It's Saturday morning, do you know where your APD command staff is? Heck, with 200 officers headed out the door, do you know where any cops are?
The cultural problems, along with all other problems, at APD begin and end
with its leaders. Our commanders, past and present, have acted more
like caretakers than policy makers. Certainly a city the size of
Albuquerque has at least one command staff officer on the clock 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. Not on call, but actually working. If you make
this assumption you would be wrong. At APD, when you get promoted to
Lieutenant you get weekends off. APD has almost 1,000 officers, and we
have had horrible incidents that beg for a command staff officer to lead, but by
design, Schultz, Banks, Eden do not require any command staff officers to work
weekends. Imagine if our military didn't have officers working on
weekends, it makes no sense.
Do you want examples where we needed command staff officers as incident
commanders? Let's provide two.
October 28, 2013, Chris Chase goes on a shooting spree throughout
Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. Wounding several law enforcement
officers and almost killing one Bernalillo County Sheriff deputy. This
incident lasted almost 30 minutes and went from the South Broadway area, through
the North Valley, into Los Ranchos, finally ending at 4th and Montano.
This incident only came to an end because Chris Chase wrecked his car. APD
had no plan to stop him. Why? Because at APD when you become a
Lieutenant you no longer work on weekends. For all of you DoJ attorneys
and outside media folks that read this blog, read this a second time. The
Albuquerque Police Department by design does not have any command staff officers
working on Saturday's and Sunday's. It's a perk for becoming part of the
command staff. During the Chris Chase incident all we had was a young
sergeant, who was part of the pursuit, as the highest ranking officer. We
had a lot of first responders, APD officers, BCSO, APS Police, etc respond but
read this again, the person in command was the APD sergeant who was also in the
pursuit. If an incident screamed for a Command Staff officer to step up
and run it, Chris Chase is that incident. You cannot expect a first line
supervisor (sergeant) to coordinate a response that includes several different
area commands and at least three different agencies. No sergeant is
prepared for, or trained for, something like this. Coordinating this type
of response is belongs to the command staff, but they were all at home.
Move forward to March 21, 2014, the James Boyd shooting. During this
seven hour incident the highest ranking officers were again, sergeants.
From the reports released by APD we had a field services sergeant and a SWAT
sergeant. Yet when you read through the huge APD investigation it becomes
clear that no one was actually in charge. We had FSB, SWAT, K9, ROP, NMSP
and Open Space at this scene, yet not one command staff officer was there.
The command staff officer who would have been the "incident commander"; who
would have be accountable for making a plan and it's implementation; was at home
enjoying his weekends off. The Boyd scene, just like the Chase incident,
had no leader, no one in charge.
You can point a finger at the officers at the James Boyd incident but the
actual fault is found in the organization of the Albuquerque Police
Department. By not requiring a Command Staff officer to be on the clock,
working, every day of the week, 24 hours a day, we set ourselves up for
failure. A command staff officer should have been present and in command
at the Boyd incident. That way everyone would know who was making the
plan, what the plan was, and who would be accountable. But at APD is any
command staff officer ever held accountable? When was the last time a
command staff officer was ever given a day off for an IA issue? It doesn't
happen at APD. This lack of command staff officers being assigned to work
weekends is done by design. If they are not present they can't be held
accountable.
APD command staff officers are more like caretakers than leaders.
This is because of the twenty year pension and the culture at the top of
APD. Most command staff officers make their move into command in the later
part of their career. They realize that if all they do is keep quiet and
support the status quo, they will get their three high years for pension and get
out. Don't believe me? Just look at 2005, only nine years ago?
Are any of those command officers (remember this is lieutenant and above) still
around? No. We can only hope that the change to PERA, making a 25
year pension for new hires and allowing current workers to work almost 30 years
for 90%, will help APD to keep command staff officers around longer than just
getting their high three. But until APD command staff officers decide to
bravely step up and dissent with the status quo, nothing will change.
Until APD command staff officers step forward and put their reputations /
careers on the line by working to change the system at APD, nothing will
change. APD command staff officers do not want to rock the boat.
They want to get their 20 years, with their large pensions, and get out.
