From patrolling the streets to trolling tweets: City Council blasts APD’s social media account

City councilors across the political spectrum blasted responses the Albuquerque Police Department’s (APD) official social media account made to private citizens — calling them “embarrassing” and “never acceptable.”

It’s not the first time this has come up. Last year, councilors criticized Mayor Tim Keller’s administration for letting APD make similar posts.

“Here we are, a year later, allowing behavior like this to continue and escalate,” Councilor Brook Bassan said during the City Council meeting Wednesday. “It’s really embarrassing, and I hope something gets done about it the second time, because the first time we were promised that something would be done about it and it wouldn’t happen again.”

The Monday night posts on X — formerly known as Twitter — were in response to frequent critics of the administration, former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, commercial property owner Douglas Peterson and Thomas Grover, a former APD officer who is now an attorney. The account, which has more than 108,000 followers, also questioned reporting by online news outlet ABQ Raw.

The back and forth started after White, who also served as Public Safety Director under former Mayor Richard Berry, criticized crime rates.

“In the 6 1/2 years the mayor’s been in office, there’s been over 600 murders in ABQ. While the chief desperately tries to convince the public killings are declining, in the 12 years prior to this administration, there was 451 murders. Just 10 years ago (2014), the city”

APD responded by asking why White resigned from his city position.

White retired in 2011 after coming under fire for his response to a crash involving his wife. White picked her up from the scene before police could conduct a sobriety test. White told reporters at the time that he stepped down to avoid any further “distractions.”

On Sept. 2, White responded to APD on X, saying he didn’t have regrets for leaving his city position.

“Do really think that I’m embarrassed by that? Hell no. I did the right thing. And I do it again,” White wrote.

Grover also jumped in the mix with his own criticism of APD’s Director of Communications Gilbert Gallegos, which led to the account to again ask why White left the Berry administration.

The situation quickly devolved.

APD did not answer questions from City Desk ABQ about who made the posts, but confirmed to KOAT-TV on Tuesday that it was Gallegos.

City Desk ABQ also asked: why the issue happened again after being brought up by City Council last year, whether any action has been taken to address the social media posts, if any employees are being investigated for violating policies and what is the purpose of APD’s X account.

An APD spokesperson, Rebecca Atkins responded with a statement from Chief Harold Medina that said, “These are not random people. We are pushing back against the same individuals who use their positions to pursue a political agenda against APD.”

Atkins referred City Desk ABQ to comments made at Wednesday’s council meeting and recommended taking a “look at past comments made by the three individuals towards the department on Twitter/X.”

City Council meeting

Councilor Renée Grout was the first to bring up the “mean tweets” and said it is city officials’ responsibility to sometimes “bite our tongue.”

“It is never acceptable as elected officials and as representatives that are speaking on behalf of the city, we have to always take the higher road,” Grout said. “I, for one, am very saddened and disturbed and disappointed that it happened again. Last year we had a conversation, our previous council president said ‘if we need to we will change some funding,’ because it is not okay.”

Councilor Dan Champine then asked the city’s Chief Administrative Officer, Samantha Sengel, if civilian employees within APD are held to the four core values listed on its website — integrity, fairness, pride and respect.

“Absolutely, I believe that all of our employees within APD are held to the same standards,” Senegal responded.

Following suit, Councilor Nichole Rogers asked the administration what the consequences were for this behavior within the police department and why there were no consequences for the last time this happened.

Senegal said that a social media environment is a difficult environment for communication and told councilors they could have a different discussion about personnel issues outside of council chambers. She said there is a lot of misinformation about the posts and it needs to be recognized that “there are multiple individuals in these interactions.”

“I also am not going to sit here and imply that this was a one-sided discussion, that there was only one individual involved, and that the only person involved worked for the city of Albuquerque,” Senegal said. “I’m not justifying it by any means. I’m not stating that anyone is right…I think that public comments that imply that one individual was wrong in this case is misguided.”

Councilor Dan Lewis said the City Council has given APD and the administration everything it has asked for.

“If you disagree about that, then the fact that the chief drives a $100,000 vehicle is pretty good evidence that the administration is not hurting for money,” Lewis said. “We’re just in a different environment right now, and even to the point of excess, a very bloated administration, a very bloated Mayor’s office that has every resource that it ever needs.”

Editor’s note: Darren White has financially contributed to City Desk ABQ. Pat Davis, the founder and publisher of City Desk ABQ was the City Council president last time this issue was raised.

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