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Tony Barnes
, North Yorkshire
With assistance from IPA in New Mexico I visited the small community of Grants to learn how policing this
American community of 9000 people differed to policing at home in York, North Yorkshire. Grants is a small
town which sits on the famous Route 66 with the closest large city of Albuquerque around 1 1/2 hrs away.
T
he local Police Chief Marty Vigil
took me to a local school to see
the Chief’s philosophy in practice. His officers, where his officers
attend local schools walking through the building speaking to the
children and teachers. Whilst in a class of 6 year olds he gave an impromptu
talk of road safety.
Then, at the station we met staff members and officers. Here, even the
detectives were in uniform. The Chief explained that once a week he makes
them wear uniform to remind them where they had come from and they are
one team.
I then visited the Acoma Tribal Police, the Sky City is the oldest occupied
area of the US. The reservation is its own sovereign state and they mostly
police it themselves, apart from serious crimes where they have to hand
these over to the FBI. Each year they appoint a Tribal Sheriff who can
intervene over the police in some cases, like no violence DV, where the
parties involved can ask for the Sheriff to be involved and will not speak to
the police. In addition to this there is the Tribal Council which has a say in
everything and can overturn sentences if they wish.
On day two, I was taken to the Federal Cibola County Correctional Centre
where they house immigration detainees, Federal prisoners and it is
Grants PD’s booking in centre. I was walked through the facility looking at
the prisoner pods and exercise area. When I walked into the meal room,
the detainees just stared at me, because I was in uniform. I found it very
unnerving.
Cannabis is legal in New Mexico for those with a medical card; I walked
round a cannabis grow and dispensary, sited just around the corner from the
police station in a large warehouse. I felt the urge to tear it down like back
at home. They sell cannabis in smoking and eating formats, with strengths
beginning with pain relief, similar to paracetamol.
At the Magistrates Court, I found it was just like home, with a lot of sitting
around. One thing of interest is that for low level offences, officers bring the
prosecution themselves rather than the DA, or CPS in England. They thought
our way of the CPS presenting cases was a better way of keeping officers on
the streets.
At the Santa Fe Training Academy, I found another difference to England. In
Grants PD an officer has a year to enrol in the academy, meaning they can
work the streets for up to one year before starting their training. In North
Yorkshire, and the other English Forces, all new officers have to go straight
into training school for 18 weeks. Officers trained at the Santa Fe Academy
included Pat Garrett, the famous US Marshal.
Later that day back in Grants, officers executed a drugs warrant on a local
address which had been causing problems for the local residents. Guns
drawn they kicked in the door and entered. Afterwards three male occupants
were brought out in handcuffs. The search was successful. The Chief was
surprised to hear that in Britain, unless there was specific intelligence about
firearms, a few Bobbies would have gone through the door unarmed. One of
the suspects asked to speak to me, so he could hear my English accent.
On day four the chief was on a training day so I spent the day with his wife
Mary. She has lots of local knowledge and we visited Sky City on the Acoma
Indian reservation. It is fascinating to see how people are still living without
power and running water. The landscape is amazing, it is like watching the
old western movies with the Indian tribes on horseback standing on the
ridge looking down at the cowboys. The Acoma tribe has been around since
the 13th century and was visited by the Spanish in the 1500s. Also only
women can own land and property.
HOW THE
FIRST
image © wikimedia
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Professional Development
POLICE WORLD
Vol 63 No. 1, 2018