginger was appointed by federal court to monitor APD’s compliance.
The most recent of Dr. Ginger’s 13 reports so far covers the period from August 2020 to January 2021. And it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. While APD has made improvements, “Command and control practices regarding the use of force continue to be weak.” Dr. Ginger wrote that APD “seems either unwilling or unable to effectively assess, identify, and remediate officers who over-use force…. (and) APD is willing to go through almost any machination to avoid disciplining officers who violate policy or supervisors who fail to note policy violations or fail to act on them in a timely manner….APD effectively continues to ignore the monitor’s recommendations or to develop and implement disciplinary processes of their own” to meet the requirements of the settlement agreement.
I think it’s fair to say that Mayor Tim Keller has made numerous and important moves to get APD to change its internal culture when it comes to the use of force, including adding a layer of leadership under the title of “Superintendent of Police Reform and Deputy Chief Administrative Officer,” and creating “a third branch” of Albuquerque’s police efforts called The Community Safety Department that will send unarmed experts to respond to non-violent mental health and homeless crises in the city. This is apparently a “first of its kind innovation.” And if you go to the mayor’s website and look up “crime-strategy” you will see initiatives dealing everything from community policing, behavioral health and children’s safety to domestic violence, clearing the rape kit backlog, and the safety of bike riders and pedestrians.
Still Dr. Ginger’s gloomy assessment stands. And police violence and crime will be an issue in Keller’s re-election campaign. Both are intractable troubles in our city and I suspect everywhere else in the world. Crime falls into the category of problems that might be contained but never “fixed.” Not so with the police. It remains possible to create a law enforcement culture that both contains crime and serves honest citizens in need. I’m convinced of it.
It has to do with creating a police culture that people look up to, a culture that produces officers who are paragons of service, who people know and want to help and support, a police culture of good guys who command by their behavior the public’s respect. And that means, in part, getting rid of the bushel of bad apple cops when their behavior warrants it.
It means, simply, zero tolerance for the use of excessive force and other forms of abuse and disrespect for the rule of law and the common good.
*Nullius in verba: take nobody’s word for it
(Image derived from photo by Rescuenav)
Thank you for acknowledging the problems with APD. They were not addressed for years by local and internal agencies, which led to DOJ intervention
and media attention. Having the highest cartheft in the nation, and high violent crime (including police caused) proves that Albuquerque has cancerous corruption and incompetence in public safety. There are many reasons, but ignoring and downplaying these is pathological.
Although the Oversight may not be the cure, it is an important effort.
Your insights are true; stay the course!
I have not lived in Albuquerque sense 1966 even back then it was violent. Theft was number one and if you lived in a corner house or left a window open in an apartment there was a good chance of theft. As a boy I learned never to have anything on my bike handle bars or it would be taken or smashed. I new kids that had gone to jail mostly out of board-em. The roughest kids were military family kids. They moved around so much and had learned to rebel. When high school let out the kids waited for the bus, they sat in groups White, Spanish, and Indian.
I moved to Milwaukee, Wis where I watched cops slam Black kids on car hoods. I was told by a black friend many policemen belonged to All white organizations. When I moved to California Blacks were told be careful with State Troopers. There are a lot of very good police and you know the rest of the story. It is every where!
I have only had parking tickets and one no left hand turn. I was in a car with a Black man once we got pulled over. He was arrested and the police man gave me a ride to the bus stop and was told to stay away from their kind. That black man was my best friend for 10 years, I am white. I have friends who have it rougher then I ever have.