The Straw that Broke the Mayor's Back?

Was last night's embarassing and unprofessional behavior of Chief Ray Schultz, finally the straw that broke the camel's back? There was a City Council meeting last night. The usual "frequent flyers" were there, some to speak, others to observe. Prior to the meeting beginning, as it happens every meeting, many people (including Chief Schultz), meander about before taking to their seats. Kenneth Ellis, the father of one of those killed by APD, contacted us after last night's meeting. Mr. Ellis told us that at the meeting, he walked up to Chief Schultz and told the Chief that he was "praying for him". Mr. Ellis admits he ended with "you'll need it". The meeting started and was filled with many citizens giving their comments and stating their opinions. One subject was a student that talked for over 7 minutes about his inability to attend school without a free bus pass. Other people talked about the conservation of energy. Then former APD Sergeant, Paul Heh, approached the podium. Three people had vowed to relinguish their talk time in order to allow Paul Heh to fully talk to the City Council and citizens of Albuquerque. This has been a long standing past practice of the City Council; allowing those people that have a somewhat complicated matter to be able to adequately and fairly voice their concerns and comments. Right away Council President, Don Harris, announced he would not let anyone relinguish their time and demanded Paul Heh keep to a two minute time constraint. Council Member Ken Sanchez made a motion to override President Harris and allow the time for Paul Heh. He wanted to hear what Paul Heh had to say. The Motion was given a second nomination and of course when set to a council vote, the result was 4-5. This forced Paul Heh to stop midstream and NOT speak any further. It was clearly no coincidence that it was the Republican council members that voted AGAINST hearing Paul Heh speak. It was obvious by the actions of the Council that this was a premediated vote on behalf of the Republicans. Despite the crowd's pleas to continue, Paul Heh was forced to walk back to his seat. What were they afraid of hearing? What were they afraid of the public hearing? Paul Heh walked back to his seat and at intermission, Mr. Ellis approached him. This is where it gets even more exciting, as Mr. Ellis and Paul Heh were talking, Chief Schultz walked up to them and shook his finger at Mr. Ellis. Chief Schultz stated "Don't you ever approach me at a meeting again and say what you said to me". Mr. Ellis told the Eye that he felt threatened and was even afraid to walk to his car. Why would Chief Schultz be so angry that someone has offerred their prayers to him? In fact, doesn't the APD chaplain unit advocate daily prayers to the officers of APD? Our Eyes wonder what the Chief would have done if an officer had acted in the same manner. Our bet is that the officer would be shoveling papers in Report Review or answering phones at a substation. This is the definition of "Conducting Unbecoming" if ever there has been one. Does the Chief need remedial C.I.T. training? IF one comment like "Im going to pray for you", sets him off like that, what else will set him off? Chief Schultz, where is your higher standard? You know, the higher standard you demand your officers live up to or face immediate discipline. To you Mayor Berry, when will you see the liability that Chief Schultz is causing you? He is a time bomb and he is ready to explode, are you Mayor Berry prepared to write the check for the violations that he continues to exhibit?

See the City Council Video here.

Irony

Late last month Eye told you about the new APD policy requiring officers to stop, test, arrest, book, and deliver each and every suspect accused of driving under the influence. We've already discussed the downside of the new policy (read it here), the result has been a 73% drop in DWI arrests and our Eyes tell us a 200% increase in alcohol related traffic accidents.

Saturday morning the Albuquerque Journal ran a story - undoubtedly on behalf of The 5th Floor - that attempted to defend the misguided new policy.

 Police Chief Ray Schultz gave two reasons for the new policy: 

• Cutting the $1.2 million the department spends annually on officer overtime at Metro Court, most of which comes from DWI cases.        

• And reducing the number of DWI cases dismissed in Metro Court because an officer doesn't show up.

"We are tracking overtime very closely as we try to manage our way through this budget crisis," city Chief Public Safety Officer Darren White said. "We just have less money now. It has become clear that there were some folks who had an incredible amount of overtime for DWI."

- ABQ Journal (Subscription)

 If we didn't know better, we'd believe that the city's new public safety director was putting a price tag on public safety. More disturbingly, The 5th Floor seems to be publicly targeting yet another officer in their haste to save a few bucks.

