In late July, Councilor Mary T. Aragon questioned whether or not police officers should continue to take their vehicles to their homes outside of Valencia County because the city continues to experience budget problems.

Aragon requested that the issue be placed on an agenda in August for a vote of the city council. That didn’t happen.

Instead, Jaramillo made his announcement Monday night that he believed the decision could be made at the administrative level.

Aragon and Jaramillo exchanged words, with Aragon accusing Jaramillo of potentially exceeding his authority and not living up to the spirit of democracy by making a unilateral decision.

Jaramillo defended the action, saying the council decided to fund the take-home vehicles in this year’s budget. He also said he gave the former police chief, Mike Chavez, his word that police officers would get to keep their take-home vehicles.

Had the council wished to rein in take-home vehicles it could have done so as a part of budget discussions and the multiple discussions and votes before getting the city’s final budget in place.

In fact, in May during the budget workshop, when the issue came up, no one expressed opposition to a deal between Jaramillo and Chavez that meant Chavez would resign and his salary would be put toward continuing to allow police officers to take their vehicles home, even if they lived in places like Albuquerque, Socorro or Mountain Air.

Under the Torres administration, the take-home policy was intended as an added benefit and recruitment tool for officers. Under the current budget woes, however, some in the public and in city government have advocated taking them away to save money.

“This is ridiculous,” he told the commissioners.

Donges has been defending his department against accusations that it failed to respond to calls about a rave in Tierra Grande during the Fourth of July weekend.

Caught in the middle of the debate is the Valencia County Regional Emergency Communication Center, a collaborative effort of the county and municipalities, housed within the Village of Los Lunas Police Department.

The dispatch center coordinates 911 emergency response for the county, the City of Belen, the Village of Bosque Farms, the Village of Los Lunas, and the Town of Peralta.

According to Donges, the call-takers at the dispatch center aren’t properly trained to identify when it’s appropriate to dispatch police, which had citizens at the meeting wondering out loud if the call-takers have been empowered to decide what laws should and shouldn’t be enforced.

He said calls to the dispatch center about the rave were never conveyed to the sheriff’s department.

The problems go beyond whether or not police were dispatched on the night of the rave. Commission Chairman Don Holliday expressed frustrations with an incident in his district.

Holliday said the county manager called the dispatch center after the incident to find out why there was a failure to respond, but the center’s administrator hasn’t responded to him.

“I’m concerned they haven’t gotten back to the county manager,” he said, acknowledging problems at the dispatch center. “We’re going to find out what the hell is going on.”

Commissioner Ron Gentry also wants to “find out what’s going on over there,” saying calls from citizens about crime, and in particular the rave, seem to be “falling on deaf ears.”

He said the county should “reevaluate” the $215,000 it contributes to the operation of the dispatch center.

“Are we getting what our citizens deserve?” Gentry asked.

The issue came to the forefront of debate in late March as the city began cutting back on employees’ vehicle use to help reduce the city’s budget deficit.

In early May, former Police Chief Mike Chavez resigned in a deal that allowed his salary to be put toward continuing to allow police officers to take their vehicles home.

Despite the deal, the issue is again under discussion by the city council because of continuing budget problems.

At Monday night’s city council meeting, Interim Police Chief Dan Robb defended the take-home vehicles as a necessary incentive for keeping good officers working for the city.

Typically in discussions a distinction has been made between police vehicles taken home outside of Valencia County and taken home within Valencia County.

In general, the council has been more supportive of allowing police officers who live near Belen to take their vehicles home to enhance response time.

In addition to police vehicles, Aragon also questioned vehicles still being taken home by the city’s airport manager and engineer, despite the ban in March.

Councilor Lorenzo Carrillo also expressed skepticism about continuing to allow police officers to take their vehicles home.

Since the beginning of the month, the city has been more closely monitoring the city’s gas consumption to ensure vehicles are being properly used.

The city is working in collaboration with the Albuquerque-based nonprofit community development group.

The two-story La Hacienda Apartments have been the site of criminal activity and a problem for neighbors.

