TEDxABQ: Protect & Serve [Videos]

What does it look like to reshape a relationship between law enforcement and the communities it serves? How can we, as citizens and as a community, ensure our families are safe, and our law enforcement agents are properly equipped to protect and serve in our city?

On May 1, 2014 TEDxABQ invited Protect & Serve to host a salon.  We brought together leaders, community members, organizers, professionals and law enforcement agents from a wide range of communities in Albuquerque to share their ideas and visions for what it means to protect and serve in ABQ. This salon sought to engage in and inspire constructive, non-partisan conversation on how we can address the challenges we now face as a community and create a healthy and safe Albuquerque.

A special thanks to the New Mexico Conference of Churches and anonymous donors who helped to make the event available and free to the public.

See the speakers at the links included in each speaker’s name:

Rafe Martinez. Mr. Martinez is a cofounder of the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy and currently serves as the executive director of the school. He is a father of three children, one of whom is a hard of hearing son, Ben. He brings over 20 years of experience as a teacher, athletic coach, dean of students and school administrator.

Mr. Martinez will speak to the idea of building trust, dispelling fear, and fostering communication in order to better serve the community. The Albuquerque Sign Language Academy’s (ASLA) core values revolve around communication and relationships. In that spirit, ASLA is reaching out to APD to proactively invite them into the school’s community and develop a relationship-driven partnership, truly a win-win situation.

 

David Correia. David Correia is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, and the author of the book, “Properties of Violence: Law and Land Grant Struggle in Northern New Mexico. For the past four years, Correia has written extensively on the problem of police violence in Albuquerque.
Correia approaches his talk from a historical perspective. He argues that the problem of police violence has a long history in Albuquerque. To understand and finally resolve the problem we have to place both the pattern of violence and previous efforts to reform APD in historical context.

 

Dr. Troy Rodgers. Dr. Troy Rodgers is a police and criminal psychologist who currently works with over 60 different federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.  He is an expert in verbal de-escalation and crisis intervention training.

Dr. Rodgers will address the history of verbal de-escalation as both a social issue and a training approach used locally by law enforcement. He will also shed light on how the body and mind function in the midst of a crisis situation to provide an understanding of what occurs in crisis on a neurological level. Rodgers will also provide insight on how we can expand support for our community’s law enforcement agents.

 

Jim Ogle was born and raised in New Mexico and graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in Physics & Astronomy. He spent 4 years as a teacher in the Peace Corp in Botswana. Upon his return to the USA he spent his working career at, and retired from, Los Alamos National Laboratory.

He became involved with mental health and NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, when an adult family member was diagnosed with a serious mental illness. He was President of NAMI Albuquerque for about 6 years; he has been on the NAMI New Mexico board for about 4 years; he is presently the Vice President of NAMI Albuquerque. He has been a member of two legislative task forces focused on mental illness.   He is on the steering committee for a UNM research project that involves recovery in people living with drug addiction and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is a NAMI representative to the Bernalillo County Forensic Intervention Consortium and he is on the steering committee for Albuquerque’s response to a White House call for a national conversation on mental health.

 

Hakim Bellamy. Hakim Bellamy is a professional artist, poet, and author who just completed his two-year term as the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque. Hakim is also a freelance journalist, community organizer, and proud Dad of a 6 year-old son. His poetry has been published in Albuquerque inner-city buses and numerous anthologies.

 

Deborah Kuidis. Deborah retired from the Albuquerque Police Dept in 1999 and went on to serve as a Commander with the UNM Police Department. In her service with APD, she was the first Hispanic woman to achieve the rank of Captain and later became the department’s first female deputy chief. Deborah served as a patrol officer, supervisor, and academy instructor.

For years, Deborah addressed new officers at their training graduation with a speech about the honor and responsibility being bestowed upon them by the community. In her talk she will discuss the relationship between law enforcement and the community and share her experiences as a police officer in Albuquerque.

 

Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld. Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld is the spiritual leader of Congregation Albert. Before arriving in Albuquerque three years ago, Rabbi Rosenfeld had been active in building community in Memphis, TN, Anchorage, Alaska, and Buffalo, NY.

Rabbi Rosenfeld brings a message of forgiveness and healing and not dwelling on the past. Through people’s faith and community, we can help the community to heal, rebuild trust and reconcile.