APD Sgt. Paul Heh is one example.

Heh, who is not on the DWI Unit, made $54,709 in overtime in 2009, according to figures provided by APD. Most of that came from DWI cases in which Heh was one of at least two officers.

By using the DWI Unit, he could make multiple stops in one night. He would then get overtime for appearing in court for each of those stops.

Heh could not be reached for comment

- ABQ Journal (Subscription)

 Note that last bit "Heh could not be reached for comment." Our Eyes tell us that even had he been reached, new APD policy forbids him from speaking to the media without receiving permission from his chain of command.

[Sidebar]
APD's brass has a history of targeting officers for retribution. Saturday's Journal article looks disturbingly familiar. Back in November, Chief Ray Schultz was found guilty of targeting former Officer Sam Costales. The verdict cost the City of Albuquerque almost $1 MILLION. Also named in the suit was Sheriff Darren White. The Sheriff's involvement was ended through an undisclosed settlement.

One would think that these guys would have learned by now. Or perhaps they're just trying to make more than a few officers very wealthy.
[End Sidebar]

The 5th Floor would have you believe that Sergeant Heh was somehow gaming the system in order to fill his pockets - at least that's their implication. The truth is far different. Officers like Sergeant Heh spend their nights taking calls for service and yes, stopping vehicles whose drivers appear to be intoxicated. They spend their days in court testifying only to return later that evening for work.

There's little doubt that overtime is a chronic problem when it comes to DWI cases in particular, however The 5th Floor's solution is to reduce overtime caused by arrests by reducing the arrests causing the overtime. So far it seems to be working - of course the price of saved overtime may be someone's life. Besides, our Eyes tell us that the primary reason for seemingly ever increasing APD court overtime is the court itself.

For years now the primary defense strategy for attorneys defending those accused of DWI has been to ask for as many continuances as possible hoping that one or more of the officers involved in the arrest wouldn't or couldn't make the trial. Judges down at Metro Court have gotten into the habit of granting continuance after continuance. Of course, now the defense bar is looking forward to new opportunities.

"For experienced attorneys, we will look upon the policy favorably," said Ousama Rasheed, the association's incoming president [of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association]. "We will be dealing with less-experienced, less-trained officers making less-specialized arguments.

"I would much rather be trying a DWI case involving someone who has been on the streets six months than someone who has been on the DWI Unit 10 years."

- ABQ Journal (Subscription)

Public safety is the first and most important function of government. There's no room for politics or petty vendettas. The city budget crisis is real and Mayor Berry is doing a lot of the right things to fill in the huge whole that Marty dug, but we shouldn't sacrifice the safety of the public on the altar of budgetary expedience.

Saturday morning, the Albuquerque Journal aided and abetted The 5th Floor in their attempt to justify an ill advised new policy intended to save a few APD bucks. It's ironic that the target of that same story - Sergeant Paul Heh - received the Hero of New Mexico Award from MADD that very evening for putting in the time both day and night - stopping the drunks whose bad decisions put us all in danger.

Letter to The Eye: Outrage

As you know from time to time we post letters from readers and even pull comments out of the comment section from time to time. This week we received a Letter to The Eye from Sergeant Paul Heh.

The sergeant has been the topic of a number posts both supportive and well... not so much. Like him or not one thing is sure, the veteran sergeant has an opinion and isn't afraid to share it.

A year ago, sergeant Heh spoke out during a city council meeting against the newest contract which earned him a visit to IA. This time it appears that he's none too happy with the APOA leadership.

No stranger to controversy, we're pretty sure this Letter to The Eye from Sergeant Heh will stir things up.

------------------------

Outrage
Sergeant, Paul J. Heh

When I write something I believe in it so I put my name on it. This is Paul J. Heh, APOA member for 22 years and at the risk of being targeted yet again, I have a few things to say.

First let me say that you Ron Olivas and you Joey Segalla are representatives of the members of the APOA. You work for the members, you are not above them. If what was reported on The Eye On Albuquerque is true, it is quite possible that a criminal investigation should be started by an outside agency such as the FBI. Joey, it is not up to you to decide if an investigation is warranted, it is the up to the members of the APOA. If it is true that you made the statement "I will resign before I do another cop," then resign. What about the hundreds of cops you are doing by not starting an investigation?

