New Mexico's auditor accused Ray Schultz, Albuquerque's ex-police chief, of violating state law by brokering a lucrative contract to outfit city police with body cameras while serving as a consultant for the maker of the devices, Taser International, the Wall Street Journal reports. Auditor Tim Keller found that Schultz had improperly pushed for a $1.95 million, no-bid contract between the city and Taser in 2013 to purchase body cameras and other equipment. Schultz had taken a consulting job with Taser that began several months before he retired from the police department last year—at the same time that he was working to help procure the body camera contract, according to the audit.
The report said that during the contract negotiations in 2013, Schultz wrote an email to a Taser representative assuring the company that “everything has been greased so it should go without any issues.” Keller referred the case to state and local prosecutors, saying, “We've got a clear situation where the chief of police of our state's largest police department was in clear violation of numerous ethics codes for procurements. What is most disappointing is that we have a person in a position of power who felt he was above the law and brazenly so.” Schultz now is assistant chief in Memorial Villages, TX. His attorney said he didn’t violate any law. Taser said it was immediately implementing a one year “cool-off period” for consulting jobs with any former law-enforcement officials.