After nearly a decade of federal oversight, the Albuquerque Police Department announced it has achieved total compliance with hundreds of reforms mandated under a U.S. Department of Justice consent decree meant to rectify its excessive use of force. The independent monitor praised the department’s “significant progress” in his latest report on Monday — while acknowledging high concern about “the sheer number of officer-involved shootings of people in crisis or people with mental illness.”
In his role as independent monitor, James D. Ginger generated nearly 6,000 pages of reports and collected more than $12 million from the city of Albuquerque. But an analysis of Ginger’s reports by Searchlight New Mexico has uncovered dozens of errors, including sums that were incorrectly totaled; data tables that were copy-and-pasted across multiple years; and clerical errors that misrepresent the years in which the reports were published.
The glaring errors in these reports, each of which span hundreds of pages, raise troubling questions about the person responsible for compiling them. More to the point, perhaps, is this question: Has anyone read them?
In one report, Ginger published a data table showing that APD officers committed 77 shootings in 2018. In fact, the department logged 10 shootings that year. The same data table appears verbatim in a previous report, saying that APD logged 77 police shootings from 2015 to 2017. Again, that was a gross misrepresentation: There were 24 shootings in that time frame, according to police reports.
Other mistakes are less significant. For instance, the cover sheet for Ginger’s fifth report, which was published in 2017, says it was published in 2016, some six months before his fourth report was filed.
For a full account of the errors, inconsistencies and math problems uncovered by Searchlight, click here. The investigation required reviewing thousands of pages of reports filed in federal court, which took a reporter three weeks.
Searchlight made numerous attempts to share what it found with Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller. His office declined to speak directly with Searchlight, as did Police Chief Harold Medina.
But on Monday, Keller announced the news of record-level compliance in an afternoon press release. “The road to get here has not been easy, but we never gave up.”
In a written statement to Searchlight on May 14, Keller’s office signaled that he was aware of errors in the reports and said the city is “always interested in helping ensure the monitor’s evaluations are correct.”
The city has “regularly sent letters calling out misrepresentations we’ve found throughout the process,” the statement read. “We also understand that the monitor reports to the judge, and the city has no formal control over them.”
Aja Brooks, executive assistant U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, told Searchlight that the DOJ would look into the errors.
Among the deadliest departments
Searchlight reported last month that despite nearly 10 years under a federal consent decree, APD officers are shooting more people today than ever before. During that time, the city paid more than $12 million to Ginger, a South Carolina resident who announced at the start of his tenure that he would move to Albuquerque and spend at least 200 days per year “on-site.” Few people have recalled ever seeing him in town, Searchlight’s investigation showed.
Advocates for police reform said their work is far from over. Despite achieving record compliance, APD has continued to rank among the deadliest departments in the nation. Last year, Albuquerque police killed more people per capita than any other sizable police force in the nation, according to data tracked by the national nonprofit Mapping Police Violence.
“Our concerns persist regarding the use of lethal force, particularly in cases involving unarmed individuals experiencing mental health crises,” said Daniel Williams, the policing policy advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. “New Mexico consistently has one of the highest per-capita rates of people killed by police in the nation; killings by APD officers represent a significant number of these deaths.”
Monday’s report is one of 22 that Ginger has released over the years. It’s unclear whether anyone else’s fingerprints are on these documents. Ginger has said he employs several assistant monitors — his website lists nine associates — but multiple employees at his Albuquerque office do not appear on that list. As of Tuesday evening, the latest report was not yet posted on his company’s website.
There remain a number of unknowns about the independent monitor. For one, his company, Public Management Resources, Inc., does not have an active business filing in New Mexico. Its Texas registration was subject to a tax forfeiture in 2015 and remains inactive. Ginger told a reporter that his business is registered in Virginia, but Searchlight was unable to find any official filing under Ginger’s name, his company’s name or any of his associates’ names. Searchlight could not find an up-to-date registration for his business in any of the 50 states, including South Carolina, where he resides.
As a result, it’s unclear how Ginger’s associates get paid for their work. Copies of city invoices show Albuquerque has been writing checks directly to Ginger as an individual — not to his company.
The inner workings of Ginger’s business raise other questions. In 2016, one year after his Texas tax forfeiture, Ginger granted durable power of attorney to his fiancée, Laurie Ann Owens, South Carolina records show. The paperwork gives her express permission to conduct “all kinds of business for me in my name and on my behalf.”
His company’s website lists a Laurie Owens as the chief operating officer and director of operations and analysis, responsible for “data collection, analysis and dissemination.”
For months, Ginger has repeatedly refused to speak with Searchlight, despite numerous requests for an interview, including a half-dozen emails, calls to his cell phone and in-person visits to his Albuquerque office. Finally, Searchlight collaborated with The Post and Courier, a newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, which sent a reporter to drive out to Pamplico, a small, isolated community, and knock on Ginger’s door to ask for comment.
Ginger opened the door and explained he was packing up to go to the beach. He only visits Albuquerque twice a year these days, he said, and indicated his work may be drawing to a close.
“Unfortunately, we’re this close,” he told the reporter. “But, I mean, that work is just all-consuming.”
When the reporter told him he was working with Searchlight, Ginger exclaimed, “Searchlight my posterior,” before threatening to call the police.
Calls for reform
Ginger’s time in Albuquerque dates back nearly 10 years. The calls for reform started in March 2014, when police shot and killed James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia who was camping in the Sandia Foothills.
The federal government descended on Albuquerque, drawing up a consent decree that its creators refer to as “Policing 101.” By 2015, both federal and local officials settled on James Ginger as the top choice for independent monitor. In his initial filings, Ginger characterized this work as a four-year, $4.5 million job. The process has now dragged on for nearly 10 years and cost almost $40 million in total.
Although the city docked his pay by some 30 percent last year — there had been so much compliance, there was theoretically less work for him — Ginger continues to collect more than $90,000 from the city of Albuquerque each month, city records show.
Before the consent decree is officially closed, APD must maintain complete compliance with the mandated reforms for two years. Ginger’s reports, with their collective thousands of pages, quantify every reform, from improving mental health training to outfitting every officer with a body camera. His next report is expected in October.
Meanwhile, APD has already logged at least five police shootings this year.
“It’s just not accurate to say that because they’ve reached full and effective compliance, that everything is sunshine and roses,” Williams of the ACLU said.
Seth Taylor, a South Carolina-based journalist for The Post and Courier, contributed to this story.