From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - by Geoff Grammer -Though Santa Fe Police Department officers spend their work hours patrolling the City Different, when they punch the time clock at the end of the day and drive home, the vast majority of them leave Santa Fe. In fact, just 34 of the department's 154 sworn officers actually live in the city they are paid to serve and protect. The other 78 percent live outside Santa Fe, with most of those officers residing outside Santa Fe County in Rio Rancho, Pecos, Albuquerque and even Las Vegas, N.M.Note: there is an editorial about the lack of affordable housing sending the police to live out of town. It is also in the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Since anyone can seem to remember, the police department has allowed officers to drive their city-owned police cruisers from home to work on the city's dime. It wasn't until the perfect storm of rising home costs and a recruiting crisis hit the department in 2003 that the force extended its vehicle take-home policy to 60 miles outside city limits, opening the doors to potential cadets living in the Rio Rancho and Albuquerque areas. While nobody is suggesting the benefit be eliminated, many are saying the policy in its current form is far too generous, too costly — especially as scrutiny on city spending increases — and is defeating its original purpose of providing a visible police presence in neighborhoods around Santa Fe when officers are off-duty. Read more
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