foreign
[Music]
good afternoon everybody Welcome to our
meeting it's Monday August 28 to 2023 at
1 pm I'm Cassandra Gandara mayor Pro tem
and I'll be presiding over the meeting
mayor is out of town
and so please stand and if I can ask the
Public's attention please thank you if
you please stand and I'd like to just a
moment of silence also to recognize our
police officers and our fire who worked
Tire or Leslie I have a little piece of
candy in my mouth and that didn't go
very well but I appreciate everything
that you do to keep us safe
and then will you join me to for the
Pledge of Allegiance
okay
we always have a pets of a week segment
do we have Amy on
there you are Amy how are you
I'm doing well how are you
good good Amy thank you we're looking
forward to hearing pets of the week and
your training you always give us some
really good information
thank you I appreciate that
[Music]
my name is Amy De Felix
coordinators for the Animal Services
Center of the Messiah Valley I'm also
the one that picks and presents the pets
of the week every week and as always
I'll start by me sharing my screen
there you go
there we go and I'll turn off my video
so it doesn't come out the text
alrighty
and we always start off by presenting
our cats of the week and our cat of the
week this week his name is William his
number is 64952 and he says who is this
messed wonder that is ready to charm his
way into your heart it's me William I'm
a small boy only five pounds and I'm a
quiet introverted Kitty I really want
attention but I prefer quiet
companionship where you gently pet me
while I'm in the corner softly purring
while I need into your lap or a blanket
I mean his number is 64952 I don't
remember if I've already mentioned that
but just for reference
um and then our dog of the week we have
Mr Chansey his number is 59661 and he
says I'm just a little bit shy but I'm
super sweet and full of love
I'm a quick learner already getting used
to being on a leash and I'm even in the
process of learning sit I was in a
foster home for a little while I'm a
foster found out that I'm cat friendly
and I might already be potty trained no
messes and doors for me I'm back at the
asdmv temporarily so stop by and visit
me this week
and then regarding adoption events um
this will last four days of clear the
shelters
um all month long all adoptions have
been 25 so it'll continue to be 25 until
end of day August 31st we also have
off-site adoptions at the farmers market
this Saturday we will be there from 10
a.m to 1 p.m
um we're usually located at the end of
the farmer's market typically by Oregon
Mountain Outfitters like that into the
farmer's market that's a stop by and
meet some wonderful adoptable pets and
now to continue with the disease
prevention I'd like to talk about canine
parvovirus it's another really common uh
commonly talked about
disease especially among puppies
um so what is canine private virus it is
a viral infection
um it is gastrointestinal it only ever
attacks the like GI system so like the
stomach the intestines and everything
else associated with that
um it's spread by direct contact between
a susceptible dog an infected dog or by
susceptible dog in contaminated feces
environments or people
some like fomites like you have a parvo
Positive Dog you're interacting with it
hugging and cuddling it but didn't
realize it was sick yet you have the the
virus on you and then you go and touch
another dog and then that's how
um it's like indirect kind of a contact
that way
um the incubation period typically
ranges from three to seven days after
exposure um the duration of the disease
is approximately one week
um the most at risk are unvaccinated
dogs and puppies which are less than
four months old and I didn't write it
down um but I do want to mention
um well the incubation period is like
three to seven days the time it takes
for a dog to either get over it or pass
away from it is about a week parvo
itself is a very resilient virus and in
the environment it can last Almost up to
a decade almost up to 10 years
um just alone in the environment kind of
waiting to find these susceptible kind
of a dog to infect so it's it's
definitely
um like dirt yards grass yards
um if there's an animal that has had
parvo in it it's really hard to
disinfect and make sure that it's
healthy for a new animal to come in so
that's always something that we ask to
be aware of
um no because not many people know that
it can last in the environment without a
host for that long and it's surprising
and it's a very difficult to manage
um so what are the symptoms of
parvovirus um it's usually lethargic
loss of appetite abdominal pain fever or
hypothermia so either really high
temperature or really low temperature
vomiting and severe bloody diarrhea now
the severe ability diarrhea is usually
kind of the the key sort of symptom for
people to see from a puppy and think oh
that might be parvo
same with lethargy and loss of appetite
because puppies you know they're growing
they love to eat they'll take every
they'll put everything down basically so
if you see a puppy and he's looking kind
of uh low energy not really eating all
his food and he's vomiting and has
diarrhea
um
Parvo is usually one of the first things
that people kind of look towards
um so how is parvo diagnosed or treated
um a veterinarian will diagnose either
through like the clinical symptoms and
also of course lab testing I will test
the stool to see if there's any virus
that is being shed that way
um treatment consists of supportive care
and management of symptoms like it is a
virus so you can't give medicine for it
essentially like antibiotics don't work
for it because it's a virus so the
treatment is mostly supportive care for
keeping the dog hydrated
um and getting in as much nutrients as
possible to kind of keep them still um
at a decent kind of energy level while
his body is learning to fight off the
virus so it's controlling the vomiting
diarrhea diarrhea so normally like an
anti-amitic something that will keep
them from vomiting
um something to firm up the stool and as
well as combating dehydration through
fluids and electrolytes so that's like
the subcutaneous fluids that you see
people do with a bag of like the Lactaid
to bring your solution or something
similar
um and dogs diagnosed with parvo like
the ones dogs diagnosed with distemper
like we talked about last week they must
be quarantined to prevent bed to to
prevent spread excuse me because it is a
highly highly contagious disease
especially among puppies
so what is parvovirus prevention
um of course like with canine December
prevention is prevention is the most
effective route with maintaining and
controlling the disease so of course
vaccination especially starting a
puppyhood revaccinating adults as soon
as vaccines are due so that's usually
like every year
um the distemper and parvo uh virus
strains are usually in a combination
vaccine so when you get vaccinated for
December you're usually also getting
vaccinated for parvo and it's like a two
birds one stone kind of deal
um you do not bring your puppy around
with you in public until they've had
their full set of vaccines and boosters
in your veterinarian says it's okay
because you just don't know what's in
the environment in your puppy's immune
system is very weak still not fully
developed and he's not kind of ready to
kind of take in all the pathogens that
could be kind of waiting for him and
definitely don't let your dog interact
with fecal waste of other dogs while out
on walks or playing outside I know dogs
are just naturally curious especially
when you're out on walks and someone
didn't pick up their dog's poop
previously and your dog immediately
wants to go and sniff it and try to keep
them from doing that because you'd never
know what sort of a bacteria or virus is
part of a virus otherwise that they
could be sniffing picking up and kind of
getting in onto themselves and then
hopefully hopefully not but potentially
um getting sick with later on so of
course I always encourage you back
vaccinated vaccinated vaccinate and keep
your pets healthy and safe thank you
thank you Amy
okay next up is our jobs of the week and
we have Giselle palomares she
there's Sarah hi Sarah good afternoon
how are you I'm well how are you
great let me share my screen for you all
all right
can you see that
we see the jobs of the week just the
title page
perfect
okay for our jobs of the week everyone
we have several that have come up here
in Las Cruces in the doniana area
we have for the city of Las Cruces we
have a case manager on the pay ranges
from 45 000 to 64 000 a year depending
on experience and that one closes on 9
11. wait for also for the city of Las
Cruces we have Youth Services
administrator that one the pay ranges
from 60 000 to 87 000 depending on
experience and also closes on September
11th for White Sands Missile Range we
have a child and youth program assistant
that one pays
um 1739 to 20.99 an hour depending on
experience
we also have an office clerk at Berg's
Automotive
um that pay was dependent on experience
they did not list a specific pay that
one closes on 9 22.
an automotive technician for Pep Boys
that one is twenty six thousand to forty
seven thousand dollars a year and closes
on September 11th and then finally we
have a financial analyst for the
American Red Cross that one pays 62 000
to 85 000 a year and closes on September
24th and as always you all can reach us
on um on a website at employ nm.com at
our app that we have and then at our
office on Alameda Boulevard if you have
any questions please feel free to give
us a call reach out to us we also have a
Facebook and we're reaching out to tick
tock so look for us there guys thank you
so much for having me
thank you so much Sarah we appreciate
you we'll see you next week
no sir I'm sorry I'm not able to get you
sir
please take a seat Paul Mr burunda and
we'll sit
Mr barunda please this is a work session
and we're going to go through the agenda
item and I will give you a chance to
speak on behalf of whatever agenda item
you would like to speak to related to
what's there
3.1 Police Department oir
recommendations update hi Chief story
good afternoon mayor Pro Tem
good afternoon mayor Pro tem Council
Jeremy story interim chief of police for
the record
today what we want to do is provide an
overview of these four areas I think
we'll hopefully set some context prior
to oir coming up to give their update
I'll talk about training again and the
goal is to present the last two years
which coincides with the same period
that Oar has been our auditor of
training Lieutenant Gutierrez with
internal affairs we'll talk about policy
updates or new policies that have come
into existence in the last two years
we'll talk about some of the
recommendations they've made over this
uh last two years and then what we've
done to address them and then I'll
finish with a what hopefully is a
detailed explanation of our use of force
review process as it exists today
the first slide up here is what is
required for any police officer law
enforcement officer in the state of New
Mexico so this is the only training that
is required of a police officer in New
Mexico
which is kind of a separate topic the
first five classes everything's on a
biennium cycle so it's a two-year cycle
the first five classes say annual those
are required every year and then the
rest of the classes are only required to
be completed at least once during that
two-year cycle
we are finishing the two-year cycle in
this year so December 31st all of our
officers have to have this training to
remain certified
this is the minimum now even within
these classes there's a minimum number
of hours and in some of those classes we
exceed that so for instance interaction
with persons with mental impairment is
required to be two hours every two years
is minimal we generally do an eight to
ten hour class and we spend half that
time doing scenarios
the next few slides are going to be the
training that we've done in the last two
years that's above and beyond the
minimum requirement and this is training
that's required of all LGBT officers so
all commission officers are required to
attend these classes
we try to mix up the topics somewhat
between each year so that we're getting
different things
in 2022 I'm not going to read everything
I'll try to hit a few things
specifically but the first one up there
critical legal issues training was an
attorney we brought in that did an
eight-hour class kind of the high points
of that training were trends that
they're seeing in use of force as well
as Crisis Intervention
apologize same thing with 2023 I won't
go over everything but I'll try to
emphasize a few things the first class
you see up there is hearing loss
sensitivity training for law enforcement
that's a class that one was recommended
by oer based on a case review
we had been working with the New Mexico
commission for the deaf and hard of
hearing since 2020 due to covet it took
longer than we'd like both of us to get
this to happen but in February of this
year they came down and all of our
officers attended that training
there's three classes that say
de-escalation that's kind of want to
separate those three and what the
difference is between them the first one
was a four-hour classroom course that
was kind of a broad view of
de-escalation so they hit things like
the use of cover and distance to slow
things down which gives you time time
helps you to make better decisions and
to gather more resources to help solve
whatever problem there is get emphasized
effective communication skills
especially crisis communication skills
and it also talked about human
performance factors but really the
importance of recognizing when you're
overly stimulated emotionally you're
presenting with a stressful circumstance
and sometimes our sympathetic nervous
system can be too engaged and that
causes US problems so practical
mechanisms to help reduce that level of
stimulation and bring you back so you
can have more cognitive control you can
think better under stress the uh second
one the scenarios is just practical
scenarios what we call force on four so
that's practicing these same skills you
learn in the classroom in a realistic
environment these ones were centered
around traffic stops but it's just
presented with different types of
interactions so that they can navigate
through them
and the last one the exploration and
subject control is a class that was
developed by our defensive tactics unit
head who was also our crisis
intervention officer for many years
and this class was a recognition that
sometimes force is necessary but even
after force is used there's still
opportunities to de-escalate so they
focus on how do I de-escalate during
force and then immediately after Force
being used which is a really good class
um and the last one I'll hit on this
page is very impartial policing which is
a company but also the curriculum we
started teaching that in 2020 we just
finished our our booster training our
refresher training and that takes an
evidence-based approach to how bias
affects all human beings and how
sometimes those can be negative and how
to minimize their impact in our decision
making
so those first three slides were the
required training for all officers
so now I'll make a distinction between
that in-service training and Advanced
Training Advanced Training is classes
that are offered to anywhere from one
officer to a significant portion of the
department but not every officer is
required to attend the next two slides
are just going to highlight the classes
that we either hosted at LCPD or we ran
them ourselves we brought companies in
or we ran the classes and so there's a
large number of officers that attended
all these classes
you can see that there's a heavy
emphasis on search and seizure that's an
area that um it's very restrictive in
New Mexico so it's difficult for
officers to to learn it to the point
that I would like and ultimately they
have to know it as well if not better
than attorneys because they have to make
these decisions and apply the law
sometimes in a compressed time frame so
that's been an emphasis
on this page I I just want to kind of
highlight that a lot of these classes we
do bring in companies and there's a
combination between we have great
instructors at LCPD so we develop and
run our own classes but we also bring in
companies and that helps make sure that
we're one betting what we're doing it
helps us kind of gauge our curriculum
against what other people are offering
and so it becomes a checks and balances
for our training
llrmi is a company legal liability Risk
Management Institute we brought them in
for several classes now primarily it's
attorneys although some of them do have
law enforcement experience as well
so those last two were Advanced Training
I'm shifting to instructor training and
these are classes that we have either
hosted or run and developed or developed
and run ourselves for instructors in the
past two years
instructor development is the class
that's required for any New Mexico law
enforcement officer who wants to become
a certified instructor to refresher is a
class to maintain that certification
outside of that again I'll just
