The phone lines light up every time I write about a police officer in a controversial case. Many of the callers say Santa Fe needs a special civilian board to review police conduct.
Chris Mechels, a retired corporate troubleshooter who has dedicated himself to improving police departments, was among numerous people who recently told me a civilian review board would be useful.
Their hearts may be in the right place but their idea is, in a word, rubbish.
Santa Fe already has a board of citizens responsible for police conduct. It’s called the City Council, and it has real powers if it cares to use them.
The City Council controls the budget. Police officers, like all city employees, are most responsive to those who can open the public purse or slam it shut on raises and benefits. In contrast, separate civilian boards to review police conduct are toothless and ineffective.
Albuquerque created a Police Oversight Commission that supposedly would hear complaints about police abuses or misconduct. The police union undercut it by instructing its officers not to acknowledge or appear before the commission.
Cities that create a police review board do a fine job of larding the bureaucracy, but they don’t improve police accountability or public trust. City councils, mayors and city administrators set the tone, for good or bad, on how a police force treats the public.
Politicians who pay little attention to police conduct or departmental leadership can tacitly green-light abuses. That’s what happened in Albuquerque. Its police department is under federal supervision because of a pattern of brutality by officers. Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry had lost control of his police department long before the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in to reform it in 2014.
Mechels, 77, said candidates for City Council in Santa Fe haven’t been receptive to hearing about problems with police officers or the department. If that’s true, he needs to recruit better candidates.
Relationships between police officers and their community are a national flashpoint. Santa Fe residents, like people everywhere, want police officers who enforce the law evenly, use good judgment and do all they can to keep the peace.
One reason people in town have been talking about a special police review board was the traffic stop of an 80-year-old woman by Santa Fe police Sgt. Jose Gonzales. He claimed the woman didn’t dim her bright lights as she approached him. The woman said Gonzales had his own bright lights on and that she merely flashed hers to alert him. More important, the woman said, Gonzales was enraged and verbally abusive to her before writing her a ticket. Gonzales muted his dash camera during the traffic stop, so whatever he said can’t be verified.
Gonzales skipped a final court hearing in the case, even though he was under subpoena. Municipal Court Judge Virginia Vigil then dismissed the traffic ticket Gonzales issued to the driver, saying he made the stop outside the city limits and therefore out of her court’s jurisdiction.
Gonzales belatedly answered my question of why he wasn’t in court. “I did receive a subpoena for a ‘ruling’ hearing, however, I did not set my reminder to go off as I normally would,” he said in an email. “I was preoccupied with mandatory training I had at 1400 hours and, by my own mistake, neglected to check if I had any other scheduled events for the day.”
Police administrators would not comment on whether he was disciplined for ignoring the subpoena. But Deputy Chief Mario Salbidrez provided a detailed account of the sergeant’s claim that Judge Vigil was wrong on the question of jurisdiction. Had Sgt. Gonzales bothered to attend the court hearing, he could have made his argument to the judge.
Now, after three court proceedings on the traffic ticket — an arraignment, a trial and a dismissal — Gonzales’ controversial case against the woman appears to have ended. “At this point, we don’t feel it necessary to refile the citation into Magistrate Court,” a police spokesman said.
The Santa Fe Police Department deserves scrutiny on cases large and small. It is the biggest and most expensive part of city government, accounting for 25 percent of the operating budget or more than $20 million a year.
Mechels, on further reflection, said elected city officials, not a special board, should be responsible for oversight of the police department.
That’s the spirit. The more people who expect officeholders to pay close attention to the city’s biggest agency, the more likely it is that relationships between police and the public will improve.
Ringside Seat is a column about New Mexico’s people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at 505-986-3080 or msimonich@sfnewmexican.com.
