APD's mean tweets are back
This time they apparently poke fun at a former chief's rumored
This time they apparently poke fun at a former chief's rumored
This time they apparently poke fun at a former chief's rumored
The mean tweets from the Albuquerque Police Department’s public information officer account are back.
And this time, it appears it poked fun at a former chief's rumored dementia and crime in an affluent part of the city.
Last month, a Target 7 investigation revealed that the Twitter account was being used to attack people who criticized the department, and at the time, Police Chief Harold Medina acknowledged that some of the tweets violated the city’s social media policy which states when replying to posts on city accounts, city employees are supposed to, “keep it professional and avoid confrontation.”
Medina said Albuquerque Police Public Information officer Gilbert Gallegos is responsible for the tweets. The chief acknowledged that Gallegos has no law enforcement training. Gallegos is a former Albuquerque Tribune reporter and worked for Gov. Bill Richardson and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham when she was a congresswoman.
Some of the tweets include comments like:
“Calling out your b.s. is a public service.”
“You only complain and never offer solutions.”
“Your racism aside, we've charged 99 murder suspects this year.”
Two city councilors, who are former police officers, said the tweets “cross the line” and “isn’t community policing.”
The latest Twitter battles started after APD had a news conference last week announcing that property crime had dropped 40%.
Former APD officer and attorney Tom Grover took to social media and said, “or another way to look at this is under Chief Geier there was a 23% drop in property crime while under @abqpolicechief there was only 12%”
The APD PIO Twitter responded to Grover's, “ask your client who is responsible for lower property crime? Oh wait, he probably isn't aware.”
Grover represents Geier.
“There's been this really disgusting theory that somehow Chief Geier has dementia or pre-onset Alzheimer’s and that he was forgetful on certain occasions,” Grover said. “They're just these grotesque aspersions towards the chief. He was making fun and he was acting in a manner totally inconsistent with what we would expect from the largest law enforcement agency in the state."
On the same day, downtown property owner Doug Peterson tweeted this about the crime stats calling it an “absolute joke.”
APD’s PIO Twitter responded, how's crime in Tanoan, referring to the gated community
“Which I felt was completely insensitive,” said former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White.
After seeing the tweet White, who was also a former television reporter, responded, “I don't think the family of James Hogan who was murdered in a home invasion in Tanoan would think this tweet is funny.”
The city had maintained that the Twitter account is being used to correct “misinformation.”
“Pointing out the failures of the mayor and the chief is not misinformation. It's just criticism,” said White, who taught police-media relations at Northwestern University's school of police staff and command. “You're going to be criticized no matter what you do, good or bad. There are always going to be people that criticize you. And that's just part of the game.”
Target 7 reached out to the mayor's office and specifically asked if the mayor condoned tweets that were reportedly making light of someone's alleged medical condition and crime in an affluent neighborhood.
A spokeswoman said in an email, “as stated previously, we support the department in their efforts to push back against misinformation on social media.”