Albuquerque police hope that a new plan unveiled during a federal hearing on Feb. 9 will address its use of force backlog.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the backlog is large and has been growing for years while the Albuquerque Police Department claimed it lacks the sufficient manpower to whittle it down, CBS affiliate KRQE reported.
The agency told the DOJ that an external force investigative team will be needed to go through the backlog.
“It’s actually a very extensive investigation; they can take a lot of time – a lot of video has to be reviewed, make sure officer statements match what’s on the video,” APD interim deputy superintendent of police reform Zak Cottrell said, according to KRQE.
APD said around 660 cases of use of force events took place from 2020 to last year, and it’s using the External Force Investigation Team, or EFIT, plus their own officers to examine the cases.
Albuquerque Police Officers' Association president Shaun Willoughby suggested APD fix its policy regarding the backlog.
“We’ve had backlog after backlog after backlog, and the real nooks and cranny of the problem [is] we are always going to be in a backlog,” Willoughby told KRQE. “There is always going to be a backlog at this police department, until the police department changes the policy.”