Brantley praises Las Cruces police, announces local capital outlay

LAS CRUCES – As state Sen. Crystal Brantley arrived at the Las Cruces Police Department substation on the city’s east side, a tactical exercise was underway in which a ladder system raised officers and a police dog up to practice a rooftop arrest, with the dog latching onto an officer’s bite-protection sleeve.

The Elephant Butte Republican, whose district includes part of Doña Ana County, used the visit to praise Las Cruces police for its response to the Young Park shooting in March that killed three people and wounded 15. She also singled out LCPD Chief Jeremy Story for praise over his advocacy for public safety policy reforms, especially in juvenile criminal justice, during the 2025 legislative session.

Brantley raised her voice over the wind to deliver a brief speech recalling that her first term in the Senate was bookended by police officers dying in the line of duty.

State police officer Darian Jarrott was murdered while conducting a traffic stop outside Deming in 2021, during Brantley’s first legislative session; and in 2024, near the end of her first term, Las Cruces police officer Jonah Hernandez was fatally stabbed while responding to a trespass call.

“I went in with these kind of rose-colored glasses (about) what we’d get done in Santa Fe and realized very quickly that public safety is really No. 1,” Brantley said. “Before I can talk about how we’re going to change lives in classrooms … before we can talk about economic development, encouraging business opportunities — it’s really impossible when you have a homeless community that’s not getting their mental health needs met, that are crashed out on business doors and vandalizing businesses.”

Brantley, elected to her second four-year term last year, currently serves as the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Las Cruces Democrat Joe Cervantes.

Brantley announced that she had allocated $400,000 of her discretionary capital outlay funds this year to two projects for the LCPD: $300,000 toward the purchase of a new Bearcat tactical vehicle and $100,000 toward a new real-time crime center using footage from surveillance cameras, radio and data systems to gather information to assist officers responding to emergencies.

She surprised Story with a certificate of recognition from the Senate honoring him for leading LCPD’s response to the Young Park shooting and his legislative advocacy. She also presented him with a U.S. flag that had been flown over the state Capitol building.

“You were failed in Santa Fe,” she told Story and his officers, “but New Mexico was not failed by the Las Cruces Police Department.”

Following the gathering, Brantley acknowledged her disappointment over the results of an abortive special session last year intended to address crime and public safety, and a regular session this winter in which the governor had hoped to toughen some criminal penalties, update competency laws and mandate behavioral health treatment for some offenders.

While talk of another special session this fall has died down, Brantley said she hoped viable legislation could be shaped during the interim session before the 30-day regular session opens next January.

“I am feeling optimistic,” Brantley said. “If we can bring some draft legislation to really do what we should have done … we’ll run it by our law enforcement officers, and if we can collectively all work out our differences ahead of time, it’s so much easier going into session. The worst is when we go into session with a bill that has not had a lot of stakeholders at the table, because you just don’t have time to get it across the finish line.”