New State Ban on Red Light Camera's Could Doom Santa Fe Program

Today The State Transportation Commission banned red light camera's and speed vans on state or federal roads. All communities with red-light cameras installed on state or federal roads have 60 days to remove them. A policy which was approved during a meeting held in Clovis outlined the ban. According to a story at cnjonline.com Santa Fe Police Department’s Capt. Anthony Robbins argued in favor of red-light cameras, citing statistics showing a more than 50 percent drop in red-light and speed violations at lights where cameras are installed. He also said the severity of crashes at those intersections is changing because of the cameras.

I am unsure of where those statistics came from because Santa Fe has not yet installed the camera's that were approved over 1 year ago. In February of this year the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that installation of the red light camera's were on hold pending state approval. All four cameras that were to be installed in Santa Fe were to be on four Cerrillos Road intersections — at St. Francis Drive, St. Michael's Drive, Richards Avenue and Zafarano Drive. Cerrillos Road is a State Highway and under the new ban all four of these intersections will be unable to have red light camera's installed. The speed van currently in use by the city of Santa Fe would also be banned from use on state or federal roads. This could doom Santa Fe's red light camera program . Redflex, the company the city is contracting with to install the camera's and run the program provides the equipment in exchange for a lease fee and a cut of the fines and administration fees to run the program. They require high traffic areas for the camera's in order to ensure the volume needed to provide adequate profit margins for the program.

Readers of my blog know I am not in favor of the types of red light programs being used by municipalities and the company redflex. State law requires citations to be given by a uniformed certified officer who must witness the infraction. The only exception is in the case of an accident when the officer can rely on evidence at the scene and witness statements to issue the citations. So how do New Mexico cities use red light camera's to issue citations? They do this through a civil action.

The citations issued are civil summons issued by the city. The only cause of action if you do not pay the citation is for the city to take civil action and boot your vehicle under civil forfeiture ordinances until you pay. If you do pay the citation then the only penalty is the cash you send to the city. No matter how many citations you get for running red lights by the cameras you will not receive points on your M.V.D. records. Your insurance companies will not know you even received a citation. The penalty is cash and or impoundment. The city saves on storage fees by impounding your car in your own driveway by booting the vehicle.

Because it is a civil action your only recourse if you want to dispute a ticket is to appeal the ticket to a hearing officer hired by the city to hear the appeals. The hearing officer only judges whether or not you ran the light not extenuating circumstances like a judge would. So lets say a car is skidding into your rear end at a light you have already stopped at or are slowing to a stop. Your only choice is to step on the gas and continue through the intersection or get rear ended. You step on the gas and avoid the accident but the camera snaps your picture and you get a ticket. The hearing officer will not take the circumstances into account only whether or not the photo adequately shows evidence that you did or did not run the light.

A judge can take all factors into consideration and make a ruling. Now cities and redflex do not want these tickets going to a judge because judges tend to take plea agreements and dismiss tickets more often than a hearing officer would. Thereby reducing dramatically the revenue from red light tickets. And of course because of state law which says that an officer must witness the infraction any judge who gets a red light camera case would be obligated to throw the case out. I have always said that if red light camera's were legitimized by state law and offenders could go before a judge and plead their case I would be more amenable to the program. Although I still think the jury is out on whether red light camera's actually work to reduce accidents and save lives or if their only good for raising revenue. As of February the city of Santa Fe has issued $170,000 worth of speeding tickets from the speed van. A big chunk of that money goes to redflex and the rest is split between the city and the state. What has yet to be determined is whether redflex will be interested in putting camera's on smaller city roads as both Cerrillos Road and St Francis Drive are state roadways. I applaud the decision of the State Transportation Commission.

For lots more on Red Light Camera's click Here.

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Op-Ed on Political Scare Tactics

Following the below posted Press Release by Mayoral Candidate and Republican Asenath Kepler is an Op-Ed piece I wrote and was published in both the Albuquerque Journal North (subscription may be required) and the Santa Fe New Mexican (interesting comments). While my support and endorsement of Mayor Coss has been announced, I still feel that the true premise of my Op-Ed is about the poor use of scare tactics and not just the fact I am supporting Mayor Coss. These scare tactics are also being used by Kepler and her supporters on other issues as well, including Annexation.


