Cecily Barker, named Albuquerque’s first woman interim police chief on New Year’s Eve, follows a familiar pattern: Her two predecessors served as interim chief for about six months before being permanently appointed.
The pattern is clear: Michael Geier served 6.5 months as interim chief before the City Council confirmed him 9-0 in June 2018. Harold Medina followed a similar timeline, serving six months as interim chief, before a 9-0 vote in March 2021. Both were internal candidates selected after what the city called nationwide searches. The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) currently has four deputy chiefs, including Barker, who could be potential internal candidates.
Albuquerque Police Officers Association President Shaun Willoughby told City Desk in December, the union strongly prefers promoting one of APD’s four deputy chiefs rather than conducting a national search.
“I think it is vitally important, especially at the juncture that we’re at in this city with this brand new opportunity of being independent, for the first time in 12 years, to have a chief that comes from inside rather than out,” he said.
Photo by Roberto E. Rosales/City Desk Abq
Under the city charter, the mayor appoints the police chief with City Council approval. The nominee must be presented within 45 days of a vacancy. If the council rejects the choice, the mayor has 60 days to nominate someone else until a chief is confirmed.
Barker’s appointment comes under new rules approved by voters in November 2024. The City Council can now remove a police chief with a 7-2 vote without providing cause, giving councilors far more power over public safety leadership than they had for Geier and Medina.
Councilor Dan Champine, a 22-year APD veteran, said he plans to closely scrutinize the mayor’s nominee. “I’m going to take that role very seriously and not just rubber-stamp whatever he’s deciding should run that department,” Champine said.
Council President Klarissa Peña said the council is “committed to a thorough and transparent confirmation process” and will “carry out its confirmation responsibilities in a public and transparent manner” once the mayor makes an appointment.
The city has hired Public Sector Search & Consulting Inc., a police executive search firm that has led chief searches in 12 major cities, including Chicago, Seattle and Minneapolis, to run the nationwide search. Applications are being accepted, and the city will announce community input sessions and a survey for residents to share the leadership qualities and priorities they want in the next chief, according to a city news release.
Mayor Tim Keller said the search is “an opportunity to choose a police chief who will rise to meet today’s challenges, like the proliferation of fentanyl and long-standing cracks in the criminal justice system.”
Gilbert Gallegos, the mayor’s director of communications, said he does not expect the process to take as long as Harold Medina’s 2021 appointment. That search was shaped by COVID-19 protocols, protests over police use of force, rising crime rates and concerns about the city’s federal consent decree.
“There are major differences from the last search and now,” Gallegos said, pointing to the completion of U.S. Department of Justice reform efforts and what he called working crime-fighting strategies.
The police chief leads more than 950 sworn officers, manages a $186 million budget, oversees 911 response, and shapes the department’s relationship with the community.
