Governor removes public safety secretary
State police chief moves over to become interim leader
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham dismissed Public Safety Secretary Mark Shea on Friday without offering a reason, and said her administration was strengthening statewide law enforcement with a focus on community policing and protecting civil rights.
“All Cabinet secretaries serve at the pleasure of the governor,” spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said. “Out of respect for the secretary and the agency workforce, we don’t as a general rule comment on the minutiae of personnel decisions.”
As the administration searches for a new secretary, New Mexico State Police Chief Tim Johnson will serve as interim secretary, while Deputy Chief Robert Thornton will become the interim state police chief.
“The state administration is taking the opportunity of a leadership change to strengthen the mission of the Department of Public Safety to deliver vigorous and smart-on-crime statewide law enforcement, with a renewed emphasis on community police work and the unequivocal protection of New Mexicans’ civil rights,” the Governor’s Office said in a statement.
Shea led the agency since Lujan Grisham appointed him just after taking office in January 2019.
His dismissal marks the eighth Cabinet secretary who has left, or announced they plan to do so, since Lujan Grisham took office about 20 months ago. The departures have included top officials at some of state government’s most important agencies, with a few coming during a year marked by a pandemic, economic downturn and protests over racial justice.
Olivia Padilla-Jackson, former Cabinet secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, left at the end of May just before a special legislative session to plug a huge budget shortfall.
Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel, who has been key to coordinating the state’s COVID-19 response, announced her intent to retire in July. She will leave her post Sept. 30 and be replaced by interim leadership, according to the Department of Health.
The departure of Shea, the state’s top public safety official, comes amid a national debate over the use of force
by law enforcement after the state — like much of the nation — witnessed protests over racial inequality and controversial historical monuments.
Additionally, it follows a July move by President Donald Trump to deploy federal law enforcement agents to Albuquerque, which continues to struggle with persistent crime. At the time, Lujan Grisham warned she would call for prosecutions if the agents committed any civil rights abuses in New Mexico.
In a prepared statement, the governor thanked Shea “for his service to the state.”
Shea previously was undersheriff in Valencia County and had worked at the Department of Public Safety as bureau chief responsible for the training law enforcement officers get after completing the academy. Before that, he worked at the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department for about 30 years, retiring as deputy chief in 2006. Johnson has had various roles at the Department of Public Safety since 2000 and has been state police chief since April of last year.
He will take over a department responsible for everything from the state police to forensics and training of law enforcement officers across New Mexico.