Albuquerque Journal
TAOS, N.M. — The Taos Police Department has been an agency that breeds public distrust and fosters an “us vs. them” attitude, a current Taos officer wrote in a letter of application for the town’s recent police chief opening.
The letter from officer Nick Ault paints a picture of a department lacking in citizenpolice communication, a view disputed by the town’s mayor and the town’s acting chief.
Ault wrote that police should treat everyone - “citizens, victims, violators, co-workers, everyone” - with “common respect and decency.”
“That, disappointedly, is not being done today by the Taos Police Department,” Ault said in his letter.
Asked about the letter on Monday, Taos Mayor Darren Cordova said when he read it, he thought, “‘Wow, what is he talking about?’ ... In my opinion, I think he was looking for a way of what we should do differently.”
Lt. David Maggio, who is serving as acting chief, said he didn’t think Ault’s comments were valid. “For some reason he has his own opinion,” Maggio said. "... I think my officers do a good job here. My officers have a good relationship with the public.”
Ault’s application was one of 18 for the chief’s job released by the town last week under a Journal public records request.
Ault declined to comment on his letter, saying only that chief-select Rick Anglada, appointed to the position by the Town Council last week, had his full and unqualified support. Ault and two other Taos officers, Bill Hubbard and David Weaver, applied for the top job but were not shortlisted for an interview.
Anglada, a retired 21-year veteran of the New Mexico State Police, was chosen by the interview committee from a pool of six to replace former chief Daron Syling. Syling resigned last month citing a family issue in southern New Mexico.
“Our most recent administration has bought lock stock and barrel into the NM Department of Public Safety/Law Enforcement Academy inspired concept of police officers as some vaguely defined paramilitary unit,” Ault wrote in his application letter to human resources director Loretta Trujillo. "(The department aims to be a) trained and maintained hammer whose function is to keep the public law abiding and at bay. This is a fool’s mission. It has placed us apart from the public we serve.”
Department of Public Safety spokesman Peter Olson didn’t have a problem with Ault’s “paramilitary” description. “They (the state Law Enforcement Academy) tend to rely on discipline based on a paramilitary operation,” Olson said.
“They (police officers) need to be able to follow orders and deal with the public in a courteous manner ... Police organizations are (paramilitary operations); they have to be.”
Ault, a former officer with Santa Fe Police Department and a former New Mexico Attorney General’s Office investigator, faulted the approach of some fellow officers.
“I hear far too many accounts of young, ill-trained officers berating motorists for minor traffic infractions while issuing multiple citations when a verbal warning and positive discussion of the infraction would be more prudent,” he wrote.
Ault’s letter also said, “It’s time for the ‘us vs. them’ attitudes to stop. We are the public. The public is us.”
No complaints
Mayor Cordova said he had not heard any complaints about police-public interaction. “Absolutely not. This police chief (previous chief Syling) was always going on the radio ... trying to get the public engaged.”
Town Council member Rudy Abeyta was asked on Monday if he wanted to respond to Ault’s letter. “History is history,” he said. “The new chief of police is very aware of what the problems are and he will work to address them.”
Maggio gave former chief Syling his endorsement. “He was a very good chief,” Maggio said. “He did a very good job here.”
During a recent interview, Anglada said he had heard “that there was dissension among the troops, but I haven’t been able to confirm that.” He said he would have to see where improvements are needed.
Anglada, who is to be sworn in when a vetting process is completed, has addressed morale issues before in his career, when he was a sergeant assigned to State Police District 7 (the Española-Chimayó area) in 2002 and 2003, according to the resume he submitted for the chief’s job.
“During this time we experienced a noticeable drop in burglaries in the Chimayó area,” Anglada wrote. “I also noticed a change in the morale of the officers. They have a deeper respect for the community they serve and confidence that they are capable of working with the community to bring about change.”
Ault’s application was the only one “that criticized the previous administration ... the previous police chief,” Cordova said. “How you do things in Taos is different than in other places,” he said. The mayor said the law is applied uniformly in Taos.
Copyright 2009 Albuquerque Journal