APD slammed for social media conduct, this time by city councilors

City councilors aired grievances with the conduct on the Albuquerque Police Department’s X account Wednesday night.

During the first council meeting of September, Councilor Renee Grout got the ball rolling on the conversation.

“I want to talk about mean tweets. They’re not OK. And recently we had some from the PIO (public information officer) from APD,” Grout said.

“We had this conversation a year ago, and it’s serious. We have to take a higher road, and sometimes we have to bite our tongue and suck it up.”

The incident Grout was referring to was from January 2023, when some slammed the conduct of APD on X as bullying and intimidation.

Gilbert Gallegos, the department’s director of communications, did not respond to a call requesting comment from the Journal on Thursday.

APD Police Chief Harold Medina, however, said Thursday that “These are not random people. We are pushing back against the same individuals who use their positions to pursue a political agenda against APD.”

Councilor Nichole Rogers mentioned Gallegos by name and asked APD Internal Affairs Commander Dodi Camacho if Gallegos was punished for controversial posts by the department in 2023.

The controversial posting spree took place Monday, beginning with APD’s account telling website ABQ RAW that its story on a shooting was inaccurate.

It continued with follow-up posts ripping website ABQ RAW and then turned personal.

At one point, the APD account responded to local property investor Douglas Peterson, who criticized the department for “harassing a local news organization over a meaningless detail.”

“Oh Doug. Nice to hear from you about harassment.” APD’s X account said.

“It’s unprofessional,” Peterson said in an interview with the Journal on Thursday.

Peterson also took aim at Mayor Tim Keller’s previous support of the department fighting “misinformation” on social media and said he and the other accounts that APD responded to were not posting misinformation.

“We’re focused on big issues. We don’t micromanage Twitter banter. We support the department and their ability to push back on misinformation online,” a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office said Thursday.

Peterson also called the posts a form of intimidation and said the department seeks to disparage people who criticize its work.

Following Grout, Councilors Dan Champine, Brook Bassan, Rogers and Klarissa Peña all criticized the department’s conduct on social media.