There is hereby created a Civilian Police Oversight Agency (the “CPOA”) as an independent agency of city government, not part of either the city administration or City Council, consists of the Civilian Police Oversight Advisory Board (the "Board") and an Administrative Office led by the CPOA Executive Director (the "Director" or the "Executive Director"). The CPOA is a critical component of police reform and oversight in Albuquerque. This Part is intended to comprehensively establish and set forth the rights and responsibilities of the CPOA, but the CPOA is also contemplated within and bears significant duties and obligations within the 2014 DOJ Settlement Agreement with the City of Albuquerque (and any subsequent agreements), and Findings Letter of April 10, 2014. In addition to any other duties, the Executive Director shall direct and oversee the receipt of all citizen complaints and direct and oversee the investigation of civilian complaints relating to officer misconduct within the parameters of § 9-4-1-4(C)(2)(g), monitor and report on police Internal affairs matters, and manage the day to day operations of the CPOA. The Board shall provide policy guidance for, and civilian oversight of the Albuquerque Police Department. Board members shall rely on the CPOA professional investigative staff to perform the investigations called for under this article, and shall not independently investigate any matters.
(1) Facility Location. The CPOA shall be housed in a facility that is separate from any police presence and is located outside of the Albuquerque City Hall, the Police Department and/or all of the police substations.
(2) Budget. The CPOA shall have a dedicated budget. The Director shall administer the budget in compliance with state and local laws, and supervise staff in compliance with the city's Merit Ordinance and contractual services policies and procedures. The Director shall recommend and propose its budget to the Mayor and City Council during the city's budget process to carry out the powers and duties under §§ 9-4-1-1 through 9-4-1-14, including itemized listings for the funding for staff and all necessary operating expenses. Adequate funding shall be provided to uphold the ability of the CPOA to carry out its duties and support its staff and operating expenses.
(3) Professional Legal Services. The CPOA shall select independent legal counsel from the conflict counsel list maintained by the Office of the City Attorney. The CPOA's legal counsel shall be independent from legal counsel for APD and shall advise and represent both the Agency and the Board. The CPOA's legal counsel shall represent the CPOA in the courts, and shall advise the CPOA as to any legal matters relating to §§ 9-4-1-1 through 9-4-1-14 and the CPOA's duties, responsibilities, and procedures except for CPOA personnel matters which shall remain under the authority of the City Attorney's Office.
(4) Applicability of City Policies and Ordinances. The CPOA shall comply with all city ordinances and policies dealing with administrative functions including but not limited to those dealing with personnel, the merit system, and procurements.
(B) Staff. The CPOA shall employ such staff as necessary to carry out its functions as prescribed by this Article, including but not limited to an executive director, professional investigative staff and other staff as may be necessary, subject to budget sufficiency and city personnel policies and procedures.
(C) Responsibilities. The Civilian Police Oversight Agency is responsible for civilian police oversight and has the following powers and duties:
(1) Community Outreach. The CPOA shall develop, implement, and from time to time amend as necessary, a program of community outreach aimed at soliciting public input from the broadest segment of the community in terms of geography, culture, ethnicity, and socio-economics. The CPOA shall report its community outreach efforts to the City Council as part of its reporting under § 9-4-1-11.
(2) Investigations. The Administrative Office shall independently investigate all civilian complaints alleging officer misconduct; shall audit and monitor a representative sampling of all Level 2 and Level 3 incidences of use of force by police and all matters under investigation by APD's Internal Affairs (IA) or other APD personnel tasked with conducting administrative investigations related to a use of force incident; and shall prepare proposed findings and recommendations on all officer involved shootings and serious uses of force as defined by Article III, Paragraph 12, Subsection (qq) (or as subsequently amended) of the court-approved DOJ Settlement Agreement with the City of Albuquerque ("Serious Uses of Force").
(a) Where an officer has engaged in conduct that may reasonably lead to a criminal charge against the officer, IA and the CPOA have a shared interest in exercising care to avoid interfering with the criminal process while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of the disciplinary process for officers. Consistent with this shared interest, IA and the CPOA will regularly confer and take reasonable steps to coordinate the handling of investigations into matters that reasonably may lead to a criminal charge against an officer. Before taking action related to a serious use of force or officer involved shooting, the Director shall confer with the relevant prosecuting agency and/or federal law enforcement agency to assess the likelihood of an officer being criminally prosecuted based on the incident. The Director may delay or decline to proceed with any action related to a serious use of force or officer involved shooting until completion of the criminal investigation unless, after consultation with the prosecuting agency, the Director determines that proceeding is appropriate and will not compromise a criminal investigation. If the Director seeks to proceed with investigating or presenting to the Board a serious use of force or officer involved shooting despite a prosecuting agency or federal law enforcement agency indicating that doing so would interfere with a criminal investigation, the Director may proceed only after obtaining approval to do so through a 2/3 vote of the Board. The Board shall provide notice of any such vote permitting the Director to proceed in such circumstances to APD and the police officer involved.
(b) APD shall provide Board members, the Director, and CPOA staff with reasonable access to APD premises, files, documents, reports and other materials that are reasonably necessary for the agency to perform thorough, independent investigations of civilian complaints of officer misconduct and reviews of serious uses of force and officer- involved shootings. However, any material protected from disclosure by law shall remain within the custody and control of APD at all times and will be handled in accordance with the applicable legal restrictions.
