{"id":23968,"date":"2025-01-15T16:57:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T23:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-data-tool-allows-journalists-and-the-public-to-track-wandering-cops-in-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:46:06","slug":"new-data-tool-allows-journalists-and-the-public-to-track-wandering-cops-in-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-data-tool-allows-journalists-and-the-public-to-track-wandering-cops-in-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"New data tool allows journalists and the public to track \u2018wandering cops\u2019 in New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Police
Police vehicles block traffic along Central in southeast Albuquerque on Thursday, July 14, 2022. Shelby Wyatt\/Source NM<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A new database launching today gives the public, journalists and policymakers greater insight into police officers in New Mexico who lose their jobs with one agency, sometimes for serious misconduct, and then find work at another.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Department of Public Safety in July 2024 launched its own<\/a> disciplinary database lookup tool,<\/a> but it only covers officers who have been sanctioned by the state.<\/p>\n

The National Police Index <\/a>complements that database, and provides more data.<\/p>\n

A coalition of journalistic, legal and human rights organizations led by Chicago-based nonprofit Invisible Institute<\/a> created the database, using officer employment history records from 26 states, including New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The NPI\u2019s data on New Mexico cops go back as far as the 1960s, according to information released by Invisible Institute Director of Technology Maheen Khan.<\/p>\n

The data include 5,185 currently active officers in New Mexico. Of those, 811 have had more than three employers, 150 have had more than five employers and 252 were previously terminated, Khan said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The number of previously terminated officers is only as accurate as local police departments reports turned into DPS, so it\u2019s almost certainly an undercount, according to Khan.<\/p>\n

The first systematic investigation of \u201cwandering officers\u201d was published i<\/a>n 2020. Since then, New Mexico lawmakers and law enforcement officials have twice called<\/a> for DPS to \u201ctrack\u201d problem officers.<\/p>\n

While the NPI does not contain reports of misconduct, it does track officers over their careers and shows the reported reasons for their separation from an agency.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s database followed the creation<\/a> of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Certification Board in 2023, which oversees the agency responsible for investigating police misconduct, called the Law Enforcement Certification Office.<\/p>\n

The LECB replaced an agency<\/a> heavily criticized for allowing officers to jump around<\/a> to different jobs<\/a> with little transparency.<\/a><\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s decertification process relies<\/a> on local agencies fully and adequately investigating and reporting misconduct up to the LECB.<\/p>\n

But journalists<\/a> from around<\/a> the state<\/a> have shown this is often<\/a> not the case,<\/a> and a court ruling three years ago blocked<\/a> public and press access to even more misconduct records.<\/p>\n

If a case reaches the LECB, then its members can control whether an officer can hop to another department, said Bobbie Green, the longest-serving citizen-at-large on the board.<\/p>\n

Green, who is also president of the Do\u00f1a Ana County NAACP and second vice president of the New Mexico NAACP, said as a person of color, she tries to limit her interactions with police.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of my family members \u2013 most Black people that I know \u2013 we are afraid of interactions with the police for obvious reasons. So from that perspective, I\u2019m happy that there is going to be such a database,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, Green said it\u2019s difficult because while the public is at risk, officers also have rights, as well. The LECB must follow the rules and regulations, or risk being taken to court. They can\u2019t act on a case that doesn\u2019t get in front of them, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the case never reaches us, that is, in my opinion, the loophole,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they retire or leave before we get the case, then there\u2019s nothing we can do about officers hopping from one place to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua Calder, the LECB\u2019s first-ever CEO, said in an interview that officers who resign in lieu of termination could be trying to escape accountability; however, state regulation is clear that\u2019s not a way to circumvent the misconduct reporting process. Since Source\u2019s interview with Calder for this story, an email documenting his concerns about the LECB\u2019s independence<\/a> became public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that in reality, that may not be the case, and certain administrators may be leveraging \u2013 \u2018Hey, we won\u2019t file,\u2019 or something \u2013 but they\u2019re still required to provide that information to us if it violates New Mexico administrative code or statute,\u201d Calder said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Williams, a policing policy advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, which helped craft the legislation that led to the LECB\u2019s creation, said in an interview the ACLU advocated for a much more expansive state database when the legislation was up for debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving this database is better than nothing by a long shot,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThis is one of the conversations we look forward to continuing to have with lawmakers about the need for transparency, in terms of law enforcement misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

All New Mexicans want to live in safe communities, and most see police as part of that, Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to be able to trust in the cops who are going to pull them over when they\u2019ve done something wrong, or going to come help them when something has been done to them,\u201d he said. \u201cTransparency is an essential part of that. We think everyone, including law enforcement, acknowledges that that trust has really broken down over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source NM<\/a> is an independent, nonprofit news organization that shines a light on governments, policies and public officials.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Police Index for New Mexico launches today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,138,51],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico","tag-police"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78340,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23968\/revisions\/78340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23968"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}