highlight a few things excellence in
police training is a class that we
hosted that we brought in
and it's uh premised on evidence-based
approaches to training in general and
Law Enforcement Training specifically
the use of force instructor class was a
federal law enforcement training center
we just brought that in in June that's a
two-week certification course uh we had
I believe 18 Personnel that attended
including our entire use of force Cadre
I talk really fast and then I get
driving off sorry
and now I'm going to shift to supervisor
training so I'm trying to go as fast as
I can so I'm not holding everyone up but
the next few slides after this will be
our supervisor training program kind of
the framework of it but this slide is
the classes that we've done for our
supervisors in the last two years and a
lot of that is to implement that
supervisor training program this uh
stems from both a recommendation from
Oar for better supervisor training and
the recognition that there was we
weren't given our supervisors the tools
that they needed to be successful
in New Mexico there is no required
training to become a supervisor so you
could be an officer one day a sergeant
the next with absolutely no training to
help you traditionally most departments
require a first line supervisor class
which is a 40-hour class which is great
but clearly not enough to to make that
transition
the one thing I will highlight is dacc
began offering an accredited first line
supervisor class that also accounts for
college credit so although we send
officers and sergeants to different ones
we try to encourage them to attend that
one because it benefits them with
college credit and also is structured in
a way I think that helps with learning
it's not just 40 hours Monday through
Friday which isn't the best for
retention
the supervisor legal liability courses
that company we brought in that was a
two-day course that happened in February
of this year
and the last thing I'll kind of really
highlight a scenario-based decision
making which I think is the most
important training we can do that's how
supervisors make decisions under stress
and realistic and circumstances of
environments so I'll explain some
examples of what that might look like
that could be a supervisor walking into
a scenario with role player officers
that are in a bad tactical position it's
chaotic and they have to walk in
establish control move people around get
them in a better spot they could be
walking into a situation where there's
an officer who's a role player officer
who's over stimulated who's clearly
upset and they have to recognize that
kind of pull them back and then solve
the situation
or it could be a supervisor sitting at a
table listening to a radio of a mock
Pursuit and they're getting information
having to ask questions and then make a
real-time decision whether to allow that
pursuit to continue or terminate the
mock Pursuit
so that's what we've done in the last
two years
the actual program we developed in
response to the recommendation is this
and I think it's realistic but it's
ambitious
for anyone who is on the list promote to
Sergeant or who has just promoted within
the first six months a year at the most
they will complete all this training so
some of it they'll have it'll be spaced
out of course not all at once the first
line supervisor class that we've always
done will be the minimum and then some
of these other trainings that clearly
will be beneficial as a supervisor
we also recognize that just because we
do that up front doesn't mean they're
set for the rest of their career as a
sergeant so an ongoing annual training
this is what we've developed we've done
a good job so far of implementing almost
everything here
Internal Affairs training has happened
the last two years that helps with
consistency and complaint intake and
investigation we just completed a
leadership training that was uh went
great that was developed in-house
the legal liability training the two-day
class I mentioned happened in February
use of force refresher training happens
next month in September tactical topic
could be anything from West lethal
deployment it could be Shield use for
increase officer safety high risk stops
anything around tactics and then that
scenario based decision making training
and just to kind of be my disclaimer to
hopefully tie it all together
everything I presented is not
all-inclusive lists there's several
different types of training that happen
simultaneously so we presented in
service is what's required for all
officers Advanced Training is classes
that are above and beyond
I I gave you guys the classes that had a
significant amount of officers that
attended
but we send individuals and small groups
to classes conferences seminars
throughout the year every year including
our civilian staff we also send them to
Local classes just in smaller groups
that weren't on this list for those
classes it does not include training or
policy review through our online
learning management system so there's a
lot of policy reviews and little
trainings that happen through the online
system which is a great tool for just
refresher keeping stuff
that's either needs to be refreshed
often or that's just came out so we can
get it out to officers quicker
and does not include briefing trainings
which are ongoing there's a briefing
training calendar so every month has a
topic that all the shifts are required
to complete a certain amount of training
on that topic and then outside of that
they have leeway to do different
trainings on different topics we also
bring in a lot of outside entities to
conduct briefing training for our
officers just in the past 18 months I
think of the crisis triage Center
uh Messiah Valley Hospital the light
unit came in ideal options medical
assistance treatment is coming in next
month CYFD the compliance RMS CYT for
juvenile compliance so that's an
opportunity to make sure officers know
either new programs changes to programs
or statutory requirements that need to
be refreshed often and it does not
include ongoing special unit training or
all of our special units SWAT canine
drone needed Motors Honor Guard they all
conduct ongoing training that's
documented separately but that's on a
monthly basis
and it does not include our minimum
17-week build training evaluation
program or our basic Academy
the last thing I just want to highlight
this is something that we're developing
right now
is a police legal advisor and trainer
position a contract position
that will just allow us to address
things a lot quicker
more frequent I believe that for
learning especially in search and
seizure there's so many different topics
for search and seizure use of force that
due in an eight-hour class once a year
although that's that's a lot better than
not doing it it's not often enough to
ensure retention throughout the year
when they need it most so three things
they'll be doing they'll conduct that
ongoing training in all these areas
including report writing they'll
identify Trends through oir review or
internal review and then they'll develop
a curriculum to address it quickly
instead of allowing it to become
something bigger and then they can
discuss specific search and seizure
questions with
officers or supervisors and one positive
trend I've mentioned to other people is
that in the last two years there's
conversations being had between officers
and between sergeants officers and
sergeants that just weren't had before
on certain Series so they'll debate back
and forth an issue of the law they'll
discuss through all case law and then
counter it and those discussions tell me
that it's working that people are
actually thinking about these things but
now they'll have an additional resource
if there is a question is this the right
way to approach a situation even a
hypothetical they can contact someone
who is a an expert in New Mexico law and
get some guidance before we make a
decision on that
at this point I'm going to introduce
Lieutenant Rob Gutierrez from our
Internal Affairs division to go over
policy review the oir recommendations
and then I'll come back and talk about
use of force review thank you thank you
Chief story does anybody have any
questions on the diets for Chief story
at this point yes counselor Flores thank
you so much uh Chief story
um so on page 12
um you know slide 12. LCPD training
doesn't include
um yeah there's the word doesn't include
doesn't does not include so that isn't
training if it doesn't include so I'm
just are those things you want to
include in the future or am I reading it
wrong or mayor Pro tem counselor Flores
the preceding slides before this do not
include these things so these are things
that we do that it did not cover on
those first slides just because it would
have been too much information to put
all down so you look at the first bullet
point the preceding slides only capture
classes that are required for all
officers or a large percent portion of
officers to attend oh I see those slides
do not include this information but the
but all of that is is part of the
training yes it just didn't include it
in the previous okay correct yeah yeah
okay I was saying wait a minute well so
I did miss something thank you and my
other question is page 13
um
a licensed attorney to provide
continuous training and what is the
context of that statement
not have do you not have a licensed
attorney who is knowledgeable in search
and seizure and everything we do that's
a good question mayor for Tim counselor
quotas we do the frequency that we want
it to happen at is just not tenable for
all the other tasks that are assigned to
our city attorney's office so we have
good attorneys that would be capable if
this was their full-time job we want
something that is going to be ongoing
briefing trainings full classes two-hour
blocks developing online learning
management curriculum responsive to
questions as they come up and if we want
to do it at the frequency that I think
will be beneficial for not only the
department but the city then a contract
position is what a lot of other
departments are going to just so they
have someone who
is that's a significant portion of what
they do are there other departments in
the state
correct there are other departments okay
and then um the legal training you
referred to in February was that the one
from Manning and cats in Los Angeles
missio Lynn's presentation maybe with
Sam Council blues that was uh Miss yolin
was the one from
2022.
it was no way I thought it was just a
few months ago
the one uh that the legal liability
class was LL RMI which is Jack Ryan's
company a lot of people know Jack Ryan
is one of the most notable use of force
experts right um so that was his company
that taught that class two separate
companies oh two separate but then you
do have that type of training how often
is that when you have someone of those
you know like Jack Ryan and Missy Ellen
my goal is to bring at least one of
those entities in a year so that's
always been my goal we've done better
than that like this year we're bringing
them for a couple different things plus
the federal law enforcement training
center class but at a minimum bringing
for legal areas bring in an outside
expert in once a year so
um you know I
but it seems I think it was on page 12
that um it doesn't matter where it is
but you do list a need for an attorney
who is up on the search and seizure and
all the different
um
all the different provisions and you
know someone's rights so
um so this is something I'm sure that
you presented to spoken with our city
manager in terms of the needs and the
because these aren't wants I think these
are needs May April Tim Council Blues
I've spoke to both the city manager and
the City attorney and we've discussed it
in depth and they've both been very
separate with it okay thank you very
much for your presentation thank you
madam chair thank you counselor Flores
Council
um Graham
thank you mayor Pro Tem
thank you so much chief for what I
realized wasn't even an exhaustive list
of all of the training that you're doing
um less of a question more of a comment
I'm really happy to see the emphasis on
supervisor training but especially on
field training officer boosting that
knowledge because I think one thing I've
picked up in the last couple of months
um as you've been sharing you know
sharing more of the departmental
procedures is what culture Setters ftos
are in terms of how the officer out in
the field is going to interact with the
public and how critical it is and I'm
just very happy to see that you're
emphasizing that importance and making
sure that ftos have the knowledge that
they need then I also uh I just loved
the phrase overly stimulated emotionally
because I feel like I'm always overly
stimulated emotionally so I appreciate
I'm going to use that one from now on so
thank you so much thank you mayor Pro
Tem
that's trauma language concert Graham
very good yes councilor bingomo same
thing my therapist once told me I was
emotionally high maintenance so I feel
like that's
um Chief I as you were presenting on
supervisor training and what you said
around you could be an officer one day
and a sergeant the next I don't think I
actually fully know the hierarchy of the
department so it's officer sergeant
lieutenant
Deputy cheap and cheap okay and then so
at supervisor Sergeant position you were
managing staff and all of that and does
some of your training include those
pieces on how to best manage a team of
Staff it does Mayor posham councilman
Como a lot of the classes uh that are in
there talk about it so it's redundant
from different aspects maybe so the
first line supervisor classic focuses a
lot on that on management of personnel
management of resources the different
areas of liabilities ability to train
failure supervisors
Etc but also the leadership training
talks about that the legal liability
class talks about it so it is hit in
many different classes okay all right
that was my only question thank you
thanks councilor pimple I have a
question Chief story thank you for the
presentation you and I just had a
conversation about training so I felt
like I knew about it but I we talked
about Kalia training the gold standard
right that you are embarking on and I I
think it'd be a great opportunity to
speak to that and what it would entail
because some of this I think if we move
which is very extensive very long
um but worth it for sure because they're
seeing some great outcomes with it can
you speak to that April Tim I I do not
want to steal the Thunder
a slide for it okay good cool it is
important all right I'll hold off I
appreciate it thank you Chief story
thank you
lower this
Rob Gutierrez Lieutenant Internal
Affairs for the record mayor Pro 10 city
council thank you very much for this
opportunity I'm glad everybody is aware
that LCPD we're taking a lot of input
from a lot of different areas the goal
here is for Best Practices to be put in
place and used not only for transparency
but for the good of the community in the
good of the entire city
for that so we thank oir for doing that
we thank citizens and as Chief story
mentioned we have a lot of input from
supervisors a lot of debriefs go on and
we get a lot of input so going along
with that our very first slide is our
policy revisions most of these if you
notice they are self-initiated or
internally initiated even though oir has
also mentioned a couple of these they'll
be noted in there so we do look ahead we
do speak amongst ourselves and amongst
the officers and what is the best
practice we go out and look we have
we're one of the only departments that
have an actual compliance Sergeant they
go out and look at case laws they go out
and look at International Association
Chiefs of police information and that
has a ton of information from all over
the country a lot of police departments
share their information share their
policies and best practices so we
compare it and see what's going to work
for us so not everything that is
recommended will work for us and
sometimes we've tried it or we'll try it
again with a different approach to it so
keep that in mind
we review our policies annually
especially now with Kalia coming up that
is going to be one big requirement that
every single policy is reviewed and
updated as a matter of fact to meet the
compliance or to come in compliance with
it it has to have a pretty much a
current date of when it was reviewed
changed and approved before they come
down and give us a stamp of approval so
I'm not going to go through every single
policy but you can see the code of
conduct you can see command and
supervision policies you can see
operations divisions and Staffing
uh even the gym facilities we've got new
policies for that peer support policies
uh
use of force complaint investigations
how they're handled how they're dealt
with we are even looking at an
alternative complaint resolution to
speak to people as they're making them
we can come in and hopefully resolve it
and
passed on some knowledge to prevent any
future misunderstandings or just
basically educate somebody that needs to
be educated on things or educate
ourselves
on this we even have the canines we have
lineup show UPS uses of force uh even
