difficulties in recruiting and retaining police officers

The organization that represents the vast majority of local police departments in New Mexico on Monday claimed that the state’s civil rights law has been a “complete disaster” for recruiting police.

A New Mexico Municipal League official shared a presentation with lawmakers on Monday that lists “actual or perceived risks” of “liability concerns” stemming from the New Mexico Civil Rights Act as a possible factor contributing to recruitment and retention struggles, along with demoralization; expanded duties; and pay gaps, to name a few other issues attributed to law enforcement agencies.

In passing the New Mexico Civil Rights Act in 2021, New Mexico became one of the first states in the country to abolish qualified immunity — which shields public officials from lawsuits — making it possible for people to sue police officers and others in state court for constitutional rights violations.

On Monday, Municipal League Public Safety Director Tim Johnson told the interim legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee that the Civil Rights Act, which he referred to by its formal bill number, House Bill 4, has been a “complete disaster” for recruiting police.

“Perception is reality. Some of the legal risks, the debates, the timing, the misinformation during and post-House Bill 4 was a complete disaster for recruiting law enforcement, a complete disaster,” said Johnson, a former State Police chief. “I understand why we did it but again — talk about perception is reality — disastrous for our profession.”

Committee Chair Joseph Cervantes, a Democratic senator from Las Cruces who carried the legislation on the Senate floor in 2021, and Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas (D-Albuquerque), pushed back on the idea that police would be held personally liable for damages under the law.

If juries do award damages to a person alleging civil rights violations, the law does not make police officers personally financially liable, Cervantes said. That responsibility lies with the government agencies that employ them, he said.

Moreover, Cervantes contended the false perception held by police stems from a misinformation campaign.

“Law enforcement were lied to, and they’re still being lied to, and that’s why it’s disastrous, because they’re being told that the bill exposes them to personal liability,” Cervantes told Johnson. “I sat there and watched the Association of Counties and the Municipal League — who you work for now — and others, suggest to law enforcement that this bill was going to expose them to personal liability and that’s just not true.”

“It was an attempt to defeat the bill, let’s be honest,” Cervantes added.

Maestas said if polled, the vast majority of New Mexico police officers and sheriff’s deputies would wrongly think “that they’re in jeopardy of having to pay out in a lawsuit…They literally think that, and you could tell them straight in the eye, and they would not believe you,” Maestas said.

While Johnson repeatedly told the committee on Monday that “perception is reality,” Cervantes responded by saying the Municipal League is in the best position to change the wrong perception about the Civil Rights Act.

Johnson responded by saying he will do that, “and I would ask you to try to make them feel safe that it’ll never happen.”