How can either of you justify paying for memberships for Calibers for all of SID? Calibers is a fine organization. I belong myself and I paid for the membership myself. Does this mean when my members hip expires in June the APOA will pay to renew it? Does this mean that all APOA members and non-members even non-sworn members will now have memberships to calibers paid for by the APOA? I have no problem with paying for memberships to calibers as long as everyone is treated the same.

Can you please explain why the APOA paid for Ken, Russ and their witnesses' trips to Arkansas for their criminal defense? Who were the witnesses? I respect both Ken and Russ, but again what about all the other officers, APOA members accused of crimes, where was their financial assistance? And please explain how a credit card belonging to ex-APOA President Pete Dwyer was used to pay for the trips.

There is much more just now coming to light, such as out of control spending. Is it true that you Joey are spending between $6,000 and $7,000 a month on your APOA issued credit card? I would like to know the answer and so would the membership. Please tell me the rumor is false. How much was put on the credit card from the recent trip to Washington, DC?

I will close by saying this. We are police officers, for me that means being about honor, integrity and ethics. I believe the APOA members feel the same. A full accounting of APOA finances going back ten years needs to be started at once by an accounting firm with no ties to the APOA and approved by the APOA membership.

This is my opinion I would like to hear yours.

----------------------------
Organizations have problems because there are people in them. The problems aren't really the issue unless you don't do anything about them or even worse, if you try to cover them up (just ask the 5th floor). If leadership doesn't work to solve the problem, then they are the problem.

People often wonder how elected government leaders like convict Manny Aragon get started? The answer is they cross a line on something small and no one does anything about it. Before long they're syphoning MILLIONS from the public coffers.

The members of the APOA are entrusted with policing Albuquerque. The question is are they capable of policing themselves?

Richard Review

Elton John Richard's sentencing comes up for review this Friday. Richard was the former marine that convicted felon Daniel Romero tried to rob and paid the ultimate price for his felonious stupidity (read it here and here).

(Sidebar)
A note to anyone with felonious aspirations, DO NOT EVER attempt to rob a determined Marine. These guys voluntarily entered a branch of the military that prides itself on being the first into a hostile military situation. Your guns, knives, and gang BS aren't a match for a Marine's training, determination, and honor.
(End Sidebar)

For the past few months, APD Sergeant Paul Heh (yes that sergeant) has been gathering signatures on a petition requesting that Richard's sentence be reduced. He's scheduled a news conference for Thursday morning where he plans to present the signature to Wade Harless - Richard's father-in-law. Mr. Harless wrote us a letter shortly after our first post giving us more information about the events leading up to the shooting and the behind the scenes reasons behind the plea bargain (read it here).

Our Eyes tell us that Sergeant Heh's news conference will be held at the St. Java Coffee Shop, 801 4th Street, NW at 8:00 am. We also understand that he and Wade Harless will make a radio "appearance" on the Jim Villanucci Show Friday afternoon.

We think that the decision not to take this thing to trial was a bad one in the first place. But according to Mr. Harless, Richard's no contest plea was in exchange for a promise that he wouldn't spend time away from his wife and child. We understand the motivation and the desire to be with his family but trusting the criminal justice system (and the DA) to administer justice is naive at best. The system is designed to pick the low hanging fruit not reward those with integrity and honor for their sacrifice.

----- Correction -----
The original post indicated that Wade Harless and APD Sergeant Paul Heh would be on the 770 KKOB's Jim Villanucci Show Thursday afternoon. That information was incorrect. We have confirmed that the two of them will appear (yes we know it's radio) Friday afternoon at 4pm. The timing may make the show even more interesting as Mr. Harless will no doubt have information about the Friday morning hearing.

Retraining

KOB TV reported Thursday (read it here) that all APD officers will be retrained following an incident between APD Officer Daniel Guzman and KOB Photographer Rick Foley (read our take here). We think it's kind of funny that APD feels the need to retrain the entire force when only a single officer was involved in the incident.

More importantly, we're wondering who's going to do the training. We'd humbly suggest that APD's highly paid spinmeister have nothing to do with any kind of media training after the most recent fiasco involving Sergeant Paul Heh.

