There is established a Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Committee consisting of representatives from the Sheriffs and Police Association, Fraternal Order of Police Association, New Mexico Police Chiefs Association, and the New Mexico Sheriffs Association. The Director of the Department of Public Safety Training and Recruiting Division shall serve as Chairman of the Committee.
The Committee is charged with establishing criteria, with New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board approval, for inclusion on the New Mexico Law enforcement Officers Memorial. The Committee shall also review questionable deaths and make recommendations to the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board for inclusion on the Memorial.
For the purpose of this Memorial, “Law enforcement officer” means an individual involved in crime control or reduction and who is directly employed on a full-time basis by a local, county, state, or federal law enforcement agency, with or without compensation, who is duly sworn in their position. In addition, military police officers will be included if their death occurred in a non-combative, law enforcement related situation or action.
Less than full-time law enforcement officers will also be considered. In such cases, eligibility will be determined after a review of several issues, including but not limited to job description, training, and circumstances of death.
Correctional employees shall be included if they are recognized as having law enforcement status by their employing jurisdiction. Other correctional employees who do not have formal law enforcement status but who do have a primary or limited responsibility for the custody and security of suspected or convicted criminal offenders, and are employed by a local, county, state, or federal correctional agency will also be considered. If law enforcement is not a person’s primary function (e.g., correctional employee, such as Maintenance Supervisor, Farm Manager, Food Service, Instructor, etc.), then that person must be engaged in their law enforcement duties when their fatal injury is sustained. In such cases, eligibility will be determined after a review of several issues, including but not limited to job description, federal, state, or local statutes, training, and circumstances of death.
“Line of duty” means any action which an officer is obligated or authorized by law, rule, regulation, written condition of employment service to perform, or for which the officer is compensated by the public agency he or she serves.
The term “killed in the line of duty” means a law enforcement officer has died as a direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty. This includes victim law enforcement officers who, while in an off-duty capacity, act in response to a law violation.
This includes victim law enforcement officers who, while in an off-duty capacity, are actually in route to or from a specific emergency or responding to a particular request for assistance; or the officer is, as required or authorized by law or condition of employment, driving his employer’s vehicle to or from work; or when the officer is, as required by law or condition of employment, to drive his own personal vehicle at work and is killed while in route to or from work.
Not included under this definition are deaths attributed to natural causes (except when the medical condition arises out of a specific response to a law enforcement violation or an emergency situation causing an officer’s death immediately or within 24 hours of violation or situation, or causing his/her death during a continuous period of hospitalization immediately following the specific response to the law enforcement violation or emergency situation). Also not included under this definition are deaths attributed to voluntary alcohol or controlled substance abuse, deaths caused by the intentional misconduct of the officer, deaths caused by the officer’s intention to bring about his or her own death, and deaths attributed to an officer performing his/her duty in a grossly negligent manner at time of death.
If it is determined that the officer died as a result of infectious disease contracted while performing official duties, or by exposure to hazardous materials or conditions while performing official duties, that officer is eligible for inclusion on the Memorial.
An officer shall be included if a department states that the officer died in the line of duty and there is no information to believe otherwise. The Training Center staff shall exhaust all possible means available to verify an officer’s eligibility status, and the correct spelling of the name. Efforts will include having the name verified by the law enforcement agency of record and a surviving family member.
When there is doubt arising from circumstances of the officer’s death or with respect to individual status as a law enforcement officer, the matter shall be resolved by the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board action after a review and recommendation by the Memorial Committee.
Shane Ferrari, Sheriff (San Juan) |
Steward Steele, Chief (Rio Rancho) |
Robert C. Parra |
Benjamin A. Baker, DPS Deputy Secretary / Law Enforcement Academy Director |
NM Law Enforcement Academy Contact Laura Escarcida (505) 827-9290 |