KEPLER PRESS RELEASE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mary Ann Crenshaw & Associates

505-982-8008

MAYORAL CANDIDATE ASENATH KEPLER TARGETS CRIME AS TOP PRIORITY and outlines her plan for reducing staggering statistics

Two well-known jewelry stores robbed in mid-afternoon in the heart of Santa Fe’s Plaza. A child’s purse snatched in her own Don Gaspar driveway, her grandfather beaten as he tried to intervene. An elderly man walking his dog in the Guadalupe Historic District pistol-whipped because he had no cash. A prominent downtown business owner murdered at 8 pm on the first night of Fiestas. A man robbed and shot on a popular recreation trail. A late afternoon armed push-in on one of Santa Fe’s busiest thoroughfares. These are just a few of the many recent incidents that make crime Asenath Kepler’s top priority.

“This isn’t the Santa Fe I’ve known for over than fifty years,” says Mayoral Candidate Asenath Kepler,”and this frightening rise in crime is completely unacceptable! We’re not only going to lose the downtown merchants but visitors and residents as well”

Kepler points to a staggering rise in statistics: robberies, auto burglaries and thefts and residential burglaries all up from the 2008 figures. “People -- particularly the elderly and those who live alone -- are afraid to leave their houses after dark, even in the most central neighborhoods,” she says. “I hear the concerns every day as I campaign.”

The problem, she maintains, is the lack of police presence, a direct result of fiscal irresponsibility at the city level. “We’re down by 40 police offers,” she says, “and if we don’t act now,” she says, “I fear a major downtown incident that may set us back by years. Our city’s residential and commercial burglary rate is fourth per capita in the nation. We don’t want to wait until we’re number-one before the mayor takes action!”

Her solution: Re-allocate resources to provide increased police protection for residents and visitors alike. Kepler plans to do that with:

• Increased and highly visible police presence in our neighborhoods and downtown Santa Fe. Kepler would work with downtown merchants to create substations in the Plaza and other downtown neighborhoods, to be manned by both police officers and public safety assistants.

• An immediate and complete audit of all city functions, seeking adjustments of programs and services as well as staff reassignments that would provide enough savings for this increased police protection.

• Public safety vacancy allocations. Under the current system, city employees who retire with accrued sick and vacation days are left on the books until their sick and vacation leave is paid out, a process that can take up to two years. Consequently, the vacancy is not filled until that time. Under Kepler’s plan, fiscal reorganization will provide a budgetary fund that would apportion departmental projects that would allow the police department to fill vacancies immediately.

• Community roundtables and neighborhood forums that would allow residents to vent their frustrations, express their concerns and participate in the solutions. Kepler would work with schools to develop neighborhood centers and increase neighborhood watch groups, with PSAs assigned to assist each group.

“Crime affects the entire community,” Kepler maintains. “Without a stop to this out-of-control crime spree we cannot hope to attract more business, more tourists or more residents. We need to make Santa Fe once again the safe, secure and neighborly city that has been its image for the past 400 years.”

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My Op-Ed Response.

Inflated Crime Stats Serve Candidate's Scare Tactics.

Crime is often used as a political weapon during elections. I found mayoral candidate Asenath Kepler's "crime plan" press release disturbing in that it picks out certain incidents over the last year and attempts to scare residents into voting for her.

Many of her ideas were tried and failed during the times when Debbie Jaramillo was mayor and Chief Donald Grady was running the police department.

Substations sound good to residents because they think that an officer will be sitting in a substation waiting for a phone to ring and then they will rush out to a crime just blocks away. Manned substations take officers who could be out on the streets doing preventative patrolling, catching speeders, looking for burglars and being a presence in the community and put them behind a desk.

It was tried in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and was a complete failure. You can see remnants of the old substations at Frenchy's Park, the downtown Public Library and on Alameda Street. The city police and the county sheriff's office along with state police and other agencies have a successful joint burglary task force which is working to bring down burglaries and property crimes with success.

Property crimes are on the rise throughout the nation, and New Mexico and Santa Fe is not immune. However, by creating a false reputation of Santa Fe as a high-crime city, this candidate's political scare tactics are hurting all of us. This could further damage our already lower tourist and travel industry, which is reeling from the economic downturn as a whole.