If you'll remember, Sergeant Heh exercised his rights to speech and redress of grievance in front of the city council and was slapped with an Internal Affairs investigation on his way out of the building (read it here). The media fiasco that followed was a classic study in how not to handle the media and included a disastrous appearance by Walsh that bordered on the illiterate (read it here).

(Sidebar)
Our Eyes tell us that the fishing expedition involving Sergeant Heh is still underway. Apparently, the boys on the 5th Floor aren't going to let little things like not having any evidence, any proof, or a case keep them from pursuing their conveniently anonymous allegations against the sergeant. There's got to be some way to punish him or push him out and they're gonna find it even if they have to make it up.
(End Sidebar)

Look... Chief Schultz's move to "retrain" the entire force because of the precipitous actions of a single officer is the type of silly over-kill designed strictly for media consumption and yet another example of the 5th floor's willingness to throw officers under the bus. We're quite sure that most already know how to properly handle an encounter with the media in a similar situation. If not, the incident with KOB is self-explanatory - assume you're always on camera. In this day and age even when a news photographer isn't around you've got a good chance of making the evening news and every one of the other 50 or so daily local newscasts.

Target Heh - The 5th Floor Fiasco

It's been fascinating to watch APD's PR machine over the last few days. For those of you in the business or just curious as to how it works, this is exactly how you don't handle a public relations crisis. In fact, APD should have fired their spinmeister John Walsh, after his disastrous news conference Wednesday evening.

Of course you know we're talking about the 5th floor's reaction to Sergeant Paul Heh's very public objection to the new APD contract. Their first reaction was an attempt to scare him into silence with an IA investigation. It's a tactic that our Eyes tell us is commonly used by the brass and one that is generally successful.

It's easy to terminate an officer for a violation of the SOP. Officers deal with a hostile public on a daily basis. No one is thankful to be arrested and when an officer shows up it is not uncommon for some to be arrested. So finding a complaint is a simple matter of looking through an officer's arrest records.

This time the threat of an Internal Affairs investigation didn't work because the council, 770 KKOB, and eventually the rest of the media got wind of their little scheme and exposed it. Our Eyes tell us that Chief Schultz spent a considerable amount of time in the Almighty Alcalde's office yesterday morning getting his um... behind chewed and got a repeat performance later in the day when KKOB's Jim Villanucci picked up the story for the first three hours of his show.

(Sidebar)
We've been spending a lot of time talking about the 5th floor. You've got to remember that the Chief of Police is basically an at-will employee of the mayor. As a result, he takes his marching orders from the mayor himself. The chaos over at APD is certainly the result of mismanagement but it is the direct responsibility of the mayor.
(End Sidebar)

Today, the 5th floor brain trust tried yet another tactic... plant a story with The Journal's T.J. Wilham about Sergeant Heh's 2007 earnings. According to the Journal - which curiously has not posted the story online - the sergeant made over $108,000 last year with over $43,000 of overtime.

What Wilham doesn't tell you is why a sergeant in the Albuquerque Police Department makes that kind of money. Our Eyes tell us that Sergeant Heh is an exceptional DWI hound. In fact, he's almost a one man DWI unit picking up somewhere over 20 DWIs per month on average. Since the sergeant works graveyard a shift from 10:00 pm to 8:00 am Tuesday through Saturday, he's in court during the day.

Metro Court schedules trials between 8:30 am and even as late as 9:00 pm. Officers are also required to attend pretrial hearings, MVD hearings and seizure hearings - any one of which a failure to appear results in the defendant going free. In other words, officers must attend all of the hearings. To make matters even more fun, trials and hearings are scheduled by three different agencies - the court, the city, and the state.

Because DWI officers and graveyard officers work at night when the courts are closed, these hearings always take place during their off hours. Guess what that means... overtime and lots of it.

Sergeant Heh is incredibly dedicated to his job and his mission. In fact, our Eyes tell us he's almost a fixture at Metro Court. There can be little doubt about Sergeant Heh's honor and dedication just listen to the interview from KKOB that we posted earlier this week (read/hear it here) or read Officer Aria's post from Wednesday (read it here).

The fact that an officer with 21 years on chooses to work grave says it all. A senior sergeant with that amount of time on can have any shift pretty much anywhere in the department. But this sergeant chooses to do the hard work at the most difficult time of day and refuses to ignore his responsibility to follow through in court or in hearings.

