Editorial: Schultz is right about a lot, including retiring

Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz will no longer be Albuquerque’s top cop come summer. Considering the troubles surrounding APD, his decision to step down makes sense.

But as the Department of Justice investigates whether APD has a pattern of violating people’s civil rights, and as city taxpayers are looking at another multimillion-dollar judgment in a police shooting case, it is important to note that Schultz also has done a lot of things right in a job with daunting challenges.

It’s fair to question whether anyone can succeed in balancing the demands of citizens who want protection from crime, civil rights advocates, city personnel rules and a powerful union where the same bargaining unit extends all the way up to include lieutenants and sergeants — key field supervisory positions.

In fact, the president of the police officers’ union, Greg Weber, sums it up pretty well.

Weber says Schultz is “one of the most innovative, forward-thinking, and hard-working police chiefs in the country.” In the next breath he says “it is time for a new leader.”

Schultz joined APD in 1982 and rose through the ranks — from K-9 handler to DWI sergeant to deputy chief in charge of the Field Services Bureau — before leaving to be deputy chief in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was recruited back by then-Mayor Martin Chávez in 2005 to clean up the department after its evidence room scandal.

Under his leadership Albuquerque crime has trended steadily down, with 2011 recording the second-fewest crimes in the city of any year since 1992.

Highly respected among his peers nationally, Schultz has instituted new protocols for dealing with mentally ill people; helped establish a Family Advocacy Center so victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault and their families have a single place to get assistance from the criminal justice system and medical staff; ordered officers to record interactions with the public via lapel cameras; and opened a video command center to provide information and live camera feeds to officers in the field.

But the $10.3 million verdict last week in the case brought on behalf of Iraq War veteran Kenneth Ellis — a shooting a judge ruled unlawful as a matter of law because Ellis was not threatening officers — is symptomatic of events plaguing the department.

Again, it was a shooting that was signed off on by the Police Oversight Commission and District Attorney Kari Brandenburg’s special investigative grand jury. The officer who fired the fatal round wasn’t disciplined and is now on track to become a sergeant after testing up the ladder in the personnel system.

Families of those killed by police are frequent speakers at City Council meetings, where the chief has lost the support of the council president and at least two other members.

Unfortunately, the dichotomy of Weber’s remarks reflects accurately on the last several years at APD.

Coupled with the forward thinking policy changes, there have been 28 police shootings since 2010 with 18 deaths, some officers fired and others not over use of force, misconduct ranging from offensive comments posted on social networking websites to a beating in a parking garage, and those millions spent defending police officers and paying those who have sued APD.

It has become a quagmire where it seems as though the harder Schultz works to extricate himself and the department from the problems, the deeper they sink.

Schultz said in a letter Friday that “a true leader knows when it is the proper time to step aside and let the next generation continue the mission.”

For a collection of reasons, now is that time.

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.