Española Police Department is replacing two long-used tests taken by employees seeking to move up in rank, with one developed by the Department itself, raising concerns among at least one city councilor worried the new test might fall short of the standards citizens expect of the Department.
“We have to ask ourselves whether it is because people failed it in the past so they’re trying to make it easier,” said City Councilor Robert Seeds.
Mayor Alice Lucero acknowledged prospective police sergeants and lieutenants have struggled to pass the current tests, but agreed they need to be re-written. She said the new tests will be more relevant to policing a city that straddles a county line, is hugged by Native American pueblos and which is home to at least four distinct, if not disparate, cultures.
“We don’t want to water it down, but we don’t want it to be more difficult, either,” Lucero said. “Police officers in Española have a unique set of challenges.”
Interim police chief Stephen Branch agreed with Lucero’s assessment, adding the Department hasn’t struggled in promoting officers to sergeant, but promoting from sergeant to lieutenant is a different story, he said. The Department has been without a lieutenant since March when Christian Lopez left the Department.
Branch said to become a lieutenant, a candidate must first have been a sergeant. Currently, the Department has three sergeants, two of whom have taken the lieutenant’s exam. Branch said of those two, only one passed and that was more than a year ago, when the lieutenant’s job was given to a candidate no longer with the Department.
“That test is not conducive to small departments,” he said. “The language it uses and the tactics it describes are for gigantic departments. I don’t know about how they do things in Burbank, Calif. It has to be conducive to working here.”
He said the tests should reflect the Department’s standard operating procedures, Española’s ordinances, as well as state statutes.
The tests currently administered by the Department were written by a national police association. Branch said the new tests are being written by both state police and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, but Santa Fe County undersheriff Ron Madrid said his Office is helping only insofar as it emailed a sample test to Branch.
Calls to state police weren’t returned.
In addition to the skill level the new test will require, Seeds is also concerned about the test being administered in-house by City employees rather than an independent third-party.
“It creates a perception that we’re not transparent,” Seeds said. “We need an outside source to administer the test to avoid having a cloud hang over the Department.”
Both Lucero and Branch brushed off this concern, saying that the city’s human resource staff are professionally trained to ensure the test is administered equitably. Branch also said there’s no reason to doubt the Department’s ability to oversee the test.
“Our integrity is above standard,” he said.
Branch said the 20-question test is 85 percent complete. To pass, 70 percent of the questions must be answered correctly.
Seeds’ concerns aren’t shared by his colleagues on the Council. Councilors Cory Lewis and Dennis Tim Salazar said they weren’t familiar enough with the tests to comment.
Councilor Peggy Sue Martinez said she, too, wasn’t familiar with the details, but said she’d like to at least see a copy of the test once finished.
Councilor Eric Radosevich said “as long as it meets state and federal requirements” he doesn’t have a problem with it.
Seeds also said he’s unclear why Branch is in such a rush to make these changes, adding that it’s not necessarily his place.
“He’s an acting chief, but he’s acting like a newly hired chief,” he said. “I think he’s getting way ahead of himself.”