Members of a law enforcement task force have put together recommendations they say are needed to retain and recruit new officers in New Mexico.
The task force presented their suggestions to lawmakers, who will present bills during the upcoming legislature, according to a Nov. 21 KRQE news report.
“Became quite clear there is not one silver bullet to deal with addressing these recruitment and retention issues,” New Mexico State Police Deputy Chief Tony Weisler said, according to KRQE.
One issue hurting recruitment is the cost of retiree healthcare, which in most cases more than doubles once a person retires. According to KRQE, the task force is recommending the state pay for it for an established amount of years.
Another issue is persuading potential candidates from out-of-state to consider moving to New Mexico, KRQE reported. The task force suggested allowing the candidates the ability to buy up to five years of retirement from their pension in another state.
The task force also recommended fine-tuning the return-to-work policies for people who double dip, according to KRQE. In some places like the Albuquerque Police Department, double-dippers can only return to entry-level positions in order to not keep younger officers from promoting, but rural counties need leadership in administration and other specialty roles. Those rules are governed by the legislature.
“Return to work brought up at length rural area has [the] greatest impact on many rural communities have the most difficulty maintaining staffing,” Weisler said, according to KRQE. “There’s the most difficulty getting qualified and highly-trained personnel.”