Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Crime rates are low in Bosque Farms

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Bosque Farms While the crime rate in Valencia County, Los Lunas and Belen are amongst the highest in the state per capita, the Village of Bosque Farms has historically been relatively untouched by both violent and property crimes.

According to FBI statistics, Bosque Farms is ranked 30th in the state in property crimes and 28th in violent crimes. (A total of 34 cities in the state gave the FBI their statistics last year.) In 2005, Bosque Farms reported a total of nine violent crime incidents, which include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assaults. There were 59 reported property crime incidents — burglary, larceny/theft and motor vehicle thefts — last year.

With a population of nearly 4,000, Bosque Farms has 11 full-time police officers and 50 percent of the village's budget is designated to law enforcement.

More than 40,000 cars travel through the village on any given day, and Bosque Farms Police Chief Joe Stidham said the department's traffic enforcement is one of the biggest reasons why the criminal element may stay clear of the village.

"I think it has to do with our aggressive policing and traffic enforcement," Stidham said. "We have designated mandatory patrols, and our community policing makes a difference.

"It's always been my opinion that people who want to steal should be coming to Bosque Farms, but they're not," he said. "I think that the reason they're (criminals) not is because they know that if someone is not where they're supposed to be, they will be stopped (by police)."

While the crime rate in Bosque Farms is not as much of a problem as in other parts in the county, Stidham still faces the same issues other departments struggle with such as recruiting and retaining police officers. Currently, there are two officers patrolling the village per shift, and Stidham is allowed to hire only certified police officers.

The police chief said another reason Bosque Farms doesn't have the same crime problems as Belen, Los Lunas and the county is that drug trafficking and gang activity is nearly non-existent.

In 2005, Bosque Farms police made 10 arrests involving drugs — nearly all, Stidham says, the result of traffic stops. Police in the village handed out 7,255 traffic citations in 2005.

"When I first became chief (three years ago), we found four meth labs," Stidham said. "Since then, the only drugs we come upon is people driving it through.

"And we have no problems with gangs at all," the chief said. "In the past, we had problems with gangs filtering over from the reservation, but we've been able to curb that pretty well.

"I wouldn't say that Bosque Farms has never had its problems (with crime), but we've been able to get a good handle on it, and it has to do with aggressive enforcement. I think we do a good job, and all in all it's a total community effort to keep the crime down."

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