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Inquiry finds on-duty prison transport officers stopped at strip club

Albuquerque Journal

Members of Albuquerque's new prisoner transport unit have violated procedures, including visiting a strip club and having taxes done while on duty, according to an internal police investigation.
Police Chief Ray Schultz said some face discipline, but he has not decided who will be disciplined or the severity of the punishment.
Two other officers being investigated, including the unit's commander, resigned before the investigation had been completed.
The prisoner transport officers are civilians. When they are not transporting inmates, the officers guard inmates at the city's temporary jail and book them in.
In the wake of the investigation, Schultz said a sworn lieutenant now oversees the civilians. He also has installed more cameras at the unit's temporary jail, which is at the Alvarado Transportation Center. And Schultz said he is making everyone in the unit go through training on department procedures and is putting GPS locators on all of the unit's vehicles.
"I am obviously disappointed because this unit provides a very important service," Schultz said. "The officers in the field are reaping huge benefits from this unit, which helps them serve the community better."
The investigation started several months ago after Schultz received numerous "internal" complaints about the unit, ranging from officers receiving preferential treatment from supervisors to the mistreatment of prisoners, he said.
Internal affairs investigators then started looking at surveillance tapes and officers' time sheets.
Investigators uncovered two prisoner transport officers who one day left their post to participate in a "ride-along" with a sworn officer.
During that time, the sworn officer conducted a "business check" at an Albuquerque strip club. During the check, all three went inside for a few minutes while in uniform, Schultz said. They didn't consume alcohol or ask for lap dances while inside. Although Schultz said it is common for police officers to conduct business checks at taverns, he said this one was "definitely inappropriate." "Their job is the transportation of prisoners," Schultz said.
"It's not to go on ride-alongs or business checks."
The sworn officer also faces possible disciplinary action.
Schultz said the investigation also found that a prisoner transport officer once left his post to complete his taxes. Schultz said he did not know how long the man had been gone.
Others in the unit also face discipline for violating the department's overtime procedures.
Schultz said the investigation so far has not turned up any incidents in which prisoners were mistreated.
APD hired 18 civilians in August 2006, most of them correctional officers at the Metropolitan Detention Center, to transport arrestees to the West Side jail. Before that, sworn officers said the 18-mile trip to the jail took away time that they could have spent on police work. The unit now consists of 25 officers, and last year APD opened a holding facility for the unit at the Alvarado station. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department and the State Police occasionally use the unit to transport its inmates, too.

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