Property crimes decline but drunken driving remains serious problem

Source: The Santa Fe New MexicanDec.儲存 31--The police department and the sheriff's office say burglary is the most pressing crime issue in the city and county. But both agencies report progress in 2013.Police Chief Ray Rael said that property crime declined 23 percent in the city in the first 11 months of the year compared to 2012. And Sheriff Robert Garcia reported that there was a 25 percent decrease in the county this year.They attribute the recent drops in property crime in part to success in arresting repeat offenders.For example, Kenneth Martinez, 26, was found last month with a car full of jewelry stolen in a number of home burglaries. He fled, but was captured earlier this month.And John Valdez, 25, tied to at least 23 property crimes going back to 2005, also was arrested in December.Rael said two-man patrols implemented about two years ago to focus specifically on burglaries have had impact on property crime rates.And the community is being more observant and careful. More people have started locking their doors and reporting suspicious activity. A tip from a member of the public, for example, led to the capture Sunday of Christopher Mavis, 33, whom police believe helped rob a local video game store at gunpoint.The sheriff's office has been assigning more patrols to areas hit hardest by thefts, such as Seton Village near Old Las Vegas Highway.Garcia and Rael say property crime is directly related to addiction to heroin and other drugs, and there's been no change in drug use in the county. "It's one thing I don't think will ever go away," Garcia said.Rael said he's noticed an increase in prescription drug abuse, particularly oxycodone. He said people often get addicted to the prescription painkillers, and when maintaining that habit becomes too expensive they switch to heroin, which produces a similar high. Rael said at that point, some people turn to stealing to support their drug habits.People probably buy heroin from nearby towns such as Espa隳la and Chimay?, but Rael said the drug is available from dealers in the city as well.The Santa Fe Police Department doesn't have a dedicated narcotics unit, Rael said, but about five officers do work with the state's Region III Drug Enforcement Task Force, including two officers who work full-time in Santa Fe. Garcia said he has one county deputy who works for the task force, and that in the future he hopes to increase that number.That task force was recently involved with the bust of an oxycodone ring run by downtown merchant Ashraf Nassar, 30, according to a federal indictment. The Drug Enforcement Administration raided the shop in September, and also arrested four other individuals in connection to the oxycodone trafficking charges.City Councilor and mayoral candidate Bill Dimas has called for a narcotics unit at the Santa Fe Police Department, but Rael said he doesn't have the resources and, "The [task force] gives us the best bang for the buck."Law enforcement officials are hoping that a new program, set to begin in 2014 will further cut burglary rates in Santa Fe.LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) is a prebooking diversion program that was designed 迷你倉o address low-level drug and prostitution crimes in Seattle. In Santa Fe, the program will target nonviolent opiate addicts who could benefit from drug treatment services rather than incarceration. Police believe it will offer long term savings for law enforcement because they could avoid dealing with repeat offenders. The Santa Fe City Council approved the program in July and committed an initial $300,000 to it.Another major concern is drunken driving, and both agencies reported that driving while intoxicated remains a problem."It doesn't seem to get through people's head to not drink and drive," Garcia said.He also said he noticed that saturation patrols catch more drunken drivers than DWI checkpoints, and he said that's likely because people warn each other about DWI checkpoints via text messages or social networks.Violent deathsThe city of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County also reported a number of violent deaths in 2013, although the number of homicides seems to have fallen from the previous year.James Rochford, 42, died following a bar fight at Tiny's Restaurant & Lounge in late January. The state Office of the Medical Investigator released an autopsy report five months later stating that the cause of death was "traumatic asphyxia," or suffocation due to pressure on his chest cavity, but no one has been charged.On March 1, Frank Salazar, 44, died on Comanche Drive off the East Frontage Road. Jose Gutierrez, 54, was arrested on an open charge of murder in the case, but a sheriff's spokesman said a grand jury indicted him on a charge of voluntary manslaughter and child abuse with a firearm enhancement for firing a bullet that struck a wall near Salazar's 3-year-old daughter. For reasons that are unclear, those charges were dismissed without prejudice on Aug. 22.Orlando "Red Eyes" Yazzie, 37, faces a charge of second degree homicide in the death of Mark Ginnel, 55, on Sept. 9 near an arroyo next to Rosario Cemetery, north of downtown. Ginnel was not homeless, but he had been drinking with male transients before falling asleep in an arroyo, according to a statement by police, and was allegedly kicked to death.In late October, the body of Thomas Tucker, 57, was found near a known transient camp in the 2700 block of Sawmill Road. Police said that they're awaiting some test results and that the case remains under investigation. No charges have been filed so far.And Jennifer Martinez, 24, died in November after she fell out of a truck driven by her boyfriend, Moses Trujillo, also 24. Trujillo initially was charged with vehicular homicide, but the charges were dismissed without prejudice on Dec. 4.Moses had a breath-alcohol of .06 breath alcohol level, just below the 0.08 level at which a driver legally is presumed to be too drunk to drive. He told police he had a beer a couple of hours earlier, and said Martinez had fallen out of the truck when he went around a turn.Contact Chris Quintana at 986-3093 or cquintana@sfnewmexican.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) Visit The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) at .santafenewmexican.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存倉