Sunday, December 21, 2008

APS' private investigators

When someone in the leadership of the APS screws up and it cannot be hidden entirely, it is investigated by either their own police force, or by a private investigator, both of whom report directly to the leadership of the APS, and only to the leadership of the APS. The leadership of the APS then decides whether the evidence will be turned over to law enforcement, or if it will simply be hidden until it is no longer a threat.

I would suppose they use private investigators when they don't want even their Praetorian Guard to know the truth about criminal misconduct by senior administrators.

In a Journal article from July, 2007, link we glean some interesting facts;

Albuquerque Public Schools spent tens of thousands for a private investigative firm to secretly videotape employees, the former head of the APS police alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Former APS Police Chief Gil Lovato contends his contract was terminated because he spoke out against the hiring of Caswell Investigations for "selective administrative investigations" into possible criminal activities.
(emphasis added)
Gil Lovato's attorney, Sam Bregman said that in the course of the lawsuit he would be demanding copies of Caswell's billing records.
"We believe the total amount of money they're spending on secret police is a lot— six figures, if not more. I understand they've done 45 private investigations of different individuals at APS," he said. (emphasis added)
and

He said his client complained on numerous occasions to administrators that they should not be using a private firm for secret investigations because they lack police enforcement powers.
Bregman said that ... criminal investigations were left unchecked ... (emphasis added)
We have no idea how many secret investigations were done, and we have no idea what criminal misconduct was uncovered and has not been reported to law enforcement.

We do know that at least one investigation revealed criminal misconduct, the Access Investigations report,and is still being secreted from the District Attorney almost two years after it was completed; weeks short of the expiration of statutes of limitation, and get out of jail free cards for the senior administrators involved in the Peanut Butter Gate scandal.

Paula Maes said she would never allow an audit that names the names of the corrupt and the incompetent in the leadership of the APS.

And she has not.

Someone with some real investigatory authority needs to do
a forensic audit on the leadership of the APS.

Soon.

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