Does RRPD retention need work?

RIO RANCHO — The Rio Rancho Police Department is widely appreciated in the city and has maintained a good reputation with the community for years.

However, the department was called into question recently for how its officers are retained by the very officers that work there.

The union, city and Rio Rancho Police Department all shared their view on the matter.

As part of a series of articles, this story will cover the negotiations and  RRPD's pay structure.

A new union and negotiations

The Rio Rancho Police and Communications Association, which represents about 95 RRPD members according to its leadership team in a December interview, has undergone changes when it comes to its board. The union bargains for 187 positions at RRPD but not all of those positions are active members. Kevin Buchanan was elected president of the union in 2024. David Munoz was elected secretary, and Anthony Tortorici was elected treasurer. The three admitted that going into negotiations last year was a new experience.

“We've done a lot of research about what we are asking for, but being that this was as a new board, this is our first negotiations, we had an advisor with us not to run the negotiations, but for us to ask questions to, for him to kind of oversee and make sure that we weren't doing anything that was going to harm us,” Buchanan said.

He said negotiations “were what they were” and that the union asked for a lot for its members at  RRPD. Their requests included pay, benefits and incentives to not only retain officers but encourage recruitment.

“We got some of what we asked for and some not,” he said.

Despite it being their first negotiation, the union leadership team indicated that they thought it went “horribly.”

“There were just no negotiations,” Tortorici said.

He said they knew they “asked for the world” and knew they wouldn’t get everything they asked for.

“At one point, they (the city's negotiating team) got halfway through and looked at the dollar amount and stopped looking. They said they didn't even read the rest of it and that it wasn't a negotiation,” Buchanan said. “Towards the middle of it, it started turning into, ‘This is what you're going to get, and that's it.’”

Munoz said the union felt like negotiations are supposed to be “give and take.”

“It just felt like there was a wall, essentially, ‘This is what we’re willing to give you and you can spread that around how you want,’” he added.

The union still expressed gratitude for what they did get during negotiations but felt it wasn’t enough to get members where they needed to be.

“We got stuff, but it's not a contract that makes us comparable or even competitive with other agencies. It was us playing catch-up, and we didn't even catch up to the other departments, to anybody else,” Buchanan said.

In an email response to an Observer inquiry, RRPD and the city of Rio Rancho state collective bargaining was successfully conducted between each party from January to August 2025, with the Rio Rancho Governing Body unanimously approving the contract at its Sept. 11 meeting. This was after members voted on the contract with 69 votes in favor of moving it forward and 39 votes against it, according to the response.

Deputy City Manager Peter Wells stated over the phone Tuesday, Feb. 3, that what the union brought to the Observer’s attention contradicted what was said in public by Buchanan.

“If they felt negotiations weren’t going well, they shouldn’t have signed the agreement,” he said.

Wells was on the panel of individuals bargaining for the city of Rio Rancho along with human resources staff and Deputy Chief Gabriel Salgado, according to a signed nondisclosure agreement received in an Inspection of Public Records Act request.

The city team also included an attorney hired outside of city personnel.

“Over the years and during the negotiations of (all unions within the city) agreements/contracts, the city has used the services of a labor attorney to advise/assist with the process at different times,” states an emailed response.

According to records released, the city was billed from February to October for the attorney with a total of 72.1 hours billed, totaling $16,939.

According to the city, parties in union negotiations are often required to sign an NDA, which lasts until an agreement has been reached. The NDA forbade the union leaders from speaking with city councilors and the mayor during this time. The city states councilor involvement with negotiations violates adopted rules of procedure.

A look at the pay structure

The RRPD pay scale might be difficult to understand at first glance due to the police specific nature of it.

Unlike other agencies and jobs, there are many aspects to how police are paid, including experience and rank, longevity with a department and work schedules outside of the average "9-to-5" work day.

Rankings in Rio Rancho range from cadet to sergeant when it comes to "boots-on-the-ground" members.

Cadets start at about $60,000 a year, according to numbers provided by the union. Sergeants can make about $92,500 per year. However, staff can make more with overtime, certain shifts, specialties, etc. Employees also pay 20% of their health care premiums.

All officers get uniform allowances and bonuses for early graveyard shift, graveyard shift and bilingual capabilities. Lateral hired officers do not get a sign-on bonus other than a $1,500 uniform allowance.

Longevity also pays. If an officer serves 12-15 years, they get $1,500; 16-19 years earns $3,000; and 20-plus years earns $6,000.

As negotiations took place, all Rio Rancho staff were awarded a 4% raise in a governing body meeting. Adjustments to the budget were made when the contract was adopted to meet the requests of the union, Wells said.

"We go in there, asking for percentages and pay and benefits to help us be competitive against other departments — APD, BCSO, Santa Fe, all of them. So we looked at their contracts, mirrored it, and tried to get us back to being close to them to be competitive to help retention of officers and to help attract new (members) or laterals. That was kind of our basis of where we were going, but the unfortunate part is what we were told was that we were locked into a 4% raise," Buchanan said.

"But when we got into negotiations, we were told that the city council mandated no more than 4%. And so I kind of questioned that, and I was like, 'Well the 4% is already approved. So, would (a raise from negotiations) be an additional raise?' And they said, 'No, 4% across the board. That's all you can get, can't give you a penny more. It's mandated.' So, we walked away at 4%."

Buchanan said he and the union brought up that RRPD members aren't happy with pay and that a 4% raise wasn't going to improve that.

According to the unsigned emailed response from the RRPD public information officer email address, RRPCA members received more than 4% in compensation adjustments as part of the contract for the current fiscal year.

RRPCA members, including sworn and non-sworn law enforcement and communications personnel, received a 4% raise to their base rate of pay, except for emergency communication supervisors and communication senior supervisors, who received 5% increase to their base rate of pay.

"Sworn personnel that signed a 1-year retention agreement received $5,000 in additional pay for the current fiscal year (this is on top of the 4% base pay increase). Non-sworn law enforcement and communications personnel that signed a 1-year retention agreement received $1,000 in additional pay (this is on top of 4% and 5% base pay increases)," it reads.

It adds that in Fiscal Years 2027 and 2028, sworn law enforcement personnel that sign a 1-year retention agreement will receive $3,000 in retention pay, and non-sworn $1,000. "This breaks down to $5000: 2025/26, $3000: 2027, $1000: 2028," it reads.

The negotiated and approved new agreement/contract also increased overtime pay, uniform allowance, monetary fitness benefits, and provided non-sworn law enforcement personnel longevity pay for the first time, RRPD states.

It also writes that staff received yearly raises.

This is the first of three installments in the series of articles covering the union's concerns and the city/RRPD's view of retention in the police department. The next installment will cover how RRPD pay compares to neighboring entities, benefits and cost of the raises as well as staffing levels at the department.