The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) is pushing forth with its efforts to regulate drunk drivers notwithstanding an ongoing FBI investigation involving multiple members of the DWI unit. The credibility of the APD has come under scrutiny following the raid by the FBI on the houses of five police officers and a lawyer, leading to the dismissal of over 100 cases by the District Attorney’s Office. APD Chief Harold Medina appealed to the community to rely on the trust built over several years and requested for time to unearth the truth behind the controversy. The concern arose from officers not attending their court hearings, resulting in suspects walking free. The District Attorney’s Office typically informs the APD when officers fail to make an appearance in court. However, as per Medina, no such notifications were received in the course of last year, a fact they’re currently investigating. A probe by Target 7 discovered that since 2019, these officers had absented themselves from court 29 times in the cases involving the implicated lawyer. Learning about the voided cases was a cause of disappointment for Linda Atkinson, Executive Director of the DWI Resource Center, who expressed her frustration at the rising alcohol consumption, increasing accidents, and declining arrests in the state. Following the initiation of the investigation, some officers implicated have been put on administrative leave, while others have been reassigned elsewhere in the department. The APD maintains their commitment to monitoring the streets, having made three DWI arrests on Friday night. They intend to establish a checkpoint tonight and another within this month.

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