once again when case law comes out or
Senate bills come out everything has to
be updated and looked at Police Service
AIDS sometimes inside of their own units
they request policy changes on what
their duties are or descriptions or even
adding Police Service AIDS we didn't
have them a couple years ago so that had
to be added so we're growing in the
right direction and of course the
policies are the are the main goal here
now with that in mind we want to be a
well-rounded Department
so with that Chief story mentioned LL
RMI legal liability Risk Management
Institute and we also train with the
public agency training Council
some of those policies and
recommendations made by oirs the
training of internal affairs detectives
Internal Affairs supervisors so we're
actually using both of these companies
to go out and be certified investigators
how to handle complaints out of the
intake of complaints which is both an
oir recommendation as well as an
internal recommendation
that has been brought up so the biggest
changes is now all general orders apply
to all LCPD employees instead of just
commissioned employees so anybody under
our umbrella is now covered that was the
big oir initiated
uh
you know change that we made standard
operating procedures for codes in ACO
that was oer initiated once again
bringing them under the LCPD umbrella
completely
so I'm not going to go through every
single one of them for time wise these
are some of the oir recommendations and
what LCPD has done to comply with them
or at least we gave it we gave it a try
as far as best practices go case
disposition there's a lot of citizens
out there that didn't know what happened
to their complaint on a preliminary we
just send them a letter and say hey your
case was investigated we didn't find
anything with it
now uh through Oar and some of the other
input we're now telling you this is what
we investigated and it was sustained not
sustained we didn't have enough evidence
we're using plain language now and
telling you everything that we've done
and that seems to help a lot and it and
it answers a lot of questions all right
once again uh IA Investigator training
all IE Personnel are attending IA
certification training and that in the
last two years has been yearly so that
fits in with with the presentations that
are going to happen today from oir
we're including relegate relevant
one of these days to learn how to speak
include relevant background information
uh we're quoting the laws of actually
what we're referring to once again we're
not leaving you in the blind we're
educating you this is the exact law and
this is what your situation was so this
is why it why why we used it in that
investigation uh pursuing verifiable
details and we're documenting all our
steps before if we went and searching
for something and we didn't find it we
didn't use it we didn't mention it we
didn't even say anything about it
because
we didn't use it and now we're actually
listening it hey I made a phone call hey
I went to this place and it didn't turn
up anything there was no evidence there
so we're moving on once again we're
trying to be more transparent
all right now we're including the
totality of the circumstances the
background information uh we're trying
to give you all the information that led
up to that complaint so now we're
actually adding it instead of just our
facts in the description we're giving
you the whole story now
right officers are being provided with
all the tools all the forms that a
civilian might need a private property
crash forms were a big thing when people
backed up into each other in Albertson's
parking lot the officers didn't have a
little card to give them to put your
name Insurance uh location you know
license plate stuff like that now they
have it okay simple little things that
you wouldn't think or anything
you know I don't know how many times
I've been out there without a PIN
because I couldn't even you know write
down somebody's license plate of course
we have a camera anyway
all right so generate investigations as
they come as the information comes into
our possession uh we try to do that with
everything whether it be a citizen
complaint just citizen complaining to an
officer they come up and say hey
so-and-so said this I heard this WOW
we'll start looking into it
so we're automatically going to start
that
but before we even get to that report
writing was a big big thing some of our
officers you know we're leaving
information out so blue to Gold report
writing training is occurring now
continuously uh showing officers how to
write reports showing supervisors how to
write reports uh developing you know
we're developing an accredited uh report
writing course in the academy that'll be
a part of it you know basic writing
skills we take for granted uh some
people don't have so we're going to give
it to them
oh our recommendations once again uh
evaluate training curriculum for CIT and
de-escalation that was a big thing we
had already been working on but once
again it was brought to light and then
because the covid and stuff it took a
little bit but we made it happen uh in
service duty to intervene CIP classes
and de-escalation classes are now
required for all office
and I think Chief story hit on those
pretty much and now even the supervisors
and some of the official annual IA
training okay we are actually giving the
training because we're the ones that see
the issues we're the ones that see the
complaint forms or you know just look at
the policy and go oh this is why we did
this okay possible uh penalties or the
Complaint Form citizen Complaint Form
was revised it used to have penalties on
it
um it used to threaten you basically so
a citizen might feel threatened and not
fill it out because of the wording on
there now it's uh friendlier towards
citizen
so we are trying to be more transparent
and
doing all that now the answer to Kalia
Kalia is the commission on accreditation
of law enforcement agency they are the
gold standard in public safety
accreditation they are an international
company uh police departments in Mexico
Canada Germany and the United States are
part of it we are in the self-assessment
process we started this in February of
2023 just a couple of months back they
gave you three years to come into
compliance with everything there are
over 500 accreditation points that we
have to satisfy within those 500 points
uh for example I can pull out one point
it could have
15 to 20 other points to satisfy that
one point so there's 500 items we got to
look at but in reality it's well over
well over two three thousand points that
we have to hit but the big thing is the
policy we have to revise them they make
suggestions uh we are part of the Rocky
Mountain accredited Network
uh they are based out of Denver But it
includes Denver New Mexico and a little
bit of Arizona so we have people to turn
to to get any type of questions answered
or better practice uh questions that we
have in certain policies they can help
us with it or even how to get
accredited through the Kalia process
so other than that
that's going to be the end of my
presentation right here
I will turn it back to you mayor project
thank you sergeant and yes councilor
binkelball thank you so much for your
presentation I do I have a couple of
questions
um thank you for circling back to Kalia
because I had missed that originally
when you said it earlier so who are for
this accreditation process who sets
their standards then are they going off
of like Federal
government like what who sets their
standards the Kalia board mayor Pro tem
counselor they are a breast a best
practices
uh collection center so they collect
their information federally State and
from other local law enforcement agents
and their standards will meet federal
state or local okay and you said this
happens every three years no
right now
we are in the self-assessment we have
three years to come into compliance once
we come into compliance they're going to
come down and do an audit if uh when we
get approved then it's yearly they will
pick 10 to 20 percent of whatever they
decide and we have to show them that
we're still in compliance with them and
then on the fourth year so it's every
four years after we get the
accreditation they come in and do a full
accreditation look have we ever not been
accredited
we were accredited with the municipal
league but we've never been accredited
with an agency this month oh so you saw
this out
yes uh the previous Chief Miguel
Dominguez sought it out okay great
that's really good to know thank you
um I didn't I was not aware of that in
the revisions that you spoke about you
did mention use of force and given that
we've been talking a lot about use of
four standard that is one of the
revisions that you'll be looking into
yes that is almost almost yearly almost
monthly every time case law comes out
okay and that's going to be a big part
of building the use of course quadrant
especially with the knowledge base
and then the other one I I wasn't sure
if I saw it on the list was around data
and transparency on the both on the
collection of demographic data arrest
data use of force data and then on the
other side of that how then you make
that transparent to the public are there
policies around that that you'll be
revising yes
yes there is every year Internal Affairs
puts out their annual report it has all
the information they're really they're
legally able to collect inside that
report and it does have uh race it does
have information on it to answer your
question I I don't know if maybe it's up
now but I remember this being a
complaint that a constituent had
recently that this years or last years
hadn't been made public yet
the number of complaints the report
the Ia report is uh published usually in
March
and this year we went through a change
from LCPD officers my office being in
charge of the website to the city being
the website and some of the stuff fell
off
um and it reverted back to an old
website so we didn't realize it for
about a month and a half two months okay
that it wasn't public
given that this uh Kalia accreditation
process is fairly new for the Department
I am wondering if there's an opportunity
for public engagement to be included as
you move through this process is that
part of the conversation at all yeah
there is actually going to be a link on
our website for public comments okay and
that is required by Kalia okay and it
goes to Kalia first
they review it and then they send a
report back to the chief of police okay
thank you and I can talk to city manager
peely and Chief story about this but I I
think given this this new process I
think it's a very good opportunity for
more public engagement besides what
they're sort of requiring right which is
online perhaps doing more town halls and
things like that as you move through
this process I think would be really
helpful
um those are all my questions mayor
thank you thank you counselor bencom
counselor Flores thank you madam chair
and thank you so much for the
presentation
um
Kalia what does that stand for again the
mission on the accreditation of law
enforcement agents and the makeup is
consists of
several former Chiefs
former uh a lot of top brats is out
there from different countries different
states and they make up the board
so you mentioned Canada I think in here
and so
um
are there are there any um
safe law professors or social scientists
or any other
any other
I should say professions for lack of a
better word that might have an input as
to
um
how to set standards
mayor Pro tem to the council counselor
Flores yes this commissioner's board and
the Kalia advisement group consists of
attorneys civilians former law
enforcement former fire uh people former
public safety officers emergency office
management Personnel you name it they
have it somewhere on their input board
psychologists mental health people all
of that and well it sounds like a huge
board so how big is this organization
this commission is it international well
it's International but
um does it meet in the U.S and Canada
and other countries and how often do
they meet and it's a commission
comprised of a board
or is it a commission well I don't know
can you explain that yeah mayor broke
down city council councilor Flores the
commission is very large it is
international they meet anywhere from
three to four times a year are the
conferences for the actual police
departments that are in it they provide
accreditation managers accreditation
officers with the training there at the
conferences and so forth the actual
Kalia offices are open 365 days a year
and they meet through Zoom uh whenever
whenever the the need arises or uh
there's full staff members I do not have
the exact numbers uh we're so new to
this that we're just trying to get
behind what it what is needed for proofs
but they're very large uh we went to the
conference in Oklahoma City a couple of
months ago and they had 40 Commissioners
on hand looking over people that had
submitted for accreditation they have
different teams the East Coast West
Coast Midwest uh Northwest they have
several different areas that are located
but within our region they have at least
five commissions
and where is the location of the
commission is it a building somewhere or
is it how what's the organization like
at the commission I mean you you said
there's people from all over but
um
where are they where are they located
okay mayor protem counselor the regional
managers uh for instance ours lives out
of California
so he's responsible for for the West
Coast you could say on that they have
others that live in Texas they live Utah
they live in Maine uh in Florida and
they're responsible for their region
they report to a commission Board of
four or five for that area and then the
actual Kalia office I forgot their
address but they do have a physical
building
uh where everybody comes in to meet I
mean like I said it's a full-time job
would you be able to give us that
information or somehow get it to us I'm
just curious about the structure and the
the organization
um because it sounds as if um
if it sounds like a good organization
and I just want to know if it's really
covering I'm sure I hope that is
definitely
I'd like to see I'd like to see some of
their writing some of their papers and
so if you could send us whatever you're
able to I'd appreciate it perhaps to the
city manager or to our legal office and
they can distribute it to us however
whatever is easier for you
thank you very much thank you
thank you counselor Flores um
Sergeant or Lieutenant sorry I knew I
would get it messed up sorry Lieutenant
gutarres I was
um I'm excited about this Kalia
certification I've done some research
and I've talked to a few organizations
that have participated is there anybody
in the state of New Mexico that is Kalia
certified uh yes New Mexico State Police
and currently uh hubs
currently OBS and Roswell doniana County
Sheriff's Office is up for it they'll be
at the next conference which will be in
Washington the state of Washington uh
sometime in November it's good so can
you explain what the outcomes what sort
of it's obviously the gold standard
right but what will we get from it I'm
thinking training you've mentioned legal
kind of a legal perspective of
nationally and internationally but what
what are you looking to gain from this
once again we'd like to be known as the
gold standard here in New Mexico for the
police department we are going to have
access to National Best Practices we're
going to have access to better Trend
identification and other people might
already be experiencing the trend so
we're going to get all that experience
from us
I can't go too much into detail on the
legal side of things but it'll it'll
reduce our liability because we are
doing certain things thank you for
saying that because I think that's
important and I would say and what I've
heard is that reduces like the excessive
use of force
um in in a lot of cases
yes um there is too much to go into what
they're going to reduce our liability in
so I'm just going to leave it as a
blanket statement it's going to reduce
our liability and improve our
transparency and the way we do business
it's good yeah I know I'm really excited
that you are embarking on this it'll be
a huge lift but I I think an exciting
one and so I appreciate it Lieutenant
for mentioning it and going over and I I
think it'd be great to put something
together and send over to ifo about it I
appreciate that
thank you thank you and and I would
agree with counselor binkelma I think
having
a more public participation
that that also sir
Mr barunda I'm going to ask you not to
approach the dice like that if you have
something please give it to our clerk
it's highly inappropriate because I
heard what you told her and it's
inappropriate at this point I'm asking
you to not
not to not
Chief story can you please escort him
out of the out of the room please I'm
not going to tolerate this kind of
behavior thank you
Chief story
everybody were there any other questions
before I don't think there is any for
this particular presentation
is there any from
for this particular agenda item do we
have any public comment I would give you
