Monitor says APD use-of-force investigations out of line, but other areas have improved

The Albuquerque Police Department continues to struggle in implementing new use-of-force policies on the street and administrative levels but is improving in several other areas of focus under the settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, independent monitor Dr. James Ginger wrote in the agreement’s third progress report.

The 352-page report, which is the third of 10 that will be released under the settlement agreement, was released Friday and covers the period of December 2015 through the end of March 2016. The remaining reports will be issued incrementally over the remainder of the 41 months of the settlement agreement.

The time period covered represents the beginning of the police department’s institution of new policies drafted since the initial agreement was finalized by a judge last June and whose modifications were approved in September.

“APD has demonstrated a commitment to reform,” Dr. Ginger writes in an initial summary of the report. “Nevertheless, a tremendous amount of work lies ahead, and this report necessarily reflects that reality. APD has taken only the first few steps down a very long road.”

‘SERIOUS ISSUES’ WITH USE-OF-FORCE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

While Dr. Ginger praises the department in some regards to the changes it has made thus far, a primary focus of the report is the department’s finalization of a new use-of-force policy and the many struggles it still faces in implementing the policy on a street level and in the review process.

Dr. Ginger writes that he has approved the department’s new use-of-force policy despite months of setbacks. He also notes that “fostering the constitutional use of force is the primary goal of this entire effort.”

Training with the new policies began January 25. Dr. Ginger notes that the department has dealt with setbacks in training and implementation, as new policies were written and subsequently re-written several times, which led to an unavoidable delay in each level of implementation: from training to oversight.

Dr. Ginger in the report singles out a specific case in the time period covered in which an officer kneed a person suspected of stealing a car in the head and knocking them unconscious.

The incident happened on Oct. 30, 2015 but was not forwarded to an investigator until two weeks later. That investigator did not return his observations of the case to his supervisor until Dec. 17, 2015, which Dr. Ginger called “troubling.”

He said there were “obvious and serious” issues with the case, among them being “that the Area Commander failed to document some of the most relevant issues concerning the use of force.”

Dr. Ginger writes that not only was the officer’s use of force concerning, but that the monitoring “identified failures at multiple levels in reporting and investigation” and that standard operating procedures were violated.

“[T]his case raises serious questions about proper force reporting and superficial chain of command reviews,” Dr. Ginger wrote, adding that there was “a lack of rigorous and legitimate oversight and accountability.”

He says the monitoring team will issue a special report on the specific case in late July.

“The issues that have thus far been identified are significant, systemic, and multi-faceted, and require focus and alacrity from APD in addressing and resolving each,” Dr. Ginger wrote.

He then outlined an exhaustive list of failures within the department and its use-of-force policy implementation, which is still in its initial stages. Among them are:

“[T]he monitoring team has found that the components in APD’s system for overseeing (and holding officers accountable for) the use of force, for the most part, has failed…[and] point to a deeply-rooted systemic problem.”

“The deficiencies…indicate a culture of low accountability is at work within APD…”

“Despite the issuance of multiple alerts, [the department] failed to result in appropriate, effective reviews…actions taken were based upon incomplete data and were of little effect in changing the officer’s underlying behavior…This resulted in significant, developing patterns being missed in the case of at least two involved officers.”

Garrity protections, which protect public employees from incriminating themselves, were extended to officers’ interviews during investigative affairs interviews which led to “critical” information not being shared with investigators who determine whether employees face criminal liability. Thus, the subsequent reports “are seriously deficient,” Dr. Ginger writes. He adds that the District Attorney’s Office was never consulted in these cases.

The monitoring team has “major reservations” about the department’s use-of-force oversight and accountability system’s “ability to produce high-quality, trustworthy data.”

APD “missed significant opportunities to catch problems early, remediate and resolve them quickly, reinforce good practice, and provide invaluable feedback to the policy and training functions,” Dr. Ginger wrote.

‘BUBBLE EFFECT’ OF TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION CAUSING DELAYS

The other part of the settlement agreement Dr. Ginger wrote still needs significant improvement in is overall policy and training. All 278 policies mandated by the agreement were due by June 5 after deadlines were extended.

But Dr. Ginger notes that the delay in having some policies drafted creates a “bubble” effect, putting the department and city in a “remarkably substantial process” of developing then implementing new policies. He says the effect “will drastically over-tax all concerned parties” and affect APD’s “down-line” actions in adopting new policies while in the field.

Dr. Ginger writes that the process of fine-tuning policy in writing and training continues. He added that crisis intervention teams needed to be improved and training vastly improved.

APD Chief Gorden Eden said in a Friday afternoon interview with KOB that since the end of March, which is where the report ends, all commanders and officers have been trained on new policies. He said the implementation of new policy and training is a “parallel process” that is happening simultaneously at times.

OTHER AREAS OF SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT PRAISED FOR HASTY ACTION

While Dr. Ginger’s report did note some serious deficiencies in the implementation of the agreement so far, he gave high praise to other factions of the police department that have made significant strides so far in his eyes.

He gave the most-glowing endorsement to APD’s specialized tactical units: the SWAT unit, canine unit and bomb squad.

“These units are guided by some of the best policy yet developed at APD, Dr. Ginger wrote. He says they have been training continuously on de-escalation techniques and minimal use-of-force.

“These policy and training processes have resulted in fewer deaths and injuries attributed to actions of these specialized units over the last year or more,” he wrote. “APD continues to see commendable results from its tactical operations, many of which are resolved without any force being used.”

Dr. Ginger also praised the Citizen Police Oversight Agency and Police Oversight Board and a new Executive Director, as well as staffing reports from Alexander Weiss and Associates. He writes that APD has already reorganized and restructured since the previous report.

GINGER SUMMARIZES: TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION NEED TO CONTINUE FORWARD

In summary, Dr. Ginger essentially says the police department and city are making progress in coming into compliance with the settlement agreement that is commendable by the monitoring team.

He laments delays caused in selecting and implementing the monitoring team and admits “some false starts were made,” which led to the city and department having to go back and re-write policies and again update training.

“Officers cannot be held accountable for performance until they are trained in the implementation of the articulated policy. Supervisors cannot be held accountable for enforcing policy among their subordinates until policies are written and promulgated, and then officers trained on them.”

But he says that he and his team are committed to continuing to work through the difficult process with APD – which still centers around the drafting of new policies and working with commanders to ensure “critical concepts” of the settlement agreement are implemented on every level of the department.