By Connor Currier
Police Chief Harold Medina will keep his job after one city councilor failed to force a no-confidence vote on April 3.
West Side Councilor Louie Sanchez introduced a declaration of no-confidence in the embattled police chief, a first step toward an impeachment vote.
According to the city charter, the Albuquerque City Council has the authority to remove the chief of police if two-thirds of the councilors agree.
Sanchez, who retired from the Albuquerque Police Department in 2014 after 26 years on the force, said public safety in Albuquerque has gotten worse in recent years. That’s one reason he decided to run for City Council in 2021.
“I saw a major change in my city, the city went from being a pretty decent place to live to a place with increasing issues with crime and drugs,” Sanchez said.
Since the beginning of 2024 Chief Medina has been in the spotlight—and not for good reasons. In January, news broke that the FBI is investigating officers in his department’s DWI unit who are suspected of taking bribes from a defense attorney to let accused drunk drivers off the hook.
Medina vowed a thorough investigation but several of the officers under investigation have since resigned.
Then, in February, Medina was involved in a car crash on East Central as he fled gunfire on the street. The chief was driving in an unmarked APD pickup truck when he sped through an intersection and crashed into a 1966 Ford Mustang, seriously injuring the driver.
To make matters worse, Medina had been on his way to a press conference Mayor Tim Keller was hosting—on the topic of public safety, and Medina had his wife in the car with him.
At the April 4 Council meeting Sanchez said: “We have three choices: to move forward, to stay the same or to fall back.”
But after a long discussion, the Council voted to withdraw the motion. They may still bring it back for further discussion and a vote.
The federal investigation of the DWI unit and the car crash have led to public calls for the chief to be fired.
Former city councilor and Chief Public Safety Officer Pete Dinelli has been an outspoken critic of Chief Medina, suggesting that he needs to take more responsibility for his actions.
“APD Chief Harold Medina must be held 100% responsible for the car crash critically injuring a private citizen,” Dinelli wrote in an Albuquerque Journal op-ed published March 8. In the op-ed, Dinelli argued that Medina should be terminated “for cause.”
In March 2021, Mayor Keller appointed Medina and the Albuquerque City Council voted 8-0 to confirm him.
This is not the first trouble for APD. The Department has been under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Justice since 2014, when the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that APD engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force that violated the Constitution and federal law.
