Albuquerque –
A popular local cop watcher, or what has often been called a “First Amendment Auditor“, was arrested at a tense SWAT situation in the War Zone yesterday near the 1025 block of Valencia SE.
On Saturday, 44-year-old Charles Baldwin of Albuquerque was arrested for a slew of charges for allegedly not moving back from a newly established perimeter when Albuquerque Police Officers told him to move back from his early on original position.
Baldwin goes by AnCapCopWatch on YouTube and oftentimes sets up his cell phone, battery pack, and tripod at SWAT situations around town and goes LIVE giving commentary to his viewers. Baldwin has been seen for years at law enforcement scenes doing cop watches on law enforcement in the Albuquerque area. He is known for digging in and live streaming for several hours at police scenes.
In this latest SWAT standoff, he was filming south of Tres Caminos Apartments located at 1025 Valencia SE. On the live stream, he is positioned just in front of a Police Service Aide truck, there is yellow crime scene tape strung up just after the truck establishing a set perimeter.
It is unclear if Baldwin was there prior to APD establishing the perimeter around the area. Often times police set up perimeters around crime scenes and SWAT type situations then either shrink them or widen them depending on what police supervisors deem safe for the public.
Baldwin’s latest stream shows a zoomed in, pixelated view from his camera showing a SWAT Bearcat and operators surrounding a vehicle. The stream is around 19 plus minutes long, and at the 12:45 mark a couple APD units pull up to him. Baldwin then says:
“This dumb fuck are going to force me to move because of their feelings.”
An officer makes contact with Baldwin and Baldwin says to the officer that he is “standing on his rights“.
The officer on the stream says he is going to move his perimeter tape and Baldwin tells him to “Fuck off.” It is unclear how these officers were going to move the perimeter either wider or smaller.
In our experience, there are instances when law enforcement agencies try to move ABQ RAW reporters away from active scenes. Oftentimes we are told to move several miles away to an unrelated local gas station, or peaceful yoga studio.
Police then call it a “media staging area”. This media staging area is a made up position where media is told a PIO is going to show up there and give a briefing.
The main purpose of media staging areas are to get rid of cameras and audio which are not controlled by police.
In our many years of experience under the Keller administration, an APD PIO will never show up to an active scene and will never brief any media outlet about the active situation.
Usually an email is sent to media outlets if there is enough interest in the scene which is meant to be sufficient as a statement of what is happening. In our experiences during all past administrations (pre-Keller), a friendly uniformed sworn PIO would immediately show up to scenes and brief media and other gathering citizens about what is happening in the area.
Those days have apparently ended, and it causes incidents like yesterday’s to escalate to physical force and arrests.
In yesterday’s video, Baldwin yells at the officers during the interaction standing on his first amendment rights. A minute into the interaction one officer goes hands on with him and takes Baldwin to the ground. The camera becomes disoriented since Baldwin is no longer in control of it and it stops streaming at 19 minutes.
The Albuquerque Police Department has a decades old policy manual on how to handle various situations. There is a specific section, 2-33, of the manual called Rights and Safety of Onlookers. When the policy states “shall,” it is a direct order by APD for the officer to follow the policy. In one particular section, it states:
Section C. Onlooker Filming of Officer-Suspect Contacts
Onlookers have the right to record sworn personnel enforcement activities by
camera, cell phone, video recorder, or other means. Sworn personnel must allow
onlookers to record officer/public encounters, except under the exceptions set forth
in this SOP.
Another section outlines that onlookers shall be left only at scenes:
2-33-4 Rules
A. Community members Witnessing Any Community member-Officer Contacts,
Detentions, or Arrests
- Sworn personnel shall allow people who are not involved in an incident to remain in
the immediate vicinity to witness stops, detentions, and arrests of suspects
occurring in public areas, and shall allow them to overhear and record the
encounter between the individual and the officer, except under the following
circumstances:
a. When the safety of sworn personnel, victims, individuals, or others could be
jeopardized;
b. When persons interfere with sworn personnel lawfully exercising their duties, or
violate the law;
c. When persons threaten violence or illegal activity by words or actions, or
attempt to incite others to violate the law; and
d. Sworn personnel shall comply with the Department Standard Operating
Procedures (SOP) regarding use on-body recording devices (OBRD) and
mandatory recording incidents (refer to SOP Use of On-Body Recording
Devices for sanction classifications and additional duties).
According to the criminal complaint, the arresting officer stated that Baldwin put his hand in the assisting officer’s face, and they went hands-on as he was actively resisting arrest. Baldwin stated that they could not arrest him because he was just filming.
The complaint goes on to say that Baldwin would not identify himself, and officers eventually learned of his name through a search of his personal property left behind after he was stopped from filming.
Baldwin has been charged with resisting or evading an officer, concealing identity, and assault on a peace officer.
This isn’t the first time Baldwin has been arrested at a police scene. In 2022, he was arrested for not moving from the “hot zone” of a SWAT call involving a barricaded subject in a car. That incident happened in front of the New Mexico State Police office at 2501 Carlisle Blvd NE.
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