MILAN, N.M. – The Village of Milan Police Department had been undergoing a period of dysfunction, with internal strife causing a work environment that many officers at MPD have remarked as uncomfortable. Police Chief Carl Ustupski has already begun to turn around the department, instituting policy changes and hiring new officers to help keep the village safe.
MPD was fully staffed until the beginning of the month when two officers left the department. Chief Ustupski said that these two positions should be filled, “We have some applicants for the other spots, so we should be back to full staff in the next couple of weeks.”
“There was some time where there wasn’t a chief and there was some stuff that need to get done but wasn’t, unfortunately. We are filling spots now and we’re getting all of that covered again,” the chief said.
Equipment upgrades
Equipment was an issue in the village’s police department when Ustupski stepped into the chief position, “Officers were putting stuff together on their own, which I didn’t think was right. Officers were paying for their own equipment, I had some issues with that – so, we had the funding… equipment wise, we had to look at what funding we had to get handcuffs, duty belts, all of that stuff. It’s good because it’s a morale booster, if you have a vest from ten years ago when we were supposed to rotate them every five years, that’s not safe but it’s also all that was available.”
The chief explained that there are new policies in place for equipment retention. “Unfortunately, before I got here, a lot of equipment – the phrase I keep getting is – ‘it just walked away.’ I don’t think there was any kind of documentation on who was getting what. So, that’s where we kept losing a lot of equipment, but now we’re documenting everything that is issued. The two officers that resigned turned in everything they were issued, I don’t know if that was the case in the past,” Chief Ustupski said. This new policy will allow MPD to save money by not buying equipment repeatedly.
MPD does still need some equipment, specifically new computers as their current ones are not working the way they’re meant to. Getting the equipment upgraded and updated is an important part of Chief Ustupski’s plans for the village, as the new equipment will help to keep MPD officers safe.
Tackling DWIs
Chief Ustupski said that he was surprised by the police cruisers available to MPD, he had been an officer with Grants Police Department, located in the village’s sister city, from 2006 to 2015. He spent time in Wisconsin as a police officer where he became specialized in DWI/DUI investigations and takedowns.
Since becoming chief, Ustupski has made partners with the Cibola County DWI Compliance Program Coordinator Joanna Pena in hopes of tackling the DWI/DUI issues which can cause death. According to Chief Ustupski, Pena has offered her assistance to MPD and has opened the potential for checkpoints in the village.
“It would be nice if we had the manpower, I’m actually specialized in checkpoints so I can run them, but with the staffing we’ll have to team up with other agencies.” MPD did not receive funding this year from the national checkpoint grants, but the New Mexico State Police said they will gladly team up with MPD if they host a checkpoint in the village.
MPD recently reestablished their connection with the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office and the Cibola County Narcotics Taskforce, which is a division of CCSO.
“It’s going [to be] a little bit to get back into the swing of things,” the chief said, but Milan Police Department looks like it’s getting back on track.