It has been a year since Ray Schultz left APD and went to work for Taser
International. None of us knew this until KRQE happened upon Ray in
February 2014 and asked him what he has been doing during his retirement. Ray
announced to the world that he has been working for Taser, days after retiring
from APD and weeks after he helped Taser (he used the word "greased") obtain the
largest contract for body cameras in Taser history, $1,950,000 of Albuquerque
tax dollars.
Because of KRQE's work, he local media also began investigating the Schultz / Taser connection, and by doing
such a good job that the Albuquerque City Council could not ignore the questions
of corruptions and kickbacks any longer. Retired APD Sergeant wrote and filed complaints with the AG, the US Attorney's Office, and the State Auditor asking them to look into the matter. Then the city's Inspector General office entered into the fray. All three agencies have confirmed they are looking into the matter. The only two agencies
not investigating are the Bernalillo County District Attorney (no surprise here)
and the US Attorney for New Mexico (who isn't saying).
So what is the status of these investigations? The Journal comes to
us this morning (August 29 2014) with a report where the APD Fiscal Manager,
Aubrey Thompson, defended the "sole source" contract for body cameras from
Taser. He denies that the Taser contract violated any city, state or
federal regulations. Thompson states:
"There was no comparable product on the market."
Really? Let's help Aubrey out. The Eye has posted three
Department of Justice reports that list dozens of other companies who make body
cameras and who provide cloud storage. (note regarding the Hawkes shooting, one
of these reports documents a malfunction with Taser cameras where the body cable
comes loose). We also have posted a link to the Wall Street Journal where
they have an article that says Taser has direct competition from Vieue LLC, a
company that offers everything that Taser offers. Interestingly this
article says police departments should hold off on purchasing as prices are
dropping and that most agencies will be able to cheaply set up and manage their
own body camera system and storage. Taser's Evidence. com cloud system is
simply storage bought from Amazon. How is that for Chain of Custody?
APD videos are handed over to a third party (that is not law enforcement,
Taser), who then hands over video evidence to a 4th party, Amazon, to store (not
law enforcement). This would be the same as having Costco run the APD
evidence room and then Costco contracts it out to Wal-Mart. APD has lost
complete control of lapel camera evidence. We are waiting for the first
defense attorney to ask that APD lapel footage be suppressed because Chain of
Custody was not maintained by APD, but by third parties. It's
coming.
To add insult to injury, Berry / Perry announced last week that they are
going to pay UNM $50,000 to study body camera issues. What? I
thought Schultz and Audrey thoroughly vetted these cameras and the issues?
That is what they both said. So what questions have not been
answered? Little things like it takes APD officers at least one hour of
each shift to upload footage to third party Taser / Amazon cloud. That is
an hour we lose officers from answering 911 calls. This is mismanagement
of police manpower. How about citizens privacy rights? Can a citizen
ask an officer not to record? If they are on private property does the
officer have to turn it off if asked? How about privacy rights for
officers? Can anything uploaded to the Taser / Amazon cloud be released
through a public records request? How about that, you can see your family
on the 6 pm news receiving a death notification or maybe that ex spouse who
hates you will post APD lapel camera footage of you being interviewed for
anything on YouTube. How secure is the Taser / Amazon cloud?
Russians hack everything in the public sector, if the NSA can't keep their stuff
secure why would we think Taser / Amazon can? Reader, please take the time
to post you own questions on this blog. This will help Aubrey / Berry /
Perry and we really want to help them.
This is where the house of Taser cards falls apart. How would Aubrey
know anything about the competition, as APD Fiscal Manager, if he didn't allow
other companies to present their products? Why was the APD command staff
so scared of the Taser competition that they would not allow any other company
to present their product? Why didn't BERRY / PERRY put a stop to this
Taser lapel contract until these questions (that we are now paying $50,000 for)
were answered? What was the rush to get Taser the APD contract? Is
Tasergate in Albuquerque comparable to Redflex in Chicago?
There is only one word that answers this question, GREASED.
How can Berry continue to say nothing inappropriate occurred with the Taser
/ Schultz contract and employment. We haven't even brought up the dance
party Taser put on for Schultz and APD pals. Parties, jobs in retirement,
what else did Taser give out to APD personnel to ensure they received the
$1,950,000 Albuquerque camera contract? Richard Berry continues to ignore,
but maybe, just maybe those government officials who are supposed to be the
"checks and balances" will do their jobs. We are all waiting.
The Eye has to wonder what Ray Schultz, Allen Banks, Kathy Levy and others
had to say on their questionnaires. We should find out very soon.
What about Godon Eden, what does he have to say about these
investigations? Does he now know who makes APD body cameras? Oh and
what about Redflex? Are any of these agencies speaking to the Redflex
whistleblower who told the Chicago US Attorney that paybacks went on in New
Mexico? Our Eyes are wide open waiting to see what happens next.
