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Chief Maxine Monte Courtesy Photo
GRANTS, NM – Grants Police Department is running a staff of 14 certified officers, down five from their cap of 19 officers. Manpower is the biggest issue GPD faces at the moment, this has created large challenges for GPD, but they are finding ways around the issues to make sure there is protection for the citizens.
GPD has officers running 12-hour shifts, they utilize their detective division and on-call lieutenant to help answer all of the calls for service that GPD is getting. “Effectively, it’s hurting us – on the manpower. Absolutely. When you are working call to call, your more of a reactive division then you are proactive division. Out goal, always, is to be a proactive division,” GPD Chief Maxine Monte said.
Recruitment has been tough since COVID-19, Monte said, “When COVID hit our officers had to work. We still had to be out on the street and handle any situation. But, one thing that slowed down was community contact.” Officers are being encouraged to make contact with the public, whether they’re mowing their lawns or stopping at Allsup’s to get a drink, Monte wants her officer to squash misconception and “Let the public know that we’re here for them.”
Monte said the biggest challenge facing the department is recruitment. When she first started at the department, the biggest issue was retention, now that retention is holding solid, Monte is working on recruitment. Until recently, GPD was down seven officers, but hired Lieutenant Joe Galindo and Lieutenant Lyle Sarracino “If you live in our community, and you want to work in our area, then we’re going to give you the opportunity to become law enforcement,” Monte said, explaining that GPD is looking to hire a two non-certified police officer positions, but is also working to recruit certified officers. “There is an incentive to sign on with our department, and we are offering that to certified officers. We are slowly addressing these issues to build our department.”
Data Policing
Grants Police Department is looking at the data. When she first started with the department, Monte expressed her desire to move the department to the future and utilize data to understand where crime hot spots are across the city.
However, because of old technology, this data collection process is slow and done by hand. All of the data points GPD tracks must be entered manually, as current technology is limited. To address this, GPD is purchasing a new system it hopes to have installed by September called a “Tyler System” that will help to collect data and better inform where and why crime is happening so it can be stopped.
Data has shown officers that burglaries are the most committed crime in the city. When officers go out to hot spots and are present, burglaries are not committed, Monte attributes this to the presence of officers.
One of the problems GPD runs into is that would-be criminals have police scanners. This makes it difficult for officers to be present and ahead of criminals.
Crime in the City
Crime is not as high as it has been in years. The city recently saw its first homicide of the year, offering her thoughts on crime, Chief Monte said, “The circumstances involved with an individual that chooses to break the law. One thing I learned years ago from Lieutenant Rodriguez is that the crime wave is always up and down. Some years its below the crime rate, and other times it’s real high. I still believe in that, I believe in the full moon theory where, if it’s going to happen it’s going to happen on the full moon. We usually generate more calls for service during a full moon than we do when it’s not a full moon. I’m not going to sit here and fool anybody and say it’s because I’m here at Grants Police Department, crime is, in my opinion, building because it’s the summer. It’s warmer, more people are getting out and interacting with other individuals. We shut down for so many years because of COVID, and now people are finally going outside and interacting, being face-toface, and back to work. You’re going to have disagreements; you’re going to have those incidents where a crime is committed because of a certain situation.”
Monte said the most challenging part of this investigation is that there was not enough assistance to process the crime scenes. She thanked New Mexico State Police for their help in processing the property, and mentioned that she had to call extra officers to support the department.
“Keep in mind, when half the officers are working on a Monday, then those officers are also working – the way our schedule is – are also working the next day,” she said that this makes it difficult because officers do not get the time they need for restful sleep and adequate preparation for the day. Monte said this has made it “tough” to deploy resources, but that the department is making their schedules work and keeping the community as safe as possible with their limited staff.
If GPD were fully staffed, they would be free to broaden their abilities and better protect the community.