Palm printing in the hands of the senate

Sen. Sander Rue
Embracing new crime fighting technology, Sen. Sander Rue, R-Rio Rancho is sponsoring a measure requested by law enforcement agencies to help them catch and arrest more criminals.

SB 102, which has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, requires anyone who is arrested to submit to having their palm print impression recorded in addition to being fingerprinted during jail booking.

“Everyone seems to be fascinated with Criminal Scene Investigations (CSI) that use the latest and greatest to solve crimes,” Sen. Rue said. “Let’s use more of it to solve crimes in New Mexico.”


The bill requires anyone arrested to have their palm print impressions taken in addition to being fingerprinted when they are booked into jail.

“By using the latest technology at crime scenes, a lot of good palm prints can be lifted while only partial fingerprints might be detected and might not be readable,” Senator Rue said. “This bill requires that palm prints are also taken at the time of booking an alleged criminal so they can be stored digitally and used to crack more crimes. Having digital palm prints on file increases the odds of tying a particular person to the crime scene.”

Since the digital palm prints would remain on file, along with the booking sheet, they can be used to match against latent or hidden prints left at crime scenes, thus giving investigators an increased chance of matching ‘latent’ against existing digital fingerprint/palm print files.

The legislation seeks to amends 29-3-8 NMSA 1978 to add palm printing to the fingerprinting process conducted by law enforcement agencies as a part of a booking subsequent to a felony arrest. The bill adds “palm print” or “palm printing” to every mention of fingerprint or fingerprinting in 29-3-8 NMSA 1978.

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) indicates that the requirement of palm printing in addition to fingerprinting in association with arrests is a trend throughout the country and simply requires that a palm print impression of each hand be added to the 10-print fingerprinting process.

Senator Rue said because DPS is now gathering and storing palm prints, DPS processes will not change. Many law enforcement agencies are already collecting palm prints so impact on law enforcement should be minimal since palm printing as an adjunct to fingerprinting takes very little time, and requires less expertise than fingerprinting.”

Source: Senate Leadership office

Senator proposes felony sanctions for copper thieves who damage utility plants

As the number of copper thefts increase -- often to fund drug addictions -- so could the penalties.

Sen. Steve Neville, R-Aztec, wants wants to send a message to thieves and vandals who steal copper from or damage energy production facilities.

He’s sponsoring a Senate Bill 240, which could make ripping off $50 worth of the metal a felony with a large fine or even imprisonment.

A vandal who rips off a $50 dollar piece of copper from a gas well to sell it as scrap metal, potentially causing an explosion and costing thousands of dollars in lost production time would only be slapped with a misdemeanor. But, Neville says the real cost of the crimes need to be taken into account before a suspect is charged.

“The law should take into consider the true costs of the crime to utility plants, not the value of a piece of metal.”

Last October Albuquerque police cracked down on copper thieves after they targeted recycling centers to find out who was committing the crimes. Police said then they recognized the steep increase in thefts.

The main purpose of APD's tactical plan was to educate recycling centers about a 2009 state law which mandates recyclers set aside items for five days and document who sold it to them. Many recyclers had not been reporting the names of people selling the metal.

Sen. Steven P. Neville
In this morning's news release Neville said the ramifications of power plant strikes are deep.

“Ripping off what is essentially to them scrap metal could cost thousands of dollars worth of damage and could even cause an explosion, shutting down production for days.” Neville said.

His bill would make it a felony crime to intentionally and without authorization vandalize, destroy or remove from an energy production facility any property of value, including tools, scrap metal, parts and petroleum products.

An energy production facility could be a power plant, storage or transmission facility or even oil rigs, regardless of whether such facility is still under construction or is otherwise not functioning."

If approved the bill would make it a fourth degree felony for property damage of $2,500 or less, a third degree felony if the value of property vandalized, destroyed or stolen over a six-month period has a value of over $2,500, but not more than $20,000, and a second degree felony if the value of property vandalized, destroyed or stolen over a six-month period has a value of over $20,000.

New Katies Law proposal faces uphill battle

During her State of the State address Gov. Susana Martinez asked lawmakers to strengthen Katies Law by requiring law enforcement agencies to take DNA swabs from all suspects arrested on felony charges. But, lawmakers' reaction to the proposal is mixed.

Many, like Sen. Trip Jennings, D-Roswell, worry those swabs are an invasion of privacy and worry about having records expunged if a suspect is later acquitted.