(c) All complaints filed by police officers will be investigated by Internal Affairs. The Agency shall not investigate complaints filed by police officers. Internal Affairs shall provide a weekly update to the Director on all open internal investigations. The CPOA Director's investigation report and findings shall indicate whether within the past year there were any IA investigations or supervisor generated complaints against the officer(s) involved in the incident being investigated that are relevant to the subject matter of the investigation, the general nature of the prior investigations or complaints, and whether they resulted in any discipline. Redacted personnel records including those of the Internal Affairs Unit shall be made available to the Board on demand.
(d) Mediation First. Whenever possible, and as further described in § 9-4-1-6(C)(3), mediation should be the first option for resolution of civilian police complaints.
(e) Board Audits; Access to Files. The Board will perform semiannual audits, on a random sample of up to 10% of individual civilian police complaint investigations involving allegations of use of force. The Board may, by a vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the members of the Board, perform an additional audit, or direct that an audit be performed, on any individual Citizen Police Complaint Investigation completed by the Administrative Office. For purposes of its audit function, the Board shall have full access to investigation files and may subpoena such documents and witnesses as relevant to its audit function.
(f) Disciplinary recommendations. The Director may recommend officer discipline from the Chart of Sanctions for investigations that result in sustained civilian police complaints; and may also recommend discipline based on any findings that result from review of internal affairs Investigations of officer involved shootings and serious uses of force. Imposition of the recommended discipline is at the discretion of the Office of Police Reform. However, if the Office of Police Reform does not follow the disciplinary recommendation of the Director, the Office of Police Reform shall respond in writing, within 30 days of the department's final disciplinary decision, with a detailed explanation of the reason as to why the recommended discipline was not imposed. The Office of Police Reform shall identify the specific findings of the Director with which the Office of Police Reform disagrees, or any other basis upon which the Office of Police Reform declined the Director's disciplinary recommendation. The CPOA shall report data regarding the outcomes of all disciplinary recommendations, to include whether the Office of Police Reform imposed the recommended discipline, as part of its quarterly oral reports, as outlined in § 9-4-1-4(C)(3).
(g) Summary disposition of complaints. The Director shall develop and implement a policy that specifies those complaints that may be administratively closed or referred to mediation. Administrative closing or inactivation of a complaint investigation shall be used for the most minor policy violations that do not constitute a pattern of misconduct, duplicate allegations, allegations which are too broad and/or lack any specificity, allegations that even if true would not constitute officer misconduct, allegations regarding events that occurred several years before the complaint was filed, or allegations by an individual who files repeated complaints that the Director has determined to be without merit.
(3) Reports to Mayor & Council. The CPOA shall submit a semi-annual written report to the Mayor and City Council according to § 9-4-1-11 herein. The CPOA Executive Director shall provide a quarterly oral report to the City Council at a regular or special meeting. The oral report shall at a minimum address community outreach efforts, agency progress and initiatives, data regarding actual disciplinary outcomes imposed by the Office of Police Reform as compared to the Director’s disciplinary recommendations, any outstanding Board vacancies and the most forthcoming term expiration(s) of any Board member(s), together with any of the agency's issues or concerns.
(4) CPOA Policy Recommendations. The CPOA may make recommendations on policy to the Chief of Police. APD shall provide the CPOA with reasonable access to APD premises, files, documents, reports, data (including APD raw data), and any other materials that are reasonably necessary for this purpose. For purposes of this article, "APD raw data" includes but is not limited to any facts and statistics or other data gathered, obtained, or that are otherwise within the possession of APD before being processed or analyzed; "police best practices" refers to law enforcement methods or techniques based upon the experiences and outcomes in other police departments or law enforcement agencies that have documented superior results compared to other practices, and to recommendations by recognized research and policy development groups, forums, consortiums, or similar. The CPOA shall redact any personal identification information from any APD raw data within its possession as permitted by law prior to its release to the public. The CPOA's policy recommendation process shall be as follows:
(a) Community Policing Council Review and Analysis. Policy proposals from APD will be distributed to each Community Policing Council ("CPC") for comment. Each CPC wishing to submit comments or recommendations must submit them to the Director within 15 days. In making its final policy recommendations, the Board shall review and take into consideration any timely submitted comments and recommendations of the CPCs.
(b) Policy Proposals by APD. APD shall provide all policy proposals passed by the APD Policy and Procedures Review Board to the Board for its review, comment, and recommendations prior to final adoption.
(c) The Chief of Police or designee shall respond to policy recommendations made by the CPOA pursuant to paragraph 'b' above in writing within 45 days of final action on a policy by APD. As part of this response, APD shall indicate whether the Board's policy recommendation will be followed through standard operating procedures or should be adopted as policy by the City Council, or specifically explain any reasons why such policy recommendations will not be followed or were not adopted.
(d) The Board, in consultation with the Director, shall review and update as appropriate its policies, rules and procedures that ensure that the Board is effectively accomplishing its duties under this article on an annual basis. Any policies, rules, and procedures shall be adopted in accordance with ROA 1994, § 2-6-1-4(C)(2). The Board shall present its proposed policies, rules, and procedures to the City Council for final approval. In the event that the City Council determines that the Board's proposal fails to ensure the Board is effectively accomplishing its duties, the City Council may modify them as appropriate. Annual updates will become effective only upon final approval of the City Council. Updates outside of its annual review will become effective only upon a 2/3 vote of the membership of the Board and only upon final approval by the City Council, as submitted or as amended by the Council.
(e) The chair of the Board shall designate one Board member to serve on each APD policy development committee. The Director and the Board member designated by the Chair shall each serve as voting members and representatives of the Board on such committees, and shall report back to the Board about the outcomes and votes cast at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board.
(Ord. 2014-019; Am. Ord. 2015-006; Am. Ord. 2016-013; Am. Ord. 2019-007; Am. Ord. 2022-007; Am. Ord. 2023-004)