three minutes
I still have uh the last portion of it
I'm sorry Chief story yes absolutely
please proceed
just to clarify on Kalia I was informed
there's a 21 person board 11 of them are
former law enforcement the rest are from
various professions and they're based
out of Washington DC
but we'll send some additional
information
DC DC
thank you two story for the use of force
review process my goal here is to
provide kind of what the process is as
it exists today
I can say that two years ago I think we
had a good process we have a better
process today and a large part because
of Oar recommendation and inputs as uh
made it a more thorough process it has
more redundancy built into it
um so this is what happens when a use of
force occurs the first thing that
happens is they're required to get
medical attention uh take photographs
and supervisors notified and reports to
the scene a blue team use of force
report is completed and that's separate
from the incident report the what we
would normally call a report this is
also true for a showa force although
medical attention is not required for a
show of force unless there's something
else going on where they require medical
attention
once that use of force occurs
the first there's gonna be two uh a
minimum of two significant uh reviews
the first occurs from the sergeant the
first line supervisor they're going to
pull all the reports all the photographs
watch all the videos related to the use
of force they're going to make a
determination of one of several things
the first thing is if there are no
concerns the sergeant then sends it to
the lieutenant for an additional review
it could be that the use of force was
reasonable but there are minor issues of
performance issues so they'll complete a
deficiencies address memo and then
they'll still route it to the lieutenant
to make sure the Lieutenant's aware of
everything before those things are
addressed
and there are concerns about the
reasonable bonus of the use of force or
other significant issues the sergeant
will complete a review request memo and
they'll forward it to the lieutenant who
then forwards it to internal affairs
so basically this entire process then
repeats with the lieutenant so the
lieutenant starts from scratch they pull
all the reports the videos the photos
and they do their own review if they
determine that there's no concerns and
they forward it to eye for documentation
if even if the sergeant board it without
any concerns the lieutenant might get it
and see that there's performance issues
that they want to address
um
so they'll complete the deficiencies
address memo and Route it to Internal
Affairs and then we'll address that with
the officer
the last thing is if there are concerns
about the reasonableness of the force or
other significant issues then the
lieutenant can then do the request
review memo and forward it or assignment
to the use of fourth review quadrant
so just to back up now recap at each
level of review about the sergeant and
the lieutenant there's four potential
outcomes for any use of force
the first one is that the forces deem
reasonable with no notable performance
issues and then it's forwarded for
documentation
the second is that the force was
reasonable but there are minor issues
that need to be addressed this could be
a report that just needs some additional
work it's not a bad report but they
could use some additional um training or
a performance review with the supervisor
and in these cases a deficiency
adjustment was completed for
documentation and then it's addressed
what the officer included in the file in
IA Pro
the use of force was reasonable but
there are more significant performance
issues and so then a supervisory matter
can be completed that's kind of a level
up from the deficiency memo but not
quite to the uh the level of an internal
investigation
and then if the reasonableness of the
force is questioned it's referred to IA
and it's assigned to the use of force
review country
and there's a memo that a standardized
memo that's used to document that
and then backing up to the use of force
I'm sorry the deficiencies address memo
there's four things we're looking at
when we do that these are for minor
performance issues but we either do an
overall sit down with the officer and
the sergeant will go through the
incident with them they'll look at
specific general orders that maybe they
need a refresh for the officer to look
at any laws statutes or ordinances or
case law that's involved or they could
do a formal training request that they
can address whatever issue they saw that
needed to be addressed
if a use of force is referred to the
Cadre three members do a thorough review
so it's a panel review they all look at
the use of force independently all the
videos reports they look at case on and
they come together after reviewing it
individually and they discuss it one
member wraps up a report and the other
two either concur or descent from that
report if the use of force is deemed
unreasonable or out of policy then it
generates an internal investigation and
that's where you'll have findings on
specific policy violations in the
internal investigation
kind of went through it fast but I'll
leave this up here as I stand for
questions from that part that QR code
takes people to our transparency page
we've been working on it still
always going to be a work in progress
but it's come a long way in the last six
months and there's a lot of information
on there we're trying to make it more
user friendly to find it but there's no
lack of information on the transparency
page at this point we'll stand for
questions thank you Chief story any
questions for Chief story oh they're
they're very quickly trying to get on
the QR code hopefully it's still working
oh Chief story I wanted to go back on
slide 26 if we don't have questions sure
um slide 26 could you talk to me about
the division
deficiency memo I can't say that very
much deficiency memo what is it address
is it like a standard document that you
kind of form-filled okay can you it is a
standardized document so it'll have a
case number The Blue Team the use of
force number Who's involved the sergeant
that's referringer to Lieutenant and
it'll have check boxes with one of these
four things and it could be more than
one so it will kind of lay out what the
issue was so if it was report writing
um it will say report writing and how
they're going to address it and so it's
just really it's documentation for
things that were already occurring but
it's to prove that we actually are doing
these things it's kind of a check system
for the supervisor and then I I has it
so they know it's Associated to this use
of force and they know what was done to
address the issues again these are
fairly minor issues but we want to
address those before they become bigger
issues so this could be say for example
myself there's something there I'm I
called you we moved through the Ia
process there's some deficiencies and if
I say ibrah you could get a copy of that
deficiency memo with all the specifics
this will be part of their personnel
file so generally it's not personal but
it will go into I file but we have it
more documented okay okay
all right
any Yes concert binkelma thank you mayor
Pro tem and I just want to thank you as
well thank you
um thank you all
Chief I I'm sorry I was a little bit
distracted at first but did I don't
think you went super into depth about
the Cadre right
can you talk a little bit more about
that I know that there's a piece in the
oir report that we might hear about
later that you added additional members
I think a total 16 now can you just talk
about like the selection of those
officers will they be in rotation just a
little bit more about your thinking
behind the country mayor Pro 10
councilor Ben Cuomo uh the Cadre we had
16 people that went through that
two-week let's see Law Enforcement
Training Center the Cadre is at I
believe eight members now okay um we are
also doing Apprentice members that are
not young officers but younger officers
so that we can get them the experience
before they're they're actually writing
a report
so with eight members any given use of
force that goes to reviews assigned to
three of them and that allows it to not
be overly burdensome
um the the members are mixed so it's not
the same three people all the time
and they all have extensive training now
they have varying levels of training
some of them have
you know 10 plus use of Forbes
significant use of force review classes
or investigation classes or instructor
classes but all of them have a baseline
of use of force review or instructor
training as well as a lot of human
performance issues knowledge in the law
search and seizure specifically and so
and they're also vetted based on their
own performance of course as an officer
so any given three get an assignment
they review that independently and then
they come together and one of them will
write the report for that you support
them they'll rotate who actually writes
the report
interesting what if there's this
agreement amongst the three if there's
disagreements so obviously two if two
concur then that's the the finding
um the third person can dissent and they
can provide a memo of why they disagree
and that would be included But
ultimately if it's majority so two out
of three okay that's helpful thanks
thanks chief
thank you councilman coma anybody else
on the dice
okay I will take public comments
specific to Chief story and Lieutenant
gut that was presentation
anybody
yes Mr Goodwin please make your way down
I'll give you three minutes
good afternoon mayor Pro tem and
counselors uh I am for the record Peter
Goodman
and I'll be brief uh mostly I think that
was a great report I want to
highlight and amplify a couple of points
they made one is Kalia which I've done a
little research on too having talked
extensively with the sheriff Kim Stewart
about it and recognized I'm glad your
question elicited that there really are
only a couple of other entities in the
whole state of New Mexico
that are part of it it requires a whole
heightened level of Consciousness and
care
and it is the gold standard and it's to
their credit that they are gone for the
gold
they mentioned transparency I want to
commend them on one point that I see as
a journalist which is that while
the sheriff's department has been very
good about you know if there's an
officer-involved shooting
Kim Stewart calls you all in all the
press and shows what video there is and
says here's what we know at this point
I won't speculate on other things and
maybe some of what I say will proven
wrong but here's what we know right now
whereas the LCPD has said basically go
pound sand we're doing an investigation
uh no we can't give you any videos
and the last couple of times there's
been a shooting these folks have acted
as as Sheriff Kim Stewart did and I
think that's to their credit I hope it
continues
when there's not when there's a case
that's not such a slam dunk that the
police were so clearly right and I think
it will I'm impressed so far
with interim Chief's story and his
approach to training I think is good I
do hope they move dealing with mentally
impaired up from every two years to
every year because that's a big part of
their weekly diet
and I want to add briefly that the one
thing that's still missing is real
public input okay they're doing a great
they're improving things Orr is making a
material contribution to that uh but we
still need serious public input that
will bring in more complaints than the
system as it now stands will get because
people don't won't be as braid
um it will identify problems and
situations that may not come up through
the normal process it will also reassure
the public more about the police and
help the police communicate with the
public that goes both ways so I still
urge you to take that idea seriously
thank you thank you Mr Goodman
yes
hi Reverend Caroline one more
Carolyn
how are you
good afternoon
mayor Pro tem and council members I
appreciate the opportunity to be here
this afternoon and uh Mr Goodman stole a
lot of what I was going to say did you
state your name for the record oh yes my
name is Reverend Carolyn Wilkins I'm a
minister of inspirational Ministries
here in Las Cruces
and a part of a New Mexico Cafe
but I'm standing here as a citizen and I
appreciate the report that was given I
see greater opportunities with the
processes that are going to be put in
and my question
well it's a compliment for all the
things that are being done
it sounds like a lot of things have been
taken into consideration but I also
encourage there to be public input
and be happy to help make that happen
but the other thing is something I hate
to bring up but around the country there
continue to be shootings
and there was one yesterday
and my question
to our
leadership here is whether we have
active shooter training involved in the
process I didn't see that come up in the
processes that were discussed I hope we
don't have to use that but I'd like to
know whether that's part of our program
thank you thank you Reverend Carolyn
Chief story
thank you man yes if I uh I'm not gonna
go all the way back internally we do
active shooter training uh at least
every two years for the officers but we
also offer it for private uh businesses
or organizations churches so they can
contact us and we can set up training
for our citizens as well
thank you Chief story
anybody else
okay seeing none and I think our next is
3.2
fourth semi-annual police audit report
presented by the Ori group Viola hello
Miss perea
good afternoon mayor Pro tem win
counselors my name is Viola perea City
auditor and today we have two members of
the oir group with us to present their
fourth semi-annual report I'd like to
introduce excuse me report here
there we go I'd like to introduce now
Teresa magula and Stephen Connolly
good afternoon welcome
we're very glad that you're here in
person that you made the trick
isn't are you from here you're not are
you right no California yes that's what
I thought
so good afternoon uh are we gonna be do
you want to be down to where are we
gonna
okay you're making you're making me
nervous there so good afternoon mayor
Pro tem and members of the council my
name is Stephen Connolly on behalf of
oir group and I'm here with my bashful
colleague Teresa actually uh the last
time we were in town was in February and
Teresa was in charge by herself I
actually contracted covet just a few
days before we were scheduled to be out
here so she said that she would be able
to handle it which was not wonderful my
self-esteem but she did a great job and
I'm already feeling uh better than I did
in February so whatever happens from
here is all is all gravy and I also just
want to say that the the structure of
today I think is is
working out well because this is the
first time that we've had a presentation
from the police department prior to our
report uh I could absolutely sense the
relevance of a lot of the things that
that Chief story and Lieutenant
Gutierrez were going through in terms of
the the meat and potatoes of our
concerns
uh and certainly a lot of the things
that we will be covering in our
presentation are our reinforcements
there we certainly Teresa and I won't
look at each other like what is this guy
talking about this is not our experience
at all we have actually had a very
positive sense of the Department's
responsiveness and receptivity under
Chief Dominguez and and uh with with
interim Chief story as well and and we
certainly hope it continues but all the
things that have been accomplished in
the in the last couple years are
certainly very encouraging to us in in a
number of ways because we think the
department is making important progress
and if we have played a role in that
that obviously that that's very
satisfying in its own way as well so
we're happy to be here and
next slide please good thing Teresa's
here uh so just to refresh people's
recollection about us and who we are we
are a california-based outfit
um there is a team of primarily three of
us that are focused on Las Cruces issues
it's Theresa myself and Michael chinaco
who's sort of the founder of oir group
and he certainly sends his regards he's
traveling with another project this week
uh we have been doing this kind of work
uh in in some different contexts for for
some of us for up to 20 years now and we
are not police people ourselves we are
not former police officers uh we come at
this from a variety of different
perspectives but we have developed some
expertise in what we call police
practices because the only thing that we
do is focus on different issues of of
law enforcement policy and practice and
independent auditing of different
aspects of policing so we have different
relationships with the different cities
and counties and places that we work and
the model in Las Cruces is is a unique
one for us in some ways but that the
opportunity to look at and and provide
public transparency with regard to every
citizen complaint that that falls within
our scope of work is is a different
thing that we don't have in other places
and I think it is an important element
of of transparency and assign if the
city's commitment to to oversight that
