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"I don't like this book because it don't got know pictures" Chief Rhorerer

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

Police Oversight Commission called a 'mockery'



By: Erica Zucco

One of three Police Oversight Commissioners who stepped down from the group today called the commission a “mockery” of real civilian oversight.
All three of them said the group has no power, citing an April 10 message from the city attorney’s office as the final straw. They say they do not want to deceive citizens into thinking they do have effective civilian oversight.
“I think they're frustrated cause they're just not getting the kind of power and oversight that they need and so we're seeing people resign,” Ralph Arellanes of LULAC, who served on a task force to reform the POC, said.
Peter Simonson of the ACLU was on that task force too.
“We felt the police oversight commission and the Independent review office, in whatever way shape or form they take, should form a single system and ultimately that the IRO should respond to, be supervised by, the oversight body,” Simonson said.
That task force created eighteen recommendations, some of which city council is working on now. But most of the recommendations haven’t been put into action by city officials.
In the meantime, Richard Shine, Jennifer Barela and Jonathan Siegel resigned from the commission.
“It's unfortunate, maybe it's inevitable. The situation we have currently, we know that the POC and the IRO are in a state of complete uncertainty as they wait to see what the city council plans to do,” Simonson said. “They were extremely frustrated with the way in which the city attorney's office has construed the relationship between the IRO and the POC, construed the power of the POC to weigh in on policy matters and obtain certain kinds of data from the police department and so I think all of their concerns were completely legitimate, I can totally understand why they had the reaction they did and I know both Mr. Siegel and Mr. Shine and I think they are upstanding individuals, devoted to their community.”
In their letters, all three resigning commissioners said they hope the city will take action to reform the POC.
“I think they truly wanted to see an effective civilian oversight body process here in the city of Albuquerque and I think it’s a shame to lose them from the civilian oversight process. I hope that they can remain engaged because really they have committed literally thousands of hours on our community's behalf,” Simonson said.


3 Albuquerque police oversight members resign
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Half of the members of Albuquerque's Police Oversight Commission have resigned, citing a lack of independence and inability to provide any real citizen oversight of the troubled department.
The resignations Tuesday by three members of the civilian review board come less than a week after the U.S. Justice Department issued a scathing report on what it called excessive force and a culture of abuse and aggression at the Police Department. Albuquerque officers have shot at 37 men since 2010, killing 23.
The report also criticized the city's oversight system and limited powers in investigating cases of questionable police conduct.
Oversight commission members Jennifer Barela, Jonathan Siegel and Richard Shine sent their letters of resignation to Mayor Richard Berry, leaving just three members on the nine-member panel, which had three vacancies. Each city council member has the ability to appoint a member to the commission.
In his letter, Siegel said a series of decisions by the city attorney's office gives the board little power to do more than ratify the recommendations of an independent review officer, who Siegel says is "fully aligned with the chief of police."
"I cannot continue to pretend or deceive the members of our community into believing that our city has any real civilian oversight," he wrote.

Albuquerque's chief administrative officer, Rob Perry, thanked the commission members for their service and said, "We are hopeful that the City Council, which created this board and nominates its members, will work in consultation with the DOJ in continued efforts to reform and implement needed changes."