ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Albuquerque Police Department is making new moves to be released from federal oversight. The Department of Justice and APD agreed in new court filings that compliance has been met.  

While the motion still has to be approved by a federal judge, Albuquerque city leaders took a victory lap Saturday morning.

“This is a victory for the men and women of the Albuquerque Police Department who have changed their culture,” said APD Chief Harold Medina. “They are the ones that have put the most blood, sweat and tears into this.”

It all began in 2014 after the DOJ found a pattern of excessive force within the police department. The DOJ then mandated reforms ranging from the use of guns and lapel cameras, to how deadly force cases are reported.

Taylor Rahn, the lead attorney representing APD in the settlement, says the department is now in 100-percent compliance.

“I just remind the public that this was not only approved by the Department of Justice and the city, it was approved by the other party in this matter, the union, as well as the court monitor,” Rahn said.

Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Medina called on future city leaders to continue pursuing reforms in the post-DOJ era. Keller said he believes enough changes have been made to outlast his administration, while Medina shared a message for future police leaders.

“I hope and I pray that the future leaders of this department continue to respect what was built and that we must always be looking to see how we could improve,” Medina said. “That sometimes in order to be able to improve, we must admit that we were wrong.”

More than 10 years after the infamous James Boyd killing in the Albuquerque foothills and the ensuing protests, APD still has plenty of critics.

Daniel Williams with the ACLU of New Mexico pointed out a disconnect between APD’s compliance with the DOJ, and the experience on city streets. 

“We’ve seen the last couple of years APD really starting to check those boxes, and get into technical compliance with the CASA,” said Williams, referring to the settlement agreement. “Unfortunately, New Mexico still leads the nation in terms of per capita people killed by police and APD does account for a big part of that.”

Keller said he recognized the possibility of problems still appearing within the police department, but expressed optimism on how they would be dealt with in the future.

“Will there be bad actors in the police department? That will also happen,” Keller said. “The difference is that we will hold them accountable, and we will efficiently get the bad actors out of the department.”