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police call in sick

Albuquerque school police force develop 'blue flu' after a no-guns vote

By T.J. Wilham and Andrea Schoellkopf
The Albuquerque Journal

ALBUQUERQUE — Albuquerque and Bernalillo County law enforcement scrambled to cover shifts at the city's public schools Friday after school police officers apparently came down with a case of the "blue flu."

All Albuquerque school police patrol officers and detectives scheduled to work called in sick Friday morning, requiring city police and sheriff's deputies to be stationed at local schools.

The mass absence occurred the morning after an Albuquerque Public Schools board committee recommended continuing the district's current policy of restricted gun use — a policy unpopular with school and local law enforcement.

School police officers and detectives started calling in sick at about 7 a.m. Friday. Some said they had a cough, others had a sore throat and one reported he had allergies.

APS police officials called the missing officers and asked them to return to work. By midday, half of them were back on duty.

Also this week, eight of the department's officers have said they are going to resign.

If all of the resignations go through, the department would have only about a half of its authorized number of 46 certified law enforcement officers.

APS' current policy allows school officers to carry weapons only during after-school hours. They can retrieve them from their vehicles during the day for an emergency situation after obtaining permission from the superintendent.

The board voted Thursday night not to accept recommendations by the APS administration and a community commission. One of those recommendations was that officers be armed during school hours. Instead, the board voted to keep the current policy while continuing to study the recommendations.

Some of the officers left the meeting "looking like they had been punched in the gut," said Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, who spoke at the meeting in support of the recommendation that officers be armed.

APS police union leaders said they were not aware of any planned attempt for the officers to call in. If there was a job action, they said they don't condone it.

"We are held to higher standard," said Simon Beltran, a union leader.

Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz and White held a joint news conference Friday morning, telling parents their children were safe.

The agencies adjusted schedules to make sure they had an officer or deputy at every high school. They all carried guns. No serious incidents were reported while the officers were out ill. At the news conference, White criticized school board members for not taking action and the officers who called in sick.

When asked if he planned to bill APS for the overtime his department paid Friday to be in the schools, White said, "maybe."

The APS police force is budgeted for 46 sworn law enforcement officers. The officers have been trained by a law enforcement academy and are certified through the state to make arrests like any other cop.

However, APS has placed restrictions on their use of guns, which has long caused controversy.

Members of the APS police say they need to be armed during the school day so they can keep students and faculty safe.

Before this week, the department had 33 officers, about 90 percent of whom are retirees from other agencies such as APD and the sheriff's office.

APS Lt. David Guzman, who is second in command, said if the eight officers follow through on their resignations, he will have to take officers assigned to a particular school and put them on patrol.

Acting APS Police Chief Steve Tellez said officials are checking to see whether officers who called in sick violated any policy regarding abuse of sick leave.

The Journal contacted several of the officers who stayed home Friday. All said they were sick and were not involved in any job action.

Detective Steve Gallegos was one of them.

Gallegos called in early Friday, reporting that he had allergies and couldn't work. His superiors called him back and told him to come in anyway. Normally he starts at 7 a.m. He came in at 11:30 a.m. "There was no talk of a job action," he said. "If it was, it was news to me. ... I will say the amount of people who called in sick today is not something that occurs every day."

Board member Robert Lucero said the officers' response was unprofessional.

"It's like a kid throwing a tantrum," Lucero said. "You don't address a kid throwing a tantrum. If they were professionals like they claim to be ... they wouldn't be acting like little children. They'd be there working."

Also on Friday, board president Paula Maes, who made the motion to keep the police department status quo, said she had been misunderstood.

She said she actually recommended the adoption of the commission and the superintendent's recommendations to allow officers to carry guns.

Brenda Yager, board manager, said the minutes were not yet available.

Copyright 2007 The Albuquerque Journal

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