T.J. Wilham's story is really about trying to destroy an APD officer's credibility in the media. Our Eyes tell us that this story was planted by the 5th floor and thus it serves their purpose.

The problem is that in their anger and desire for retribution, they decided to try and silence the outspoken sergeant before they tried to tarnish him. The story has moved waaaaay beyond a contract dispute between senior officers. It's become a story about how the Albuquerque Police Department does business.

Sergeant Heh isn't the first officer to have been silenced through intimidation. However, he should be the last. The only difference here is that Sergeant Heh caught the attention of the media and the heavy-handed tactics of the APD brass were exposed. The simple fact is a senior officer like Sergeant Heh is the type of seasoned officer that you want to keep on the force - not force out through threats and intimidation.

This fifth floor fiasco and public relations nightmare is the direct result of arrogance and foolishness. Arrogance to believe that they had the absolute authority and ability to destroy one of their officers for standing up for what they believe. Foolishness because of their inept handling of the situation.

There's a saying that an organization takes on the attributes of its leader so it's no surprise that APD is being run through intimidation and fear. They've taken on the attributes of their leader - Mayor Martin Chavez.

Sergeant Heh should be decorated for his dedication and honor, not destroyed because he disagrees with an administration that could care less about the employees they lead. It'll be interesting to see what these 5th floor fools come up with next because we know they won't be wise enough to stop here.

Retribution - APD Reacts

Wednesday was a wild day to say the least. It started with 770KKOB reporter Peter St. Cyr reporting that APD had initiated an investigation of senior Sergeant Paul Heh notifying him of the investigation immediately following his testimony in front of the city council. By the end of the day the story had grown legs with Jim Villanucci picking it up and challenging the rest of the media to do the same. The Eyes have it that during the Villanucci show the 5th floor was frantically trying to kill the story before it could get out of their control.

At one point we were told that Chief Schultz and crew believed that they'd managed to put the genie back in the bottle only to have Councilors Winter, O'Malley, and Cadigan drop a press bomb on their efforts. The result was the lead news story on KRQE, and KOAT with KOB running it later in the newscast. APD ended the day in full bunker mode sending John Walsh out to express hastily cobbled together outrage.

(Sidebar)
We got our eyes on both the press release from the council that included their letter to the chief, and an incredibly poorly written reaction from APD - part of which was read on-camera by APD's spinmeister John Walsh.

We would respectfully request that before APD releases a written statement to the press or the public that they proof read it, run it by an English 101 student, or at least run spell check. We have to read these things after all and we would prefer it if the sentences made some sort of well... sense.
(End Sidebar)

OK, so maybe the APD outrage wasn't feigned. On camera, John Walsh looked to be shaking with rage. The 5th floor is certainly not happy with elected officials sticking their noses behind APD's curtain. One would think that city councilors have not only the authority to ask questions of the Chief of Police but have the obligation to do so when it appears that administration officials may be abusing their authority.

APD's reaction contained a bizarre mix of denials, admissions, outrage, and accusations. They deny the investigation had anything to do with Sergeant Heh's appearance before the council and admit that his public comments were directed at the APOA. (To criticize the Chief, Department, or the Almighty Alcalde could be construed as a violation of APD's SOP.) APD makes the claim that "complaints were voiced" by sworn officers of the sergeant creating a hostile work environment over the APOA contract. They also claim that said environment "was being perpetrated by other sworn members of the APD."

By the way that last part is the basis for APD's IA investigation. According to APD's "complaints" the sergeant managed to create a "hostile work environment" relating to a contract that was presented and voted on in 24 hours.

Folks, these are cops. They deal with hostile environments on a daily basis. We have a hard time believing that a lone sergeant even with determined help could create an environment hostile enough to even be noticed by most officers.

