Harold Medina received a Bachelor’s degree with a double major in Biology and Criminology through the college of Arts and Science from the University of New Mexico in 1994. He became a first-generation college student and graduated within four years. He continued his education, attending the Police School of Staff and Command with Northwestern University. Medina is currently serving the Albuquerque Police Department as Chief of Police.
He believes in principles that are focused on community and law enforcement partnerships, problem solving, and transforming the department to help create a strong bond of trust with the community. Medina believes in strong customer service in order to create a program based on community policing. He introduced and developed several first-time programs that emphasized on outreach to local youth. He strongly believes in working with the community to educate and have an understanding of community-oriented policing. In the winter of 2014, after serving 20 years of being a sworn officer, Medina retired from the Albuquerque Police Department as a Commander. He started his police career in November of 1995, when he graduated from the Albuquerque Police Academy. During his career, he was a patrol officer for 9 years. Medina was promoted to Sergeant in 2004 where he became involved with the Albuquerque Police Department Party Patrol. During his time with Party Patrol he focused on decreasing illegal sales to underage youth. This proactive approach brought compliance rates in the Albuquerque area up to 95%. He also focused on providing prevention and intervention education strategies to the local Albuquerque high school students. This included partnerships with the schools, teachers and laws enforcement with a focused presentation of alcohol awareness to students.
In 2007, Medina was promoted to the Lieutenant rank and remained there for 2 years. He worked closely with community partners such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, and was recognized by them in 2008 for the leadership of Party Patrol; his program won the Hero’s award for that year. In the fall of 2009, he transferred to the Property Crimes Division. During the next 19 months through the use of community poling principles he created partnerships with community stakeholders, and increased internal communication and cooperation. During these 19 months, property crimes saw double-digit reductions in many areas.
In 2011, Medina was promoted to the rank of Commander. His philosophy was to help improve public trust and community partnerships. These initiatives led to the continued success in the reduction of property crimes in the Southwest Area Command. He was honored as the Uniformed Officer of the month as a patrol officer three times. He received the Uniformed Officer of the Year for the Albuquerque Police Department in 2004. Mothers Against Drunk Driving honored him with an individual Hero’s Award for his work in preventing underage drinking in 2007.
In 2014, Medina retired from the Albuquerque Police Department and shortly thereafter became the Chief of Police for the Pueblo of Laguna.
In December of 2017, Medina was appointed to Deputy Chief for the Albuquerque Police Department overseeing the Field Services Bureau. He strongly follows the principles of community oriented policing and implementing Community Engagement, Partnerships with Business Coalitions, Youth and Elderly Outreach within the Albuquerque Police Department.
In 2020, he was appointed to Chief of Police for the Albuquerque Police Department.
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