Sheriff candidates face off in Taos News forum
Discuss handling mental health crises, suicide at the bridge and deputy wages
Candidates for the position of Taos County sheriff answered questions Wednesday night (May 5) in a forum moderated by Taos News Editor John Miller at Kit Carson Electric Cooperative on Cruz Alta Road in Taos.
Current undersheriff Steve Miera and current sheriff’s deputy Michael Tafoya are both vying for the position. Because they are both running as Democrats, and there is no Republican opposition, the winner of the race will be decided during the June 7 Democratic primary elections.
Several members of the sheriff’s office showed up in uniform to watch the forum, which began at 5:30 p.m. and lasted for just over an hour.
Miller began by noting the candidates’ similarities based on their resumes, which they provided to the Taos News in advance of the forum: Both Miera and Tafoya have been with the Taos County Sheriff’s Office for about 20 years; they both served in the military (Tafoya in the National Guard and Miera in the Marine Corps). They are also both longtime community members, with Miera having been born in Taos and Tafoya raised in the area since his teens, but born in Artesia, Calif.
As undersheriff for the last seven years, Miera has served in a support leadership capacity to current Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe, and has taken the helm at the office when the sheriff has been off duty. Tafoya, on the other hand, works as a transport deputy. When he retired in 2015 before returning to the sheriff’s office in 2019, Tafoya had held the rank of lieutenant.
The two candidates agreed on a variety of different topics, including the need for additional safety measures at the Rio Grande Gorge
Bridge, the need for additional de-escalation of force training and how to deal with the possible increase in drivers impaired by cannabis (additional drug recognition training).
However, while Miera made clear he would continue to build on the progress he said Sheriff Hogrefe has made since he was elected in 2014, Tafoya was at times critical of the current administration, indicating he would take the office in a new direction if he were elected.
Miera and Tafoya also had slightly different answers when it came to the areas of how to efficiently cover the county, diverting low-level drug offenders from jail into rehabilitation and how to raise wages for deputies and other staff.
The sheriff’s office currently employs 31 people and polices a county encompassing 2,200 square miles with roughly 33,000 residents. Both candidates agreed covering an area of this size is an ongoing challenge for the sheriff’s office. After Questa Police Department closed in 2015, the sheriff’s office contracted with the village to provide it with law enforcement service, but Sheriff Hogrefe has said that the arrangement is only temporary.
Tafoya said he hopes proper scheduling of shifts would help with coverage. “We’re going to have to look at scheduling deputies to work overlapping shifts. It’s pretty hard. It comes down to manpower… good scheduling, [and] looking at problem areas,” he said.
As undersheriff, Miera said the office is already doing a lot to ensure the county is covered, but that the office always looking at how best to utilize its limited resources.
He said the sheriff’s office has developed a strong working relationship with New Mexico State Police, which maintains a force in Taos County that serves to support the sheriff’s office and Taos
Police. He said the sheriff’s office has a temporary agreement with state police to assist when deputies can’t respond quickly enough to a call, which is a common complaint from residents who live in outlying areas of the county.
“Through these communication channels, we’ve set up this temporary agreement to minimize these response times,” he said, noting that he has been fighting for a larger staff for the past several years alongside Sheriff Hogrefe, who recently told the Taos News he is seeking a $1-million budget increase from Taos County, in part, to hire five new deputies.
Based on studies, Miera said the office would need approximately 64 deputies to cover an area the size of Taos County effectively, adding, “but that’s not economically feasible.” He said they came up with an option “a bit more palatable” for the county commission that sees two deputies covering each of the five districts at all times.
Concerning the diversion of low-level drug offenders, Tafoya said he was all for any programs that would help the community and law enforcement. “I think our people and our community out there need all the help,” he said. “Just arresting them and locking them up is not enough. It’s not going to cut it. The low-level offenders, if we can get them into programs, I’m a big supporter of that. If we support these kinds of programs and the people who go through them I think we’ll get a better result.”
Miera said he supports diversion programs and referenced the recent Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Program, which has been adopted in Santa Fe. “I believe that if we can minimize and mitigate a lot of the housing issues at the jail, issues at the courts, then it is an effective tool — up to the point where it becomes a revolving door,” he said.
Tafoya said every law enforcement agency in the state faces a challenge when trying to compete with the higher wages offered by state police. “It’s not just our department, it’s every department in the state,” he said, adding he would talk with commissioners about additional funding and had experience writing grants while he served as the chief of police for Picuris Pueblo.
Miera said that while Taos County sheriff’s deputies don’t make as much as New Mexico State Police officers, “the Taos County Sheriff’s Office starting pay is one of the best,” he said. Deputies start at $19.60 per hour. He said, through working with an E911 union, they have created a pay matrix that is based on performance and professional development. “Right now, a senior deputy is getting about $25.10 an hour, and that’s set to go up. We never will compete with NMSP because we don’t have that budget, but we are competitive with other agencies. I’m proud of what our union has accomplished,” he said.
The candidates agreed that building public trust with the community was key to running an effective sheriff’s office. Miera said outreach programs were essential, and referenced his “Senior Safe” program, in which members of the office deliver firewood to seniors in need throughout the winter. He also mentioned connecting with Big Brothers Big Sisters. “It’s about identifying programs like this,” he said.
Tafoya agreed it was about “community engagement.” He said he would have deputies go to public meetings to engage more with the public outside the realm of enforcing the law. “If the community sees us as community members as well as officers, that’s a big plus. I’ve been around the county lately and a lot of people just don’t trust law enforcement, period. It has to do with being proactive instead of reactive,” he said.
Both men also agreed that continuing to train members of their office to de-escalate encounters with people in the midst of mental health crises was important and cited recent examples of when they themselves were able to utilize such training in the field to resolve these situations without
the use of force.
May 5, the day of the forum, was National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Miera and Tafoya also said they would work with tribal police in whatever ways possible to reduce violence against women on Taos and Picuris Pueblos.
In closing, Tafoya said he would bring to the office “a lot of community connections. As your new sheriff, I want to connect with the community. I want to get us back involved, get that trust back from you guys, work on my department. We’ve got a good department here. I want to build up their training. I want to build up taking care of my people. I got guys in my department, and women in my department, that are dedicated, and I want to keep building on that.”
If elected sheriff, Miera said he would be bringing seven years of leadership experience as undersheriff to the position. He said, “Where I come from, and the person who I am, I can’t ask you for your support. I won’t ask you for your support. I would rather earn it. I believe in the last seven years, serving as your undersheriff, I’ve shown you who I am. I’ve shown you what I’m capable of. And I’ve shown you the content of my character. So I would hope that, in those seven years, I would have earned your support. We will move forward. I want to see this office continue moving forward, growing at the pace that it’s growing, and it will. One thing I will ask you for is, come out and vote. June 7, come out and vote, exercise your right to vote.”
The next Taos News forum will be held on May 12 and feature candidates running for county commission seats in districts 1, 2 and 5.