Opinion: Crime-fighters need help from state lawmakers

In a state often lacking statesmanship, two crime-fighters are emerging who are giving us hope.

Listening to Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman and Attorney General Raúl Torrez talk about crime, you wouldn’t know they’re Democrats. Or Republicans, or independents or anything else for that matter.

Few New Mexicans outside law enforcement likely knew that police officers had been prosecuting shoplifting cases in Albuquerque’s Metropolitan Court. And their conviction rates were abysmal, only about 15%.

Bregman said the old system was being gamed like a Playstation.

“When 85% of the people who are shoplifting have no consequences whatsoever, what do you think they’re gonna do?” Bregman asked business leaders recently. “They’re gonna keep shoplifting, right? From now on, there will not be a shoplifting case in Bernalillo County which we are not prosecuting.”

Bregman has hired 40 prosecutors since becoming DA in January and wants to have 20 more in the coming months. With a beefed up staff, the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office has prosecuted 59 shoplifting cases in Metropolitan Court since the beginning of September.

“It’s so destructive to businesses — small and large businesses — but it’s also damn scary for anybody in the store to see shoplifting going on right in front of them,” Bregman also told business leaders.

Good for Bregman. Getting tough on crime is going to require tough prosecutors who are more interested in holding criminals accountable than holding their hands.

AG Torrez is making strides at the state level, not by engaging in never-ending discussions about the root causes of crime, but by building bipartisan coalitions to actually tackle crime.

Sheriffs, police chiefs, prosecutors and district attorneys from across the state suggested solutions during the Sept. 26 summit that include harsher juvenile punishment, more youth programs to keep them out of trouble, stiffer sentences for those found armed in a drug crime, and more drug treatment.

Torrez wants to make state courts work more like federal courts, which have high conviction rates, mandatory sentences, harsher penalties for violent offenders and aren’t prone to releasing dangerous defendants before trial. For example, the feds have a mandatory 5-year minimum jail sentence for any crime when a firearm is involved.

“Knowing there will be a penalty has a powerful impact on the system,” Torrez said. “We need the political wherewithal to change.”

Two things stood out the most and were repeated throughout Torrez’s 3-hour summit:

1. Law enforcement needs help from state lawmakers to fix the crime problem, and

2. We need to change the growing negative perception of law enforcement to retain and recruit new officers.

Legislators have the power to fix many of the problems that plague our state’s judicial system. We don’t have enough prosecutors, enough cops on the street, enough judges willing to be stern on crime, or enough mandatory jail sentences.

Law enforcement has clearly spelled out to legislators what needs to be done. Whether or not they listen and take meaningful action will determine if New Mexico is a crime-ridden state people want to stay away from, or a state that embraces law and order and fosters economic growth and prosperity for all.

— Albuquerque Journal