The Piercing Truth

This is right from the dictionary and seems to describe Albuquerque, Berry and Schultz. Fascism (f ash ,izem) noun An authoritarian right wing system of government and/or social organization. (in general use) extreme right wing, authoritarian, chauvinistic and/or intolerant views or practices. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one group over another, national, ethnic, especially social strata or monetarily; a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Compliments of one of our Eyes

Feb 9, 2014

When Leaders Don't Follow SOPs: A Letter from Retired Sergeant Paul Heh



First, I want to be real clear in saying that there’s nothing we can do to bring Omaree back. His murder was senseless and tragic and it breaks my heart.

His death was a horrific tragedy which doesn’t just give us a black eye here in Albuquerque, it gives the entire state of New Mexico one.

When I look back at my 30 years as a police officer and think about what I have heard APD’s chief Allen Banks, CAO Rob Perry, and the mayor say over the last week regarding the calls to Omaree’s house I really don’t know what to say. We have in place police department rules and procedures that have served the citizens of Albuquerque perfectly fine up until Berry took over. Then everything went to hell because those rules and procedures are treated as optional and discretionary. 

It seems that whether or not rules and SOPs have to be followed depends on who has to follow them and not what needs to be done.

This is unacceptable.

Banks and Perry this week said the officers at the June 2013 call did not follow SOPs and better have “damn good reasons for it.” Well, Mr. Perry and Chief Banks, neither of you followed SOPs when you were at one of the highest profile crime scenes in the city’s history.  I haven’t heard a “damn good reason” for why Chief Banks didn’t write a mandatory police report at Mary Han’s death scene. Of course we know Mr. Perry wrote a report, but FOUR MONTHS later! Why the delay Rob? Was THAT only because people started asking questions about her rings?  Are you going to let those two cops write reports now after the fact like you were apparently able to? Is there going to be an investigation as to why these two didn't write reports?

This is what I mean, they say, “Oh you must do this because the rules say you have to” but then they turn around and don’t do it themselves.

Police need to be led not just by words but by action. If they see that it’s ok for you not to do it, then why should they do it? And believe me, there is no greater group of people who notice the difference between what one says and what one does.

Folks we don’t need a task force. We need to follow the rules we have in place. We have an entire Crimes Against Childre Unit to address crimes like this. What we need to do is make sure our leaders are held to the same if not higher standards than the front-line guys and gals. DOJ is here because people have been allowed to break rules and have not been held accountable. Sometimes those rule breakers have been frontline cops. But a lot of the time they have been department leaders. And the ones that have looked away and endorsed the rule breaking have ALWAYS been department leaders. Isn’t that right Ray?!

You can’t find a bigger task force than the one here from Washington named D-O-J. And it starts at the top, NOT at the bottom.

Paul Heh
APD Senior Sergeant (Retired)

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right on Paul, we need officers that can read and follow procedures.
I also wonder if they were told to do otherwise?
Why did no one question why there was no report when there is plenty of evidence that the officers went to the home? S.O.P. for making out a report 2-10-1. Is there any evidence that these officers were reprimanded for failing to do their duty? There are so many questions and all Berry wants to do is lead us in a different direction with a "task force" and Omaree's law.

Anonymous said...

Paul Ithink it's time for you to do another editorial to our City's only newspaper. This post would be an excellent one to send. Ialso want to comment regarding what you said re: leadership qualities. As you know, this also goes on in other departments. It truly does depend upon who is following the rules as to how they are enforced. I work in the library now for 15 yrs. We have a certain manager who is the worst I've ever seen. Drives us like work horses. Sits at her desk and looks at FB most of the day. Made an injured co -worker with a major injury to her leg shovel the parking lots full of snow. Manager told me not to help her, even tho she is disabled. Grievance filed. No action taken against the manager. Lets our newest tattooed male worker sit in front of his computer most of the day looking at FB also. Makes the 63 yr. old co -worker stand on her feet all day while tattooed boy chews tobacco and applies for other jobs and sits down most the day. Our breaks are timed to the minute, yet she's late back from lunch all the time. She's rude to customers. She makes sure we keep our cell phones in our lockers yet hers is always on and she takes personal calls on it in public view. BBrings her dog to work. Won't let us conversate or build positive relations with customers. Retaliates against myself and my injured co-worker because we go to our union when she denies for example our overtime. Paul, I totally supported you for Mayor and sent you that info. on how library administration wanted employees to lie to the public. I was very dissapointed when i learned that because I live in the East Mountains I was not able to vote in the city mayoral election, even tho I am employed by the city. Now we are stuck in this horrific situation. Thank you Paul for your straight talk and your dedication to Albuquerque. Don't give in or give up. There's plenty more in the future that you will be involved in for the good of the City. EXCELLENT POST !!!!

