National Guard Members Training to Deploy, Help N.M. Police Force

By Nicholas Gilmore

Source The Santa Fe New Mexican

Members of the state National Guard will begin performing some duties for police in Albuquerque as soon as this week, public safety officials said Wednesday.

Albuquerque police Chief Harold Medina answered questions about "Operation Zia Shield" at a news conference at the state National Guard headquarters outside Santa Fe.

The 71 National Guard members involved in the operation will be serving in three distinct capacities, Medina said: As "scene security" at crime scenes and SWAT operations, where he said officers sometimes spend nine hours or more parked around police perimeters; working in the agency's drone program and assisting with booking people into jail and tagging evidence.

Medina characterized the National Guard deployment as "nothing new" during Wednesday morning's news conference, pointing to his agency's hiring of civilians to perform tasks related to "digital intelligence," criminal case management and providing evidence discovery in cases.

Frustrated with crime in Albuquerque and what she viewed as the Legislature's inadequate response to the problem during this year's legislative session, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in early April declared an "emergency" in connection with crime in the state's largest city and allocated $750,000 for the operation.

The operation, however, has attracted national attention as well as concerns by civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union over the potential militarization of civilian law enforcement.

Coming to the streets soon

The military members will not have authority to make arrests, Medina emphasized Wednesday, and they will not carry guns or stun guns.

National Guard members will be "dressed down," officials have said — in polo shirts and khakis — and they will carry only pepper spray, the same as the agency's police service aides.

People in Albuquerque can expect to see National Guard members working with the police as soon as Memorial Day weekend, officials said.

About 11 or 12 National Guard members set to work in the drone program have already completed their training and could begin serving as soon as this week, Medina said. The department uses drones — in a program similar to that of Santa Fe police — to locate suspects or missing people, assess potentially dangerous situations and document crash scenes.

Medina said he and other officials will discuss "expanding" the operation into other planned areas, depending on how the coming months of the operation go.

A written request sent to Lujan Grisham from Medina earlier this year notes some other potential areas where he would like to use the military members to supplement officers, including security at the city's airport and public transit sites, administrative work related to case preparation and "medical assistance and humanitarian efforts" along Central Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares through the city.

The memorandum says Guard members could "distribute food water and essential supplies to individuals experiencing homelessness and vulnerable populations" in the corridor, which is known for open drug use and tent encampments, adding "their presence is crucial for de-escalating potentially volatile situations and connecting individuals with appropriate services."

Maj. Gen. Miguel Aguilar — the adjutant general of the New Mexico National Guard — said he has never raised the possibility of his members being granted authority to make arrests, and that it has not been part of the discussions between him, Medina and Lujan Grisham in recent months with regard to the operation.

Sheriff refuses to take part

The deployment of military members to perform some duties of law enforcement officers has drawn concerns from some the operation effectively blurs the line between the two distinct entities. While National Guard members have been deployed during times of civil unrest and in response to natural disasters — such as flooding in Ruidoso last year — the governor's move to send in members to supplement the duties of a metropolitan police force represents the only such deployment in the state in recent memory.

Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said in a video posted last month to social media he declined to deputize National Guard members after speaking with Lujan Grisham, Medina and others in recent months, saying he felt it wasn't clear what role the military members would play "now or in the future" in the operation.

"Lines can be skewed," he said. "I don't want people to feel that we're militarizing our community."

Allen referred to "a ton of liability" involved with police work, giving a hypothetical of a National Guard member potentially being attacked while guarding a crime scene and using force — and potentially even escalating to "a higher use of force" — to defend themselves. He also raised the question of whether the National Guard members should be required to wear lapel cameras in their duties.

"I know it's going to help the PD in the short term, but what's going to happen in the next four or five months?" he said. "Because this crime problem hasn't gone away in the last 10 years."

Medina responded to Allen on Wednesday, saying he understood his concerns but wanted to think "outside the box" for a solution to public safety concerns in the city.

"Fortunately, I'm at a point in my career where I'm not afraid to stick my neck out and do something outside of the box," Medina said. "I'm not afraid of criticism — I'm going to do what I think is right, and I'm going to do what I think works, and if it fails, so be it."

Medina said he hopes the operation will free up officers from some time-consuming duties and give them more time to patrol and make arrests.

The Albuquerque Police Department is budgeted for 1,000 officers, and 890 of those positions were filled as of Wednesday — a vacancy rate of 11% — a spokesperson said.

"If we continue to see the decline [in homicides] that we've experienced the first months of the year, and if we could hold our crime declines through the summer months and into the fall, I think we could comfortably say that this was successful and that it did what we wanted — making Albuquerque safer," Medina said.

Crisis intervention training

In the next room, about 60 National Guard members sat in rows listening to a lecture on post-traumatic stress disorder from Dr. Nicole Duranceaux that she described as a "crash course" on the mental health condition. She asked the trainees for tips for interacting with someone in crisis, "especially if they have post-traumatic stress disorder."

One of them answered, "Be predictable, and communicate what you're doing."

Another said, "Be calm, but stern."

"You're not going to be arresting anyone, but you might need to move them out of an area," she said, emphasizing the importance of giving people a choice while giving them commands. "Give the person some dignity and some control — people don't want to be dismissed."

The instruction is part of "crisis intervention" training the members are receiving as part of their 38 days of training before being deployed in Operation Zia Shield. The training requirements are the same as those for people who serve as public safety aides in police departments, Aguilar said.

The members are also receiving "defensive tactics" training led by New Mexico State Police, Chief Troy Weisler said Wednesday, including "deescalation training, restraint and control techniques and handling hostile individuals."

"We want to make sure that the Guardsmen have the ability to protect themselves," Weisler said, acknowledging the possibility of a violent confrontation. "It's the area that they're going to be in, the situations that they're going to be in — while it's not expected that that will happen, it's definitely a possibility."

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