Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry is asking the U.S. Justice Department to step in and help the city reform its troubled police department.
Berry said he wrote a letter Wednesday asking the department to expedite its investigation of police shootings and begin negotiations with the city on a monitoring plan.
While defending other reforms made in recent years, the mayor called the fatal March police shooting of a homeless man "a game changer." He says the city needs to make changes soon. A publicly released video of that shooting sparked a 12-hour protest by hundreds of angry residents Sunday.
Berry also detailed a number of proposed reforms that he and new Police Chief Gorden Eden want to implement, including hiring a fourth deputy chief to oversee DOJ reforms and improvements in officer training and crisis intervention.
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