APD Command staff officers (lieutenant, captain / commander, major, deputy
chief and chief) are still not scheduled to work weekends, I guess Berry/Eden
are waiting for the DoJ to tell them crime occurs on Saturday and Sunday.
Final note to Chief Eden. We know you have an abundance of experience
running a large police department, sic, but if you swallow your pride and take
our advice start having command staff officers working 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. Make them accountable. Furthermore, you must set up a
training system that prepares all APD officers to handle critical
incidents. This training must be incorporated into the MOE training and be
held yearly / continually for all APD officers. This is not the type of
training that Joe Wolfe could do. Wolfe was never a police officer.
This training should involve all APD officers, from top to bottom, everyone is
critiqued on the job they are doing. This will show you where APD is doing
it right and where APD is doing it wrong. It will show you who, in
command, is an actual leader and prepared to handle critical incidents and who
will need additional training to get up to speed. Do it now, don't wait
for the DoJ. Your Eye fears for all officers and citizens that another
Chris Chase or James Boyd incident is on the horizon, do something now to
prepare your officers to handle it. Chief Eden you can fix this, or you
can do nothing and history will hold you accountable. The choice is yours,
Chief Eden, are you a caretaker or are you brave enough to take responsibility
and make the changes now?
--Desert Hawk
34 comments:
Wish the citizens knew the absolute scam that is going on with this "assistant chief" nonsense. Guy is a joke and is doing nothing but jacking his retirement. It's sad cuz I had high hopes for him.....now we got Slauson as a civilian DC. What the hell is going on with this place?
Maybe a lot of them are too busy texting pictures of their penises to women or lying about stealing wallets. Oops, no, that's only lieutenants from IA. Isn't that bringing disrepute to the department?
Pass the buck as always. Having a Lt work every shift isn't a bad idea but when have they ever really ran an incident? With the exception of a few (very few), it has always been Sgts and senior officers that ran the scenes. Most Lts are not confident or good enough to run scenes. After the incident has happened, Lts are good at coordinating with other units and with the press, but let the real workers do the work. There are many fixes that need to occur but having Lts around usually just puts officers on edge
The promotions of "the teacher's pets" happens in every department. in cultural services, the anointed ones near their retirement date suddenly get promoted to a higher paid position that was never put out to bid and if it were put out nobody would qualify except the snakes that helped Dean Smith and Cindy Burns illegally fire employees with disabilities. Hey guess what Smith & Burns an EEOC shitstorm is about to blow up your skirts here in about a months time.
If you have the ability to get out of APD do it now. Retire now. This BS longevity will only pay you $1,000 per month and you will have to work with Berry and his fools. Retire and start your pension, you could go to work doing almost anything and make more than $1,000 per month and you won't have to work around the slime that currently run Albuquerque and APD. Retire now and you will see your stress level drop. Retire now and you won't have record your daily moments on a piece of crap Taser lapel camera (excluding SWAT of course). Retire now and if you are one of the few officers who are stuck in FSB you will be able to take vacation time and enjoy your life. Retire now and save your life from stress and save your reputation from working under Eden and Berry.
APD officers, retire now and get away from the unethical people who run APD and the city. Your life is worth more than the $1,000 Berry wants to give you. Retire now for your safety, sanity and family. Retire now.
"This incident only came to an end because Chris Chase wrecked his car." We should remember that it wasn't "his" car. It was a police cruiser that was driven up to him and abandoned with the door open and the engine running. The engine was left running allegedly because APD cruisers are hard to restart once they're at running temperature. Did the officer intend to take it back after running away from it instead of getting it out of range?
Good job to the two APD officers who called into Bob Clark on 770 KKOB and told Berry he was a liar. The first officer told Berry he lied when he said officers were retiring because of PERA. We all know the truth, it is because of Berry and Eden. Berry didn't know what to say when the officer told him it was the leadership of APD that was driving the officers to retire.
Then the second officer asked Berry if he would admit he was responsible as he didn't sign a contract with the APOA for almost 5 years. And that Berry took away the retention bonus in 2010, the same retention bonus he now wants to start up to keep officers. Berry stumbled and bumbled and said I DIDN'T GET RID OF THE RETENTION BONUS THE APOA SIGNED A CONTRACT TO GET RID OF IT SO THEY COULD KEEP THEIR CARS.
