Mayor Richard Berry called Friday for an immediate halt to the practice, which was first reported in the Albuquerque Journal during a week in which Albuquerque police shot and killed two men.

ALBUQUERQUE - Albuquerque police officers involved in a rash of fatal shootings over the past two years were paid up to $500 under a union program that some have likened to a bounty system in a department with a culture that critics have long contended promotes brutality.

“The administration has nothing to do with how the union conducts their business,’’ Berry said in a statement, “but I was shocked yesterday when made aware of this practice. I cannot stand aside and condone this practice - it needs to end now.’’


Although the union said the payments were intended to help the officers decompress from a stressful situation, one victim’s father and a criminologist said it sounded more like a reward program.

“I think it might not be a bounty that they want it for,’’ said Mike Gomez, the father of an unarmed man killed by police last year, “but in these police guys’ minds, they know they are going to get that money. So when they get in a situation, it’s who’s going to get him first? Who’s going to shoot him first?’’

Maria Haberfeld, chair of the Department of Law & Police Science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said she found the program disturbing.

“I’m not a psychologist. I’m a criminologist. But if you give somebody a monetary incentive to do their job, usually people are tempted by the monetary incentive,’’ she said. “To me, this is a violation of professional ethics.’’

Other law enforcement officials called speculation of a bounty system ridiculous, but acknowledged the payments could be poorly perceived.


“Frankly, it’s insulting and very insensitive that somebody would believe that a police officer would factor in a payment for such a difficult decision,’’ said Joe Clure, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association.