Editorial:
City Police Oversight Is Overdue for Overhaul
By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Boardon Thu, Jan 31, 2013
Albuquerque City Council President Dan Lewis and Councilor
Don Harris are showing leadership in their move to begin rebuilding the city’s
police oversight system, which has been in place since 1999.
As the process unfolds it will be important for that
leadership to demand specific reforms that bring accountability and
transparency to — as well as engender confidence in — the system.
To date the Police Oversight Commission, made up of nine
volunteers, one appointed by each councilor, has not scored well in those
areas. The city remains divided in the wake of 27 police shootings since
January 2010, along with allegations of excessive force and other instances of
unprofessional conduct such as outrageous postings on social media sites by officers.
That run has culminated in a U.S. Justice Department civil-rights
investigation.
Rather than garner attention for its examination of and
rulings in those cases, the commission has instead garnered a lawsuit threat
for tossing a citizen out of a public meeting because he wanted to speak on an
agenda item. And it has garnered ridicule for proposing to censure a member but
then spending 20 minutes looking up the word “censure.” For unanimously
endorsing its now-former chairwoman, who belongs to a group that opposes
citizen oversight of law enforcement. And for one member suggesting that a dead
man wanted to commit “suicide by cop” because his gun wasn’t loaded during a
confrontation with a cop (who famously described his job as “human waste
disposal”).
Lewis and Harris have asked for public meetings to seek
public input for reforming the commission, as well as $36,000 to hire an
analyst to examine long-term trends in citizen complaints regarding police and
other data.
Those are good moves, as a project this broad and this high
profile should have a solid grounding in public participation and, where
applicable, reforms should be data driven.
The commission has been around for more than a decade, yet
Lewis says the process has not undergone the complete system review the
ordinance requires every four years. That’s vital, as are changes essential to
informed decisions and public confidence.
Under the enabling ordinance, the commission does not
receive the names of officers cited in citizen complaints, even though those
names are public record and would allow commissioners to track patterns of
behavior. It should be a given that the ordinance and, if ever approved, new
police union contract comply with state law.
The ordinance also should be revised to ensure public
comment is on point and protected. It is one thing to limit time at the
microphone to germane agenda items or reasonable time allotments, another to
discount it entirely as the recent board has done.
It is also important for councilors to consider the
effectiveness of the basic structure of the oversight system.
Right now Internal Affairs or the commission’s independent
review officer investigates citizen complaints against officers; the IRO gives
recommendations to the board supporting or rejecting the officers’ actions. The
IRO also investigates all police shootings. The board can agree or disagree,
but to date it has not weighed in on potential discipline, and no matter, since
the chief of police has the final say.
Previous chiefs have as much as boycotted the meetings,
raising the question, if the commission issues a ruling, is anyone who matters
really listening?
Lewis says “this is the beginning of a complete revamp of
the citizen oversight into the Albuquerque Police Department.”
That’s a welcome announcement that’s long overdue, and one
that deserves serious follow-through.
This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It
was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents
the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.