(Sidebar)
If one would like to talk about hostile work environments, let's talk about officers having to keep their mouths shut - even when they're not on duty - for fear of having someone on the 5th or 11th floor take offense and start an IA investigation that could take away the retirement that you've quite literally bled for. That's a hostile work environment and that's the environment our Eyes tell us the 5th floor has created for all of the officers that have taken the oath to protect us. We imagine that it's pretty difficult to deal with the criminals in front of you while trying to protect your back from being stabbed by your own department's leadership.
(End Sidebar)

Moving on to the rest of this ridiculous illiterate reaction... The Chief wraps himself in altruistic stupidity claiming that "[he] will not tolerate any possible intimidation or interference in any way regarding fair process, such as the recent voting that took place." Huh? Won't tolerate intimidation? (See previous Sidebar)

The next few points of the APD statement basically take the council to task for doing their jobs telling them to butt-out and "chastis[ing] them for trying to turn internal workings of the Dept. into politics publicity." (Walsh actually read that last part on the air.)

Finally, one last claim - one that the 5th floor probably felt was the coup de grâce. They voiced their "great" concern that Sergeant Heh may be working on Councilor Winter's Campaign and "this might have political motivation." Fortunately, the TV news guys gave this all of the coverage that it deserved... none.

As far as we're aware, there's only one semi-announced candidate for mayor. At least there's only one candidate that has sued to make sure that they can run for mayor should they decide not to run for governor - which of course they've already decided not to do because they decided to run for U.S. Senate, something they found out they couldn't do only to have to sue in order to keep their current job which they would have lost. Yes... we're talking about the Almighty Alcalde - Mayor Martin Chavez. And yes, he's running for the only position that he could possibly win - at least three years ago.

Floating the idea that this whole thing is more about Councilor Winter than the shenanigans of the Albuquerque Police Department's leadership is just one more way to try and kill the messenger and distract the rest of us. It shows just how politically involved the department has become. It shows that they're more concerned about keeping their jobs than doing their jobs. It shows that we're all in trouble - not just a sergeant that steps up and speaks his mind.

-----Releases-----
Councilors Winter, O'Malley, and Cadigan - Press Release and Letter to Chief Schultz
APD's Reaction

-----Correction-----
In our early morning pajama clad haze we inadvertently screwed-up the link for the city council press release. Thanks to an alert Eye reader, we have corrected the link above.

Retribution - Update

Apparently things aren't going well for our friends on the 5th floor. Our Eyes tell us that the APD brain trust is busy working the phones trying to kill the story that 770KKOB reporter Peter St. Cyr broke today about the 5th floor's retribution against Sergeant Heh. Their objective is to make sure that no one else (TV, Radio, Newspaper) runs with news of their exceedingly suspicious shenanigans.

Of course one would think if they had a case against the vocal senior sergeant that they wouldn't care who knew about the investigation. However, if the investigation is the retribution that we believe it to be then the last thing the 5th floor wants to have their heavy-handed tactics exposed.

Our take is that since Sergeant Heh is at or beyond retirement the IA investigation is just a way to push him out and shut him up. Our Eyes tell us that this wouldn't be the first time IA has been used to push out a senior officer. We'll see if the rest of the media falls for the 5th floor's frantic media manipulation.

Retribution

We heard something this morning that has us seeing red... again. According to 770KKOB, the Albuquerque Police Department's Internal Affairs department has targeted Sergeant Heh for an investigation (read it here). Of course the department isn't releasing the nature of the investigation and the city attorney couldn't comment because it's a "personnel matter." But it seems to us that even though the nature of the investigation hasn't been released, the reason for it is perfectly clear.

As you'll remember, Sergeant Heh had the audacity to ask the APOA for a re-vote on the recent hastily passed APD contract. What made matters worse is he had the temerity to take his complaint before the city council Monday night as a private citizen exercising his rights to free speech and redress of grievance.

As a general rule, the 5th floor (and the 11th for that matter) takes a dim view of employees speaking their minds publicly - especially when their opinions differ from the powers that be. Over at APD officers are pretty much forbidden to speak to the media or anyone outside the department. Legally the SOP doesn't trump the 1st Amendment, but don't think for a second that public involvement of any kind in city policy or politics outside of the department isn't noticed.

In other words, don't talk about it, don't think about it, and don't reveal it to anyone even if it's unflattering, unethical, or especially illegal. It's the code of silence and hell hath no fury like a department whose questionable behavior is revealed.

In many circumstances it's important for officers to remain behind the blue wall - keeping what they know and what they've seen to themselves. In fact, most of us couldn't handle much of what they know and what they've seen.

