ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The New Mexico National Guard will hit Albuquerque streets to help police fight crime next month. Ahead of that deployment, the Albuquerque Police Department says those guardsmen and women are getting special training.
APD is training around 60 guard members with both classroom and on-the-street training, some of which you may have already seen out in public. “To accomplish the one goal is making Albuquerque safe,” said Michael Hernandez with APD chief of staff.
The training work has already begun this week for these National Guard service members who are preparing to help Albuquerque police fight crime on Central.
On Monday, APD says guardsmen and women began learning about how to serve in the role of helping out officers in the field.
“Again, the civilian components that we currently are utilizing, that’s going to be the same roles that the National Guardsmen are going to be plugged into. And that just frees up officers so we can be more efficient, we have more time to really focus on police work,” said Luke Languit, major with the Field Services Bureau.
APD says guard members are starting with 160 hours of training before they hit the streets of Albuquerque in mid-May. Most of those hours will be in a classroom, but some in-field training will also take place, including learning how to direct traffic.
“We want them to be aware and then also there’s going to be procedural stuff, that is, they’re going to be, in particular, having to know of our standard operating procedures that they’re aware of, so that they’re also in compliance with, you know, our policies and of course they’ll establish their own policies as well,” said Hernandez.
APD says the guard’s main role will be to observe and report, with 36 guard members assisting on crime scene security during critical incidents and investigations. Another 12 guardsmen and women will help with the real-time crime center the final 12 service members will help with prisoner transport.
“As long as they’re assigned to Albuquerque, again, we’ll utilize them in this capacity so we have as many officers, police officers, as we can have answering those calls for service and doing proactive work in our community,” said Languit.
APD says they should have the guards trained by mid-May. And when the public sees them, they will be wearing polos and khakis. Twelve guards are also working on their drone licenses so they can help police officers more quickly use drones and beam back live video to the police department’s real time crime center.