Here at The Watch, we’ve following the police problems and policing reform movement in Albuquerque pretty closely (see here, here and here.). Now, Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) wants to put an end to federal training that she says is contributing to the culture problem in city law enforcement.

U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham is calling for an immediate halt to training for officers of the beleaguered Albuquerque Police Department at a secluded Department of Energy facility southeast of town, calling the military- and nuclear-security-based instruction “inappropriate … for community police departments.”
The Albuquerque-based Democratic congresswoman’s request, made in a letter sent to the Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Wednesday, would end a decades-long relationship between the federal department and local police. Scores of APD officers — and some from other state and local agencies — have received and, in some cases, taught classes at the Energy Department’s National Training Center through the years.
Some of the training has ties America’s wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Other aspects of the courses taught at the training center, located in a place called Coyote Canyon, are geared toward the armed federal force that is responsible for guarding and transporting America’s nuclear weapons.
“I think, in general, we’ve created an environment where we’ve done away with the sort of day-to-day training that’s necessary, including crisis intervention, behavioral health training — the kinds of things that we know that both protect officers and the community — and moved away to a highly military, advanced SWAT team mentality,” Lujan Grisham said in an interview this week.”And that’s not appropriate, and it’s certainly not appropriate for APD under the current circumstances.”
Those circumstances include a long and troubled history of using excessive force and questionable deadly shootings. Last April, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded after an 18-month investigation that APD has an “aggressive culture that undervalues civilian safety” and “poses unacceptable risks to the Albuquerque community.”

Good for her. It’s pretty rare for a member of Congress to take a position like this, particularly with respect to a police department in her district. And given that other public officials who have criticized police tactics in Albuquerque have faced retaliation, it shows some political courage.