Las Cruces Police listen to community concerns

The Las Cruces Police Department hosted a town hall on July 16 and added a new format of breakout groups to hear from the community and brainstorm new solutions for problems the police face.

These town halls between police and the public have been ongoing for years but Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story added a new format of breaking up the attendees into smaller groups to discuss topics like traffic, crime reduction, community outreach, internal affairs and recruiting in small-group sessions with officers.

Story also cited statistics. He said that since January 1 of this year, there has been an 18% decrease in violent crime over last year; a 9% decrease in property crime and a 10% decrease in crime overall for the City of Las Cruces.

“We kind of climbed this mountain so we are way higher than we want to be but we have seen these reductions and that’s getting us back to where we were before the climb,” Story said.

Story split the over 60 attendees into the five different breakout groups but community outreach and crime reduction seemed to be the most popular.

Each group was hosted by Las Cruces Police Department officers who wrote down concerns and ideas on large paper pads propped up on easels for everyone to see. After 30 minutes, everyone had the opportunity to visit a new group.

Issues surrounding homelessness, property crimes, and traffic questions were brought up frequently by the residents who attended.

Story spoke with the media after the event and said that he changed the format of the town hall meetings to get more input from the community.

“I just thought about ways to engage the community more,” Story said. “Instead of just me talking up there and answering questions, I wanted to get my people involved more. They (the police) have a lot of knowledge.”

Story also said that he thought the meeting was “successful” and that the department had received a lot of suggestions and concerns.

One resident who attended the town hall, Tim Jenkins, said that he has been to “every city council meeting since Officer Hernandez got killed” and he was there to support the police. Hernandez was killed in the line of duty in February 2024.

“I think it was very productive,” Jenkins said. “I was really happy for the engagement with the people to the officers.”

Community member Michael Harris visited both the traffic and crime prevention tables.

“I am very interested in making streets safe by design and lessening the need for enforcement,” Harris said. “I was glad to hear the officers who we were talking to in [the breakout group called] traffic acknowledge that very organically.”

Harris said he thought the conversation in the crime prevention group was a little less effective but ideas were discussed.

“Some of the officers brought up that we need to reach the kids and have more juvenile programs and that’s obvious, I think. But over the last 20 years, those have just been going down,” Harris said. “I have kind of seen access to spaces be eroded for kids more than getting more access and more freedom.”

Town halls with the police department are held quarterly and this format is expected to continue in the future with some adjustments like location to make it more accessible for others in the community, Story said.