The officer then told Berry he was a liar. The APOA has not signed anything with Berry until this summer. Berry didn't know what to say. His 4 Hills / Tanoan world doesn't last long when he is confronted by the rest of Albuquerque.
Berry is the Emperor who wears no clothes (yuck). He needs Gilbert Montano telling him how wonderful he is. Because the real people are now publicly calling him a liar and focusing their blame on Berry for the toilet water Albuquerque and APD have become.
The wicked witch is gone! Janet Blair resigned. How funny is this. Now you have people leaving $90,000 jobs. Something is rotten. Why oh why is everyone running away? This fraud mayor would have everyone believe this is the land of milk, honey, red thongs, and prosperity while his staff flees in the opposite direction. Lying is stressful. Maybe a little too stressful for some as we are seeing. Miss Blair seems to have sprouted legs, and is running away from this place. Hopefully those spindly little things carry her far away. The question now is who will the next hired liar be? This is amusing. It is fun to see one liar after another get caught, hide, get mad when they get called out for hiding, then quit when the kitchen gets too hot. One thing I am thankful for are the little catch phrases these morons leave us with after they flee due to too many feet in their mouths. If not for these asshats we would not have little gems like....
Greased deals
Stories without legs
China
Shooting Penises
Oh fuck, was that me?
I was only petting puppies
It's justified
Frivolous lawsuits
Accidental Suicide
And the king of all of them.....
NATURE AT PLAY
So, thanks for the laugh hag, now hit the road before those brittle dried up old fossils you call legs seize up on you, and you don't even make the door. And please...don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
Loosing 100 to 200 police officers junst may be just the very thing APD actually needs to start restoring the Department, change its image and restore public confidence. All 100 to 200 officers all will havee been on the Department for the past 20 years. The Department of Jusitice found a "culture of violence" that you could argue took full root about 10 years ago when Officer's Smith and King were killed along with 3 ctizens by John Hyde. Cops got far more agreessive to defend themsleves after these killings and trainig changed dramatically. It can be argued that not until there is a 100% turn over of all "rank and file" cops as well as top management will there be a complete cleansing of the "culture of violence" found by DoJ and changes in attititude by rank and file. Poor training and the type of new cops just may gut this theory.
To: October 24, 2014 at 9:42:00 AM MDT
The 'culture' of violence was there long before Smith and King. They were the unfortunate victims of the City's failure to hire quality officers and retain quality officers. I point my finger at Bob White and all the Mayors who ordered him to erode the APOA contracts, along with worthless APOA presidents from Pacheco on, resulting in unqualified, streetfighting-mongers who have made this once great dept to the embarrassing pile that it is now.
The problem is not with ALL cops. Until you realize this, you will continue to sound really stupid, and show your obvious ax to grind with all law enforcement. Now before you call me a bootlicker, or whatever else you think is the newest slick little insult you have, know this, I have done more to root out this corruption than you ever will. Your banter is getting old. The problem here is a culture, but it is moreso an administration that promotes it. There are plenty of good officers who are fed up, and are speaking about this. Everyone starting from the mayor to Perry, Eden and his merry band of DCOPs lie to you every single day. Schultz was the king of liars and instilled that particular skill set onto his loyal followers. The city attorney's office helped him hone that skill by assigning his own personal lie fabricator to him and giving her an office right next to him on the fifth floor just in case a lie needs to be made up within seconds or to run direct interference for him at a seconds notice. Where do you think all of this came from? No one single person is this complexly stupid. It took a collective of these idiots to prove to you publicly that they are running this place into the ground with their blatant and arrogant obstruction of justice and constantly speaking without remembering what they said the day before. It is up to you to hsve the brain to remember and hold these liars accountable. Nothing will change until the pressure becomes too unbearable for any of them to stand anymore.
Training? What training? The city stopped paying for any training for any officer seek to improve skills. "it's not in the budget," excuses is what lead to the decline of qualified supervisors. No supervisors have ever gotten any managerial or leadership training at all before they even take the so called sergeant's test, much less the Lts. So I laugh at all these comments about any sgts on up about handling any high stress incidents, much less any of the day to day incidents.
