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Professional Development

Tony Barnes , North Yorkshire With assistance from IPA in New Mexico I visited the small community of Grants to learn how policing this American community of 9000 people differed to policing at home in York, North Yorkshire. Grants is a small town which sits on the famous Route 66 with the closest large city of Albuquerque around 1 1/2 hrs away. HOW THE FIRST

T he local Police Chief Marty Vigil took me to a local school to see the Chief’s philosophy in practice. His officers, where his officers attend local schools walking through the building speaking to the children and teachers. Whilst in a class of 6 year olds he gave an impromptu talk of road safety. Then, at the station we met staff members and officers. Here, even the detectives were in uniform. The Chief explained that once a week he makes them wear uniform to remind them where they had come from and they are one team. I then visited the Acoma Tribal Police, the Sky City is the oldest occupied area of the US. The reservation is its own sovereign state and they mostly police it themselves, apart from serious crimes where they have to hand these over to the FBI. Each year they appoint a Tribal Sheriff who can intervene over the police in some cases, like no violence DV, where the parties involved can ask for the Sheriff to be involved and will not speak to the police. In addition to this there is the Tribal Council which has a say in everything and can overturn sentences if they wish. On day two, I was taken to the Federal Cibola County Correctional Centre where they house immigration detainees, Federal prisoners and it is Grants PD’s booking in centre. I was walked through the facility looking at the prisoner pods and exercise area. When I walked into the meal room, the detainees just stared at me, because I was in uniform. I found it very unnerving.

Cannabis is legal in New Mexico for those with a medical card; I walked round a cannabis grow and dispensary, sited just around the corner from the police station in a large warehouse. I felt the urge to tear it down like back at home. They sell cannabis in smoking and eating formats, with strengths beginning with pain relief, similar to paracetamol. At the Magistrates Court, I found it was just like home, with a lot of sitting around. One thing of interest is that for low level offences, officers bring the prosecution themselves rather than the DA, or CPS in England. They thought our way of the CPS presenting cases was a better way of keeping officers on the streets. At the Santa Fe Training Academy, I found another difference to England. In Grants PD an officer has a year to enrol in the academy, meaning they can work the streets for up to one year before starting their training. In North Yorkshire, and the other English Forces, all new officers have to go straight into training school for 18 weeks. Officers trained at the Santa Fe Academy included Pat Garrett, the famous US Marshal. Later that day back in Grants, officers executed a drugs warrant on a local address which had been causing problems for the local residents. Guns drawn they kicked in the door and entered. Afterwards three male occupants were brought out in handcuffs. The search was successful. The Chief was surprised to hear that in Britain, unless there was specific intelligence about firearms, a few Bobbies would have gone through the door unarmed. One of the suspects asked to speak to me, so he could hear my English accent. On day four the chief was on a training day so I spent the day with his wife Mary. She has lots of local knowledge and we visited Sky City on the Acoma Indian reservation. It is fascinating to see how people are still living without power and running water. The landscape is amazing, it is like watching the old western movies with the Indian tribes on horseback standing on the ridge looking down at the cowboys. The Acoma tribe has been around since the 13th century and was visited by the Spanish in the 1500s. Also only women can own land and property.

POLICE WORLD Vol 63 No. 1, 2018

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