EDITORIAL: Extent of APD's DWI scandal must be known for agency to regain public trust

We’ve said before that reforming the Albuquerque Police Department was a Sisyphean task. But we really didn’t know how true that was until recently.

Steve Cabiedes, a resident of Albuquerque since 1972, expressed it well at Monday night’s Albuquerque City Council meeting.

“I was a 29-year-old young man in 1996 asking for this city to get a handle on its use of force and police corruption,” Cabiedes told council members. “Now, I have wrinkles in my eyes, gray hair on my chin — and we’re still dealing with the same thing.”

Allegations of corruption within APD’s DWI unit dating back more than a decade have rocked the agency in a way not seen since the fatal police shooting of James Boyd in the Sandia foothills in March 2014 sparked anger and protests in the city, and prompted a decade-long overhaul of the Police Department.

After nearly 10 years and more than $10 million of taxpayer costs, APD is finally nearing the end of oversight under the U.S. Department of Justice.

Last year, APD arrests were up 29% from two years earlier while uses of force declined 30%. Warrant arrests and warrant services were also up last year, in both felony and misdemeanor cases.

Lapel video shows officers are switching to less-lethal weapons and giving people time to drop weapons before using deadly force. And use-of-force investigations are now being produced in a much more timely manner.

City residents had cause for optimism that APD was experiencing a sea change.

The recent scandal, sadly, threatens to eclipse all that, even as APD is 94% compliant with the 2014 Court Approved Settlement Agreement regarding use of force.

A decade of what appears to be major police corruption came to light Jan. 18 when FBI agents searched the homes of at least three APD officers, a prominent local defense attorney’s office and a paralegal’s home.

Four officers assigned to APD’s DWI unit have been placed on paid administrative leave, including the Mothers Against Drunk Driving 2023 Officer of the Year for New Mexico.

Another officer is on administrative assignment. All five active-duty officers have been notified they are targets of the investigation by the FBI and APD’s Internal Affairs Division.

The defense attorney of 40-plus years whose Northeast Albuquerque office was searched by FBI agents last week, Thomas Clear III, resigned Jan. 19 as chairman of the state Public Defender Commission, an 11-member panel that oversees the operation of the New Mexico Law Offices of the Public Defender.

The investigation has resulted in the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office dismissing more than 150 misdemeanor DWI case. Those cases could still be refiled, but we’re not holding our breath.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman aptly called the DWI case dismissals “a gut punch.” An even better metaphor would be describing it as a left hook followed by a pair of uppercuts.

If the allegations hold true that APD police officers didn’t show up in court or provide evidence in order to scuttle DWI cases, this could be the biggest scandal in APD history. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time as APD makes real progress rebuilding public trust.

In a news release Tuesday, the city said Police Chief Harold Medina initially opened an investigation into the DWI unit over a year ago based on allegations related to the handling of DWI cases. The news release stated Medina learned of new, but similar allegations of wrongdoing by officers and others last fall and provided the FBI information about APD’s investigation.

The city said the five active-duty officers were placed on administrative leave “as news of the federal investigation became public.”

Some Journal readers are saying the inevitable: it’s time for a change at the top. You can’t fire the mayor, so Medina, whom Keller elevated to permanent chief in March 2021, is under heavy scrutiny.

“It’s time for a new chief of police,” wrote a recent SpeakUp! writer. “Someone who will not stand in the shadow of the mayor’s office. We need an individual who will run APD instead of the mayor.”

Medina said last week it was unclear if more officers or personnel were involved in the alleged scheme. It had better become clear if APD hopes to regain public trust, and Medina hopes to retain his job.

“All we ever get out of the Police Department is PR and spin,” Cabiedes told the Editorial Board last week. “No, we’re not fine. Sometimes it is OK to say, ‘We’re not fine, and we’re working it.’”

Mayor Tim Keller told the Editorial Board Thursday he was unaware of the scope of the alleged corruption, but that it seemed to involve “a half dozen or so” officers. He gave Chief Medina credit for initiating an investigation in December and said, if true, the decade-old corruption spans five police chiefs and three mayoral administrations.

“You at least have to give him credit for catching the problem and trying to do something about it,” the mayor said. “That’s why I have faith in our chief.”

No one has been charged or arrested in the case, yet. Multiple federal search warrants remain sealed.

We understand Mayor Keller and Chief Medina are not at liberty to tell us everything they know because of the ongoing investigations. But the questions are going to be unavoidable. This story is what news people used to call “a talker.”

Burqueños want to believe in and support their Police Department. With widespread property crimes, rampant shoplifting, fatal DWI crashes, random acts of violence, shooting incidents and record-setting homicide rates in recent years, the police are absolutely indispensable to our city.

We can only imagine how this scandal is affecting morale, recruitment and retention among APD officers who had nothing to do with this, who are not corrupt and who serve the public faithfully on a daily basis. Keller conceded the scandal is “completely demoralizing to the rank and file” and that he had no indication how long the investigation would last.

“We need this done as soon as possible, that’s clear,” he told the Editorial Board. “But I also respect that the FBI doesn’t answer to the mayor. They have their own timeline and I respect that.”

The pressing question the public needs, and that the other 900 APD officers deserve, to have answered is whether this scandal is malignant or a mole? How far does the cancer extend?

Absent a definitive diagnosis, all APD officers will remain under a cloud, and that simply isn’t fair to them or helpful to law and order in the city.

Now that the alleged corruption has been exposed, investigators must move forward with post-haste to remove that cloud and allow APD to continue moving forward on its Sisyphean task of reform.