By PETE SHEEHEYLos Alamos County Councilor
The County Council will consider the role of the Sheriff in Los Alamos in a Special Session at 6 p.m., Wednesday, July 26 at the Los Alamos Municipal Building.
The Council, not including myself, called an election last November to eliminate the office. After a contentious campaign, Los Alamos voted to keep an elected Sheriff. I believe a majority on Council now accepts that our citizens want a functional Sheriff’s Office. We need to agree on what the Sheriff’s functions will be.
I am proposing a Resolution: (https://www.losalamosnm.us/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6435726/File/20170726_Resolution%2017-08_Sheriff.pdf) to return a reasonable set of duties to the Sheriff’s Office. This Resolution is a compromise that acknowledges the wishes of the majority to preserve a functional elected Sheriff’s Office, while respecting the concerns of those who voted to eliminate the office.
The Resolution is aimed at resolving three areas of concern: legal, political and practical considerations.
The County Charter (municode.com/library/nm/los_alamos_county/codes/code_of_ordinances, section 304.4) assigns to the County Police Department the job of “conserving the peace and enforcing the laws of the State and the ordinances of the County.” The Charter provides that “the Sheriff shall have those powers and duties assigned to sheriffs by state statutes, including the powers of a peace officer, but the Sheriff shall not duplicate or perform those duties in this Charter or by ordinance or resolution assigned or delegated to the County’s Police Department.”
The 1976 New Mexico District Court decision “Vaughn vs. Incorporated County of Los Alamos” upheld this distribution of some duties to the Police Department.
The historical role of the Sheriff’s Office in Los Alamos has been mostly civil law duties–process service and lien enforcement– and administration of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Sheriffs also provided court security and transportation of prisoners at times.
These are among a long list of duties assigned to county Sheriffs by state statute, such as the duty of Sheriffs “to investigate all violations of the criminal laws of the state which are called to (his) attention…(and) to cooperate with and assist the attorney general, district attorney or other prosecutor” (NMSA 29–1-1).
Legal confusion can arise about duties that are not explicitly assigned by the County. My Resolution attempts to remedy this by explicitly assigning duties to the Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office.
The present Sheriff was elected and re-elected on a platform of providing a more professional and active Sheriff’s Office. A clear majority of voters chose last November to retain an elected Sheriff, yet a substantial minority did vote to eliminate the office, leading to some political confusion. One concern voiced by supporters of an elected Sheriff was that we need a independent office as a local point of contact for citizen concerns about wrongdoing in government. Those who supported eliminating the office voiced concern about unqualified people executing legal duties. My Resolution is designed to assign duties to the Sheriff’s Office that preserve a functional, independent office, capable of responding to citizen concerns.
However, it will be required that any Sheriff or Deputies executing duties in the community have proper training and certification.
There are practical considerations: we don’t want to waste money by having the Sheriff and Police performing the same functions, which is already explicitly prohibited in the County Charter. On the other hand, a functional Sheriff’s Office requires some minimum staffing: administrative help to deal with paperwork, and at least one Deputy who can respond when the Sheriff is out of town or otherwise unavailable. My Resolution proposes returning a limited set of duties to the Sheriff’s Office: process and writ serving, sex offenders tracking, courtroom and court building security, and transportation of prisoners when certified law enforcement escorts are necessary.
Even these limited traditional duties involve some risk. We should insist that only a Sheriff or Deputies who are fully trained and certified by the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy perform the duties. This certification is required if a Sheriff or Deputy is to be covered by the County’s law enforcement liability insurance. It makes sense to assign enough duties to the Sheriff’s Office to justify a full-time Deputy Sheriff.
When the Sheriff had part-time Deputies, he would hire the best-trained individuals available. However, it is very difficult to find and retain people with full New Mexico law enforcement certification who are willing to work part-time. If a certified Sheriff or Deputy is not available to perform these duties, the Sheriff can deputize Los Alamos Police Department officers to fill in temporarily.
Funds in the Police Department budget could be transferred to the Sheriff to pay for most of the duties that I recommend returning to the Sheriff’s Office. A Sheriff’s Office budget of about $200,000 should cover the new duties, including a full-time Deputy, administrative assistant, necessary training and other expenses. Existing vehicles could be transferred as needed for the use of the Sheriff’s Office.
We need and can afford an efficient, properly trained and professional Sheriff’s Office, with its responsibilities clearly defined. Some advocate a legal battle through our state’s District Court, Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court to settle this issue. I believe that would be a waste of time and money. Within present law, if we look clearly at the practical and political considerations and negotiate in good faith, we can come to an agreement that will work for everyone.
I hope that Council, the Sheriff, and the community can have a good discussion at the meeting on July 26, and adopt or amend my Resolution to resolve this issue.