By IAN LOVETT
The Justice Department has reached a settlement with the City of
Albuquerque over excessive use of force by the Police Department.
Under an agreement announced Friday, an independent monitor will
be installed to oversee reforms at the department for at least two years, and
the department will adopt new policies aiming to ease conflict with citizens.
The Justice Department in April found a pattern of excessive force
in the Albuquerque Police Department, after a string of shootings in which 23
people were killed and 14 others wounded over four years, an usually high
number for a city of about 550,000 people.
Under the agreement, the Police Department will undertake a host
of sweeping changes, many of them designed to reduce the use of force. Officers
will be trained to handle people who are mentally unstable; the way that the
department investigates shootings involving officers will be changed; and
officers will be required to wear body cameras to record many interactions with
the public.
“We are here to announce a new chapter for policing in
Albuquerque,” Damon P. Martinez, the United States attorney for the district of
New Mexico, said at a news conference Friday. He added that the agreement,
known as a consent decree, was aimed at delivering “high quality and
constitutional police services for Albuquerque.” He added, “It is also a road
map for rebuilding trust between the community and the police.”
The agreement follows a tumultuous spring in Albuquerque. After
James Boyd, a homeless man with a history of mental illness, was shot by
heavily armed officers, street protests erupted, accompanied by demands for
major changes at the Police Department.
Albuquerque’s leaders worked with federal officials to craft a set
of reforms, including new controls over specialized investigation units, some
of which had become unofficial SWAT units with specialized weapons, Mr.
Martinez said. One of those special units, the Repeat Offender Project, which
was known for its overly aggressive tactics, will be disbanded entirely.
Mayor Richard J. Berry said he hoped that the agreement and the
reforms that follow it would begin restoring trust between the police and the
public. He said it was the first settlement to require on-body cameras, which
Albuquerque had already adopted, becoming one of the first large cities in the
country to do so.
“I believe strongly that we are setting a new national standard
for policing and police reforms,” Mr. Berry said. The reforms, he added, “will
enhance safety, both for our community and our police officers.”
The Albuquerque City Council is set to vote next week on the
settlement, which must then be approved by a federal judge. The independent
monitor will oversee the implementation of the changes and report to the court.
Mr. Berry estimated that the reforms would cost $4 million to $6
million in the first year. Much of that expense would be for retraining
officers and paying overtime to officers who are on the streets while their
colleagues are in training. But Mr. Berry said he did not believe the city
would be forced to make big cutbacks in other areas to cover the cost.
The police departments in eight other cities, including New
Orleans, Detroit and Seattle, are currently entered into consent decrees with
the Department of Justice.
