By PETE SHEEHEYSheriff Marco Lucero was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 by stressing the importance of the Sheriff’s role in Los Alamos. Majorities on County Councils, not including myself, have worked against this, drastically cutting his budget and ultimately calling an election last November to eliminate the Office of Sheriff. Our citizens disagreed, and voted to keep an elected Sheriff.
Sheriff Lucero will present a proposal at next week’s budget hearings to restore his office’s budget. I support returning the duties that have traditionally been done by the Los Alamos Sheriff: process and writ serving, sex offenders tracking, transportation of prisoners, and court security. Because most of these duties have recently been done by police officers (often on overtime) or contracted personnel, a full-time deputy sheriff (trained and certified by the New Mexico law enforcement academy) could do them more efficiently. Transfer of these duties would not increase the overall budget, since we are already spending the money for them in other departments.
However, this transfer of duties would require a revised County Resolution re-defining the roles of the Police Department and Sheriff. Budget hearings are not the time for this debate. I plan to propose a revision to Resolution 16-10 to the Council in June, after which we can adjust the budget to support any changes in the roles of the Police Department and Sheriff.
We need and can afford an efficient, properly trained and professional Sheriff’s office, with its responsibilities clearly agreed upon. I will provide my ideas on this with more details in coming weeks. The citizens have spoken in three elections, but the County Council still needs to hear what the community sees as the appropriate role for the Sheriff’s office. Please come to Council meetings, or write to the Council and newspapers, and tell us what you think.