is Meaningful and hopefully useful to
the public as well so we have had an
affiliation with Las Cruces since May of
2021 and so this is our fourth time uh
being here with you uh to to report in
person whoops
yeah too excited
there we go
um so in terms of the actual audit so
the way our contract is set up we come
twice a year to talk about a particular
published report we we publish reports
for the public twice a year
and we come to speak about that and
those that the the substance of those
reports uh relate to cases as as the
slide says that fall within a particular
time window so it's it's cases that were
completed by the Las Cruces Police
Department investigations that were
completed during this time period and by
the time we get them the cases are done
the the conclusions have been reached
and and
our role is is to assess those completed
pieces of work and and in an effort to
provide transparency and and maybe some
recommendations about best practices for
going forward we're there to look at
what's been done
to provide information to the public
about the allegations about the
Department's response to the allegations
about the outcomes of the cases so
people can see what the decisions were
and we share our views of whether those
decisions were
appropriate based on our understanding
of the available evidence and and the
policies that were applicable so
our our transparency is is a big part of
what we're trying to accomplish but as
as was I think reflected very very
gratifyingly in the in the police
department presentation that preceded us
this afternoon a lot of what we're
trying to do is offer recommendations to
say hey are there are ways we're seeing
things in this these actual complaints
that people have these actual incidents
the department is involved in and we
have some some ideas or insights based
on these actual events about
potential changes that could be made to
improve your your systems in one way or
another and so uh Teresa will be talking
about some of the substance of that but
the recommendations that accompany our
reports I think are a key part of our
role here and then one of our functions
is to report on demographics
when we get started there was a concern
about saying hey can we take some of the
information that is gleanable from from
these events and see if there are any
meaningful conclusions to be drawn with
regard to some of the the issues that I
think are very important around the
country
uh and certainly in Las Cruces as well
as far as as potential bias and policing
disproportionalities in who's who's
frustrated with the police and why and
so there are some demographics that we
provide with each one of our reports as
well
and I'm going to turn it over to Teresa
to talk about some of the the specifics
of this most recent report and then
we're going to take a step back and talk
about the the kind of the overall
two-year
um summary of of our experience here and
as I say a lot of it will be
reinforcement of things that you've
already heard this afternoon so Teresa
take it away
thanks Steve Theresa magula for the
record mayor Pro tem and and counselor
is really
just honored to be here again today
I love seeing you all again so thank you
for having us
as Steve mentioned part of the work is
the explicit cases that we received in
this period so I'll go over some of the
details of those
um before we take that step back and
look at the two-year perspective which I
think is probably the most interesting
piece of what we will speak about today
but certainly every complaint is
important in its own unique way and so
in this particular audit we looked at 10
cases that were completed in the period
there were eight formal citizen
complaints so these would be complaints
that are coming in from the members of
the public who have had an experience
with the Las Cruces Police Department
that was less than satisfactory and that
might range from something like a code
of conduct allegation the officer was
discourteous for example I didn't feel
that the officer was listening to me
when I was explaining my situation and
so forth
two of these cases involved use of
force-related allegations and so as
we've mentioned in the past and as Chief
story mentioned we do not regularly
review the Department's uses of force
except when they are the subject of a
complaint investigation so in this
particular sample we had two cases that
involved use use of force-related
allegations
and then we had in this period and this
is the first time we've experienced this
in your City one case that involved an
allegation of racial bias
this case revolved around a traffic stop
in which the complainant believed that
he was targeted specifically because of
his race
the investigation found that there were
no
um there was no evidence to support that
particular allegation that there was no
racial bias or motivation of a
race-based nature I'm from the officer's
perspective
and when we reviewed this you know we
really take these
um as an important piece of an important
component of the complaint system
because these are particularly important
for us to be looking at
what we noted with this is that the
department did a really commendable job
in investigating the investigation the
the allegations they looked at kind of
the whole scope of the traffic stop to
see
what the circumstances were what could
have explained the traffic stop if not
race bias
and provided what we thought was a very
comprehensive letter to the complainant
which included and this is unique an
apology for the way that the complainant
was made to feel as a result of that
traffic stop
now I say That's Unique because it's
something that we are recommending in
other jurisdictions an apology can go a
long way even if you are looking at the
at the Department's policies and the
actions of a particular officer and
finding them to be within policy and
within reason
that person is left to feel a certain
way
and we felt that the apology was
appropriate in this case we also felt
that there is opportunity in these cases
to perhaps go a step further you heard
Chief's story mention and and Lieutenant
Gutierrez mentioned the alternate
complaint resolution process and we felt
that perhaps this was a case that would
have been appropriate for that have that
individual should he feel comfortable
come in and speak about the experience
come in maybe view body worn camera
footage and have that kind of mediation
and engagement with the Department that
could help to satisfy some of the
concerns I'm not saying that the
complainant should have felt any other
way than he felt but some of these steps
can can go a long way to repairing that
damaged relationship
we also then saw two internal
investigation cases so these are cases
that the department itself identified as
being problematic issues that were
raised internally both of those were
code of conduct allegations okay so
those were things
for example one particular incident in
which uh Cadet was engaged in some
unfortunate Behavior related to some
off-duty behavior and that was brought
to the attention of the department the
department handled it
so out of these
10 cases we saw 20 allegations right so
every case might have a number of
different issues that are being
identified
and of those the majority of them as you
see there 12 were exonerated that means
that the department found that the
action as alleged did occur but was
within Department policy procedure and
practices
six of them were sustained which means
that the behavior did occur and was
found to be outside of Department policy
practices or procedures
and two of them were unfounded which
means that the allegations as they were
told
were bound to be not true or had not
happened in the way that they were
articulated
and as we said at the outset
we found that those were appropriate
findings based on the evidence that we
reviewed as well
as Steve mentioned we like to report out
to you on demographics
really what we're looking for are there
any Trends in these in these different
statistics that might indicate to us
that you know it's a particular area
that's being targeted or that have
complaints about the way that they are
being treated by police are there
particular races that we're seeing or
having a disproportionate amount of
complaints filed
are there perhaps any indicators that
the officer's race is in an indication
of how that officer May treat a
particular complainant of a certain race
and overall as we're looking at
demographics over the course of two
years collectively we haven't identified
any trends that would have us be
concerned in a statistically significant
way that things are going sideways in a
way that we're concerned about that race
bias as I said was the only allegation
of its kind in two years I mean we're
not seeing any trends that would
indicate that that's something that
should be on our radar although
certainly we continue to look for those
we had 15 LCPD employees in this time
frame
you can see there they range one of them
as I mentioned was the cadet and we had
two non-sworn employees in this period
as well
the officer race again you can see
hispanic white and Asian across the
board and as I mentioned the data does
not suggest any pattern of practice or
bias with relation to the race of the
officer and the citizen
as I mentioned as well those six
sustained allegations
the outcome of those was some form of
verbal reprimand and that was
accompanied by a directed training so we
heard today very appropriate to hear
that presentation by Chief story around
all the types of training that are
occurring
um directed training is one of those
categories so aside from all of the
training that the officer is receiving
on a regular basis that's required by
the state and Beyond
this partic a particular officer may be
directed to a specific type of training
so you have issues and deficiencies in
report writing we're going to train you
specifically officer on report writing
skills yeah so they match those two up
one of the things we've been most
gratified about is that in some of these
cases by the time we see them they're
closed they're complete the findings
have been issued
whatever appropriate action has been
taken and sometimes we are looking at
that and saying yeah that was
appropriate and you could have done a
little bit further another step
to have some retroactive debrief of an
incident perhaps the officer wasn't
directed to training because it was
found to be within policy but maybe we
flag that
and we provide that officer a little
one-on-one counseling or training and to
its Credit in each of the cases that we
recommended that the department has
assured us that they have done that type
of retroactive debrief or training for
our suggestions so we're encouraged by
that level of commitment even if the
finding is not sustained
and then finally we had two employees
that resigned
of those named employees it was for
unrelated matters but the employees are
no longer with the Department
and finally just demographics on the
complaint side you can see there they're
from throughout your city some of them
are from out of the area two of them are
Anonymous are to know where they're from
and again similarly the civilian race of
the individual who's calling
or complaining again with the anonymous
complainants we do not have a way of
tracking that
back to C
thank you Teresa so uh the the second
part of our presentation really is to to
touch on or reinforce some of the ideas
that have already been shared about our
interactions with the department and and
our efforts to improve practices on a
going forward basis uh as a result of
some of the completed materials that
we've been able to have access to and
our uh impressions are very positive in
in this regard I was actually talking to
Mr janako at the end of last week before
we came out here and he said this is
certainly one of the clients that we
have that we have seen the most concrete
examples of a police department saying
thank you for the idea we'll we're going
to accept and then they actually follow
through and do something about it which
is great rather than just nodding and
smiling and then it's kind of business
as usual I think that this department
really has engaged at the nuts and bolts
level to try to say we'll give that a
try we like that idea and and hopefully
they have felt like it's helped the
process but it's been it's been great
for us to see and so the our idea I mean
there's been some talk about Kalia and
the whole accreditation process I know
that's a very big step for for this
agency and it was clear that that your
Council had a lot of interest in it
which is great our our goal has been
from the beginning to say hey based on
our familiarity with these things and
the different agencies we've worked with
and the ways that we've seen it that
might be different or maybe an
enhancement of your internal review
processes we've made recommendations
with the idea that this department
certainly has the potential to be as as
effective as any that we work with and
that's that's always the backdrop to our
our
interactions and then this idea of the
whole mediation and alternative
complaint resolution that's that's a
concept that has actually ended up being
relevant in a lot of the cases because a
lot of the issues that end up being
complained about
are not the ones that are really
headline grabbing and and egregious in
terms of their their uh you know
terrible officer Behavior or the
significance of the the use of force or
the the consequences that occur but
certainly to the people who were
involved in the interactions and who are
unhappy with the Department on some
level
the things that they are complaining
about the bad experience they had with
the police it matters a lot and one of
the things that we notice in a lot of
these cases is a lot of times we can
absolutely understand where the
department was coming from and the
officers were just doing their job no
policy violation but we also really
understand the complainant's point of
view and why they were put off by what
happened and why they didn't understand
or appreciate the way
that the department responded a lot of
times it comes down to communication and
understanding and the whole idea of
mediating these things and having a
third party just get the the the two
sides to talk about it and to understand
each other's perspective we think is is
sort of beneficial as a concept and just
in terms of the actual substance of many
of the complaints that we see we think
it might be a relevant process for for
this community
so in terms of of best practices again
um we we are pleased to say that when it
comes to some of the key issues that
we've identified in the investigative
process the department has been
extremely responsive we're very
committed to we review when when we get
all the materials we will look at the
complaint and and break down the
complaint itself so that we are trying
to understand and it's certainly if
there's been an interview with the
clinic we want to know exactly what it
is that the complainant was upset about
and we want to make sure that the
department addresses each one of those
issues in in its investigation and
response and and not have one slip
through the cracks or just focus on the
major one or what have you and the
department has definitely improved in
that regard we're very interested in the
value of interviews whether it's with
uh actual LCPD Personnel who are
involved as Witnesses or or subjects of
an investigation
um or with with Witnesses and and
complainants themselves so that
interview process I think the body-worn
camera has done a lot in terms of
providing conclusive evidence and
eliminating the need for some of the
interviewing that happened in the past
but but there are places where we have
flagged it and said hey some follow-up
might have been beneficial here or the
body camera didn't really capture what
this person was concerned about so
that's something that we have talked
about the department about and again
they they have worked to be responsive
and obviously the the fundamental
um underpinning of all of it is the
whole idea that the investigations be
fair that they be unbiased that they are
objective and so if we see any little
glimmers of you know frustration with
the complainant or or conclusions that
get arrived at just because we're
unhappy with the complainant or the
complaint has also done something wrong
we certainly want to try to emphasize
the importance of balance and
objectivity and again the department
we've been pleased to
have the sense that the department is
responsive to that when it's appropriate
and I'm going to turn it back over to
you
we like to keep you all guessing as to
who's going to do the next slide
so Lieutenant Gutierrez provided this
amazing list of policies and certainly
with Kalia accreditation coming as as
Lieutenant guthiodes mentioned there
will be a revision and a review of all
of the Department's policies
um and certainly we find that the
complaint process is one way to have
that review mechanism triggered right so
if in the course of a complaint it's
flagged that a policy should be looked
at
um you know we've seen that both through