I have been impressed by Mayor Coss' ability to increase police officers in the city police force from 124 to 154 officers over the last four years. This increase in the number of police officers on the streets is greater than under any other mayor in Santa Fe's history. When you pull out the mostly economy-driven property crimes in Santa Fe, you will find that violent crime, sex crimes, and overall crime are at their lowest levels in eight years.

There is always more that we in law enforcement can do, but we must be very suspicious of candidates who try and scare up votes rather than earn them.

Greg Solano is the sheriff of Santa Fe County.


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Sheriff Solano Endorses Mayor Coss Re-election

I just announced my endorsement for Mayor David Coss. You can read the press release below. At the end of the day, I just think he's the right leader for Santa Fe and has the ability to bring people together to solve pressing issues and reduce crime.

Last summer there was a peak in residential burglaries. Working with the Mayor and the City Police we were able to bring down the burglary rate 57% in the last six months.

David has an impressive record and his administration has a long record of working with the Sheriff's Office to ensure that the citizens are protected inside or outside the city or County. Keep in mind criminals don't care whether they are in the city or county and the same burglars victimize families in both jurisdictions.

The joint City and County Burglary and Narcotics Task Forces have made huge strides in keeping crime down even during our tough economic times where many cities are experiencing even higher property crime rates than we have experienced. Most notable is the dozens of arrests and thousands of dollars of property recovery's the task forces have made in the past year. I hope you will join me in supporting the Re-election of Mayor Coss in the City of Santa Fe.

Below is the official press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: Friday, February 5, 2010

SHERIFF GREG SOLANO ENDORSES MAYOR DAVID COSS

Santa Fe, NM -- Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano announced his endorsement of Mayor David Coss today, citing his ability to bring people together to solve pressing issues in Santa Fe and reduce crime.

“I continue to be impressed by Mayor Coss. The fact that he increased police officers on the city police force from 124 to 154 officers over the last 4 years is credit to his strong stance on public safety,” said Sheriff Solano. These increases in police on the streets are more than any Mayor in Santa Fe’s history. I have complete faith in his ability to lead Santa Fe during these trying times.”

Mayor Coss said, “I’m very honored to have the support of Sheriff Solano. I have great respect for his work in the County and look forward to our continued collaborative efforts to keep Santa Feans safe.”

Mayor Coss has worked with local law enforcement, community advocates, and neighborhood watches in Santa Fe to reduce crime. As a result, the number of police officers on the streets has increased by 24%, there are over 120 neighborhood watch groups, violent crime is at the lowest level in eight years, and burglaries have decreased by 57% over the last six months.

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For more information on the campaign to re-elect Mayor David Coss, contact Sandra Wechsler @ (505) 231-5866 or campaign@reelectmayorcoss.com www.reelectmayorcoss.com

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Bad Cops, Bad Union Leaders.

A horrible video has popped up in the Santa Fe and New Mexico news media. Every profession has its share of bad people. There are doctors who rape people while they are under anesthesia. There are lawyers who steal peoples life earnings, teachers who take advantage sexually of the students whose lives are entrusted to them, and even priests who abuse children sexually. There are bad people in my chosen profession also. Yes there are bad cops, cops who make all the rest of us look bad.




Every day there are thousands of cops who do the right thing and they will never make the headlines with as big of a splash or stay in the headlines as long as the ones who do bad. Unfortunately there are two ways a cop makes the headlines for more than a day. When they are a bad cop and when they die in the line of duty.

The current case is now becoming a part of the political scene. A local race for mayor is being thrust into the police abuse that occurred in 2007. Usually the incumbent mayor is saddled with the burden of anything an officer does under his watch, even though the mayor really does not have any direct oversight of the individual officers. In this race the shoe is on the other foot. The leading opponent of Mayor David Coss has aligned herself with the police and fire unions. Asenath Kepler initially garnered the police union endorsement after deep divides in the police union allowed Allen Lopez to become president and Adam Gallegos to become Vice President. I know both officers well, I was Allen's training officer in 1989 or 1990 when he was a young rookie and Adam worked for the Sheriff's Office before his discontent and anti management views drove him to leave and go work for the City Police. I thought that Adam would start over at the city and leave his discontent behind but from all indications he has transferred that discontent to a new police administration. It is unfortunately also my understanding that Allen Lopez has joined the ranks of the malcontent as well.

