APD's ship of fools

- Will we see Keller holding anyone accountable for the charade that APD and crime fighting in Albuquerque has become? No.

- Either the people at APD in charge of the crime stat reporting are incompetent fools or they knew exactly what they were doing and purposely deceived all of us, including Mayor Keller.

- Rest assured APD did have some good news for crime-weary Albuquerque. They now have a low-rider APD police car and an APD golf cart to add to the pink APD patrol car they made in October.

BY DAN KLEIN

Last week was very bad for Mayor Tim Keller, APD Chief Mike Geier and the citizens of Albuquerque.

We broke the record for murders in a year (and we still have two weeks to go). We found out that an APD detective tossed a child into jail for six days, based upon a warrant that was clearly lacking in probable cause and facts. APD rolled out their Metro 15 crime initiative, targeting the worse violent offenders in Albuquerque, only to be laughed at when several of the offenders did not have violent backgrounds and were given to APD by the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance. At the end of the week APD trotted out their six-figure salary brain trust to explain why they have provided incorrect crime stats for two years.

KOB TV, to their credit, was the only mainstream media asking the hard questions of Geier and Keller. It was refreshing to hear Tessa Mentus and Steve Solis not holding back on their opinions of the “spin” that Geier and Keller are tossing out. They said what the entire city has been thinking: Geier and Keller are out of ideas and we can’t trust them when they speak. A damning indictment of Keller’s administration.

I was contacted by a representative of Law Enforcement Training and Consulting Services regarding my columns on the innocent child, Gisell Estrada, and her false arrest for murder by APD homicide. The representative reminded me that his organization had just completed training all APD sergeants, detectives and lieutenants, who investigate and supervise violent crime investigations. A total of 126 APD personnel went through this training at a cost to the taxpayer of $75,000. The training ended months before Gisell was arrested and Law Enforce Training and Consulting Services wanted me to know that what happened to Gisell is NOT what their training entailed. They reviewed the arrest warrant regarding Gisell and they stated that it went against everything they trained these APD officers. They stated that APD homicide participated in the training and they could provide no reason why homicide made such colossal mistakes.

Which prompts a question to Mayor Keller and Chief Geier: Why did you waste taxpayer money? Geier and Keller have still not opened an investigation into Gisell’s false arrest. There is no accountability at APD and city hall for wasting our money and falsely arresting our children. I wonder if Keller is crying about Gisell, as he did for the border children?

The Metro 15 promotion, errr, initiative, sparked open laughter from many when KOB started asking the agencies that APD said they were corroborating with what names those agencies contributed. KOB reported that several agencies didn’t have a clue what they, and APD, were talking about. Mayor Keller are you sure Metro 15 was in the works for nine months? It seems more like a one-week crisis management response to bad PR. Furthering the snickering was when the Albuquerque Journal reported that three of the “most violent” offenders in Albuquerque were given to APD by the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance (OSI). These folks had property crime warrants. You would think that a commander making six-figures at APD would at least review the crime history of the offenders and try to make sure they have a violent warrant to fit Metro 15. Sadly, asking anyone in Geier's command staff to do their due diligence is asking for way too much.

Which brings me to the news conference held by APD command staff that has overseen the crime stat fraud. Geier was AWOL, of course.

The APD command staff spun a tale of “it’s not my fault.” They blamed everything from bad technology, to too many job openings in records, to FBI changes. At the end of the day not one of these six-figure salaried smarties could explain which one of them failed to recognize the crime stat fraud that started two years ago. Not one of them took responsibility for not hiring enough people in records to get the job done. Not one of them said it was their responsibility to correctly inform Geier and Keller and that they had failed. Why hanen’t Keller and Geier asked these questions? Why is this APD command staff still employed?

I always find it fascinating when someone in Japan or Korea fails in their job. They publicly apologize and take responsibility for their failures. It’s refreshing. Will we ever see Geier or his command staff publicly apologize to Gisell Estrada for falsely arresting her, a child? No. Will we ever see Geier or his command staff admit that it was their fault that the crime stats were lies for the last two years? That they lied to both Keller and the public because they are incompetent? No.

There are only two conclusions that I can come to regarding the crime stat fraud that APD perpetuated upon Albuquerque. Either the people at APD in charge of the crime stat reporting are incompetent fools or they knew exactly what they were doing and purposely deceived all of us, including Mayor Keller. Either way Keller should hold them accountable and dismiss terminate them.

Will we see Keller holding anyone accountable for the charade that APD and crime fighting in Albuquerque has become? No.

Rest assured APD did have some good news for crime-weary Albuquerque. They now have a low-rider APD police car and an APD golf cart to add to the pink APD patrol car they made in October. If you want coffee with a cop, they have that too. Just don’t expect any officer to respond to your 911 call for hours.

I wonder what six-figured salaried APD commander/chief came up with these great ideas?

I can’t wait to see the golf cart, pink patrol car and low rider all parked outside the latest homicide scene.

Until there is accountability for the fools running APD into the dirt, get ready to laugh at more ridiculous PR stunts, and get ready to see more crime. This is what a ship of fools looks like.