Rafael Reyes

Provide a short bio of yourself and tell us how you got into public service?

Rafael Reyes Jr. Currently serving as an Operations Director at Tigua Inc., where I manage several service contracts with the federal government. I was born in El Paso, Texas, and graduated from Austin High School in 1992, before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force.

I used the military as a pathway to an education, earning an associate degree and bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Upon honorable discharge in 1999, I started a federal law enforcement career, seeking purpose, excitement, and a way back home to El Paso. Although it took a little while, in 2006 I was eventually assigned to New Mexico, settling with my family in Las Cruces.

I attended graduate school at NMSU, completing a master’s degree in criminal justice in 2010. A year later I was selected to attend the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth Kansas, as an interagency student where I earned a master’s degree in military arts and sciences.

Upon graduation I was reassigned to Washington D.C. and later took several command assignments throughout the southwest. I attend the Senior Management Institute for Police at Boston University and the FBI National Academy. In 2021, I was fortunate enough to return home, settling once again in Las Cruces, where I retired after 25 years of service in the summer of 2024.

What is one thing the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office is not doing well right now—and what is the first thing you would change?

It’s clear from the “hits and misses” tour completed earlier this year by the current sheriff that our communities are demand more transparency, which wasn’t being provided; transparency in the departments operations, leadership and policies.

Much can be blamed on the lack of communication and engagement with community stakeholders. To correct this, upon assuming the office, I will establish a community advisory council comprised of residents of Dona Ana, giving residents a voice in the direction of the department. I will also establish a regular cadence of town halls, meetings with community leaders, publishing and distributing performance reports, and engagements with the board of county commissioners.

What would your deputies do differently on the street under your leadership that the public would actually notice?

There are several things that both deputies and I will do differently that the public will notice. The first of these is presence. My presence specifically at city council meetings, community meetings, community forums, listening sessions, talking with stakeholders and residents.

Second, deputies will be seen conducting proactive and targeted policing, such as saturation patrols in known hots spots, sobriety checkpoints to discourage DUI’s and to disrupt illegal activity.

How would you measure whether your department is succeeding—and what numbers would you make public?

There are so many things to examine and measure to determine the department’s effectiveness, here are but a few of the key performance indicators I would monitor to determine the level of service we are providing to the county:

• Number of community contacts
• Arrests rates
• Number of community complaints
• Number of Use of Force incidents
• Number of calls for service
• Types of calls for service
• Crime clearance rates
• Response times

Monitoring these for positive or negative changes will provide me and the community with the necessary evidence of performance. These KPI’s would be published, posted, and available electronically on the department’s official social media platforms for public review and to hold my office and I accountable.

We’re seeing more incidents involving young people and guns—what specifically would you change in how the sheriff’s office handles juveniles with firearms and what is the role of the office in relation to city and state police?

There are several steps the sheriff’s office under my leadership will take to address juvenile firearm cases.

First, prevention comes before prosecution. DASO will implement social network analysis to identify the relationships at‑risk juveniles have with one another. Working closely with juvenile probation and the juvenile’s family, we will intervene early, disrupt dangerous associations, and pull kids off the path toward delinquency.

Second, because many firearms used in juvenile crimes are stolen, DASO will lead a countywide public‑education campaign urging gun owners to securely store their weapons.

Third, we will work with the District Attorney to aggressively prosecute adults who contribute to juvenile gun violence, and we will seek the strongest penalties allowed by law. Juvenile firearm cases will also be prosecuted with equal seriousness.

Finally, I will develop a multi‑platform public safety campaign warning juveniles about the legal and lifelong consequences of gun crimes, reinforcing that carrying or using a firearm is a fast track to incarceration.

In a field this large, why are you the one candidate who should consolidate the vote—and what makes you different from the others in the race?

What separates me from the others is I bring a new way of policing, based on the principles of 21st century policing. This includes unprecedented accountability and transparency, with establishment of a civilian advisory council to give our residents a true voice as to the direction of the department, and Use of Force Review boards with participation from the community.

I will evolve the practice of de-escalation to include placing a priority on the preservation of life, that of the deputy and the offender, which means I will implement procedures to provide deputies time, space and options rather than force a lethal encounter.

Moreover, I bring a depth of experience that is unrivaled, having served in law enforcement command assignments across the country, leading international efforts on behalf of our nation. I’ve negotiated at the highest stakes, crossed party lines to bridge gaps.

I also bring a breath of knowledge no other candidate has, beyond undergraduate and graduate degrees. I’ve completed executive law-enforcement courses that fewer than one percent of police executives are ever selected to attend. Educating me in the most modern law-enforcement practices.

Whereas many of the candidates plan on recycling what’s already in practice in Dona Ana County, I bring evolution.