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Striving for Sheriff Mendoza, Webb to face off in June 7 primaries B Y G R A N T G R AW F O R D g r a n t @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m
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n June 7, Santa Fe County voters will decide whether to keep their 54th sheriff, Adan Mendoza, or move on to No. 55 with Santa Fe Police Department Lt. David Webb Jr. Santa Fe County spans 1,900-square miles, encompassing the City of Santa Fe, Española and a collection of small towns and rural communities. With no Republicans on the ballot, the upcoming Democratic primary election will determine whether Mendoza or Webb, both Democrats, gets the job as independently elected sheriff. They’re both career law-enforcement officers. Mendoza, 49, served 18 years with the sheriff’s department before retiring as a major in 2016 and winning election to his first term in 2018. Webb, 36, has worked at the Santa Fe Police Department for the past 14 years, following a three-year stint with the sheriff’s office. Mendoza lists running the department during a pandemic among his accomplishments. “This is something that was unprecedented as a sheriff,” he says. “It was a difficult situation: making sure that people stayed at work. There were severe budget restrictions and we navigated that as an administration, as the sheriff and as a department as a whole.” Mendoza says he’s updated the department’s use-of-force and pursuit policies, and he’s purchased training simulators for re-
al-life situations, acquired more emergency vehicles and created an automated payment system for fines and fees. It’s the next four years he has his sights on, though. The No. 1 priority for Mendoza is recruitment and retention, which he says will increase community safety. “Of course we’re competing with other agencies,” he says. “Now that the governor has given the State Police a raise, it creates a cycle of trying to catch up and trying to be competitive. So that’s going to be our goal—to maintain good salaries and good benefits to try and keep the people we have and recruit more deputies.” Mendoza wants to expand the Santa Fe Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, which allows deputies to provide community-based health services to people with addiction, mental or behavioral issues rather than taking them to jail. He also intends on growing the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement program, empowering deputies to report misconduct by other officers. “I say that we train extensively to police the community, but we really don’t train how to police ourselves sometimes,” Mendoza tells SFR. Should he win re-election, the incumbent plans on bolstering communications within the department to shore up gaps in radio transmissions. Webb’s journey in law enforcement began when he became a Santa Fe Police Explorer at age 12. He went on to work as a dispatcher for the Santa Fe Regional Communications Center in high school and, at 18, he signed on as a public safety aide with SFPD’s traffic team. A year later, he went to work as a sheriff’s deputy, before moving back to the police
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department at the age of 22. also accused the sheriff of unfair disciplinary Webb’s vision for the sheriff’s depart- and promotion practices, lack of transparenment unfolds in what he calls a five-pronged cy, high turnover rates and violations of labor approach. The first step is to embolden the laws. “community-policing philosMendoza feels he ophy by giving the communiworked well with the ty a voice again.” union, calling the associa“One of the areas that I tion’s letter disingenuous care about deeply is the imand “politically motiplementation of crisis-intervated,” pointing out that vention training,” Webb tells Webb’s first cousin is the SFR. “In law enforcement, union leader. we’re kind of having to be the “The way problems are jack of all trades and respond solved and the way probto everything possible. The lems are dealt with is I’m latest is responding to those notified of the issue and affected by mental illness. I we work together to try to think we can better serve our resolve those issues,” he Sheriff Adan Mendoza community and not resort to says. “I feel like I wasn’t use of force immediately and given an opportunity to try to build that rapport.” address the issues that they felt there were.” Webb plans to hire a master instructor Webb says he had no prior knowledge of to develop a course for deputies on handling the union vote, calling Mendoza’s assertion “highly-litigated” situations and using data to “a far stretch.” determine areas of improvement. “I was shocked, to say the least, that the “I want to implement the sheriff, instead of addressuse of technology...to help ing the issues in the letter us out with internet crimes and saying there are some against children cases, human things we could work on, trafficking cases, license plate went to the whole other readers and things like that to side by saying it was a pospeed up and streamline our litically motivated attack investigations,” he says. because it’s campaign seaLastly, Webb wants to son,” Webb tells SFR. reconnect the sheriff’s deCome June, the votpartment with neighboring ers will decide whether agencies. As it stands now, he Mendoza is the right man says, area law enforcement for the job, though; not the entities don’t communicate union. He says his manenough, “giving the criminal agement and administraSFPD Lt. David Webb Jr. element the advantage.” tive experience “sets me There’s been static on the campaign trail. apart,” and is key to moving the department In January, the Santa Fe County Deputies forward. Association delivered a letter to county ofWebb, meanwhile, asserts the issues outficials saying its members had voted no con- lined by the association need to be addressed, fidence in Mendoza’s leadership. The union “and I’m the guy to do it.”
