Case 1:14-cv-01025-JB-SMV Document 444 Filed 05/01/19 Page 1 of 286 Monitor’s Ninth Report Compliance Levels of the Albuquerque Police Department and the City of Albuquerque with Requirements of the Court-Approved Settlement Agreement No. CIV 14-1025-JB-SMV May 2, 2019 Prepared by: Public Management Resources, Inc. James D. Ginger, Ph.D., Independent Monitor Case 1:14-cv-01025-JB-SMV Document 444 Filed 05/01/19 Page 2 of 286 Table of Contents Topic Page 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Executive Summary 2 3.0 Synopsis of Findings 4 4.0 Current Status 6 4.1 Overall Status Assessment 6 4.2 Dates of Project Deliverables 8 4.3 Format for Compliance Assessment 8 4.4 Compliance Assessment 9 4.5 Operational Definition of Compliance 9 4.6 Operational Assessment 10 4.7 Assessing Compliance with Individual Tasks 11 5.0 Summary 282 Case 1:14-cv-01025-JB-SMV Document 444 Filed 05/01/19 Page 3 of 286 1.0 Introduction This Independent Monitor’s Report (IMR) follows the same format as all previous reports. That format is organized into five sections: 1.0 Introduction; 2.0 Summary; 3.0 Synopsis of Findings; 4.0 Compliance Findings; and 5.0 Summary. The purpose of the monitor’s periodic compliance reports is to inform the Court of the monitor’s findings related to the progress made by APD in achieving compliance with the individual requirements of the CASA. This report covers the compliance efforts made by APD during the ninth monitoring period, which covers August 2018 through January 2019. As of this reporting period, we have seen a new strategy developed by APD, one which the monitoring team believes will significantly aid efforts to implement the spirit of the CASA as well as the specific requirements. This strategy involves overlaying the specific requirements of the CASA with current, state-of-the art community policing efforts designed to move APD from simply a law enforcement agency to a community integrated law enforcement agency. The Chief and his command staff have identified and replicated several state-of-the art policing strategies that are designed to transition APD to an agency that has true partnerships with the citizens it serves. These four new initiatives at APD build from successful processes already implemented and tested in other police departments. They include: 1. EPIC –Ethical Policing is Courageous: A peer-based program designed to empower individual officers the strategies and tools to step in and intervene in improper police behaviors in order to prevent problems before they occur. EPIC training officers in how to defuse situations before they become critical issues in how officers interact with and treat the public. The Chief contends that “If we can prevent some of our own misconduct periodically, and salvage some officers’ careers [by preventing] some mistakes we can have a substantial impact. Just one mistake can ruin a career.” The goal is to have other officers intervene one-on-one to cause an officer about to make a mistake to re-think his process and actions. EPIC represents a cultural change in policing that equips, encourages and supports officers to do the right thing. 2. Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs are designed to end the revolving door of arrest-try-incarcerate-repeat generated by most law enforcement programs designed to deal with drug abuse or prostitution. The program allows law enforcement officers to redirect low-level offenders engaged in drug or prostitution activity to community-based services, thus preventing negative outcomes of being processed by official criminal justice system components for first offenses. 1 Case 1:14-cv-01025-JB-SMV Document 444 Filed 05/01/19 Page 4 of 286 3. CIT-ECHO—An Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes: A collaborative model of medical education and care management that empowers clinicians to provide better care to more people. ECHO dramatically increases access to specialty training and knowledge by front-line law enforcement personnel with the knowledge and support they need to manage difficult interactions. Engages POs in a continuous learning system and partnering them with specialist mentors at an academic medical center or hub. The goal is to address inadequate or disparities in care. ECHO has been recognized as an effective mechanism to move critical care to a broader, closer-to-the- consumer service delivery model, by training special teams of police officers in the crisis intervention model and “workable alternative treatment sources.” CIT-Echo trains APD officers in triage and referral processes and uses a distributed processing model, rather than a centralized “facility” model. 4. Problem Response Teams—Dedicated community-policing trained officers assigned to community outreach and problem-solving modalities that involve working directly with local residents and business owners to identify problems, issues, needs and solutions related to articulated community problems. 