Now some councilors want to know why the police department has not filled all their positions. They have demanded that the city police do a better job of filling positions. It sounds great on the front page of the morning paper, but what does it really accomplish? The truth is all law enforcement agencies are having trouble recruiting. Both the Santa Fe City Police and the Sheriff's Office are quickly becoming Rio Rancho Substations. More and more of our officers are moving to Rio Rancho. It wont be long before more and more decide to stop commuting and just work in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Rio Rancho, or Sandoval County. The commute would be less and the pay is comparable or better. The City of Albuquerque has literally over 130 vacancies. They will gladly take any or all of our officers.
So why did some of the councilors decide to grandstand now? How will this help recruiting? The last thing the city needs right now is another change in leadership at the top. Each time there is a change there is a period of adjustment and a new direction that takes time for buy in and time to determine whether the change will be successful.
The City Police are still in that transition time now after the departure of Beverly Lennon as chief last year. Chief Johnson jumped right into the fire with federal investigations, loss of personnel and department that is in flux from a growing city to a large city busting at its seams. A city that can hardly afford its growth but at the same time has no choice but to continue to grow.We need to come up with new solutions to our recruiting problems. If any of us knew the quick answer we could write the next bestseller that would be used by law enforcement, corrections and the military as the bible of this century. We can't give up, we need to continue to work hard at convincing a new generation that Law Enforcement is a great career where you can make a decent living, retire in only 20 years regardless of age, and make a difference in peoples lives everyday. We don't need grandstanding and rhetoric that can only hurt the City Police in its quest to fill positions.
Chief Eric Johnson has his heart in the right place, a good head on his shoulders and the ability to turn things around. Give him the tools and the time and I belive it will happen.
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Sheriff Solano: Why is it the City Counsilors now complain about filling vacancies? Wasn't it just a few months ago I was at the City Council meeting and they wanted to defer to voter referendum an issue put before them to raise the City's 2.5 mil levy instead of taking action on their own? It seemed the Counsil members were more interested in yolking the tax payers with the burden of the decision, almost as if to say, "you're the ones who voted for it, or, voted it down" just so they wouldn't have to take responsibility for a tax increase!!
When you couple that with the facts of the downward spiral of applicant numbers, and add to that of the few who do apply, very few pass the physical and or pyschological testing, maybe we end up with 1 or 2 out of 20 to 30 applicants who actually end up in the academy, before the opportunity to make it or bail out from an unsuccessful attempt at the training they will undergo. If the City Counsilors want more police officers, then they need to work with the Chief, Dept. Chiefs and all those who put in the countless and thankless hours our law enforcement personnel provide to this City and help to change the public perception that law enforcement isn't the time honored profession folks used to believe it was! I salute Chief Johnson in his efforts to make a bad situation better. The Mayor and the Counsilors need to be rallying behind him and not raising ficticious issues about law enforcement and failing at micromanaging the police department. Lets leave policing to the POLICE!!!
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