However, that code of silence needs to be broken when their department and their futures are in jeopardy not from the criminals that they've sworn to protect the public from, but from the very leaders that are supposed to be backing them up - be they union or government. Of course, that doesn't sit well with those in power.

Our Eyes tell us that APD's strategy when confronted with someone like Sergeant Heh, is to put them squarely and resolutely back in their place or to fire them. Their favorite tool for keeping the troops in line is the Internal Affairs investigation. Don't get us wrong, IA does perform a needed service. Someone needs to police the police. Unfortunately, the power that IA wields can easily be used to intimidate and to seek retribution. In short, the power of an Internal Affairs investigation - like any governmental authority - can be misused and abused.

It's no surprise that Sergeant Heh is being investigated immediately after speaking out publicly. The 5th floor and no doubt some of the folks over at the APOA see the sergeant as the leader of a rebellion. How dare he question our contract? How dare he ask to see the contract before casting his vote? How dare he make us look bad?!

Intimidation and fear are the primary weapons of organized crime. Pay our "protection" money and we uh... the "crooks" won't destroy your store or kill your family. Keep your mouth shut and don't complain and you won't have to worry about Internal Affairs. It's sad and frankly terrifying, to see the Albuquerque Police Department brass using the tactics of their sworn enemy - on their own personnel.

What does that say about the department? What does that say about us? All of us have the responsibility to keep an eye on the leaders in government. When someone has the courage to step forward and expose a problem the investigation should be of the problem not the messenger.

Clearly APD has problems and their source seems to be the department's leaders - political and administrative. This type of blatant retribution by the 5th floor is just the latest shenanigan. Don't the 800 or so APD officers deserve better than to live in fear of their own department? Don't we deserve better?

Sgt. Heh Speaks

We received this interview conducted by 770 KKOB's Peter St. Cyr. It was conducted yesterday before Sergeant Heh spoke to the City Council. In it he talks about his reasons for opposing the narrowly passed APD - APOA contract.

It's not often that you get the opportunity to hear a full interview. Most of the time you're limited to 3 to 4 second sound bites whizzing by you at the top and bottom of the hour. We'd like to thank Peter St. Cyr for sending over the link to the entire unedited interview and we'd encourage you to take the time to listen to it. We've posted it below and you can also listen to a Quicktime stream here.

The Road to Invalidation

Tonight was the first meeting of the Albuquerque Police Officer's Association since the recent narrow approval of a controversial three year contract designed to lure more new officers to the beleaguered department. The contract itself incentivized joining APD at the expense of staying with APD. We believe that there's a deeper play here. The Almighty One would only benefit by getting rid of the department's more senior officers that know better in favor of less experienced officers who frankly... don't.

In tonight's full house, the issue of the contract was sure to come up and indeed it did. Following an impassioned speech by 20 year Sergeant Paul Heh, the streetwise sergeant made a motion to invalidate the recently approved contract based on the numerous irregularities surrounding the contract and its approval process.

More specifically, Sergeant Heh moved to declare the approved contract null and void. A new approval process would then be instituted with the new contract to be distributed to the membership for review. The review period would last a week to ten days and then the membership would vote on whether or not to accept the current contract.

We don't know about you, but we won't sign a FedEx tablet without reading it first, yet the officers were asked to vote on a three year contract without having a contract to review and voting began immediately after the contract was presented (read it here). In addition, non-union members and probationary officers were allowed to participate in the APOA vote - something that our Eyes tell us has never happened before and could easily explain the 59 vote approval margin. Particularly when you take into account the fact that no one had seen the contract.

Sergeant Heh's motion was seconded and eventually tabled for 30 days to allow for notification of the APOA membership.

(Sidebar)
We find it amazing that the APOA would present a contract that affects the financial futures of some 800 officers and ask them to vote on acceptance immediately when almost every other motion requires a 30 day membership notification.
(End Sidebar)

At present, the only thing that will stop this divisive contract the passage of the sergeant's motion and a subsequent "no" vote by the membership or a city council intervention. Since this is a multi-year deal, it requires the approval of the council; which we believe they would be wise to withhold if for no other reason than the current contract is dividing the department and putting the general public at risk because of that division.