5. Direct Personal Involvement—The Chief has, on multiple occasions, directly inserted himself into the change process at APD, sending direct, clear, and personal signals to the agency’s membership that change is coming and APD is entering a new era in the way it delivers policing services to the citizens of Albuquerque. For example, the Chief has personally delivered the introductory segments of training regarding new use of force practices. In our past experience in these organizational reform processes, this level of personal commitment by the chief executive is critical to implementing the types of changes required by the CASA. Of all the organizational change processes engaged in by APD over the past year, the direct personal involvement of the Chief may be the most critical. 2.0 Executive Summary Again, for the second reporting period in a row, the compliance efforts we have observed during this reporting period differ substantively from those we had observed earlier in the monitoring process. We have found that the current APD executive staff continue to be fully committed to CASA compliance processes. Most of the new command and oversight cadres also appear to be fully committed to moving APD forward in its compliance efforts. We have found extremely attentive audiences for our compliance process advice, and in most cases, APD has moved forward adroitly as it implements responses to that advice. We remind the reader again, that this compliance project is, by design, a long-term project, involving complex, and arduous processes with hundreds of “moving parts.” IMR-9 is the second full monitor’s report that reflects the progress made at APD since the advent of a new management and executive cadre at APD. We note at the outset that the new management cadre continues to exhibit a strong grasp of the key issues 2 Case 1:14-cv-01025-JB-SMV Document 444 Filed 05/01/19 Page 5 of 286 confronting them as they work toward compliance with the CASA. As we noted in our report for the 8th reporting period, the new executive and command personnel at APD have implemented a new approach to the agency’s compliance efforts. We noted in IMR 8 that APD’s new management cadre has recognized the need for: • Methodical approaches to problem-solving; • Movement toward data-based decision making; • Strategic approaches; and • Looking outside the organization for effective models and processes to move compliance forward. More importantly, the current leadership continues to demonstrate a grasp of the key issues involved in the compliance process and they are building effective problem-solving mechanisms designed to effectuate meaningful change at APD. In IMR-8 we noted that “Taking the time to build good foundations is critical to the compliance process.” APD leadership cadres have begun to understand and embrace the fact that some processes simply cannot be rushed, but need time to develop, plan, implement, assess and revise. During IMR-9’s reporting period, APD has adopted the long-term approach to reform that we have recommended from the early stages of this process. We see this as a critical change in approach. The new executive and management cadre at APD have been highly responsive to monitoring team feedback. The leadership and management cadres currently at APD have made palpable progress. More importantly, they have constructed critical foundations for the change that still remains to be accomplished. We again caution the reader, however, that the types of planned change and organizational processes required by the CASA take time to plan, design, implement, evaluate and redesign. The CASA change process is a classic “long-linked” technology, requiring high degrees of sequential dependence, i.e., it has multiple steps, each requiring success in order for the “whole” to be effective. 3 Case 1:14-cv-01025-JB-SMV Document 444 Filed 05/01/19 Page 6 of 286 Figure 2.1: Longitudinal Compliance Levels for Reporting Periods 1-9 120 100 80 Primary 60 Secondary Operational 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 3.0 Synopsis of Findings for the 9th Reporting Period In IMR-8 we noted “The CASA compliance process has several critical outstanding issues that need prompt attention and resolution. Chief among those is the review and revision of APD’s use of force policy suite.” Since that comment, APD has completed the use of force policy suite, and those policies were approved by the monitor this reporting period. The resolution of the use of force policies was a critical outstanding issue. Other significant compliance issues remain outstanding. These include: Policies and training regarding other (non-force) CASA-related functions, such as: 1. Re-design of Force Review Board processes; 2. Re-integration of Force Review Board practices into the APD policing oversight process; 3.