Española Police Chief says National Guard making a 'difference'

ESPAÑOLA — Roughly two weeks after New Mexico National guardsmen were deployed here on Nov. 9, Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia said he has already seen positive results in his department’s ability to carry out law enforcement in a community public officials have said for months was in urgent need of support.

“We do have a few success stories that we’ve seen,” he told the Journal. “They’ve helped us with police escorts. They’ve helped us set up perimeters at scenes. That’s what we need them for, for observing and reporting.”

Earlier this week, Garcia said guardsmen were patrolling an Española public park when they spotted a person with knives on a table nearby and who appeared to be under the influence of narcotics. They called it in.

“Officers showed up, detained the individual and found out that he had outstanding warrants for his arrest,” Garcia said. “He was placed in custody.”

Garcia points to the incident as one example in a growing number of cooperative operations that are taking place between his 27 officers and the New Mexico National Guard, which deployed around 20 guardsmen here early this month as part of an executive order Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued this summer.

The governor signed the order Aug. 12, allocating $800,000 in emergency funds to Rio Arriba County law enforcement agencies and activated a provision this fall to deploy guardsmen to Española, which local officials say is in the midst of a drug, public safety and housing crisis.

Hank Minitrez, public affairs director for the New Mexico National Guard, said guardsmen are “performing the same kind of support duties we have for the Albuquerque Police Department.

“They’re providing scene security and calling dispatch to inform PD of incidents they witness, in order for law enforcement officers to engage in more proactive policing,” he added.

The National Guard also supplied vehicles its personnel uses on patrols. Garcia said guardsmen wear fatigues and are equipped with body cameras. They do not, however, carry weapons and are not authorized to make arrests.

“They’re split up into two shifts,” the local police chief said. “There’s at least four of them on every shift, and we have two that are permanently assigned to work the day shift. They do more of the IT stuff, where they’re helping us to identify hot spots. They’re following cases from arrest until the case is closed, so they’re integrated.”

From the pool of emergency funding awarded to Rio Arriba agencies, Española Police Department received $75,000 for overtime, $40,000 for a handheld narcotics analyzer, and the local dispatch center received $40,000 in overtime.

Garcia said he and his officers aren’t the only ones feeling like the added law enforcement support is making their community safer.

In an interview with KRQE-TV this week, Española City Councilor Sam LeDoux said, “Honestly it’s one of the first times I could of gone to Walmart in months where I wasn’t asked for money or I didn’t feel unsafe.”

A Journal investigation this fall found scant evidence to support a quantifiable public safety “crisis,” however, Garcia said there are other measures beyond crime statistics to measure whether the National Guard deployment is making a meaningful difference.

“There’s both tangible and intangible results of everything you do,” he said. “I think the intangible now is that I have been approached by numerous citizens saying that they feel a lot safer. The reason being is that we do have National Guard vehicles just parked in the parking lots. Just like we had planned for, the ability to observe and report anything that could escalate into any type of illegal activity is a lot quicker.”