At the Santa Fe City Police the union has a history of electing those who are most vocal against the administration or those who have an axe to grind. This is unfortunate since the growth and success of the police department is dependent upon good management/union relations. What union members there have not yet figured out is that smart effective union leaders are better for the union as a whole than angry ineffective leaders. It is worse when those leaders are facing disciplinary actions themselves or have had a troubled past. The Santa Fe Police Officers Association (the union) is a chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police. I have great respect and admiration for the Fraternal Order of Police as I was the former local Vice-President of the F.O.P. and former union president of the P.O.A. . However locally the F.O.P. and P.O.A. have become wayward children of the National Organization. The Santa Fe F.O.P. is near bankruptcy and the P.O.A. is in shambles.

On top of all that we come back to the incident I started this blog post with. The reprehensible beating of the 17 year old suspect who was in handcuffs at the time is embarrassing to watch and there is no way to justify what happened on that day. Yet Sergeant Allen Lopez the police president continues to give statements to the media that these officers, two of whom were fired, should have kept their jobs. There is statements from the mayor that the police union pressured him to intervene in the firings and indications that the reasons the police union did not endorse Mayor Coss was because the mayor refused to intervene. In another city police disciplinary described in a story in the Santa Fe Reporter an officers testimony about an incident was proven to be false in audio recordings and he was fired. The mayor was also asked to intervene and again the police union president was claiming termination was too harsh. An officers word means everything in court and when you are caught in a lie your career is over. As a former City Police Union President I can say it was unethical and outside of the provisions of the Union Contract to ask the mayor to intervene in these disciplinary actions. I give big kudos to Mayor Coss for not allowing politics and union pressure to enter in to what was the right thing to do.

When a union president allows himself to be portrayed in the media as defending bad officers their credibility in the public becomes unreliable and their influence on the public for political endorsements and asking for the public's help when it is time for raises and other needs becomes diminished. As a former union president I can say that the union has a responsibility to assist its members through the disciplinary process and support them to a conclusion. They need to balance that responsibility with their responsibility to provide effective leadership to the rest of the union members as well and allowing the union to look foolish in the media and the public eye does not further their cause. Yes there are bad cops and the rest of us in law enforcement must speak out the loudest when we see them disrespect the profession we all love. Only then will the public believe that we are not all the same.

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City of Santa Fe Candidate Forum

Tonight I attended the Santa Fe Police, Fire and AFSCME forum for the City Council and Mayor candidates. I was interested for several reasons but primarily because the forum would be to address public safety issues. I also have some lingering interest in the city police having started my police career at the city and being a former president of the Santa Fe Police Officers Association which is the city police union and one of the sponsors of the forum.

The questions asked were remarkably similar to the forum I attended in 2006 when the same unions held a forum for city council and mayor candidates at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge#3. The questions focused on the annexation, paying for public safety, the economy, and union/management relations.

The format of the forum led to a long and tenuous forum to sit through. Because there were three mayor candidates and seven council candidates, two running unopposed. For anyone else out there looking at putting on forums I suggest separating the mayor and council candidates into two forums and leaving out the candidates running unopposed. The forum started about 6:45 and ended about 10:15pm. With all the candidates they only had time to answer 7 prepared questions and they each had a short introduction and a short time at the end to give a final speech. I counted one hundred and twenty people at the beginning but by 9:40 the crowd thinned down to seventy.

Many notables were in the crowd including Police Chief Aric Wheeler, Deputy Chief Robin Contreras, City Fire Chief Barbara Salas, New City Attorney appointee Geno Zamora, District Judge Michael Vigil and his wife, County Commission Candidate Angelica Ruiz, Magistrate Judge David Segura, Congressional Candidate Adam Kokesh, and probably a few others I missed.