our recommendations and the Department's
receptivity to those that it is
triggering that policy review process
one of the You Know Chief examples is
the policy around working with
individuals who are deaf or hard of
hearing and that may have gone unnoted
for years and years except that there
was a complaint filed where the
individual was hard of hearing and had a
had an unsatisfactory experience and
that triggered the department to look at
that policy so certainly we see that
these are really important features in
triggering that feedback loop
the department presented a variety of
different policy updates we have
recommended changes to their use of
force policies I've spoken to you in the
past some changes around use of the wrap
device some changes to the cew or taser
policies
and then we've looked at some of these
post Force processes so what happens
after the use of force occurs and how
what are the best practices around those
so Chief story provided that outline of
what happens afterward and we find that
that's very responsive it also aligns
with best practices that we've seen one
thing that I want to know is Chief's
story mentioned that it's a supervisor
that responds to the scene we find it of
particular importance as the as does the
department when it's possible to have an
uninvolved supervisor responding right
now that's not always a possibility
given the resource constraints but when
it is we certainly want the department
to be providing that uninvolved unbiased
perspective if you yourself have
directed Force it's awfully difficult to
review that from an objective
perspective
the other policy areas again many of
them were already listed
questions around the domestic dispute or
civil standby policies as I mentioned
part of hearing use of social media by
officers and then of course we saw that
amazing list of training that is being
developed and given as a response to
some of these recommendations and when a
depart when the department updates
policy it's of course a Paramount
importance that the officers receive
that right that's one thing to do it you
know in your research and development
Branch it has to get out to your
personnel and the department as you've
seen is doing a really commendable job
getting that out
we have also looked at
all of the different positive things
that have come out of this so certainly
we have a critical eye and we have noted
that there are some really positive
Trends again as the department presented
earlier there is just this continued
Improvement in the quality of
Investigations and we just learned that
there is a new temporary stuff
assignment to Internal Affairs to
increase that unit by one it will
provide more timeliness in the
investigations
and so that the reviews can happen in a
faster way we receive them faster they
can be reviewed and and returned back
and again that ongoing commitment to
training IA Personnel it's a distinctly
different type of work than any other
type of investigation and so that's
specific training is important for those
who are assigned to IA
the chief talked about and answered some
questions around the deficiencies noted
memo
we think it's a fantastic process we
recommend that the department use that
for more than just uses of force
so certainly if there is a deficiency
noted in any type of performance
particularly around complaints we would
like to see that used
even if the department is doing training
is doing debriefs if it's not documented
somewhere I just have to take your word
for it and we're really big on evidence
and documenting so that deficiency noted
memo is a huge bonus to have that
documented and be able to look at it not
only from a pers from a department-wide
level but from a risk management and
liability level right you can look back
and see what was this officer trained on
debriefed on from their personnel file
and then of course again responsive
department-wide training whole laundry
list provided by Chief story which we're
really pleased to see
back to steam
okay this is the last switch I promise
so just a couple more slides I think a
lot of the news is is very favorable uh
as as I hope that you have gleaned from
from our presentation on top of the
departments at the same time obviously
with any entity any organization doing
the kind of complicated work that the
department is doing uh there's there's
certainly room for continuous
Improvement in that full idea of how how
can we make our processes be even more
effective and in terms of some things
that we have flagged in the past and
that we're going to continue to to keep
an eye on one of them has to do with the
timeliness with which investigations are
completed that's a significant issue for
us in terms of our sense that that if if
you're a complainant
the notion that the department is taking
it seriously and is addressing issues in
a timely legitimate fashion is going to
turn in part on how quickly the
department gets back to you and and
um is responsive in terms of of what
their own process has been similarly if
an officer's conduct needs to be
reviewed needs to be corrected needs to
be addressed taking care of that in you
know two or three months instead of nine
or ten months I think has value for a
lot of obvious reasons as well so to be
clear we haven't come across situations
where the department has has missed the
statute like they've lost out on the
opportunity to complete a case or to
discipline somebody because they took
too long but at the same time we've seen
a number of instances where we look at
the the incident the complexity of it
like why did it take you know four or
five months for this to get started in
the first place and why you know why is
there a way that we could improve some
of the The Arc of these things so it's a
little bit more efficient in the
department I think I we spoke with Chief
story about that uh within the last
couple of weeks and and he sort of um
recommitted to sort of recognizing that
as a concept and something that that he
is obviously interested in addressing as
well and then the whole idea of the
disciplinary Matrix one of the things
that we've noted in the past is there
have been instances where we were
surprised that the relatively lenient
outcomes for for cases that the conduct
seems fairly significant to us but uh
that the consequence was relatively
minor in our views so the department has
committed to developing a matrix where
they're going to have a baseline of of
outcomes for certain kinds of policy
violations it's good for the officers to
know what the standards are and hey this
is the this is what happens this is how
seriously we take this policy and it's
going to help promote some consistency
from face to case which is it's been an
ongoing project In fairness to the
department it takes a lot of effort to
build one of these and to coordinate
with the association and the lawyers and
to make sure that you're doing something
that makes sense but we will continue to
to keep an eye on that as it
evolves and last but not least we've
already alluded to the whole idea of
alternative complaint resolution as an
Avenue that seems to make sense to us
for a lot of the individual disputes
that that have come across our desks in
the time that we've been here and it's
something that we hope the city will
will continue to consider
and as far as this this is the last
slide I promise uh we are continuing to
follow
um in in terms of the thoroughness of
the Ia process and we've touched on this
already uh there have been big strides
made in terms of of
um adding to the evidence collection
process and also to some of the
explanations there are things that that
made sense to us when we called and
asked and said you know
why did this come out the way it did I
don't get it and then there was some
missing pieces that were known to the
department obviously and influenced the
decision making but weren't necessarily
clear from the memo didn't provide a
very effective record of the
Department's own thoughtfulness and and
and the the validity or the rationale
behind the decisions that got made so
they're print loading a lot more of that
stuff and relying Less on you know
common knowledge that isn't common to us
and that didn't necessarily explain or
Justify some of the outcomes and then
the whole whole idea of IA Staffing is
something that we've already talked
about continuous training on on the
effectiveness of Investigations and the
intake process and all those key
components so that the community has a
belief in The credibility of the of the
process those are are all things that
are ongoing and that I think are again
continue to be worthy of attention and
we're very enthusiastic about the Force
review Cadre that's how we first had the
opportunity to meet uh interim Chief
story I think was last year when when he
was kind of put in charge of developing
that I think it's something that he
cares a lot about and I think it will
pay some real dividends that emphasis
will pay dividends because it's such an
important part of the Department's
functions so that is all that we have
but obviously we welcome any questions
from you and thank you for your
attention
much concert
Florida thank you madam chair and thank
you for your presentation
how do you
uh how is it that you go through these
cases these situations uh
do you have a do you have a menu to pick
from uh do you meet with uh with uh say
Chief story
how is it that you select the cases that
you review or do you select them or are
they hand it to you yeah so
um thank you mayor Pro tem and counselor
for the for the question
we have a particular scope of work for
this engagement and so we receive every
closed complaint that rises to the level
of a category One external complaint
those are complaints that are received
from members of the public to the
department that rise to a level where
misconduct might have occurred
and for purposes of transparency and
that's why I'm asking these questions
um how do you know that there aren't any
others with all due respect to the
department but I just want to get that
out because we have members of the
public present we have the Press
covering this and it's very important
for all of us to know how it is that
these uh you know to make sure that you
have
but that there is transparency yeah
thank you mayor Pro tem counselor so we
are comparing to the department
statistics related to the internal
affairs annual report that Lieutenant
Gutierrez mentioned aside from the
demographics and the statistics that the
department is providing we're not going
in and looking through files or
listening to voicemails and but we have
the Assurance of having worked in this
type of Engagement both here and in
other jurisdictions that those are being
sent to us in the appropriate way
okay
um
you know you answered that question very
well but there's still questions in my
mind about
the selection of the files that you
receive that you receive the cases you
receive
um
so um there's also you touched on racial
profiling and as you know the city of
Las Cruces or this area is predominantly
Hispanic
so do you have race on Race sensitivity
training I mean is that something that
you recommend because I think that there
are times that
in my studies you know undergraduate San
Francisco and all that sort of stuff in
the 60s and 70s
um
you know there's there's uh
just because you're Hispanic doesn't
mean that you're not going to be racist
against another Hispanic it's that
self-hate that um that is in imbued
um and so I was wondering if there's
that kind of sensitivity training that
you have recommended because our police
force is uh predominantly Hispanic and
our population here is predominantly
Hispanic Latino Mexican Mexican-American
Mexicano Spanish you name it but you
know everything but Anglo
so is there that kind of recommendation
that were there any cases that suggested
that and that would give rise to that
kind of a recommendation
mayor pro-time counselor so certainly
one of the things that we continue to
um
look at are those kinds of demographics
to see if any of those rise to the
surface where we're seeing you know
perhaps as we're watching the body worn
camera video that there's something
that's not quite right with that
interaction we have not seen that type
of of you know about race on Race as
you're mentioning
however it's my understanding that
through the Department's implicit bias
training as well as a variety of their
other types of training in that in that
same vein that they are looking at those
types of biases that an officer may have
just inherent to him or herself and how
those might have an impact on the way
they are treating the people with whom
they contact so certainly I think the
department is aware of those we have not
flagged that as a particular concern or
recommendation based on what we've seen
in the cases so far with the exception
being that race racially motivated
traffic stop that we spoke of
and so certainly we're keeping an eye on
those things we watch the totality of
body worn camera footage that's provided
so that we can look for those types of
nuances and and make certain that if
something like that arises that it is
appropriately framed and addressed great
thank you and
[Music]
um
so
um
Steve you mentioned
you mentioned effective processes how do
you know that the processes are
effective and and this also goes to the
question of the services that you have
contracted for they're not as extensive
as you have contracted with other cities
I think Anaheim is one of them I think
it's throughout I don't know definitely
throughout California but
so how do you measure measure how how do
you measure the effective processes the
outcomes
mayor Pro tem and councilor thank you
for the question a lot of it for us
comes down to access and and one of the
things that we do have in Las Cruces
within the parameters of the scope of
work that we have is complete access to
the relevant materials upon which the
department uh makes its decisions when
it comes to these complaint
investigations so we are able to review
all of the relevant body worn camera
recordings all of the relevant police
reports all of the interviews that the
internal affairs investigator may have
done or if they're not there we can ask
why they're not there and we have the
opportunity to interact with members of
the of the administration as well to ask
follow-up questions if there's an aspect
of the case that that we're not that
we're not seeing and think that we
should be seeing so we have a sense of
how a thorough rigorous full-scale
complaint investigation should look and
all of the different steps that should
go into that beginning with the intake
interview and the the framing of
allegations and then the investigative
steps that are taken and then the
deliberation and outcome we are able to
track all of that through the
Department's Case Files that we have
access to
that you have access to that's a
qualifier yes well so and to your point
maybe you're absolutely right that on
some level you know there's if everybody
were in on a conspiracy to keep things
from us but you know the department is
accountable to other City departments
that are in contact with us and a lot of
our uh in materials are shared with the
city attorney's office and other
entities and so if there was something
out there that a complainant for example
like hey I don't understand why my very
serious allegation isn't reflected in
any of this and we became aware of that
I think it would be very problematic for
the department and for the city and and
it's a scenario that that people would
want to avoid so yes I think there it's
it's conceivable that people are keep
that things are being kept from us but I
think there are so many checks and
balances within the city and so much
risk associated with that kind of a an
intent that I am confident that that's
not a problem here okay thank you and
then in review of some of the
the investigations at your oir group
review
um they seem to
be
they seem to be
um
the ones I've read I've reviewed all of
them
um are pretty mellow in comparison to
some of the stuff we hear and then as
far as effective
um effective processes does that mean
you're going to talk yourself out of a
job
you're going to be so effective and
we're going to live in you know
Disneyland here or something or some
kind of a la la land
mayor Pro teming and counselor thank you
for the question
we the idea that someday we will have
done such a great job of of making
recommendations but we really do
genuinely apart from whether it's us or
somebody else we think they're
absolutely is valued to have an
independent check on some of these
things for two reasons one is for the
accountability and objectivity and the
transparency of it but two just because
a fresh set of eyes is always going to
potentially
provide added value and insight and and
it doesn't have to be an intentional
withholding or intentional bias on the
part of an agency that they miss things
or just don't see it the way the public
is seeing it so having those outside
participants I think is is always going
to have value so do you have
um
uh how should I phrase it and and this
is not in any way to criticize you or to
