July 3 – An online database of police misconduct cases in New Mexico went live this week, giving the public insight into which police officers across the state have been accused of misconduct.
State officials say the database is not yet complete and they plan to improve it. Still, it is a step forward in the broader push for greater accountability and transparency in policing in the state.
“It’s a very assertive step forward to make sure that not only the public, but our law enforcement agencies have access to that database,” Law Enforcement Academy interim director Sonya Chavez said in an interview Wednesday. “We’ve worked hard to get the basics online, but we expect a lot more development in this database.”
The online platform went live Monday on the Department of Public Safety website: tinyurl.com/mudmucyz.
It contains listings for all misconduct cases handled by the current Law Enforcement Certification Board (and by its previous iteration, the Law Enforcement Academy Board) from 2022 through 2024.
The board’s staff, which Chavez said is still under construction, has been pulling misconduct files from the state Law Enforcement Academy, “going back decades,” she said, into a larger database called Acadis.
Developers of the public, online database are “taking steps to address historical cases,” she said, but the agency could not provide a timetable Wednesday for when older cases would be added.
The online database is based on legislation passed in 2023 that aims to strengthen police training and accountability processes within the Department of Public Safety.
Senate Bill 19, which passed both chambers of the Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, split the state’s Law Enforcement Academy Board into two bodies: the Law Enforcement Certification Board and the Standards and Training Council. The law specified different types of people who must be appointed to the certification board and also required the board to create an online database of police and telecommunications company misconduct cases by July 1, 2024.
“The Board shall use a web-based technology solution that allows any member of the public to search for the findings of investigations into misconduct that resulted in the termination, denial, suspension or revocation of certification of a police officer or public safety telephone operator,” the law states.
The database, which is accessible through the Department of Public Safety’s website, allows users to search for cases of police misconduct based on an officer’s last name or by internal case number.
Cases are only added to the database after they have received a final decision from the board. In recent months, the board has made final decisions in some cases from 2022 and 2023.
Search results show the officer’s name and the outcome of the case — whether the case was dismissed or whether the officer’s certification was suspended or revoked. A section called “offense description” lists the state law the officer is accused of violating, but there is no description of specific allegations against the officer.
In several cases, the charges include “committing acts which indicate a lack of good moral character, or which involve dishonesty or fraud,” or “committing violent or brutal acts which indicate that the officer abused the authority vested in him or her as a police officer in the State of New Mexico.”
Chavez said the department’s IT department presented a mockup of the database to board members for input in recent months and came back with the product that is now online.
Other changes could be on the horizon, such as allowing users to perform a search for cases within any law enforcement agency. DPS said in a statement Wednesday, “Efforts are underway to make the reporting agency a searchable field.”
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, a member of the certification committee, said he and other committee members gave their input on how information would be presented in the database and were pleased to see the final product available to the public.
Mendoza said the sheriff’s office’s hiring process involves consulting the state’s Law Enforcement Academy for information on pending or past misconduct cases. However, he said the online database can be a useful tool for law enforcement agencies in recruiting personnel.
“We wanted to at least get the basics of what each violation is in those citations,” Mendoza said. “I think it’s a starting point.”
