ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Albuquerque Police Department is now in “full and effective” compliance with their Court-Ordered Settlement Agreement through the Department of Justice.

On Friday, Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief Harold Medina went step by step through the last decade that allowed the city to get to this point.

“We are an example of reform,” Keller said. “These reform efforts have taken like 40 years in LA, I forget how long in Seattle, they’re in different places around the country, Baltimore, and I’m not saying that we knocked the cover off the ball here. But we are rounding the bases and coming into home.”

In 2014, APD was an example of what not to do. The DOJ had outlined nine areas where the department needed to improve including use of force, policies, training, and community oversight.

“This consent decree in a lot of places, in a lot of parts, was about rebuilding the entire police department,” Medina said. “Because if you look at everything here, it deals with everything from how we are recruiting, selecting, and promoting individuals within the police department.”

In 2019, before Medina was the police chief, he was the deputy chief of Field Services. He created scorecards to track if different departments were meeting their benchmarks.

“We still utilize, we’ll continue to utilize those scorecards to ensure that officers are conducting what they have to do,” Medina said.

That was one of many changes the department made under DOJ oversight. Other changes include creating the Office of the Superintendent of Police Reform to handle discipline in the department.

They also created the Albuquerque Community Safety Department to respond to calls that don’t necessarily need a police officer or firefighter response.

“Which is a good combo, that we have folks who can actually also be independent monitors, we don’t need a court-ordered monitor, so that’s what that was set up,” Keller said.

The department is not out from under the DOJ just yet – there is another court hearing set for June 4 where the city attorney says they want to discuss starting the two-year timer for officially ending the oversight.