The interim Chief of Albuquerque's embattled police department has announced he is stepping down and heading to Texas.
Allen Banks was named interim chief last summer when his predecessor was told by the City Council that it was time for new leadership. The president of the police officers' union said she believes Banks is leaving because Mayor Berry took too long deciding whether to keep him permanently.
Banks announced his impending departure to his department in a video message.
"One of the things I can't do is gamble. With the nation wide search going on, this position wasn't guaranteed to me," Banks explained. "In the meantime a position opened up for me to take over another agency as their Chief of Police."
Banks will began his new position in the suburbs outside of Austin this Spring.
Meanwhile in Albuquerque the search for a permanent Police Chief continues while the US Department of Justice investigates allegations of APD's use of excessive force. There have been three dozen shootings of civilians by officers since 2010, many of them fatal.