Here are some links to stories we've referred to in this article....
23 comments:
Aubrey is lying to cover his butt and Schultz. Any investigation that does not show this is not worth the paper it is printed on.
Once these investigations are finished, and they show Schultz and others received gifts and kickbacks, Audrey should be fired and indicted along with Schultz. Don't forget Fiest and Banks et al. The long arm of the law may finally hold these people accountable.
And don't forget Roseman. I witnessed a conversation with him and a Commissioner from the Police Oversight board, where Roseman said that even though APD knew the Taser cameras had issues - UNMPD gave up on them due to the high rate of failures in only 3 months - they (APD) were evaluating them for possible purchase anyway.
Because those "flaws" with the cameras were actually advantageous to a corrupt gang. Better functioning cameras, no room for excuses. THEY ARE THE GANG.
1:47
Then you need to call the Inspector General office 768 3138, you can remain anonymous.
You also need to call the State Auditor.
Step up if you have witnessed something, show courage. It is the only way to change this place
Ray will come down when he sees the handcuffs.
The corruption here pales in comparison to the corruption in other places that has resulted in massive indictments. The wheels move slowly, but I believe that we are going to see some people lose their shit and get charged; officers, city officials and former high ranking police brass.
6:40
Thanks, saved me from having to look it up...
When you destroy lives and profit from it lavishly, you have to pay. You have to pay dearly. Laugh now. Cry later.
Schultz and Perry should just go get sex change operations because they both look like two Chaz Bonos.
Chief Eden will answer the question by allowing his Commanders, Lieutenants, and officers hoping to get promoted to answer the question.
Commander Rowe has been transferred from the Academy to Open Space. WTH?
@ 9:31 because he isn't qualified to be running the Academy. Before long Open Space will be messed up..
Why does no one ever mention how Taser paid for some of those famous San Diego shenanigans that week that ended Rays marriage? And why has no one asked what role Tom Munsey played? He retired from the academy and went to work for Taser the year or two before didnt he?
All of these questions and more will be asked at the hearings that are coming. Stay tuned.
Can anybody tell me why former DC sSauer has unfettered access to the main and has a card key to come and go as he pleases, this former DC who has no business being at the main and contributes nothing to the department has more disruptive behaviors and comments about the chief and Huntsman, I thought the main was supposed to be secured and only authorized personnel were to have card key access can someone look into his authorization and find out Iinto why he has card key access to the main does he have access to remain so he can keep taking policies and procedures to run his business up and Laguna
If there is a hearing we can only hope that the right questions are asked. And that the people that need to be answering them are there..
ref APOA lawsuit, isn't funny who was NOT named.....hmmmm, how did they buy their way out of that I wonder......
Numerous retired city employees have been mentioned on this site as having gone to work for company's they dealt with as city employees. This is against city rule that puts a one year waiting period before being able to work.Who has been prosecuted for this type of action ANYBODY??? If not, why the rule? If yes what has the punishment been? Got an answer Gregg Smith, Rob Perry
2:42 they don't call him Flip for nothing...!
Sauer has a history that the PD should be very concerned about, he tried to remove cases from his IA file -complaints made by many women. He IS the security threat. Discusting human being!
The word around town is that old Flip was the one who snitched out Sigala, Paul Feist, Schultz, Jason Peck and Ryan Buckner as the ones who were conspiring to concoct the whole story and follow through with the conspiracy to use Doyle and Wolever to deflect attention away from everything Schultz was doing. There is also rumor that Peck called out sick for Wolever's hearing recently after he (Peck) was caught lying at another hearing involving these two officers. I actually heard that nobody showed up but Levy for wolever's hearing because all of the witnesses were caught lying and Levy is being looked at for misconduct.
Eye, if you have the information about Wolever and Doyle's next hearing, please forward it. It will be priceless to see what Schultz says, and see him caught in another lie in that case considering that people are now implicating him in the APOA lawsuit with Sigala. Schultz testifying any longer can not be good for the status of his freedom and bank account.
I would like to thank the two officers for fighting these criminals and exposing the mess going on behind the scenes.
Schultz is going to testify? That creep is still in town? Every civil rights attorney in the state should be at that hearing. That boy is going to prison if he takes the stand anywhere in this country. OMG. This is epic!
I heard that civilian cameraman, the one Perry and Wheeler attacked, was at Woolever's hearing and took a picture of Kathy while the hearing was in recess.
Word is she got all butt hurt and tried to get the guy tossed out...no one gave rats ass (totally legal)...seems Kathy's 'dreamt up' authority is as dried up as her va-jj now Ray has split town.
That guy deserves a medal...
Hopefully his camera still wotprks after havind something like that in it's lens.
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