Mountainair Selects New Police Chief

After addressing the administrative matters normally dealt with during town council meetings, Mountainair's town council went into executive session on September 17, 2024, to discuss whether their candidate, dressed in a conservative suit and white shirt and seated in the front row of the audience, was right for the town's police chief position.

The audience - a much larger one than usual - broke out in a jovial murmur as the mayor and town council filtered out of the meeting room. Jesse Torres, son of town council member Richard Torres, retrieved bottled water and soda to share with the audience. After twenty minutes, the town council called the candidate to the closed executive meeting room. He returned after forty minutes, and the town council followed thereafter.

The Mountainair Town Council unanimously selected the candidate, Paul Lucero, pending the usual pre-employment background checks and administrative processes required by the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. Lucero, currently a senior sergeant with the Corrales Police Department, began his career with the Gallup Police Department before working for the sheriff's offices of Sandoval and McKinley Counties. Speaking to the residents in the audience, Lucero stated that he considered community policing to be one of his primary goals as Mountainair's police chief. Community policing is a law enforcement philosophy in which police build relationships within their community and prioritize crime prevention. Lucero stressed he wanted the Mountainair Police Department to adopt an open and accessible stance to the public, citing a desire to have police body cameras reviewable at any time.

The town council meeting wrapped up with public comment. During public comment, Mountainair resident Thereisa Torres discussed individuals partying and playing loud music at night on Corbett Street. New Mountainair resident Aiden Shaffer, a descendant of the same Shaffer family after which the Shaffer Hotel is named, introduced himself to the audience. Shaffer said he had returned to Mountainair because of his ancestors and because of a property dispute in Taos County, where he used to live.

I guess I'm here because my property was taken from me in Taos. ... [That] was a 10-year battle with the Taos County Sheriff's [Office]. They let heroin flow through my property. Literally, my grandmother was murdered. So, you know, I drifted back into town because of my ancestors' spirits. My mother, Ma Shaffer, told me to come home. So I'm new to town.