But the mother of Katie Sepich, a 22-year-old graduate student at New Mexico State University, who was brutally raped, strangled, and whose body was eventually abandoned at a dump site in 2003, says legislator’s concerns are unfounded.

Jayann Sepich, who was invited to sit next to First Gentleman Chuck Franco on Tuesday, says since the law was originally adopted in March 2006 only 12 people have asked for their records to be expunged.

Since January 2007 authorities have gathered 7000 swabs from violent offenders, sex offenders, and burglars. And the results have been overwhelming successful.

Sepich said investigators have solved 173 crimes using the DNA records. Now 24 other states have adopted some version of Katies Law and half of those require swabs from all felony arrests, not just from violent offenders.

In our video interview Sepich told us the DNA samples include no genetic information and when they are entered into a computer do not list suspect's name nor social security number. She says the DNA information only surfaces when a match is made. Only after that do investigators received a name of a potential suspect.



Sepich said DNA can easily and quickly be expunged, while fingerprints, which are taken after every misdemeanor arrest, become part of a permanent file. She says scientists picked 13 points in the DNA strand to use as markers and those points contain no genetic information, which should alleviate privacy concerns.

Traveling around the country, Sepich said she’s heartbroken every time she hears about homicides that could have been prevented. One of those cases is Brianna Denison who was killed in Reno two years ago.

Sepich says her murder could have been prevented if James Michael Biela’s DNA had been collected after an earlier domestic violence arrest.

She also thinks the new proposal can help exonerate innocent people up front. She hopes lawmakers approve it and will be in Santa Fe trying to persuade them that "collecting DNA upon felony arrest will not only solve crimes, but prevent crimes, and save lives."

This year’s bill is being carried by Sen. Vernon Azbill , R-Carlsbad and Rep. William Rheem, R-Albuquerque, a retired police officer himself.

Video: Letters swayed Berry to retain Chief Schultz

Updated with Audio at 10:45p

Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz will keep his
post in Richard Berry's administration.

Mayor elect Richard RJ" Berry who made crime, especially reducing property crimes, one of his top campaign issues in this Fall's municipal election is retaining Police Chief Ray Schultz.

Berry, who met with Schultz several times before tonight's announcement, says letters from businesses and citizens' groups, and even members of the police union, helped sway his decision.



"I know he shares my vision for a safer Albuquerque, a better quality of life for our citizens--he's committed to using innovative approaches to attack property crime and gang violence," Berry said this evening. "I'm very excited that he'll be joining me in my administration."

Schultz told us he will consolidate his organization-- on the 5th floor of police headquarters -- by reducing the number of bureaus and is making other changes to improve the efficiency of the police force.

Keeping politics out of policing



Two commanders get three stars

Berry also announced that commanders Beth Paiz and Allen Banks will become deputy police chiefs. Berry called each of them "rising stars."

Schultz immediately gave them three stars signifying their new rank.

We interviewed Paiz and Banks for our morning newscasts. You can hear them starting at 6am on 770KKOB.

Paiz says she's excited to get down to "business" heading up the investigations unit.



Dan McKay at the Albuquerque Journal reports Paiz will be only the second woman to be a deputy chief to serve in APD, and Banks is the first African-American deputy chief since the 1970s.

Banks had been heading up the internal affairs department at APD before tonight's appointment to the lead APD's support bureau.



Union supports reappointment

We also interviewed APOA Union President Joey Sigala who says that his members have always been able to work with Chief Schultz. He says while labor and management don't always agree they always feel comfortable sitting down to discuss issues with him.

Sigala told us that his team sat down with three different "branches" of the transition team and provided input on the Chief based on various questions they were asked.



Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, who was appointed Public Service Director, was sentimental in welcoming Schultz to the Berry Administration, calling him "a dedicated professional who's done a fantastic job for the city."



White says he's personally responsible for contributing to some of the gray hairs on the side of Schultz' head -- recalling how then Sgt. Schultz had welcomed him to the APD police force's overnight shift in the SE Command when he was still just a patrolman.

Berry told reporters he is still "in the process" of considering appointments at the Albuquerque Fire Department. Chief Robert Ortega did not attend the evening news conference.

White told reporters that the team has made no decisions regarding changing any APD policies dealing with how police officers can deal with questioning suspects about their immigration status. He said those discussions and decisions will be made after Berry is sworn in on December 1st.