Readers to the Cibola Citizen will recognize Harry Hall’s name, Hall is a common contributor to the “Letters to the Editor” section of the paper and he is looking to be the next sheriff of Cibola County. He retired from the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office in 2018 and has been involved in the law enforcement since he was hired in October 1999 by then-Sheriff Manuel Lujan.
Between his six years in the United States Air Force, his 12 years of Milan Police Department, and three and a half years at Grants Police Department put him in a unique position because he had been to the New Mexico Police Academy several times, and attained several different levels of education from the academy. He received his intermediate and advanced certification in policing from the acacdemy. With all of these qualifications, including several leadership certificates, he received his command certificate from the academy, which is only given to candidates who successfully acquire a multitude of other certificates.
Hall entered military service because, at the time only people aged 21 or older could be police officers, so he went to do law enforcement in the military, but began his work at firearms instruction.
When Hall eventually became a police officer, he found the pay to be the most difficult part of the job. When he started at MPD he was receiving six dollars an hour, and when he moved to the sheriff’s office, he only made eight dollars an hour. The pay may be better now, but he wants to increase the pay of officers and begin upgrading equipment, “much of what they use today was purchased when I was there,” Hall said.
Hall explained that he is not putting up any signs, because he wants to lead by example. Instead of putting up signs, he goes door-to-door and calls upon residents of Cibola County. This is something he wants to bring to CCSO, he wants deputies to be out in the public and not tied down on the interstate. “These small villages need to see us and know that we care about them. We need to patrol our small communities that are way out in the middle of the county. We have State Police who can handle the interstate, and Grants Police and Milan who can handle their areas. We need to be out in the public.” Hall said.
Hall wants to focus on the future of CCSO, and he plans on doing so by updating department policies. He said that specifically, he wants to focus on transparency policies. “Even when we do something bad, I want to make sure that we let the people know,” Hall said.
Hall has a series of plans that do not fit in this story, but he said that his number one priority right now is letting the public know about CODE RED, an alert system that the public can sign up for to keep them aware of the fire danger in Cibola.