ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A recent deadly shooting by Albuquerque police has people asking more questions, even after department leaders laid out what they discovered led to it. 

That’s one of the reasons APD Chief Harold Medina no longer wants his officers investigating shootings by those within their own ranks. 

“There are individuals who won’t actually believe our investigation because they’ve heard this misinformation,” said Medina. 

He wants a statewide multi-agency task force to be in charge of investigating all shootings by law enforcement.  

The current task force lets the department with the officers in question be in charge of the investigation, with assistance from at least one other agency.

“I think it’s an important step forward for us to make sure the public has faith and trust in the processes,” Medina said. 

Medina says New Mexico State Police end up taking on a lot of these investigations.

“I would suppose that it’s a huge burden, them having to go across the state and conduct these high profile investigations,” said Medina. 

But the new task force would free up it’s resources and his. 

“I currently probably have about three to four at any time who are just doing officer involved shootings for the year. If I could clear those officers up to work on other types of criminal cases, I could start a new unit, a white collar unit,” Medina said. 

Medina says he doesn’t know who would make up the task force, he wants the state to do a study to identify the best way to move forward. But he has some ideas. 

“An in house prosecutor would be a vital part of this team. Somebody that could look and give advice on different aspects of the shooting,” said Medina. 

Now he’s asking for state lawmakers for support.

“By having this, it takes out that whole argument that cops are investigating cops,” said Medina. 

Medina says he hopes to get the ball rolling on that study soon so he can take the recommendations of the task force to the state Legislature.

Even if it’s not for this session starting in January, he says he’ll keep working on it.