criticize our department but the eyes of
the public are upon us and
um and there are three people in the
room in particular maybe four
um who I um
I'm not sure that they would be asking
these questions but I think they might
be or would like to have answers
um
the the the cases that you receive to
review
given the size of the city given the
size of the police force given the size
of the population
is it compare comparable relative to
other jurisdictions other municipalities
um
I don't know if you have other cities
that have the same characteristics we
have here but are they
are they representative and
like if there if there could be a
comparable municipality
I don't know if you do any of that so I
would I would say two things mayor Pro
tem and counselor you you actually
um just reminded me of something you had
said but earlier that I wanted to
respond to as well which is if there is
a concern I think you said you made some
allusion to things that you are hearing
whether it's at meetings or in
interactions with individual
constituents if people have concerns
about the department or about individual
incidents that you're hearing about that
sound like real wow this is concerning
and I wonder what's obviously unless
that person is is flagging it and saying
I want to make a formal complaint then
then that's not going to be the formal
investigative process isn't necessarily
going to begin so I think one thing I
would say to any members of the public
that are listening is please do take
advantage of the complaint process that
the police department has because they
are obligated to do a thorough objective
investigation and to respond
appropriately if there's officer
misconduct and we are here to make sure
that that process is happening so if
there's things that are out there that
aren't being reflected in our reports or
in the Run of cases that you're coming
across that's interesting to me and and
concerning potentially so but but again
I I would say please use the system and
and we'll see what happens from there
and then in terms of how Las Cruces
compares to other jurisdictions I think
obviously it's a one-to-one comparison
is is different because there are so
many variables that go into it but I
would say that there is the the the the
cases that we have seen are fairly
standard fairly representative in both
volume and severity and and the outcomes
so I wouldn't say that the city is an
outlier in any in any direction
certainly not in a concerning Direction
great and then um you know we've had
some uh cases that are known to the
public but I won't use the name of the
cases but or of any of the those cases
that went public and have gone to trial
and
um
have you
um
and hopefully we won't see those
situations again
but um there hasn't been anything truly
outlandish in terms of the the cases
that you reviewed certainly not the ones
I reviewed here
so mayor Pro tem and Council I would I
would agree with you on that yes yes
well I
I really
hope that your presence and and the work
you do with our department uh police
department
for whom I have a lot to be thankful for
um for a lot of reasons but um
I just hope that
your continued
[Music]
your continued process your continued
processes definitely
reveal or help our city
help the the residents in our department
thank you thank you thank you madam
chair thank you cancer Flores cancer
bincomo
thank you both so much welcome back to
Las Cruces and for your work with us I
do just have a few questions on the
report
um I was sort of just very curious right
now regarding pretextual stops and data
collection on that it's my understanding
New Mexico does not have a requirement
on vehicle stop and data collection by
departments do you know that do you know
that chief
anybody I don't you don't think so or
you don't know
right there's no State requirement okay
that's what I thought I had found as
well
um so I'm curious about our intern so
maybe there's a question a little bit
for you as well Chief but
um to me as I read these it's good to
know that there's you haven't found a
ton of patterns really in any particular
place I think maybe the one place is the
delays from any complaint to an uh an
interview right like that's probably the
biggest pattern that I have seen so far
um and so that's good but I given this
one particular case it just made me
start thinking about Perpetual stops and
um
and how hard is it to do data collection
on those kinds of things
that's my question I don't know why it
made it seem like I had more that's my
question
thank you mayor Pro tem and counselor so
you know we are based in California
where there is a requirement to be
reporting on those types of demographics
related to traffic stops
um and the the data is is slowly coming
in agencies are just now especially the
smaller agencies coming into the need to
comply with that and I will be straight
with you that it is difficult to know
um so certainly some jurisdictions are
finding that there are
disproportionalities in the way that
traffic stops are being conducted
there are some agencies that are taking
a very proactive stance on that so LAPD
for example put out a department-wide
policy that requires officers to
articulate on their body worn camera
exactly the rationale for the Stop prior
to doing the Stop and so that there is a
clear record that there is you know
sufficient cause to conduct that stop
um so agencies are are kind of
responding in their own ways but it is
certainly a difficult
type of complaint an allegation to
investigate because it kind of you have
to go into the mind and the intention of
somebody and if that individual is not
forthcoming about that intentionality
then it's difficult to to
find those out of policy and so what
we're seeing almost Nationwide is that
there is a very low to no sustained rate
on allegations of racial bias that's
Chief given that there is no State
requirement does a department
have data collection on
vehicle stops
mayor Pro tem councilman Cuomo we have
shifted in that direction after oir the
the uniform traffic citation has blocked
by that of course the person has to
self-report or you have to make an
assumption about their race ethnic or
ethnicity and sometimes it's your
obvious assumption is probably correct
and sometimes it's not in Las Cruces we
found that
we are fortunate in the sense that we
are a very mixed community so I mean
there's a lot of even within the
department you know my kid my wife's
Hispanic my children are they identify
as Hispanic so it makes it difficult for
accurate reporting but we are doing what
we can to move in that direction and
part of it is compliance with that
person we physically ask them what their
ethnicity is as we fill out the traffic
stop or the recitation and I guess the
other side of that too is even if we
were like well we're mandating that we
do you know pretextual stop data on the
other side of that there's data
collection and then data analysis right
so if if you're collecting data and it's
just sitting there and no one's looking
at it so I'm curious so I briefly saw
the California rule in state agencies
have to report their data to the AG's
office and so I'm curious we don't have
that here obviously but so then where
does the data analysis
sort of come in to figure out if there
are patterns of
racial disparities in pretextual stops
mayor pro team councilman I think one
important distinction to make between
California New Mexico is in New Mexico
retexual stops are not legal and so with
many other states have to collect this
data because they are legal and so they
want to make sure there's not a pattern
I think even on the federal side there's
a push
even though they're legal and in the
federal system under the fourth
amendment to encourage officers not to
conduct the technical stops but in New
Mexico it's kind of a moot point because
if the traffic stop is retextual it is
true that it's a free taxable stop it's
illegal under the uh Article 2 secretary
and the New Mexico Constitution so it
makes it a little bit easier where we
don't have to necessarily track data on
potential stops because if it is truly a
protection will stop then there's Niche
oh interesting thanks for the additional
context Chief okay I'm gonna have some
more questions for you on this some
other time but I just had quickly done
that search and and had found that
I did have a question for you all and
again maybe chief for you this one as
well I've found one recommendation you
made really interesting on
reviewing body worn camera footage with
the complainant and I actually wondered
if on one of the cases that would have
been appropriate I think you mentioned
on one of them but I wondered if on the
case of
um
there was a domestic there was and then
the officer fell with the with the young
woman and I sort of wondered if that
would have been a case that could fit
here and if Chief I'm wondering how
you're thinking about that
recommendation and if you think it's
doable
we uh we are taking that recommendation
as something that we totally agree with
I think that's in many times that will
be an appropriate resolution where that
person will probably get more
satisfaction again it's going to be
voluntary they've provided oirs provided
two sample policies
which are way more extensive than I
thought they would be because there's a
lot of factors that go into it you
probably don't think of or I didn't
think they'll write off the bat so I
want to be thoughtful on how we
implement it to make sure we do it
correctly but we are moving towards
implementing it's just establishing our
own policy and luckily we have some
models so we don't start from scratch
but they're they're a lot longer and
more extensive than I thought they would
be I bet totally I'm glad to hear you
say that because then I know that you
respond to some of the recommendations
and this one wasn't clear whether you
were sort of accepting it or not but I
thought it was sort of a great
recommendation to sit down with the
complainant and I appreciated your frame
around sometimes people just want to be
heard right sometimes people just want
to be on like heard that look I felt
this way and and then sitting done with
them and reviewing it I think is an
appropriate response
um and then Chief while you're here so
you don't have to sit back down the
undisciplinary Matrix I'm wondering
where you are on that and I know you
have tons of things on your plate but
I'm just curious on the timeline yeah
mayor protein councilman Como actually
meant to present it to them earlier but
we had a change in where we met so I've
been provided with approximately 6 be
paid 60 page draft disciplinary Matrix
policy policy I have it uh um going up
to New Mexico municipally conference and
so it's I'm gonna take it with me so I
can do some reading at night but I
haven't gone through yet but I do have
it in hand finally and uh it's expensive
so okay that's a good step in the right
group okay thank you so much
um and actually I think that's
um no I guess my last question was
around the one pattern you found and if
you have any further recommendations on
um
on the timeline between complaints made
and interviews
and mayor Pro tem and counselor so one
of the things that we were gratified to
see is that interim Chief's story pretty
quickly identified that there was
there's a need to increase that Staffing
so that those timelines can can be
shortened and certainly one of the
things that is important to do is keep
that line of communication with the
complainant so we understand that
sometimes the Staffing the the level of
of work that is ahead of somebody might
have you be delayed on that but
communicate that to the complainant hey
we got it
were on it and and it might take us a
minute to get to you but we acknowledge
that your complaint is of Paramount
importance both to you and to us and we
want to let you know that it might be
delayed so on both sides the department
is increasing the Staffing so that those
investigations can happen in a more
timely way and then sending out those
letters when an investigation is going
to exceed that window that we think the
complainant might be going do they
forget do they not care am I not being
listened to
yeah okay thank you for that I
appreciate your context and the last
thing I'll say and this is more for
um city manager peely was around a
couple of us had requested that we
expand your scope of your contract and
so I just wanted to reiterate that that
the specific ask was
um for five percent of use of force
cases to go to you and then all uses of
lethal deadly force to come to to your
contract and so I was wondering if you
had an update on that
so we we do have something to present
there were a couple the two things where
as you mentioned uh councilman Como uh
use of force and then community outreach
what we're proposing right now is is the
community outreach portion as we take a
look further on that use of force
um
there's some concerns that we we needed
to iron out we talked about this
in our Public Safety Select Committee
there's some concern about
um
cases that aren't closed
and having to review those that aren't
closed and pending litigation and then
you know it's a three-year
you know if we were going to extend it
out to three years so that it could be
passed the pending limit litigation
issues then the question would be would
it be too far
too far in the future to be effective at
all and so those are some things we're
still working on with with the use of
force I think we felt concerned that it
would
it would
it wouldn't be appropriate right now to
bring that forward but what we do have
is we have a an agreement ready an
amendment ready right now to at least
address the the two
address the community meetings up to
four is what we're proposing two would
be
at the same time you know we have the
the six-month
report and so they'd be here anyway
so what's written in our proposal is
that they'd have a meeting scheduled at
the time they come
each time and then to it up to two
additional so it'd be quarterly meetings
okay that's great I on the community
engagement piece and I mean now we have
a new City attorney welcome
um but I do I think I continue I guess I
continue to have concerns about the
decision making that's happening in
public safety select committee given
that it's only three City councilors and
that we're not able to have that wider
conversation with the rest of the
council when several of us have sort of
said yes we do want to expand their
contract and so I while I understand
that there's like in the weeds things to
figure out I feel like there is a way
and I and so I just Contin I will just
say that I'll raise the concern that
um about the decision making happening
in a closed
um
committee
thank you uh councilman Como one one
thing we did mention and there's other
other ways to
provide feedback and input with
independent of the contract and outside
this particular outside this particular
uh yeah outside this contract but other
ways to maybe check the boxes there
um that doesn't put the city in
potential liability or
well I mean given that the biggest
liability is on use of force and given
that the oir contract has already
yielded incredible recommendations that
the department has already implemented I
can only imagine the kind of
recommendations they can give on
something as heavy as use of force and
how we can continue to improve and so
but if right now we're only internally
doing that
um kind of audit you know I think it's
it's critical that we have external eyes
on on some of these pieces so that's
what I say right not not from a punitive
sense but from a how can we do better
sense and not only protect constituents
officers and public dollars
thank you councilor bengomo I will say
that I met with Linda today and it was
on our list to talk about related to
Public Safety all the clothes safety
select committee meetings the uh
oversight and the finance to do her
legal review and see that we're within
our rights because she's a completely
new attorney and I think it's important
that we have that done and I was asking
for a public safety select committee at
that point to be open
we did talk about
um
the the
extending the contract with more cases
but we are very concerned about
liability I think we all need to be
particularly that cases that don't have
that three-year mark
and I you know I'm new to the city so
I'm just used to what I've known before
but I I just would caution everyone from
discussing our Communications in public
and the potential waiver of
attorney-client privilege
well the public knows I've been talking
about it outwardly at Council meetings
so they know I I wanted to make sure
that the public knows I am following
through with that item but I understand
what you're saying yeah yeah that's
because you referenced your conversation
with me so that's what gives me
concerned
oh
aren't you going to share I did
with that I have a couple of questions I
appreciate your presentation and all the
work that you've done I'm seeing sort of
some patterns from the two years and
it's around sort of the recommendations
that you have made to Chief and and the
department related to sort of those next
steps that you could like for example on
page 16.