Anonymous said...

In Berry's world the SOP is for the little people, not the management.

Just like pay raises in Berry's world. 10%, 22% and 25% pay raises are for Berrys' "team". Rob Perry, TJ, city directors etc.

The little worker guy should take is 1% and kiss Berry on the check. Feeling happy he got a crumb.

Anonymous said...

@ 2-9-14 11:26AM,

Right, but first we need APD top brass to be able to read (and not read into SOPs meanings that are not there) and follow procedures.
Nearly a year and a half ago a citizen tagged an SID Detective for driving his department undercover car without any sort of temp tag or skip plate. What the citizen didn't know at the time was that the car's temp tag was expired and that is why the Detective had in in the glove box. The Detective also lied to the citizen concerning NM State statutes that he said allowed him to drive the car without any plate or valid temp tag.
The citizen filed a compliant with the ABQ Police Oversight Commission's (POC) Independent Review Officer (IRO) and video recorded the incident here....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWaONXV3u58
About a year later, the IRO and POC exonerated the Detective without showing any evidence of a NM State statute of the kind or that the Detective was using the car in an undercover capacity at the time.
Remember, violations of NM MVD laws are a criminal offense and if this had been a citizen driving his car without a valid tag it would have been impounded on the spot and he would have been subjected to a criminal complaint in Metro Court.
The POC process allows a citizen to appeal the decision of the IRO, and this citizen did so.
During the proceedings, at the POC's 12-12-13 meeting, the underlying reason for the Detective's exoneration was revealed by APD's IA Lieutenant Eric Jordan. As you can see Lt. Jordan has a difficult time testilying to the POC board as to how APD interprets the SOP covering this issue...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rZsvbFdEbk

Now, if APD IA, the IRO, the POC, and obviously the Chief who signed off on this IRO/IA investigation are willing to not be accountable on an issue such as this, relatively minor, how can the public possibly think they will be honest about major issues, such as the current one concerning the death of a child???

Anonymous said...

Now say this in front of city council.

Anonymous said...

This doesn't have anything to do with the police but I recently found out that the City Council may be adding fluoride to the water again at the end of this month. In 2012 they decided to err on the side of caution have stop the practice.

This is a very important issue because what they would be adding would be "synthetic fluoride", toxic waste from the scrubbers of phosphate fertilizer companies, not the natural fluoride that city officials are told about. There is very little natural fluoride in the U.S.

The CDC reported that babies under 6 months should not have fluoride because it causes dental fluorosis which cannot be reversed, which causes brittle teeth and bones.

Fluoride is the only substance that can break through the blood brain barrier and it collects in the pineal gland, lowering the I.Q's of children. Synthetic fluoride also has other toxic ingredients such as aluminum.

Can Albuquerque afford this type of liability??

My sisters and I fought the addition of fluoride in the town where I am from and after 3 years we won so I consider myself well versed on the subject. The people that were pushing fluoridation was a dental insurance company because they didn't want to pay for "prescription fluoride" treatments so they push this noxious substance off on the unsuspecting public.

Around 2005 it would have cost the phosphate fertilizer companies about $6.00 a barrel to proper dispose of this toxic substance, instead they sell it local governments that don't bother to do their homework.

Anonymous said...