The apartment building was foreclosed on by Charter Bank in late 2009, which gave YES Housing the opportunity to begin to negotiate the purchase.

The project will use neighborhood stabilization funds from the federal government’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

According to YES Housing, the property should be acquired by September and will be under the ownership of YES Housing for at least 20 years.

YES Housing provides a process for tenant screening, selecting tenants with good credit and in good standing at their previous residences.

“We’ve got an ordinance that prohibits that, unless it’s licensed and permitted and so forth,” he said.

The rave, held the night of July 3, was not permitted, according to Gentry.

In October, the county commission approved an anti-rave ordinance in an effort to stop the high-intensity dance parties from occurring in Valencia County.

Gentry said at least seven residents called law enforcement about the rave but no one from the sheriff’s department responded.

“It flies in the face of this commission, which passed an ordinance,” Gentry said of the lack of response.

Gentry wanted the sheriff’s department to explain exactly what occurred, whether dispatch never contacted the sheriff’s department or if the sheriff’s department simply didn’t respond.

During Wednesday’s commission meeting, Captain Don Donges said he would get answers.

“I am shocked at what you’ve just said, Commissioner Gentry,” Donges said. “This is the first time I’ve heard of it.”

Chief Mike Chavez gave his letter of resignation to the city yesterday, thanking the mayor and council for his opportunity to serve the people of Belen. His last day is May 17.

Chavez’s resignation will free up money that would normally go toward his salary to instead be used to pay the gas and maintenance costs for the take-home vehicles.

At issue had been an ongoing debate among the mayor and city council concerning whether or not the city’s deficit meant the officers would no longer be allowed to take police vehicles home.

The officers had been allowed to do so as a part of their recruitment and benefits package, and according to some, in an effort to more quickly and effectively respond to emergencies.

As a part of budget cuts in March, the city stopped allowing other employees to take city vehicles home.

Due to the resignation, Belen Police Captain Dan Robb will step in as interim chief. Robb has served in that position on a temporary basis in previous years.

At the March 22 council meeting, Mayor Rudy Jaramillo and city councilors announced they were establishing an improvement plan and evaluation process for each of the city’s appointed officials, during which their job performances will be assessed at 90 and 180 days.

Because the city government is still searching for a permanent city manager, with applications now being accepted by the city, the police chief, fire chief and airport manager will undergo the improvement plan and evaluation process.

Police Chief Mike Chavez is the first of the three to provide information to the city council about how he would like to improve his department.

Chavez’s 16-page improvement plan includes seven goals:

GOAL 1: To make the City of Belen a major drug free city. As stated earlier [in the plan] this is a never ending battle and should be our constant goal for every year, it is felt that progress can be made. Any achievement in this area is very worthwhile.

GOAL 2: To obtain a mobile data system that would be utilized by officers in the field in their patrol units. Thus, they will be able to complete reports in the field and at times right at the scene of an incident or crash. This will greatly enhance the efficiency of the individual officer; i.e., not having to drive back to the Belen Police Department to complete a report, or criminal complaints, consequently saving a lot of time and effort. As a result of this, officers will be spending more time in the field and less down time at the Belen Police Department filling out reports.

GOAL 3: [See the plan.]

GOAL 4: The department is fully staffed at this time, and our goal is to remain fully staffed in the future. To that end, we have established a continuous classification and testing procedure that will enable us to have possible applicants who can be contacted immediately in case of some unforeseen circumstance that would necessitate the hiring of another police officer. Also, written recruiting plans are in place at the present time and are being continuously refined.

GOAL 5: Our training goals have been accomplished for 2009, but training is a constant and ongoing endeavor. This year a new mandate has come from the state in reference to driving standards. Our goal is to meet this standard not only by having the officers attend said classes, but to have an in house instructor as we do for all other state mandated training.

GOAL 6: To replace old and failing computers within the Belen Police Department’s records and investigations division. These computers are over five and six years old and important information has been lost and has had to be redone, such as criminal complaints, police reports, and crash reports. Replacing these computers would greatly enhance the efficiency of our department.

