APD Chief Barker Assigns New Staff to Her 5th Floor

Albuquerque – Today APD Interim Chief Cecily Barker announced promotions and the elimination of some executive positions as part of an initial reorganization of the department.

Chief Barker announced the following changes for her new executive team:

• Major Luke Languit was named interim Deputy Chief of the Field Services Bureau
• Medina’s former Chief of Staff Mike Hernandez was named interim Deputy Chief of Support Services
• Commander Aaron Jones was named interim Chief of Staff

“We have an experienced team in place to lead the department forward, while we transition into a new era of public safety in Albuquerque,” Chief Barker said. “We are experiencing new challenges in law enforcement, especially in response to the national political climate. We want our community to be assured that APD is prepared.”

George Vega will continue as Deputy Chief of the Investigative Bureau and Josh Brown will continue as Deputy Chief of the Special Operations Bureau.

In addition to the promotions, Chief Barker announced that 12 command staff positions are being eliminated. The positions are a combination of sworn personnel, such as deputy commanders for both Internal Affairs divisions, and professional employees, such as the director of analytics. The city will save about $2.4 million as a result of the changes.

“Many of these executive positions were created to help manage important initiatives as we navigated the final push to complete the settlement agreement with the Department of Justice,” Chief Barker said. “We no longer need the same level of management. We need to prioritize our resources to maintain the city’s reduction in crime.”

At the same time, APD is moving forward with the training and recruiting for brand new sworn officers. About 47 people are currently being trained, and the next cadet class is scheduled to start in March. APD currently has 913 sworn officers (all ranks) and 93 police service aides.

The list of those not needed anymore and eliminated were as follows:

Director of Compliance & Oversight

Director of Analytics

RTCC Operator

Deputy Commander Internal Affairs Force Division

(2) Deputy Commanders of the Investigative Support Division

Deputy Commander Special Operations

Deputy Commander Internal Affairs Professional Services Division

Deputy Commander Special Projects

(2) Internal Affairs Investigators

Lieutenant Crisis Intervention Unit

It should be noted that some of these positions had never been filled and were already vacant.