{"id":48932,"date":"2026-04-13T11:45:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=48932"},"modified":"2026-04-13T11:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:45:33","slug":"meet-albuquerques-new-public-safety-braintrust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/meet-albuquerques-new-public-safety-braintrust\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Albuquerque\u2019s New Public Safety Braintrust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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While New Mexico in Focus\u00a0is a statewide, weekly\u00a0news show,\u00a0sometimes a big\u00a0story\u00a0in one part of\u00a0the state\u00a0demands\u00a0our\u00a0full\u00a0attention. The legislative session in Santa Fe, flooding in Ruidoso, or fires in San Miguel and Mora counties come to mind.\u00a0This week, we\u00a0spent\u00a0the time we felt was necessary on\u00a0just\u00a0such a\u00a0story\u00a0\u2014 new leadership appointments at the Albuquerque Police Department.\u00a0\u00a0

APD is\u00a0the state\u2019s largest law enforcement agency\u00a0\u2013 and\u00a0its most troubled. Less than a year ago\u00a0it\u00a0finally\u00a0got out from\u00a0under\u00a011 years of\u00a0court-ordered oversight by the\u00a0U.S. Department of Justice for\u00a0a pattern of unconstitutional use of\u00a0excessive\u00a0force and a leadership structure that enabled it.\u00a0

Still today, APD\u00a0remains\u00a0among the deadliest police departments in the country.\u00a0And there\u00a0are still\u00a0other failings.\u00a0

Despite Mayor Tim Keller\u2019s progressive-sounding rhetoric, Albuquerque police\u00a0have ratcheted up arrests of homeless people in recent years, swelling the county jail population, according to\u00a0a ProPublica investigation<\/a>.\u00a0And more than a dozen officers from APD and other agencies have pleaded guilty\u00a0over the last year-plus in a\u00a0decades-long corruption scandal<\/a>\u00a0in which cops conspired with lawyers to take bribes, thereby\u00a0allowing suspected drunken drivers to walk away from their court cases.\u00a0\u00a0

We\u00a0touched on\u00a0those\u00a0troubling headlines this week, too, but\u00a0APD\u2019s\u00a0post-consent decree future\u00a0seemed\u00a0the most salient backdrop to this episode’s interviews with newly appointed Police Chief Cecily Barker and Public Safety Executive Director Raul Bujanda.\u00a0I asked\u00a0them\u00a0about the timing of the\u00a0consent decree ending, how the department’s\u00a0reforms are holding\u00a0up\u00a0and\u00a0how\u00a0they\u00a0plan to enforce accountability and prevent\u00a0erosion of the DOJ-led changes.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

As an internal hire,\u00a0Barker\u00a0has been at APD for more than 20 years \u2014\u00a0since well before the\u00a0Justice Department dropped the hammer.\u00a0So, while we looked\u00a0ahead\u00a0plenty, I also asked her about what she saw\u00a0in those before times,\u00a0and what she did about it.\u00a0Her\u00a0brother and fellow APD officer, Jeff Bludworth,\u00a0fatally shot\u00a0Vincent Wood,\u00a0a Black man with a knife,\u00a0in 2013. I asked\u00a0about how that experience affected\u00a0Barker\u2019s\u00a0view\u00a0of\u00a0police shootings, and how\u00a0that\u00a0perspective will show up in\u00a0her approach to leading the department.\u00a0\u00a0

As an outside hire,\u00a0Bujanda\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0have the\u00a0historical perspective\u00a0Barker does \u2014 at least not from within APD.\u00a0But he does have a\u00a0resume\u00a0that\u2019ll undoubtedly color his priorities\u00a0as he steps into\u00a0the\u00a0new role\u00a0of public safety boss.\u00a0He\u00a0retired\u00a0last year\u00a0as the special agent in charge of Albuquerque\u2019s FBI office, where he investigated APD officers\u00a0in the DWI corruption scheme.\u00a0I asked\u00a0what non-public information he has, if any, about\u00a0cops\u00a0who were investigated but not charged\u00a0\u2013 officers\u00a0he\u2019ll\u00a0now oversee.\u00a0Before\u00a0the FBI, Bujanda worked\u00a0for Immigration Naturalization Services\u00a0(the predecessor to ICE)\u00a0after spending much of his teen years in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez. He told me\u00a0that experience changed his perspective on immigration enforcement, cementing values\u00a0he\u2019ll\u00a0bring to\u00a0leading the public safety arm of an immigrant-friendly city.\u00a0\u00a0

I spoke with Barker and\u00a0Bujanda\u00a0about plenty more, too\u00a0(the\u00a0interviews are both\u00a0two-parters\u00a0that\u00a0make up the bulk of this week\u2019s show.)\u00a0But hopefully this\u00a0glimpse\u00a0gives you a sense of why we\u00a0dedicated this\u00a0program to the topic, and how we went about covering it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0tune in tonight to learn more about what to expect from an Albuquerque Police Department under new leadership.\u00a0\u00a0

– Nash Jones, Host<\/p>\n\n\n\n