The US Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into claims that the Albuquerque Police Department edited and deleted footage from officers’ body cameras in an effort to remove scenes that might damage the department’s reputation. New Mexico In Depth reports federal officials have received “several requests” for a criminal investigation, according to a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque.
Former APD records supervisor Reynaldo Chavez said in a sworn affidavit in October that officers and higher-ups engaged in a campaign to edit or delete potentially damaging body camera footage, and to not mention these videos in police reports. Chavez alleged that videos depicting two lethal officer-involved shootings from 2014 — one of 19-year-old Mary Hawkes and the other of police informant Jeremy Robertson — had been altered or deleted.
