Santa Fe, NM — Over the weekend, Senate Republican Leadership, after consulting with several Albuquerque City Council members, issued a letter to United States Attorney General Pamela Bondi requesting the immediate discontinuation of the 2014 court-approved settlement or Consent Decree between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the City of Albuquerque. This request comes not only as a response to the recent deployment of the New Mexico National Guard to assist the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) but also, as the stated requirements of the Decree have been fulfilled. This fulfilled agreement now serves only to exhaust vital law enforcement and city resources. With Albuquerque's ongoing crime crisis, this is an unsustainable path forward in terms of improving public safety. Should this ongoing agreement be dissolved, Albuquerque law enforcement personnel, time, and resources would be made available to serve the community as intended and ideally improve public safety in our state's largest and most dangerous city.
Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer (R-Farmington) issued an accompanying statement:
"Our commitment as lawmakers to improving public safety for all New Mexicans goes far beyond policy proposals to be considered in the legislature. Due to the current makeup of our state's progressive leadership, those of us truly fighting for safer communities must be creative in the ways we can support law enforcement and hold criminals accountable. This agreement has done tremendous damage to the Albuquerque Police Department, the City of Albuquerque, and the safety of Albuquerque residents and visitors. All this agreement has accomplished is to compromise the safety and security of law enforcement officers, the unnecessary waste of millions of taxpayer dollars, and to further embolden violent criminals in Albuquerque. While the Governor is deploying the National Guard to assist APD with directing traffic, we are proposing a way to free up countless law enforcement officers to make a real impact on the streets of Albuquerque. The bottom line is: we need more officers investigating homicides and less officers investigating other police officers for doing their job."
*You can find the full letter attached or receive it via request at
