ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After nearly a decade of reform efforts, Albuquerque Police Department leaders say they’re close to checking the final boxes of their federal oversight agreement.

After years of questionable police shootings and growing distrust by the community and even the city council, the Department of Justice stepped in to investigate APD’s use of force against civilians in 2014. The city quickly entered into a Court-Approved Settlement Agreement to reform the department.

The DOJ essentially gave APD a long list of policies they needed to improve and follow. According to the independent monitor’s 19th report that was released Monday, APD has reached:

• 100% primary compliance – that means all the new policies are in place
• 100% secondary compliance – all the new training protocols matching those policies are in place
• 96% operational compliance – that’s actually using those new policies in the field

The new report reveals there was a 16% drop in the most serious use-of-force investigations since the last report, and suggests that is a sign new policies, oversight, and disciplinary actions are working.

APD Chief Harold Medina responded to the promising report in a prerecorded message Monday.

“Reform shall never end for any police department, and we should always be evolving to see how we can become a better police department, more in tune with the community,” Medina said. “We should never get to the place where we were as a department, where so many in the community felt that the Albuquerque Police Department had lost its way and we’re no longer there for people.”

APD regained control of its own use-of-force investigations in December. This report means APD and the DOJ have asked the court to sign off on progress for nearly 100 points of improvement.

APD will still have to prove over the next two years that these reform efforts aren’t just for show.

The ACLU of New Mexico says it’s still concerned with APD’s use of force, especially following recent police shootings involving suspects experiencing mental health crises.

“It should not go unnoticed that recent monitoring reports have highlighted ongoing concerns about accountability at APD,” ACLU-NM Policing Policy Advocate Daniel Williams said. “While technical compliance has been achieved, there remain real reasons to doubt whether a genuine transformation in the culture of aggression and accountability has truly occurred.”

There are still a few dozen requirements APD and the city still need to meet. APD leaders say most of those involve civilian oversight – and that’s the city council’s job. But the latest report does say police field supervisors need improvement. For example, no one investigated a supervisor who misclassified a recent use-of-force incident.

Both Medina and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller acknowledged Monday there is still work to be done.

Next month, a federal judge will consider the ask by the city and the DOJ to further narrow the settlement agreement.

The full report can be found here.