um
um speaking to the the state versus
Ochoa case and sort of the some of the
other cases that well if if law
enforcement would have taken it the next
step maybe a supervisor having
communication and understanding and I
think that's really what the public
wants right is that sort of opportunity
to build relationship with our police
officers
um and and and then hearing from
efo about opening it up to hear more
from the public and so I I like the idea
of of
especially around the Kalia
certification and not just having a link
but really open it up to the public to
be more
um you know involved in in the
presentation and the idea of looking at
different policies and what might that
look like and I think in talking with
Chief story
um
he has been really open about I don't
know if you're aware but they started to
do meetings with the public and he's his
willingness along with stop to continue
those I think are going to be really
important the other thing is I wanted
for you
um
or maybe this is for chief you had
recommended
um
sort of that mediation and restorative
justice practices and I was interested
to hear around the restorative practice
component what that might look like in
in relation to at least page 15 year
page 15
and that particular piece where
supervisors would take complaints from
the intake maybe take it for a step
further can you talk to me about what
other jurisdictions are using related to
that piece
yeah thank you mayor Pro Tem
so we work with as you know a variety of
different jurisdictions as interim Chief
story stated earlier he requested and we
sent over some models of these types of
programs that we've worked with okay
um the one that I think is is most
effective that we've seen work is the
city of Davis California
the way that they are engaging in that
restorative justice program is for
complaints that are appropriate for the
program okay so there's a whole as he
mentioned
um the the kind of qualifiers of what
would make it a case appropriate for
that are fairly extensive we certainly
don't want to be
um
diverting cases that could result in
some kind of misconduct to a nice
conversation instead right but in these
cases that are appropriate for that type
of restorative justice
the city is contracted with an outside
mediator who is very experienced in
facilitating these conversations and it
looks like a number of different things
first all parties have to be engaged and
receptive to the process so that means
both the officer and or supervisor and
or Lieutenant sometimes even up to the
chief level being willing to sit down
for the conversation as well as the
complainant being willing to sit down
for that conversation
and they literally have these around the
table
very transparent and authentic
conversations about how one was made to
feel the officer may share his or her
intentions training experience maybe own
past-based trauma that had him or her
react and the way that he or she did
these are really
extraordinary sessions of just human to
human communication and I think that
that's the type of program that we would
like to see happen here for your city in
the cases again that are appropriate for
that level of Engagement with the
Community member
you talked about maybe five cases that
it would could have been appropriate to
do so so would these be certified
mediators that would we would contract
with and maybe you have a list of them
that could possibly do it or how does
that or we have a lit I mean how I I
know a couple that mediate but I don't
know in these sort of I would say
they're very prescribed right very
specific
um
I'm assuming I don't know yeah thank you
mayor of time so certainly there are
people who specialize in this type of
work
um and you know the I am I am almost
certain that here in New Mexico there
are a variety of very qualified
individuals to do that work
um it would be something that you would
decide internally with the Department
um as far as Contracting with an
individual like that you know that would
be something that again we could we
could advise but it would be a role that
you would take on
council with the city manager with the
Department as well of course okay thank
you and then
um I was especially interested in the
social media complaint and
um the reason I am is because I received
countless
um
um complaints about it that I talked to
ifo about and
I don't know and this has been over a
span of time like maybe over a year
maybe the two years I
I'm not I I try to be cognizant of the
times but I
since covet I can't seem to really
um yes I'll keep blaming it on covet but
have we have we um address that through
social media the social media policy
specifically maybe this is more for
Chief story because I keep seeing it
come up and I I feel like it's a piece
of the disciplinary point that maybe
what you made earlier and that I I
really want to own in on
mayor Pro tem both the policy was
updated for social media use and all
training actually verified this the
other day all training was could uh was
conducted and completed by all officers
this year
earlier this year okay in response to
that okay and then the disciplinary
piece
um
are we going to address that is that how
you're going to speak of that particular
Matrix of discipline and what that might
look like and the training and such can
you give me a little more into
specifics on that Chief or the
discipline for discipline and
specifically there's they lays out for
each policy violation and appropriate
discipline and takes into consideration
mitigating and aggravating circumstances
as you can imagine that gets complicated
that's why it's at 60 pages right now
but that would include violations of the
social media youth policy
okay
it says I had you up
um standing here
um
the non-sworn employees and that issue
of of laughing and whatnot they're they
don't they're not they don't have to
wear
um cameras so how do you
how do we handle that and without right
sort of
video on that was it just sort of did it
amount to he said she said or he said he
said whoever brought the complaint up
mayor Pro tem for many of our non-smore
Personnel do have cameras which is
helpful with all of our Animal Control
Officers our codes officers and our
Police Service aides have them so then
it would just be the civilians that fall
outside of that our victim's assistant
breakfast Personnel Etc normally there
is
video evidence one way or the other
and then the re the written the I think
I'm trying to
to stick with the sort of overall
arching theme around patterns that I'm
seeing over time and it continues to be
around the written documentation or a
lack of documentation specifically can
you help me understand how you're moving
through changing that and assuring that
that there is the proper documentation
because I think there's always that
backstory and please I mean it with all
respect I've been an administrator of
many people and that is always a big
deal and how back
um
well we were backlogged hundreds of
cases right and it was always impressing
upon their employees the importance of
documentation and and just so that you
get a a just a really good understanding
and when you do finally get the
backstory it's like okay I understand
that so how are we working through that
and I'm saying this because I think
there's technology and if there needs to
be more support around that around
resources and such I'm I'm happy to hear
that and move through that with you all
around budget cycle time
I appreciate the question but so there
are a couple components documentation I
agree with you if it's not documented it
happen doesn't matter how great the
training was or how many people attended
if it's not documented they essentially
didn't exist for our instant reports
it's always been an issue we want more
we want better reports more
documentation I think it has to be like
a multi-faceted approach to it so
obviously if there's a specific issue
with a specific officer on a specific
incident we address that through a
training referral review but in general
we've changed our entire reporting
structure so we're using a different
technology which was approved by Council
last year for this budget Year and that
I think requires the officers to be more
engaged in the entire reporting process
we've also done a lot of training as we
alluded to again a one one-time report
writing class probably does have a
positive effect but is not going to
drastically change what they do day to
day so we're hopeful that we can just
make it constant and you know I always
say it's like when you have kids if you
tell your kids not to do something
they're probably going to do it again
and probably 10 times after telling them
they're probably going to do it again
but at some point it generally sinks in
and so we're training from different
ways we have our Intel analysts talk
about the importance of documentation
from
classifying assigning crimes to
detectives reporting to FBI Helm it's
important there at The Shift level
they're doing it we're bringing in
outside companies who specialize and
then that police legal advisor that'll
be one of their big areas is to really
emphasize your poor writing especially
when we're documenting a search or a
seizure whether it's a use of force or
just attaining somebody that's where we
see a lack of documentation heard and
ultimately it hurts the officer because
they're the ones who are going to be
questioned and if they've had Reasonable
Suspicion to detain them but they didn't
put it in the report they didn't
articulate It ultimately it's going to
make their life harder as well as the
department in the city
t-shirt thank you I can really
appreciate that I I still supervise
Social Work intern students and I've
noticed sort of the
the Gap in the training that's happening
from the school to write the internship
and so I always talk about you know you
might consider a a you know dap or smart
method some method that helps you
because if you're one that's long-winded
you're going to write all sorts of
things that may not pertain to the
actual incident so I'm assuming that
this training has sort of techniques and
you know methods that officers and
supervisors really could fall
fall back on it does our analysts has a
framework that they use the blue to Gold
has a separate framework that they
present so ultimately they have a few
different with the new technology
there's templates that assist with
prompting officers to make sure they're
not forgetting critical information I
think that's very helpful so when they
have that template they they know that
they can't leave it blank so either it
applies or it doesn't and if it does
apply they need to articulate how it
applies what the information is
thanks and then Chief the Force review
Cadre and the blue team are they
different or the same they are the blue
team is just it's a part of our Internal
Affairs software so the blue team is
what is the report or the use of force
the Cadre is going to look at so that
blue team is what the first line
supervisor the lieutenant reviews like
everybody involved in the process
that's just a report that's documenting
what happened but really what they're
looking at is the incident reports the
videos photographs because that's what's
going to tell the story of what happened
and they're comparing that to The Blue
Team you support so they're not just
looking at the blue team because that
would not be a thorough review so when
the Cadre gets it they would look at
everything including the blue team but
that's just one component of it okay
okay thank you for the clarification and
then
there was a particular case that was
um
reviewed related to a female Juvenile
and and her mother
and I'm wondering if there was an
opportunity and maybe it happened where
light could have been called out
to address that and I know there's some
um I think there have been some concerns
over time about the Child Welfare you
being called out for safety checks and
those and those things and I know some
is questionable here about age and you
know the age of the of the female
is that something that you would
consider or it would have been
appropriate in this instant instance if
I I have to look at the timelines one I
think that probably happened prior to
like being active uh oh yeah I don't
know yeah I don't know if that's
something that currently based on the
framework that light would respond to I
will say in general that officers are
recognizing when there's a use for light
where light would be appropriate at a
at an encouraging rate and so they're
requesting light even if they're not
initially dispatched on a wide variety
of polls so they are looking for those
opportunities based on the parameters
that were given to us by fire and the
light
in that case specifically I don't I
don't know
it happened before you're right as I
looked at the date for sure
um Chief I just want to say publicly how
much I appreciate your willingness to
meet with me and at the openness and
transparency I think the public wants
that accountability and transparency I
love the QR to code getting right you
know to that that
that information I think is going to be
important I'm excited about about where
you go from here especially with the
Kalia certification I think that's going
to be helpful I think it will really
help us sort of reduce and mitigate the
risk and the litigation and and so
appreciate you very much thank you
thank you both those are all my
questions any other questions how about
from I'm sorry yes Teresa thank you
mayor Pro tem if I may
um because there is some concern
counselors around people voicing what
they
are experiencing with the police
department you know certainly filing a
formal complaint with the police
department would be the the preferred
Avenue but I understand that for some
people that is just not a reasonable ask
and so I would like to highlight your
city Ethics Hotline which is a way that
individuals should they choose to file a
complaint can call that City Ethics
Hotline they can be anonymous certainly
we would appreciate that
um you know if it's within the
individuals
capacity to provide a name that would
help for a more robust investigation
certainly but we understand that it
might not be feasible for someone to
contact the department directly yeah and
so I I would really encourage Community
if you're listening if you have issues
that you wish to bring to use that City
Ethics Hotline it has been a source of
complaints that we receive and review so
thank you Teresa for the reminder and
maybe if if I can Viola can you speak to
that specifically the number and what
the process is I know you've said that
um
you've talked about that this in other
other areas but I think it important to
to speak to it now thank you yes
to the auditor for the record
um my apologies I did not bring the
numbers specifically with me however you
can locate both the online web portals
as well as the telephone numbers in
multiple areas on the city website yes
we have it in over 30 areas across the
website if you just scroll down to the
footer of just about every city
Department page you will find both 800
numbers for the public website and
telephone number as well as the employee
excuse me website and telephone number
as well as a public website and
telephone number all of that information
is sent to a third party
um
facility we'll gather the information
whether you do it verbally over the
telephone or enter it on the computer
yourself they then gather that
information create the report and then
that report is sent back to the city's
hotline committee there's four
individuals that that information will
go to individually our hotline then
determines how to disseminate that
information for investigation it does
allow the ability to remain anonymous
which they have every opportunity to do
or they can provide information such as
a name an email address or telephone
number so we can contact them directly
if we have questions however I would
like to add if the individual does
remain anonymous at the end of the
intake process you're able to get a
password to enter the system again so
you can check back into the status of
your complaint that's where we
communicate we'll communicate through
the system and maybe we have additional
requests for information maybe we have
some clarification that we're in needing
or maybe if the case is sent to say an
outside Council for example we would
give you that information to contact
that person directly so that is our
opportunity to communicate with an
anonymous individual it remains
Anonymous it's only through that email
portal that goes from us to that third
party and then back to the city there so
I would encourage folks to use that
opportunity as well and the information
again my apologies I don't have the
number memorized I have it I got it
public hotline
1844-297-5947 employee hotline
1-800-780-9554 thankfully I have my
glasses on so I could see it thank you
and again you can call it in
individually or if you prefer you can
enter it over the computer through one
of those portal links it all goes to a
third party vendor it does not come to
any City employee directly again they
compile the info nation and then they
send us the information that they
collect from the complainant thanks
finally I appreciate that
yes I would like to ask our city manager
um
to assure that we have Publications in
our newspaper but the bulletin probably
or online whatever but
um but definitely have it known
the information go out frequently for
the public to know that there is the
hotline and the number and it would just
be something
um you know just just to publicize it
and I don't know what the frequency
would be but it would be well if it's a
bulletin it's once a week
and then the um and then it would give
the sun use something to print
thank you
thanks counselor Flores okay any public
comment yes please make your way down
state your name and you'll have three
minutes
hi Senora Flores
good afternoon city councilors
um let's see mayor Pro tem and city
manager Keely and chief strong I am
Maria Flores and I have been coming
since it's been over a year and I see
lots of improvement in language in
attitude in uh effort thank you for the
uh
widening of the scope of
of uh everything I did look quickly
through the oir report and I'm just
going to be a little um how would you
say repeat some things you know there
are situations where more review is
beneficial absence of authority review
was noteworthy need to enhance officer
performance incomplete files develop
alternative complaints and resolution
process
I like the part about the restorative
justice just in case you don't know Las
Cruces public schools has been using
restorative justice to keep the numbers
down of expelling students and so this
is nothing new it is something that is
used widely
in many situations especially education
um also the inappropriate use of social
media I was alarmed by that when I read
it
reduced investigation time sometimes it
takes too long to get back improve codes
of conduct and the misuse of body
cameras or it's prevalent everywhere uh
keeping personal opinions
to themselves as they are working a
situation and what I thought was missing
was lack of professionalism by some of
these individuals lack of empathy this
is a critical piece
um lack of self-control
and a lack of understanding poverty
sometimes the way that we talk to people
that don't understand what's going on
that don't have a full capacity that are
hungry that are that are upset that are
that's where we use de-escalation we
find better ways of addressing their
needs without yelling at them without
using profanity these are the things
that troubled me and in the end we still
don't have a place for citizen
review that is the only piece missing
today and however you see fit to include
it
I Ask of that again and again I will not
cease ask
so I appreciate your time I appreciate
the efforts I appreciate the
improvements but we lack that one piece
thank you thank you Senora Flores for
being here and for your comments anybody
else
yes Mr Goodman
hello again I think I'm still Peter
Goodman and uh
I share the concern that was expressed
about the select committee but won't go
into detail now I think the sheer
numbers of some of the complaints
um
point to the problem that people are not
using these systems and what we all just
said let's publish Something In The Sun
News
great idea let's put it online great
idea at the beginning is meeting
somebody who was very interested asked
me how he could find out
what was in the OR report well it was
online but he don't know that he may not
have an email from my general kinds of
contacts with the community on up at the
councilman Cuomo could say the same from
home from some of her work other than as
a counselor there are and also from what
I saw when I was working a bit uh my
part-time job in the Municipal Court a
lot of the people who might have
complaints about the police a lot of
people who deal with the police a lot
don't have an email
um they're not looking online
some of them are homeless they have
limited access to a computer and
probably use that to call home or look
for a job or whatever so I think that
points up
what Miss blores and I and others have
been saying about the need for
a community outreach arm that it really
is community not oir with all due
respect having quarterly meetings
a committee that people can find members
they can speak to and bring something up
to and one other piece of that the the
whole thing about the uh you know but
I'm fully confident that if I had a
complaint and I called to you Anonymous
hotline that it would be anonymous I
trust you
but do you think the kind of people who
are being mistreated or think they are
being mistreated by police
feel that way they've heard there are
things like caller ID
how do they know that caller ID isn't
used on that hotline and that the very
police officer that they feel harassed
them
isn't learning their name and coming by
their house
later on so I think there's a I think we
all tend to have
less appreciation than we should for the
distance between us and some of the
people we might be trying to talk to but
thank you all
thank you Mr Goodman anybody else
CNN Council okay
sorry buddy I've done this again I
forgot to ask oir and city council if it
would consider the hybrid model in the
next possible next time you work on a
contract with them to include citizens
that's all thank you Miss Lourdes
okay
Senora Flores yes yes thank you okay I
think we have been
yes we have completed our um two items
big items thank you very much I need a
motion to adjourn
so moved Graham second by Flores motion
made by concert Graham second by
counselor Flores Christine
this is on the motion to adjourn the
work session counselor abeda is absent
councilor Graham yes councilman Como yes
counselor Quran is absent counselor
Flores yes mayor Pro tem yes and mayor
is absent
thank you have a good afternoon
everybody thank you for being here
Christina are we doing agenda setting
Christine
Christine are we doing agenda setting
yes okay just want to make sure okay
thank you
good afternoon this is the agenda memo
setting for September 5th 2023 one
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non-consent three non-consent for
non-consent for non-consent five
non-consent five non-consent six
non-consent six non-consent thank you
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