Tuesday, March 09, 2021ABQ Crime Crisis: No Outside Eyes; Keller Makes Medina Permanent APD Chief And Brings On Old-Timer To Oversee Stalled Reform Effort; Appointments Come As ABQ Mayoral Race Gears Up, Plus: Haaland Confirmation Vote Next Week
His selection of current interim APD Chief Harold Medina for the permanent job was as surprising as snow in January. His selection of veteran NM lawman Sylvester Stanley as Deputy Chief Administrative officer for Public Safety as well as the new Police Reform Superintendent, charged with overseeing stalled federally-ordered APD reforms, was greeted with yawns. Despite a second national search for a chief during his administration, Keller again stayed with the fella he brought to the dance. Like Medina, the interim chief before him, APD veteran Mike Geier, was made the permanent choice after another "national search." The bias against bringing in outside eyes runs deep. In the last three years, Keller has unveiled a multitude of programs to make a serious dent in the crime rate, but it has come down in certain categories only slightly and from record high levels. But the Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair believe giving Medina, 45, more time for daily police work and putting Sylvester in charge of the tangled federal reform effort will finally lead to results. Depending on who's counting the city has already racked up 23 homicides this year, on course for a yearly record of 100 or more. And auto theft still perplexes law enforcement with the stats released last summer showing the city at #2 in the nation, down from #1. Hooray! Keller's appointments come as the ABQ mayoral race gears up, with BernCo Sheriff Manny Gonzales now saying he will make an announcement about running next week. New Deputy CAO Stanley will be watching closely and perhaps dipping his toe in the water if Gonzales runs and attacks Keller over the crime crisis. Stanley ran against Gonzales for the 2018 Dem sheriff nomination and lost. Most of the reaction on social media to the appointments was predictably negative in crime weary Burque. Two leading APD/Keller critics were also not convinced. First, Keller: We are entering a new era for our police department that reflects important takeaways from the past year, including our community input process and the search itself. We heard and understand that. . . it takes both an insider and an outsider to strike the right balance on the dual challenges of crime-fighting and police reform. It’s clear the department would benefit from outside perspective especially when it comes to reform, and it’s equally clear that we don’t have the luxury of waiting for someone from the outside to spend a year ‘learning’ about crime in our very unique city; rather we need a chief who knows the ins and outs, the history, and every street corner in this city and is best positioned to fight crime, now.
AND THE CRITICS. . . Retired APD Sergeant Dan Klein:  APD is so top heavy with six figure salaried
politicians (former US Attorney Damon Martinez comes to mind) and now we are adding another. What Keller has done is create
another political position that will cause more harm to an already troubled
department. If I understand it correctly Medina is chief of crime fighting
and Stanley is chief of Internal Affairs and the DOJ Reform. How is that
going to work? It's not. The fault here is with Keller, this plan is a
mess, just like everything he has tried to do at APD. And from Tom Grover, a former APD officer and now an attorney who defends police officers: Keller could've hired Joe Sullivan, who by his resume would've brought transformative leadership (his last assignment as Deputy Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department had him overseeing about as many cops as there are in the entire state of NM) to APD. But Keller retained a loyal partisan who has their DNA all over APD's sorry history which led to the federal intervention, one who has shown wholesale betrayal to others including his boss, Chief Geier. Even more striking is Keller's announcement coming just days following one of the city's most gruesome homicide scenes. Oddly, in Keller's own press statement he promotes Medina's successes yet he omits that such "successes" are based on programs that Geier initiated and managed. These are hardly attributes which support the "depth of experience and leadership track record" Keller claims his selection holds. Good luck to all who live or visit the city known as Albuquerque. We're 're going to need it. . . HAALAND HOMESTRETCH March 15 is the date set by the US Senate to take up the confirmation of ABQ Dem Rep. Deb Haaland as Secretary of Interior, according to her staff. Confirmation is expected after which Haaland will resign her House seat. Secretary of State Toulouse Oliver will then set a special election date. State central committee members from the ABQ district will choose the Dem, R and Libertarian party nominees. Who will the Dems pick? It's a a heckuva race isn't it? There doesn't seem to be a clear front-runner with the hopefuls chasing a mere 180 central committee members who will make the choice. Let us know what you're hearing. THE BOTTOM LINES We referenced Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber Monday as being "Easty" since he spent a lot of time in Massachusetts, but reader Peter Katel says: Hi Joe,
How is Alan Webber from "back east?" He's from Missouri, according to his Wikipedia bio. True, he went to school in Massachusetts, but he then moved to Oregon, where he embarked on his career.
I'm from back east, and so are you if I remember correctly. But not every Anglo who moves to New Mexico shares our origins. You're correct, Peter. Your blogger is from Scranton, PA which makes him a "Scranton Joe." Do you think a White House invitation is pending? This is the home of New Mexico politics. Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021 |
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