The crowd had about equal Kepler and Coss mayoral candidate supporters with T-shirts, stickers, and buttons. Kepler supporters also carried signs. Other candidates went without supporters with campaign materials. Clearly these two candidates had the most organized support. Both Coss and Kepler had many supporters who I recognized as active in Santa Fe politics and unions over the years. I did notice that some of Keplers supporters were Coss supporters in 2006 when he ran for mayor. The candidates participating in the forum were as follows:

Incumbent David Coss, Asenath Kepler and Miguel Chavez for mayor

Incumbent Chris Calvert, Doug Nava and Russell Simon for City Council in District 1

Incumbent Rebecca Wurzburger and Stefanie Beninato in District 2

Incumbents Carmichael Dominguez and Ron Trujillo, each running unopposed in District 3 and 4

The first Question asked what the candidates priorities for restructuring were and what if any functions would you privatize. Kepler and Chavez did not address privatization while Coss stated he has always been against privatization and that cuts could be made where needed. Miguel Chavez stated he would concentrate on basic city services such as police, fire, and senior citizen services. Asenath Kepler said she would conduct a thorough analysis of the budget in every department, she blamed the managers and department heads for putting the city in its current situation she says she would bring them all in cut their pay and lay them off before she affected any of the line workers. Wurzburger stated she would look for efficiency's and places which could be cut and work to increase tourism in order to bring in more revenue. Calvert said he would rely on workers to suggest cuts and efficiency's. Simon said he would look to diversify Santa Fe's economy and do more than just go after tourists. Beninato pretty much agreed with Simon.

The heated question of the night was the annexation question, the city recently entered into an agreement to annex 10,000 acres over the next few years with phase one taking place in November of last year. The annexation has been discussed and put off for about 30 years and finally began to come to fruition in 2009. It has been a sore subject for police and fire in the city with fears that current staffing levels are far too inadequate to cover the areas when annexed. There has been a large debate over just what the staffing levels should be and how to pay for the additional staff.

Kepler hit the ground running as she raised her voice in answering this question. She said she wants to stop all further annexation not knowing how it will be funded. She said "it was unconscionable to put lives in danger" referring to officers fears it will be unsafe with inadequate staff, she added again with a raised voice and serious expression on her face "this is no joke!" Mayor Coss was much more relaxed as he stated the city had developed a good relationship with the county and that the counties deputies were not going anywhere, He also added that the city had already increased police by 30 officers, fire by 20 firefighters and added 3 new fire stations since he was elected. The mayor went on to say the annexation should have happened in the 1980's but we flinched at the costs. He went on to say the city was committed to adding 40 more officers in the future to help meet needs. Miguel Chavez said we need to move forward with the annexation, there are benefits as well as challenges, he pointed out that in phase one the costs are estimated at $200,000 while the revenues from the area are $187,000 so he went on to say we are generating revenue as we annex these areas.

Incumbents Ron Trujillo and Carmichael Dominguez joined Coss in saying the annexation needs to happen while all other candidates said they would re-look at the annexation agreement and perhaps spread out the time period for the additional phases of the agreement. Ron Trujillo also mentioned that the red light cameras which he was the leading proponent of would create additional funds for police and fire. He brought up red light camera's again later in the forum as a source of revenue for public safety. The camera's are not yet installed but are slated to go up in the next few months. I thought this was particularly interesting since all along the cameras were pushed as a safety issue and not intended to be for generating revenue. Councilor Trujillo also lamented the governor of the state pushing legislation to have half the revenue from red light camera's diverted to the state.

Much of the remaining questions and answers dealt with the economy and the need to diversify and bring new jobs to Santa Fe. Many candidates advocated taping the cities reserves to avoid further furloughs and any layoffs. Kepler again heated up the room when she said "the tapping of reserves was avoidable, a good city manager and finance director would have known the economy would crash, I will save millions with audits" She also said there were allegations of fraud and waste in the city and audits were needed. Coss replied he knew of no fraud and waste and stated the city had saved for times just like this and had eleven million dollars above the minimum required reserves.

I took pretty extensive notes on the rest of the questions but I have no doubt that if you have read this much you probably won't read much more. One last thing I have to mention is the crowd looked pretty much in shock when during the forum Coss supporter Morty Simon was standing up front taking pictures with the flash on his camera turned on, of the mayor candidates or perhaps just the mayor it was hard to tell. Kepler was about to answer a question when she stopped the forum and told Mr. Simon "You have taken enough pictures, I don't know if you are taking them of me or one of the other mayor candidates but you have taken around 50 and you have enough pictures!". Mr. Simon sat down and as far as I know took no more pictures. The forum was interesting but long, even the reporters had to leave half way though to go and get their stories written and submitted. I am glad I went by and watched I always learn from watching these both from the perspective of the constituent and as a political candidate.

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