GOAL 7: To continue with our community based programs that allow the community to more easily make contact with me and other administrative members of the Belen Police Department. This new program will be called “Coffee with the Chief.” One day a month any citizen can meet with me at one of our local restaurants over coffee to air any concerns they may have, or have any questions answered about the Belen Police Department. This program would also allow me to develop a rapport with more citizens; this would also include those that are not normally in contact with the Belen Police Department. The time and date would be advertised in the News-Bulletin.

“Due to the fiscal challenges we are facing within our municipality, we will make every attempt to be successful in completing the above listed goals,” Chavez writes in the plan.

The plan is expected to be discussed during the next regular city council meeting on April 19.

“We all need to get together to address problems in Valencia County,” he said.

The program started in October when Rivera hired three new deputies. Those deputies were assigned full-time to Meadow Lake and El Cerro Mission, Jarales-Bosque and Rio Communities, and Highland Meadows.

“I’m getting deputies to work in certain areas of the county and only in those areas,” he said.

The deputies are tasked with not only patrolling to proactively reduce crime, but they also meet regularly with residents and business owners, people Rivera hopes will becomes his departments eyes and ears.

“They get to know the people. They get to know the areas where we have problems,” he said.

The deputy assigned to Jarales-Bosque and Rio Communities had to leave the department last month. That meant those areas didn’t have a deputy for a few weeks, causing some angst among residents and two county commissioners.

Since then, Rivera has assigned Deputy Chris Trujillo to the area.

To get to know his area, Trujillo spends most of his time there, patrolling and attending community meetings, stopping by businesses and talking with people.

He also gives out his cell phone number to anyone who wants it.

“I’m single. I’m always available,” Trujillo quipped.

Trujillo said the sheriff’s department has made a commitment to community policing, and the way to make it successful is for his cell phone to ring. If he doesn’t get calls with tips and concerns, he said he can’t thwart crime.

“I’m one officer committed to these areas in southern Valencia County,” he said. “I’m committed to being in these areas at all times, not only for the residences but for businesses as well.”

Trujillo schedules meetings with businesses, like Allsup’s, Dollar General and Al’s Mini Mart in Rio Communities, where he trained owners and employees in safety and ways to reduce shoplifting.

Because of a recent rise in motor vehicle thefts in Rio Communities, Trujillo and Rivera are planning to catch the thieves using a decoy vehicle.

Rivera said it’s not just the big crimes he wants to address through the community police program, but even things like illegally dumped trash and graffiti.

“To take care of the problems, it’s going to take all of us working together. The people are my voice,” Rivera said.

A Los Lunas LOCATOR test poster.

The Village of Los Lunas Police Department set up a new program this week to more quickly and effectively respond to child abductions.

Police Chief Roy Melnick said his department is now using LOCATOR, which stands for Lost Child Alert Technology Resource, a program created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

LOCATER will help his department get information to the public about child abductions by quickly scanning photos and entering information about a missing child, including the facts and circumstances of a child’s disappearance.

Law enforcement agencies within the county, around the state and nationwide can view the information once it’s been entered, and the program can be used to produce missing posters for the media and public.

“There are many challenges facing law enforcement personnel in missing child cases. One of the greatest is collecting and disseminating the child’s descriptive information quickly,” Melnick said.

According to Melnick, one in six missing children are recovered simply because information and photographs of the child or suspected abductor was distributed to the public.

The report shows Belen had four murders in 2008, but that number dropped to one in 2009. That murder involved a 10-year-old boy who shot and killed his father on Vivian Drive.

Rapes dropped from three to one and robbery dropped from nine to eight.

“Some of these statistics are really good. It just shows progress for the city and the fine job the department is doing,” said Councilor Terese Ulivarri.

Other crimes remained at the same levels or rose.

Assaults rose to 51 from 43. Burglaries rose from 175 to 186. Motor vehicle thefts rose from 58 to 64.

The department handled more than 28,000 calls in 2009.

Police Chief Mike Chavez said his department is working to prevent crime by engaging officers in extensive training, abiding by national standards for law enforcement, and developing community partnerships.

“The department provides training for all of its officers and employees, far in excess of the state-mandated training requirements,” Chavez wrote in his report.