International District operation snags 72
BCSO Sheriff: ‘We got to pick (the weeds) one at a time’
Red and blue lights flashed throughout southeast Albuquerque, deputies and officers knocked on doors and, one by one, handcuffed men and women were loaded into a paddy wagon and whisked off to jail.
About 100 additional law enforcement officers were on patrol in Albuquerque’s International District on Thursday afternoon. The extra officers were targeting people with outstanding warrants for automobile theft and violent crimes as part of one of several law enforcement operations that will take place this summer, said Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales.
“There’s a lot of weeds out here, and we got to … pick them one at a time,” he said. “We don’t typically do patrolling here, so this is a little bit different. We’re
giving it more resources.
“This crime is going to spill out in the county, so we need to address it in the city.”
Gonzales said that schedules were adjusted so the detectives and deputies who work in a gang unit and field services could participate in the operation alongside Albuquerque police. New Mexico State Police provided air support for the operation, he said. BCSO reported 72 arrests, 58 felony arrests, five stolen vehicles recovered and three firearms seized.
Pairs of deputies and Albuquerque
police officers went door to door looking for people on a list of about 100 suspects. After their addresses were checked, the law enforcement officers started running license plates and looking for suspicious behavior.
“There’s a need all over the city,” said Charlie Bennett, cochair of the La Mesa Community Improvement Association, one of six neighborhood associations in the International District. “We only have a few APD folks to handle it, and we need all the help we can get.”
A study done by the city of Albuquerque last year found
that even though a section of southeast Albuquerque is home to only 37,600 people — or less than 7 percent of city residents — more than 27 percent of the city’s murders and 37 percent of its nonfatal shootings happened there in the three-year period from 2014 through 2016.
The Journal spent a couple of hours during the operation with deputies Mark Cerna and Sarah Barrick, who are assigned to the Gang Recognition Intelligence Patrol. They checked for two suspects with outstanding warrants to no avail, handed out passes to a public swimming pool to some
neighborhood kids before being summoned to a closed church, where BCSO Sgt. Christopher Starr had stopped four people with a small amount of heroin and needles.
Two of the men had gang tattoos, so Cerna and Barrick were called to make a “gang card” for them. That essentially means documenting their tattoos and other identifying characteristics for future use before one of the men was arrested on an outstanding warrant.
As he prepared to be taken to jail, the deputies had him sit in the shade and smoke a cigarette while
they went through his belongings so he could hand them off to the group of people he was with. That way, his belongings wouldn’t have to be logged into jail with him, which the deputies said can be a hassle for the inmate when it’s time for them to be released.
“I’m really proud of our department, because we understand it’s a game,” Starr said, referring to how the deputies treated the man they were arresting. “Crooks got to crook and cops got to cop. We have great rapport with crooks and people in the community because we understand the role that we play.”