Federal Judge Dismisses DOJ Oversight for APD

Albuquerque –

U.S. District Court Judge James O. Browning officially dismissed the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA), ending more than a decade of federal oversight of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD).

Below is a timeline offered by the City of Albuquerque of the events:

Court-Approved Settlement Agreement between APD and the U.S. Department of Justice
November 2012 – The DOJ launched an investigation into use of force at APD
Nov. 12, 2014 – The DOJ filed a complaint in federal court alleging APD officers were
engaging in a pattern or practice of excessive force in violation of the Fourth
Amendment.
The Court-Approved Settlement Agreement, known as the CASA, highlighted dozens of
changes that APD was required to make, including new policies, training for those
policies and implementation that meets the definition of Constitutional policing.
Over 10 years, the Independent Monitoring Team that oversaw the CASA issued 21
reports that tracked the progress of the agreement.
In 2024, the Monitoring Team determined APD met all requirements in the CASA.
On April 1, 2025, the City of Albuquerque asked the DOJ to join in requesting the federal
judge to dismiss the remaining portions of the CASA.
On May 12, 2025, Judge Browning approved the joint request from the City and the DOJ
to terminate the CASA.

During this DOJ oversight of APD, the City of Albuquerque had to hire James Ginger for the monitoring process with DOJ. He received more than 10 million dollars and had an office leased to him where people could call in or visit. As aside, we tried to call his office a few times and got a secretary who would take our report and it was never returned. The hours of the office were quite odd and never friendly for the public to be able to submit issues to him. His contract ends at the end of June 2025.

In 2023, the City of Albuquerque appointed three civilians to run an internal time similar to Ginger’s role. The three were retired Metro Court Judge Sharon Walton, former undersheriff of Las Vegas Metro Police Chris Darcy, and retired judge Victor Valdez.

“The idea was that we are going to set up APD to continue to self monitor and self reform perpetually going forward, through institutionalizing the concept of constitutional policing, and reform inside the department, without the CASA,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said in November of 2023.

We found the contracts of the three were $94,000 a year and set to expire in June 2025. We asked the Mayor’s office if this will continue.

Director of Communications for the Mayor’s office Staci Drangmeister said the internal monitoring will continue.