Las Cruces grants new authority to police service aides

LAS CRUCES – Early in the evening of Jan. 28, a 56-year-old woman driving on one of the city’s busiest streets suffered a medical problem behind the wheel, lost consciousness and veered across traffic.

After sideswiping two other vehicles, her car crashed into a third vehicle that was stopped at an intersection. Both cars hopped the nearby curb and critically injured two pedestrians. Five motorists, including the woman, sustained injuries police said were not life-threatening.

Among the first responders working alongside Las Cruces fire personnel was a police service aide, a non-commissioned officer, who performed CPR on one of the pedestrians until he regained a pulse, LCPD said.

Police service aides, or PSA’s, have played a growing support role for the LCPD since the team was created in 2019. The aides respond to the majority of non-injury crashes and assist with traffic control at crime scenes, among other duties that do not require law enforcement certification.

On Monday, city councilors amended municipal code to give PSA’s more authority, unanimously approving changes that would allow the aides to investigate crashes resulting in minor injuries or less and issue citations for traffic violations, such as driving without a license. They still would not be authorized to detain or arrest individuals.

Referring to discussions about the use of speed enforcement cameras during the current legislative session, Police Chief Jeremy Story said commissioned officers would still be required to review the cameras’ data and issue speeding citations.

City attorney Brad Douglas likened their role to city codes or animal control officers, who are authorized to issue citations under municipal code.

“It would also lead to a decrease in encounters between commissioned officers and citizens here in our community based on minor traffic accidents,” Douglas told the council.

The position was created in 2019 to assist police with non-hazardous calls or duties such as directing traffic, taking reports, conducting some patrols and taking some misdemeanor reports without suspects. As of Monday, the department employed nine full-time PSA’s.

Data provided by the city shows a rapid increase in PSA responses to traffic accidents. In 2023, PSA’s took 28.72% of crash reports, increasing to 53.47% in 2024 and 67.43% – two out of three minor crashes – in 2025.

LCPD called for the change as a way to focus commissioned officers on other service calls and allocate resources more efficiently. For some candidates, it is also a pathway into law enforcement: Two of the 25 cadets who graduated from LCPD’s academy last September had been LCPD service aides before enrolling. 

The vote came days after Story introduced the department’s first four park rangers, who completed field training and began regular patrol duty on Sunday.  During a news conference, Story said police departments nationwide were exploring how much service can be handled by non-commissioned personnel.

“They are trying to find every job that doesn’t require a badge and have a non-police officer do that job,” Story said.

Algernon D’Ammassa is the Journal’s southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.