APOA's Weber Weaving Tangled Web for Officers

This coming Monday's Albuquerque City Council meeting could be kind of interesting. As the flyer shown displays, the APOA presidential candidate Greg Weber is trying to rally members to fight proposed changes to the Police Oversight Commission ordinances. Of specific focus are the citizens who have been criticizing Mayor Berry, that Perry fellow, and Ray Schultz.

 

Given that the city has scrapped and violated promised pay raises, benefits, increased expenses, removed 4-10s (remember those?), under staffed the department, is subject to endless litigation upon and by its own employees, is the target of the a federal investigation, and has endless senior personnel leaving out the back door (and some to a cabin in the woods) faster than you can say CAUGHT YA!...

...sure we guess we could see how this is a good time to rally the troops to argue against those loud mouth citizens who are doing what exactly? Oh yeah, exercising their free right to public dissent.

 

Funny how Mr. Weber has been silent on all the real issues except now that he is no longer a shoe in for APOA president he wants to become all public in his advocacy for the union. Here's an EYE friendly hint Mr. Weber, the folks who have been sand bagging city council actually support the rank and file. They have family members who are rank and file. The people who they stand up and denounce are the very people you are going to defend next Monday: Ray Schultz and the command leadership of APD.

 

You know, officers can put on the "T-shirts" provided by the APOA.  This makes it easier for those officers to be targeted...Didn't Hitler have the Jews put on certain type of "T-shirts" as they were set to the gas chambers?  The Jewish people were powerless against Hitler; we hope the officers of APD are smart enough to avoid Weber's "chamber." 

 

Instead of worrying about the citizens, why don't you do what's best for the members and frequent contributors to this blog by arguing enough with the city's failures to honor its obligations and promises???

 

Shame on you Mr. Weber, agree or disagree with citizens who actually step up to speak against corruption and your position is to defame them?!?!?! Our Eyes will be busy letting us know how that works out for you. Perhaps your time is better spent representing your membership against the very parties who have all but destroyed a once great and proud department: Ray Schultz, RJ Berry, Rob Perry, Allen Banks, Steve Warfield, and the endless commanders and lieutenants who have no business wearing and stars or bars. Why would any APD officer show up to defend the same people who have victimized them like Ray Ray, and the rest of the cronies?

And oh by the way, we think it's great that your new public relations company Impronta is operating out of the very location of the APOA: 500 2nd Street NW. Are you sure your members are aware of this? And really, over $10,000 to send out a few emails?

Warfield on the Warpath with Misconstrued Tales

This past December 21, we posted a story regarding the latest APD officer involved shooting where a fleeing burglary suspect had his rear window shot out as he outwitted and outlasted the leadership of APD’s elite SWAT team.

In the hours following the suspect’s escape, APD spokeswoman Tasia Martinez stated, “…As Sosa drove at Officer White, Officer White fired his weapon at the charging vehicle in effort to prevent the suspect from running him over.”

While our Eyes tell us such an action is in violation of APD procedures and use of force rules (because after all, shooting the driver won’t stop the car---basic Newtonian physics here folks: an object in motion tends to stay in motion) what surprises us even more is APD’s chief and his newly minted deputy chief’s effort to twist and distort their very own actions.

This past weekend, APD Deputy Chief, Steve Warfield, went on the offensive to assert Schultz’s new policy regarding the loathed lapel-cameras. It seems the policy for the cameras is: whatever is convenient at the moment. So despite the department being under the scrutiny of a DOJ investigation, and while the department is dealing with a SWAT activation where a felon barricaded himself inside, and despite the high likelihood of the use of deadly force…it is now OK to use “officer discretion” as to use their lapel cameras or not. And now, as stated by DCOP Warfield, even though there were over thirty officers at the Shirley NE address, and nobody had their cameras on, Warfield confirms the cameras rarely capture what is necessary…..um OK; liar.

Back in 2010 when the lapel cameras started to make their appearance we posed that the devices not only were going to have a chilling effect upon the work officers do and the citizens they contact, but would also be problematic in court.

Our Eyes now tell us, case after case is getting thrown out in court because officer’s lapel cameras are recording only partial snippets of an encounter. Partial snippets are inadmissible as evidence because, among other things, they fail the “completeness” rule. Now thanks to DCOP Warfield and Schultz it seems there is no consistent policy as to when the cameras are to be used...no wonder officers expressed confusion about this issue in the recent survey!

From DCOP Warfield:

“The lapel was never meant to replace the police report.”

“These officers made excellent decision making ability.”

So what we’re left with is:

                                     Shots Fired + No Video=Good

                                     Taser/Physical Force + Video=Bad