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The city on Thursday issued its own report, which said its police department has made significant progress in satisfying the requirements of the settlement agreement.

Where to read the report



The Department of Justice for the District of New Mexico has also posted the report on

Police also will print reports for people at substations. Click here to jump to the report.The Department of Justice for the District of New Mexico has also posted the report on its website , and the city said it will post the entire report at cabq.gov/police Police also will print reports for people at substations.

“Considerable work has been made in developing an infrastructure to support and implement the many directives of the Settlement Agreement, including investments in personnel, training, hardware, software, and equipment,” it said.

The settlement agreement was reached after the DOJ investigated the department, whose officers since 2010 have shot more than 40 people, many of them mentally ill. The investigation found APD too often used excessive force.

U.S. District Judge Robert Brack is overseeing the reform effort, and Ginger reports to the judge.

A large number of the reforms call for the department to revise policies and then train officers on those policies. The report said that Albuquerque police are now trying to make policy changes in a “disjointed and disorganized” manner.

“In short, policy development processes at APD are in need of significant and immediate revision,” the report says.

Ginger’s report outlined police efforts from February through May. The report criticized several use-of-force cases in which police used Tasers on people but credited the department for the de-escalation techniques the department’s tactical units have used during SWAT operations.

The monitoring team reviewed 16 use-of-force cases. Each of the cases raised concerns about officers’ behavior, according to the report.

In one case, an officer shot a man in the head with a Taser, which is expressly prohibited in APD’s current use-of-force policy.

In another case, after police used a Taser on a man multiple times, an officer put his knee on a suspect’s neck while putting handcuffs on him. That’s a potentially lethal amount of force, the report said.

The report said police supervisors didn’t address those issues while reviewing the incidents, highlighting the need for a stronger use-of-force policy for the department.

Ginger said members of his team have gone through “two cycles” with APD officials to try to craft a new policy. But the two sides have so far been unable to reach a consensus.

Police Chief Gorden Eden said he is confident the department and the monitoring team can reach agreement on the policy sometime next month.

“The use-of-force policy is the foundation of the new Albuquerque Police Department,” Eden said. “We’re working diligently to get it done. But more importantly, to get it right.”

Ginger’s report credited the police for setting up the infrastructure needed for the reform process, such as creating a policy review board and an advisory board for mental health matters. Ginger said the police department met all the initial two- and three-month deadlines set in the settlement.

“They’re about where I would expect them to be,” he said.

The report also gave positive feedback on the way the police department’s tactical squads responded to calls from February through May.

“We found that incident commanders exhibited great skill and control in the incidents we reviewed, fostering coordinated decision-making that contributed to the use of de-escalation techniques and to there being no need to use force,” the report states.

The start of the reform process was delayed about six months after it took longer than expected for the city and the monitoring team to negotiate the contract.

As a result, the deadlines in the settlement agreement also were pushed back. That meant that the report filed in court Thursday only judged the department on the initial phases of the settlement, which primarily were related to making sure Albuquerque police had completed tasks such as briefing all officers on the settlement and setting up the various advisory boards that will be used as the process moves forward.

The report didn’t provide any insight on the police staffing study and the new lapel camera policy, which are among the many aspects of the settlement agreement.

Despite the change in deadlines, city officials said they still hope to come into compliance with the settlement by June 2016 and maintain that compliance for two straight years, which would end the reform process.

“Things have been done a certain way for decades in the organization,” City Attorney Jessica Hernandez said in court. “This is a major organizational change.”

“We’re on schedule,” Mayor Richard Berry said.

Ginger’s report said before his team was in place, Albuquerque police tried to forge ahead and make some reforms.

“While laudable, many of these early efforts were not in line” with the settlement agreement, the report said.

Eden said some of the work Albuquerque police already have done in response to the settlement agreement is changing the culture within the department. He said getting about 90 percent of the field services officers crisis intervention training has made the biggest improvement so far.

“I know it has had a huge impact on our officers out in the field,” he said. “There has not been a single officer that said, ‘I didn’t need that training.'”