ABQ City Council Will Try to Pass New Social Media Accountability for Rogue PIO’s

Albuquerque –

District 9 City Councilor Renée Grout introduced resolution R-24-89 aimed at improving the use of official CABQ run social media accounts. The resolution directs the City Administration to develop a comprehensive social media policy that outlines clear guidelines for appropriate use, accountability, and consequences for misuse. Tonight, the City Council will debate the resolution and put it to a vote for all the councilors.

This is in response to the actions of Albuquerque Police Department director of communications Gilbert Gallegos attacking members of the public and our news outlet on X (formerly known as Twitter) over several instances over the past 3 years. In his last outburst, he attacked ABQ RAW about the accuracy of one of our stories and then took on members of the public who began questioning his professionalism or defended us. The “tweet” tirade was after business hours on a federal holiday and highlighted bizarre behavior by an unhinged Gilbert Gallegos. It lasted well into the 9PM hour until ABQ RAW called APD dispatch to have a welfare check done on Gallegos. We were genuinely worried Gilbert was having some sort of mental break down to be acting this unprofessional. The tweets abruptly stopped and no explanation was given what happened to him. Gallegos was seen at a press conference a few days later like nothing happened.

Gallegos has had a rather extensive history using the Albuquerque Police Department’s X account to go after members of the pubic and pick fights with them. In one previous instance dating back to 2022, Gallegos attacked a homicide victim’s family member on X. It is unclear if Gallegos was ever disciplined for using both the APD Public Information Office and the APD Department’s official X account in this unprofessional manner.

After former City Council President Pat Davis threatened to defund Gallegos’ position, the APD PIO account was no longer used. However, this did not stop Gallegos from using the official APD Department account instead to continue the attacks against members of the public.

“The City needs its social media policy to reflect that, as City officials, we are in the customer service business,” said District 9 City Councilor Renée Grout. “Anything posted on a City social media account should be true, helpful, and respectful.“

The resolution emphasizes the role of City government is to promote the public’s health, safety and growth. It directs the City Administration to create, implement, and enforce a comprehensive social media policy to be applied to all City public media accounts that includes:

• Behavioral expectations: Establishing clear guidelines for respectful and professional online
  conduct.
• Content specifications: Defining appropriate and inappropriate content for City social media
  accounts.
• Response guidelines: Providing guidance on how to respond to comments and messages,
  including those that may be negative or inflammatory.
• Monitoring and review: Implementing a system for regularly monitoring and reviewing social
  media accounts for compliance.
• Disciplinary actions: Outlining consequences for misuse of official social media accounts.

If the Albuquerque Police Department would have actually followed disciplinary actions for Gallegos, he would have been put on a corrective action, and then if any other incidents happened, he would have been fired(progressive discipline system). This is the same system the department uses to rid itself of rogue officers but it does not apply to Gilbert for unknown reasons . ABQ RAW did request his disciplinary records during the first two incidents but we did not receive any documentation on his discipline. It’s extremely unlikely that any kind of disciple has been, or ever will be handed out to this anointed one. We have not been able to figure out what kind of evidence this unhinged maniac holds over the administration to be ignored when egregiously breaking city and APD policies on multiple occasions.

The City Council could and should ask the Chief Administration Officer Samantha Sengal and/or Police Chief Harold Medina why Gallegos’ behavior has not been disciplined and why he hasn’t been fired during the Q&A portion of this bill.

The resolution also requires the City Administration to make the social media policy easily accessible to the public and to establish a mechanism for reporting potential violations.

Since Gallegos is an APD employee he can have complaints filed against him with the Civilian Oversight Police Agency. The CPOA will investigate claims and determine if the person violated APD policy and determine what the discipline would be.

You can read our previous articles on Gallegos’ X antics here: