Postcard From Milan

If you don’t like the police, you haven’t met Officer Nik Candelaria. He’s the latest addition to the Milan Police Department, and at 29, he’s wise beyond his years. “I always tell myself ‘you’re not the judge’. There’s bad people and good people. At the end of the day, we’re all human beings. I don’t forget where I came from.” Candelaria cruised through the streets of Milan completing a circuit he was clearly familiar with. He does his residential checks and his business checks all while “looking for bad guys.” Drug interdiction is a specialty of his. That means keeping drugs off of highways with the intention of preventing them from reaching their destination. Ironically, both of his parents were arrested for drug dealing when he was just a kid.

With both parents incarcerated, Candelaria and his four siblings moved into a tiny one-bedroom house and were cared for by his grandparents. “We had a pullout couch that my siblings slept on, and I slept on a bench with my hoodie as my pillow.” This wasn’t said for sympathy. Candelaria was simply stating the facts of his less-than-ideal early life and explaining what drew him to law enforcement. There was a detective that was involved in his parents' arrest. He connected with the man and seemed to know immediately that he wanted a job like that. In his junior year at Rio Grande High in Albuquerque, his grandfather took him aside and sadly told him that he could not continue to support five hungry kids. Dropping out of high school meant leaving his baseball team-he played third base and centerfield- and wrestling team. He said goodbye to sports teams and high school and got a job at Albuquerque Tents to help support the family. Eventually, he earned a GED at Central New Mexico Community College.

At age 18, he became a correctional officer at MDC. He spent five years in this job and learned that if you treat people like human beings, you will earn their respect. “Most of the battle is them needing to talk to somebody. If I can make their time easier, why would I make it harder.” He met his wife at MDC. She was also working as a correctional officer. “We got pregnant with our son, and she left her job,” but Candelaria stressed that he would support her in whatever she chose to do be a stay-at-home mom or work outside the house. They now have three children.

Candelaria waves to people as he drives. “Making community contacts is huge. I feel like people know me, and the Chief has been getting positive comments about me.” Candelaria has learned to navigate a prison, the Pueblo of Acoma where he was also a law enforcement officer, and now he’s enjoying policing in the Village of Milan. He does not crave the urban police life that a cop friend in Albuquerque describes. He seems at home in his Milan Police cruiser as he stops a driver in a black sedan with a license plate covered in foggy plastic - too foggy to read. “Just a teenager freaking out. I told him to clean the plastic so we can read the plate.” Candelaria is generous and not under pressure to write tickets for a quota system. “If I pull you over, you’re probably gonna’ get a warning unless you deserve a ticket,” he laughed.

Candelaria is in regular contact with both his grandparents and his parents who were released from prison in 2011. His father now runs a construction company. They are all very proud of him. “I wanna’ give my kids the life I didn’t have, but I don’t wanna’ spoil them.” Candelaria said he recently ran into an old high school friend at a gas station. His old friend said: “Candy, I can’t believe you’re a friggin’ cop. I work at a gas station, and you’re a cop!” In his authentically down-to-earth manner, he replied, “We just chose different professions.” Nik Candelaria has been with the Milan Police Department for two months, and he loves his job.