July 3 – An online database of police misconduct cases in New Mexico went live this week, giving the public a window into where police officers have been accused of misconduct across the state.
State officials say the database is not yet complete and they plan to improve it, but it represents a step forward in a broader goal of greater accountability and transparency in policing in the state.
“It’s a very assertive step to ensure that not only the public, but also our law enforcement agencies have access to this database,” Acting Law Enforcement Academy Director Sonya Chavez said in an interview Wednesday. “We’ve worked hard to get everything online, but we anticipate a lot more development on this database.”
The online platform went live Monday on the Department of Public Safety website at tinyurl.com/mudmucyz.
It contains entries for all misconduct cases adjudicated by the current Law Enforcement Certification Board – and its previous iteration, the Law Enforcement Academy Board – from 2022 to 2024.
The council team — which Chavez said is still in the process of being formed — adopted misconduct files from the State Law Enforcement Academy “that go back decades,” she said, into a larger database called Acadis.
Developers of the online public database are “taking steps to address historical cases,” she said, but the agency could not provide a timeline Wednesday for when older cases would be added.
The online database comes from legislation approved in 2023 with the aim of strengthening police training and accountability processes in the Public Security Secretariat.
Senate Bill 19, which passed both chambers of the Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, separated the state Law Enforcement Academy Board into two bodies – the Law Enforcement Certification Board and the Board of Standards and Training. 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 misconduct cases by July 1, 2024.
“The board shall employ a web-based technology solution that will allow any member of the public to search for results of misconduct investigations that result in the firing, denial, suspension, or revocation of certification of a law enforcement officer or public safety telecommunicator,” the law says. .
The database, accessible through the state Department of Public Safety’s website, allows users to search for cases of police misconduct by the officer’s last name or an internal case number.
Cases will only be added to the database after receiving a final decision from the board. In recent months, the board has issued final decisions in some 2022 and 2023 cases.
The search results show the name of the officer as well as the outcome of the case — whether the case was dismissed or the officer’s certification was suspended or revoked. In a section called “offense description,” there is a reference to the state law the officer allegedly violated, but no description of any specific allegations against the officer.
Different cases refer to allegations such as “committing acts that indicate a lack of good moral character, or that constitute dishonesty or fraud”, or “committing acts of violence or brutality that indicate that the police officer abused the authority granted to him as a police officer commissioned in the state of New Mexico.”
Chavez said the department’s information technology team presented a model of the database to council members in recent months for feedback and came back with the product that is now online.
Other changes may be planned, such as allowing users to search for cases within each law enforcement agency. The DPS said in a statement Wednesday: “Efforts are being made to make the news agency a researchable field.”
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza – a member of the certification board – said he and other board members evaluated how the information would be presented in the database and was pleased to see the final product available to the public.
Mendoza said the sheriff’s office’s hiring process involves checking with the state’s Law Enforcement Academy for information about pending or past misconduct cases, but he said the online database could be a useful tool for law enforcement agencies use in hiring.
“We wanted to get at least the basics of what each violation in these entries represents,” Mendoza said. “I think it’s a starting point.”