Did anyone ever think that Perry may have thought the Tazmanian Devil was a puppy and that he ordered the zookeeper to let him into the zoo all by himself, then he pet the poor thing to death in a drunken petting frenzy?
Slauson? The guy who wasted all that money by buying no bid office furniture for NW from Tema versus going with all the providers the City already had on contract. The guy spack in the middle of all the reallocating of federal DoJ grants outside their scope. The guy who is always saying how broke we are but manages to get double digit raises for himself every single year. Sounds about right
I wonder what blackmail the guy who spent years with an office right next to Karen Fischer has on everyone to suddenly be a DC. Bowdich might have been beyond his prime but at least he had been a damn good cop at one point.
Dont believe the Berry machine. You, both cops and civilians, can transfer their PERA. No gap in service means no changes. You DO NOT lose your time in. You DO NOT lose your 20 or 25. DO NOT believe this crap happens everywhere. DOJ is here because this does NOT happen everywhere. Follow the two dozen who went to the State and County. All of them are so much happy and will have the same retirement without any of the bull shit.
12:36,
Are you kidding? They bought furniture for city offices from the most expensive import furnishing stores in the area? Please furnish details on this? This needs to come to light. No doubt there is a connection between those that promoted this contract within the city and the person who will profit from it at Tema. This shit will never end until someone is prosecuted for the abuses being carried out. This is a another prime example of the disregard for stewardship of the taxpayers money. The arrogance of these individuals right out of the chute is astounding. Eye, please make this crony the next target of extensive exposure.
Now we know why there is no training. Because they are buying $900 office chairs at Tema for the golden diamond studded asses of their buddies.
@ 9:42
Fuck training, the only thing that can clean APD is Ebola. Wipe them all out and start from scratch!
This is getting good! Motherfuckers are jumping ship like fleas from a dead dog thrown in the water.
Ha ha ha. Why don't Berry take a trip to Africa to see how the Liberian police department works?
Jail time for all these losers! Looks like BCSO is also going to get investigated.... Seems the Sheriff may be guilty of miss appropriations of public funds, jail time is not far away.
Berry, Perry and Schultz have been messing with grant money that is also criminal. I hope they look into it as well. Schultz was just very smart on how he did it. Very fine line he walked.
However, I also heard those rumors that crazy Dan was out right doing some funny stuff with State and Federal grants! If what I heard was true, that guy's an idiot and the money will be very easy to follow. He should have taken some lessons from Schultz on how to manipulate grant money. Hope not Crazy Dan, or cheese sandwiches, here you come.
There are one of three issues here, or a combination of the three to some degree. Either Blair could not deal with the non stop criticism and ridicule of being attached to these liars, she has a conscience and couldn't do their bidding anymore, or she just could not operate at the level of evil expected of her as required, based on the level of efficiency (although short lived of all of them) of her predecessors. Sometimes I just can't believe how evil and disgusting these people doing all of this are and them you just look at world news. These small time bubblegum carpetbaggers are terrorizing people here with their grade school antics while people are being beheaded and school children are being shot in their lunchrooms. These people like Schultz, Levy, Berry, Perry, Tourek, and their PIOs would never put themselves in harms way for anyone. Hell, they wouldn't even do it for themselves. They have proven that. They have beem running and hiding for the last three years. In the bitter end, when It is all over and they are laying there in diapers they will have all of this to be remembered by, along with all of the things they have done to people. All of the faking and acting can't make it go away or change the fact that these things happenend You don't do these things, and get away with it. It is not in the numbers. The law of averages catches up with you. It always does. People might laugh or taunt about the possibility of nothing happening, but there are consequences for every action, especially the bad ones. Those consequences come in a variety of ways, but they do come.
12:34 10/24. Omg! Lol!! I shouldn't laugh about the poor Taz, but that was a good one! I hope the TD would bite off Perry's fat fingers!!
It would be better if it bit off the rest of him and left his fingers. However, it would probably take it years to digest the lard, mucus, puss, gelatenous spine, and fecal matter. It would probably enjoy the intoxicating effects of the pickled meal though if it didn't succumb to some type of poisoning first.