Oh please, Paul, the degradation of the police dept. began long before dingleberry ever became mayor. It all started with the so called low stress academies in the mid-90s. Those academies have produced nothing by slackers and call-faders. Blame Baca, Chavez, and their subsequent hiring of idiot Chiefs or negligent retention of moronic Chiefs in the ranks. There needs to be wholesale firing or demotion of the Peter Principle children on the dept.

Anonymous said...

DO any of you recall what LEA it was that cited the former Sandoval Co sheriff for a bad/improper plate on his issued vehicle? It looks like improperly registered UC vehicles are subject to enforcement action in some parts of NM...

Anonymous said...

I was on my motorcycle and darn near run off the road by an APD UC with no visible license plate several years ago. As it just happened, the UC driver went the same way I was going and I was able to take a few pictures. The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by two APD marked units and I was forced to delete my photos by the two uniformed officers and a very very big and pissed off UC officer. There was no doubt they were going to beat the crap out of me if I didn't comply.....

Anonymous said...

This is the lesson that the city of Albuquerque is teaching ALL of its employees: You do what I say, I do what I want because I know I can get away with it. You, on the other hand, will be disciplined, written up, or fired. That's the city's mission statement.....hypocritical liars.

Anonymous said...

While on patrol, a UC car ran a red light in front of me. Before I got out of the patrol car, the DET got out of his car and started walking up to me. I nearly shot his head off. I should've, since he had such an attitude for a pissant. He filed an IA complaint against me. I had ten years of experience over him and the complaint against me went nowhere. There were a bunch of more UC det's committing flagrant traffic violations in front of me. Is it any wonder why the dept gets sued for cops running red lights.

Hiyaboosa said...

Hahaha..... You butthole. It doesn't matter how good an attorney is. These APD cases are all turds, and you can't make a diamond out of a turd. Right is right and wrong will always be wrong. Albuquerque is the rotten variable here. Once that factor is removed, the truth comes to light.

Anonymous said...

Well since we are talking about plates What is the difference between an undercover cop license plate and a detective license plate? My neighbor is a detective (not undercover) but she removed her government plate one day and put on an expired UNM plate. I asked her about it and she told me she does many undercover operations and she needs to have an under cover plate. Well I hate to break it to her but everyone knows what detectives drive and the plates aren't going to conceal that fact. The bad guys know every kind of cop car in existence.

If I was to find an expired UNM plate or Mexican plate and throw it on my car I would be cited and lectured. Whoever is in charge of these detectives should look at their subordinates cars daily and make sure they don't have expired plates and be hypocritical.

Anonymous said...

So I guess we can assume that cars that have no license plate are undercover, so much for anonymity, LOL!

Anonymous said...

Might be another "APD" up to no good for Nancy Laflin to investigate and bring up to Perry/Berry;
1: Why are UC/Detectives driving around without license plates?
2: Why are UC/Detectives not obeying our street laws?
3. Why are UC/Detectives able to take home vehicles when they are not on call?
4: What happened to having to live within a certain distance?
It's ridiculous with all that's going on under Perry/Berry! Schultz/Banks really let this once great department go to hell. So sad.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Mayor PerryBerry is getting in on the UC action too..... Anyone know who belongs to this SUV???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHLMNsns59k

Can't wait to see a citizen, who one of these 'does not meet the requirements to be on the road cars' has an accident with and the city has to replace his $500K Lamborghini.

But then again it is all on the up and up according to this clown at APD IA.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rZsvbFdEbk

Anonymous said...

As a concerned citizen, I have been witness many times to APD not following SOP: writing false police reports, conducting illegal searches without warrants or probable cause (other than the mayor ordering it for a friend-continual harassment); destruction of property; knowingly writing false reports-when I asked a detective why this was done, he explained it's the only way to get the DA to review-then issues can be resolved after indictments-this is shameful to the public who have to pay thousands of dollars to clear their name; use of force (battery) while youth is in handcuffs and not combative, resistant, belligerent, ; tasering youth and denying rights to have parents notified....the list is long. Coming from law enforcement, I've been saddened by the abuse of power. And, from reading these posts, it's apparent it comes from the top down, not just a rogue officer. God bless you all. SOPs are there for a reason-like protecting civil rights...and officers should follow the same.