Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) will deploy New Mexico National Guard troops to Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, where local law enforcement say they are facing personnel shortages and an uptick in crime.
Around 60 to 70 National Guard members will arrive in mid-May after 38 days of training, after which they will provide security at crime scenes and transport arrested individuals so the Albuquerque Police Department can redirect its resources to stopping the fentanyl epidemic and rising violent juvenile crime, Grisham announced Tuesday.
The National Guard was requested by Police Chief Harold Medina, who wrote to Grisham on March 31 stressing that crime could only be resolved with the “consistent and visible presence” of Albuquerque police officers.
Governors typically call on their National Guard forces to assist states in the wake of natural disasters. But since the height of the coronavirus pandemic, state leaders have increasingly leaned on National Guard members to help relieve other problems they face.
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In New York last year, hundreds of National Guard members patrolled the subway system following high-profile crimes, and Texas has deployed thousands of National Guard members to assist the state’s police forces patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Most Guardsmen, who are probably volunteers, they want to help out,” said John Goheen, a spokesperson for the National Guard Association of the United States, which lobbies Congress on behalf of the force. “They’re not a long-term solution, but in the short term, where else can the governor turn to? That’s why we’re here.”
All of the troops deployed to Albuquerque will be volunteers, the New Mexico National Guard said in a news release. Their training will range from providing first aid to operating police radios, the release stated.
“This type of mission isn’t new to us,” said Maj. Gen. Miguel Aguilar, the state’s adjutant general, noting that Guard members oversaw security checkpoints during recent wildfires in the White Mountain Wilderness. “Many of the same soldiers and airmen who provided security and rescued New Mexicans during the fires and floods this past year are part of the new mission in Albuquerque.”
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The National Guard members won’t be armed or in military uniforms, according to the state. Instead, they will wear civilian clothes and will be clearly identified as National Guard members, the state said. But their upcoming presence has some legal advocates skeptical.
The deployment is estimated to cost $750,000, funds that Daniel Williams of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said would be better used funding public education or investing in public health programs.
Williams, a policing policy advocate, said deploying the National Guard to free up law enforcement personnel will only “fuel mass incarceration” in areas that are populated with low-income or homeless people.
“I think we need to be really clear that we can’t arrest our way out of homelessness,” Williams said. “We can’t arrest our way out of substance abuse. We can’t arrest our way out of poverty.”
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Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller (D), who is up for reelection in November, said at a news conference Tuesday that plans had been in motion for months for National Guard members to fall into a public service aide role. He also stressed that they will not be there in a military capacity, opting instead to wear polo shirts.
Keller said the National Guard troops are a short-term solution as the city navigates uncertainty around federal grant cuts to law enforcement, which may affect funding for 50 police officers.
There is no date set for when the National Guard will leave Albuquerque.