The sheriff and his two butt buddies, that jumped off the sinking ship fast did way more illegal shit than you can imagine. The two kiss asses abandon ship after they saw what was going to happen. Bet their already kissing ass to the next guy so they can ask for favors. Both guys hate them though and know what their about, themselves. Women chasers is all they were, especially the little fat US one.
A few more hours of this long shift, been very slow.
What's up with all these corrupt politicians, they get in office and then do everything opposite what they said they would do. They start doing everything to benefit themselves. Berry at first sounded like a breath of fresh air compared to Mayor Chavez, then he hired a bunch of political hacks who really screwed up APD and it's keeps getting worse by the day. Look over the last few years how many very good people have left, even a few high ranking ones jumped ship.
Then you have the good old and I mean old BCSO sheriff. Where did they find that guy, from the 1800's? That old goat violates deputy rights like it was going out of style. I swear, this guy is dumb as dirt, glad the voters saw through him and sent him packing! How much has he already cost the county in lawsuits that they have secretly settled, all because he likes the pretty ladies and violates the ugly fat ones civil rights. Look at how many of his command staff have left that place and how bad the morale is! High ranking people leaving in those numbers is a very good indicator of a dick boss. That's a man that will have very few friends, ever! Schultz case in point. One very dumb boss(BCSO) and one very smart boss(APD), but both in it for their own personal gain, which was their down fall. Schultz this far has avoided being prosecuted, but I think the sheriff was just behind the 8 ball when it came to smarts/brains and covering his corrupt tracks. I think there going to get that little old slimy SOB. I do kind a feel sorry for that old wrinkled fart, he won't do well behind bars.
That's where all these corrupt politicians need to be, in jail, Berry, Perry, Schutz, Houston and all the rest, but it looks like they may just get the dumb sheriff because he was too stupid to cover his corruption.
I for one will not miss shit for brains Houston. That's a man that will not be able to handle normal life with out any power to push people around. You can tell they really bullied him growing up, that's why he picks on everyone, he has got a big chip on his shoulder. Can't wait until Nov, he told everyone he was going to leave right after the election, but I'll bet he will go back on that statement as he has everything else. he tried to force the courts to remove Sheriff Gonzalez early, lets see if he practices what he preaches.
Those bible thumpers are always the worst people in my opinion, they act holier than thou, but are the most hypocritical, saying do as I say, not as I do. This guy was the prime example of that!
10/23 10:27 sadly I agree.I too was excited at first to hear huntsman was coming back. I was surprised they would bring someone back who was in charge of many questionable shootings but figured he had always been a stand up guy. I WAS WRONG...he definitely is here to pad his retirement. An obvious favor from his church buddy gordon. He is a sell out to the troops and laughs in the faces of the citizens calling for change. Very sad situation for all. (Except huntsman who will see an extra 20,000 in his check for playing the system)
Huntsman has the Patton syndrome. The guy walked around like a narcissistic tool bag with his wheel gun dangling like it impresses people as if he is some old time gunslinging motherfucker that's "been there." The problem is that the easily bullshitted cops who know no better get all starry eyed and in awe of that crap. Drop the GI joe gun bullshit and team of wannabe "operators" behind him and I would like to see what he would do with his hands by himself. Like most of these legends in their own minds...NOTHING. As a matter of fact, I have seen it... AGAIN NOTHING. People like this should all stick to training where they can get off on posing and pontificating about their overinflated resumes while those of us are out there doing it. The real irony in this is that these clowns would be the first to fail and quit under the scrutiny and ideology that they level on those they see below them. If these punks were subjected to the treatment they give people they would be screaming and crying like the babies they are. That goes for huntsman, gonterman, roseman and the list of others who have gotten away with running their mouths because they haven't done it to the wrong person yet.
They brought back Huntsman so he could run the department, as Eden has no clue and kept screwing things up. Eden's is just a wate of a chief's position. He worthless and has no idea how to run APD! Huntsman really does not have any idea either how to get the dept out of the slumped they are in.
Run the department where? To China? It's already in the ground.
So now with ROP disbanding, where will all those highly trained and highly motivated guys go? Will they be sent out to the field to help us out, or will they get to fade into another plain clothes assignment?
Once in a special unit, always in a special unit. We are there because we are the best. Get over it. Why should be be put back? Because you say so?
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