Candidates for sheriff differ some on public safety issues
There will be a new sheriff in town come January.
Four law enforcement veterans are seeking the Democratic nomination for Santa Fe County sheriff in the June primary election. No Republican is running, meaning the winner of the primary is virtually assured of winning the job in the November general election.
Robert Garcia, who has served as sheriff since 2011, is barred by term limits from seeking re-election.
The candidates seeking to succeed Garcia are Linda Ortiz, Manuel “Manny” Anaya, Adan Mendoza and Leonard Romero.
The sheriff ’s office has about 100 officers and 30 civilian employees. The sheriff makes about $78,500 a year.
The office is responsible for more than investigating crimes and enforcing traffic laws. It also has an animal control unit and provides security for state courts.
All the sheriff ’s candidates prefer drug treatment over incarceration for low-level drug offenders. They say the sheriff ’s office needs to work closer with Santa Fe police and state police. And the candidates say they would spend time out of
the office, engaging with the community and working as officers.
But the candidates differ in some areas when it comes to how to improve public safety in the nearly 2,000-square-mile county. Here’s what they had to say:
Anaya
One of Anaya’s hopes, he said, is getting the sheriff ’s office accredited nationally. The national certification, from groups like the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, requires meeting standards related to training, use of force and more.
“It’s a lot of work,” he said of certification. “I think it would make Santa Fe County feel more comfortable to say: ‘Hey, that department met all those standards and they’re up to par.’ ”
Anaya also said he hopes to implement a drug-diversion program similar to the Safe Passage program found in some counties in Illinois. Through the program, people looking to get over an opioid problem can turn in drugs and get connected with a drug-treatment program, instead of being charged for a crime.
Another of his ideas is to implement two more command centers for the department, in addition to the station on N.M. 14.
People in the northern and southern parts of the county have told him “they’ve been neglected,” Anaya said.
Mendoza
If he’s elected sheriff, Mendoza said one of his objectives would be to cut down response times to crimes, particularly in rural parts of the county. He is also considering a web-based program for reporting minor crimes so deputies can spend more time in communities.
“I think deputies on the streets feel like they are just report takers,” He said. “In my opinion, we need to be more proactive.”
To combat issues of opioid abuse, Mendoza said he’s interested in the county joining a program that
diverts low-level drug offenders to treatment instead of to jail.
“That is one of my priorities … bringing compassion and resources and alternatives to incarceration,” he said.
When Mendoza was 20, he said, he was arrested in Albuquerque for driving under the influence.
“All I’d like to say about that was it was one of my most regretful decisions and mistakes,” Mendoza said.
Ortiz
As sheriff, Ortiz said, she’d create a division of plain-clothes officers that would work specifically on deescalating situations with people with mental health issues. The program would be modeled after a mental health unit at the San Antonio Police Department in Texas.
Asked what the county’s biggest public safety issue is, Ortiz said it’s a combination of poverty, substance abuse stemming from mental health issues, and property crimes, all of which are somewhat intertwined.
“We need to be able to understand that we have those problems,” Ortiz said. She thinks community policing, where officers get to know their community and refer them to resources, can help. “We have to show compassion. We have to give them resources they can go ahead and use.”
To help build trust with the public, Ortiz said she hopes to select a member of the public to help the
department investigate officer misconduct.
“Accountability and transparency is a big thing,” she said.
Romero
One of his top objectives as sheriff, he said, would be to get out into the community.
“We’ve never had a visible, active sheriff and I think we need to do that,” Romero said. “We need a sheriff that mingles with the public, that gets in there and gets involved to see what the problems are and the underlying causes of the problems are.”
He said he plans to get out into the field a few days a week, working calls and handling traffic, to help with that visibility and also boost the office’s manpower on the road.
When it comes to drug abuse issues, Romero said he hopes to help with more education to divert youth in school before they start doing drugs. He’d also like to implement a program called the Domestic Abuse Response Team.
The DART program, which is running in cities like Los Angeles, pairs victim advocates with specially trained police officers who respond to domestic violence calls and help with crisis intervention and connect victims to social services.