Internal affairs training continues to aid ‘agency legitimacy and community trust’ for New Mexico’s law enforcement

Agency legitimacy and community trust - these are the pillars of a strong law enforcement agency.

In order to maintain these pillars, it's imperative that law enforcement have a strong internal affairs department, per George Perez, lead instructor for the recent National Internal Affairs Investigator Certification course at the New Mexico Department of Public Safety Law Enforcement Academy Dec. 1-5.

The latest National Internal Affairs Investigator Certification course at the New Mexico Department of Public Safety Law Enforcement Academy Dec. 1-5.

Perez, a retired assistant director for the Miami Dade Police Department with national experience in training for internal affairs, believes the training is important because internal affairs units are a 'critical component for every chief and sheriff' in the law enforcement profession.

"They (internal affairs) are an independent body of investigators who have a very high level of training, that are not directly assigned in the chain of command of the involved employee who is being investigated for misconduct," he said. "It's important that they meet the very rigorous national standard of employee misconduct investigations because we need to uphold due process for the community. The community needs to have a feeling that, yes, this was looked at seriously, a comprehensive impartial investigation was conducted by the organization and if there's an opportunity for growth, then the department takes advantage of that opportunity of growth through training and in some instances where necessary, holding the officers accountable through the due process mechanism."

George Perez, lead instructor for the recent National Internal Affairs Investigator Certification course at the New Mexico Department of Public Safety Law Enforcement Academy Dec. 1-5.

The recent training for internal affairs investigators held at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy, which certifies officers for three years, consisted of 46 students from various state and local law enforcement agencies including civilians and even dispatchers. The course, which is held annually at the academy, involves case scenario exercises, multiple quizzes and a capstone where officers learn to put together an Internal Affairs Investigative Report.

The exercises start with students watching a video, followed by receiving an assigned scenario with some specific allegations. The class then breaks up into study groups to work through their scenario. With multiple students from different agencies working through an issue, Perez believes this 'a great learning experience' as each student brings their own perspective or departmental policy.

"The value is that it provides different perspectives; an opportunity for another organization to say, 'we don't have that policy, but we ought to have that policy,"' he said. "It allows for a real-time policy review."

Scenarios include an allegation that an officer improperly removed property from an investigation involving a house; and an officer being accused of unprofessional conduct such as their demeanor or use of foul language. Students work through the exercise to determine how to address the issue and identify if the officer misconduct allegation rises to an internal affairs investigation or something more appropriately handled by the immediate chain of command of the officer.

"There's a variety of different scenarios and exercises that they have to go through that demonstrates if they're able to apply what they've learned into real-world scenarios and situations," said Perez who teaches the course across the nation with his next course being at the Las Vegas National Internal Affairs conference with students from as far away as Hawaii and some from New Mexico.

"The class here is specifically designed for employee misconduct investigations in New Mexico. Every state is different, so you want to make certain that you're very specific to the state that you're working in - curating with information and the laws specific to New Mexico along with nationally accepted best practices from Department of Justice and International Association of Chiefs of Police. Here we talk about the Peace Officers, Employee Relations Act, and due process specific to New Mexico."

The Law Enforcement Academy funds the entire training, making it essentially free for all New Mexico law enforcement organizations.

The New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy in Santa Fe. The academy falls under the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.

"This provides an opportunity for agencies to receive training where normally it would be a reach for them," said Perez. "It's very special what they are doing here.

"I absolutely love this work. After serving my community for 25 years and retiring I knew that this was the capacity that I wanted to provide value to the law enforcement community. You have officers, command staff, sheriffs and chiefs of police who want to make certain that we call out bad behavior, but that we do so in fashion that upholds due process not just for the officer but for the community itself. A sound employee misconduct investigation is critical to maintaining agency legitimacy and community trust. We cannot do the work that we do as professional law enforcement organizations without the community partnership, so internal affairs investigations play a big role in establishing that community trust."

The next internal affairs course at the academy is planned for October 2026.

Story by New Mexico Department of Public Safety Public Information Officer John Heil. Photos courtesy of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy and George Perez.