Martinez Will Bring Needed Change to Sheriff’s Office
By John Earp
As a service to the voting public, The Jal Record has interviewed the current candidates for Lea County Sheriff. Below is our interview of Jon Martinez, who is presently Chief Deputy of the Lea County Sheriff’s Office.
Martinez: I’ve been enforcement officer for 33 years. Okay. And that’s not including military time. So I started my law enforcement career with United States Air Force Security Police, and I did that for 5 years and I’ve been a New Mexico officer for the past 33 years.
The Jal Record: What was it that made you decide to run for sheriff?
Martinez: Well, there’s actually a number of things. So, one, I mean, it’s obvious that we need a fresh start in a new direction than what we’ve done for the past 8 years. Is it working today? And so we need to return to a more traditional style of sheriff’s office’ duty, so to speak. Right now, what we do is more municipal style policing. And that just doesn’t work for a sheriff’s office. And some kind of impact on services that we provide, including removing deputies from rural areas where they should be patrolling, increased response times. Things like that.
TJR: If you were elected to the office of sheriff, what would your top 3 priorities be?
Martinez: So top priorities one would be taking care of our drug problem. We have a very big drug problem here in Lea County, especially Fentanyl. And so I would like to focus on drug interdiction, drug trafficking. I would also like to focus on oil field crimes. Over the past 8 years, we basically ceded the patch to the criminals. We’ve got organized criminals out there stealing crude oil, heavy equipment, precious metals, diesel, whatever’s not nailed down, they’re stealing it, and we don’t have a presence in the patch. So there’s very little deterrence out there. I think you can see from previous or most like, you know, last year, recent reporting. There’s been a lot of groups that have been arrested. Now, these are multi-jurisdictional investigations. This is federal law enforcement partnering with local law enforcement. Us responding after the fact, we’re being reactive, not proactive.
TJR: What kinds of proactive things do you propose that the sheriff’s department can do to combat crime?
Martinez: I mean, actually partnering with stakeholders, like these oilfield companies, they have their own investigators, so partnering with them to determine where these hotspots are, so we can concentrate or focus on resources and personnel in those areas and training our folks in theft investigations. Right now, the sheriff’s office does not have a structure program for well investigations. We don’t have H2S instruction. We don’t teach these folks how to control the patch safely. We don’t teach them how to recognize and identify oilfield equipment. We don’t teach them oilfield safety. We don’t do anything along those lines. It’s basically these guys are taken out too fast and shown around and that’s basically it. So, yeah, so that’s a concern for me.
TJR: What kinds of things do you think can be done to improve
the more remote parts of the county, like the oil patch around Jal for instance?
Martinez: Assigning districts and making sure our folks stay within those districts. I had a conversation with a person from Jal who was concerned that we don’t have a presence down in the Jal area, and we were speaking specifically about motor vehicle crashes out on 128, Orla, Battle Axe, those areas. You know, we have a lot of fatalities out there, a lot of serious crashes out there. And I think a presence out there and a little bit of traffic enforcement might help curtail that, you know? People will slow down, they’ll drive a little safer, then we’ll take those chances if they know that there’s deputies out there enforcing traffic laws. It was recently noted by some of our middle managers that our response times aren’t the best, especially from Hobbs to Lovington, and that didn’t even include Tatum or Eunice or Jal, because everybody is right here in Hobbs area. Now, I get that when our Hobbs Police Department is short staffed, and we’re here to support them, and I want to continue that, as long as we need to be. But people in rural areas shouldn’t have to go without services because we’re protecting the Hobbs area.
TJR: What is your understanding of the basis of our nation’s government, the U.S. Constitution, as it relates to the office of sheriff?
Martinez: I will serve as a constitutional sheriff. Absolutely 100%. And we’re in need of a constitutional sheriff. We need a sheriff that will actually stand up for the rights of the people here in Lea County, and right now, I don’t think we have that. I’ll give you a perfect example. I believe it was SB 17, which was the most recent gun bill that was being pushed through last session. Basically, this was a law that was going to take away all semiautomatic weapons. So, you know, our 2nd Amendment, guys, we’re under attack. And so, you know, I expect a sheriff of my county to go and stand and be a voice for the people in Santa Fe. You know, I sat through all the committee meetings, I watched them by Zoom, and I saw two sheriffs, one from Roosevelt, and one from…it was one other county who actually traveled to Santa Fe. It’s good for their people. They said, “We are constitutional sheriffs, we oppose this bill.” We didn’t have a voice in those sessions other than from our legislators, but our sheriff did not show up. And I, as sheriff, I would have been there and I would have spoken on behalf of our people who want their 2nd amendment rights. They don’t want their rights infringed on.
TJR: What would you say is the proper role of the sheriff’s department related to the county?
Martinez: So our primary responsibilities in the county are patrolling the rural areas in the patch. You know, those should be the two priorities. And we will continue to support, and I believe it’s our job to support these municipal police departments that are short staffed, but we shouldn’t have to sacrifice a primary role in the safety of the people in the rural areas to patrol within the cities. So we keep our folks out in the county, and if the municipalities need assistance, then we can come into the city, it should be the other way around. We also need to focus on our primary responsibilities, right? And that’s core security, prisoner transports. We do transports all over the country. We manage sex offender registration notifications, so we monitor all sex offenders within Lea County, whether they’re working here, living here, attending school here. We keep track of all those folks. That’s something else we should be focused on. So those are some of the primary roles. Civil process is another, you know? We’re out there serving civil paperwork or it might be temporary restraining orders and we might be doing interdiction. We have a lot of jobs that we have to take care of which traditional police departments don’t do. And so that’s our primary role as a sheriff’s office.
TJR: In your view, what does your rival candidate, Mr. Rhoads, with Sheriff Corey Helton running as his undersheriff, present for the county, if he were to be elected?
Martinez: It’s business as usual. And that’s not what the county wants. That’s not what the sheriff’s office wants. We’re ready for change. We’re ready for a new direction.
TJR: Tell us about your family.
Martinez: I’m married. My wife, Angela, she’s the director for LCCA, the 911 communications center, and my son is also with the sheriff’s office.
TJR: Anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Martinez: I’m basically funding my own campaign. I’ve taken a couple of contributions, but for the most part, I’m funding everything myself. So, I’m trying to be wise with my dollars. I can tell you that if I’m elected, I plan to be there every single day, because I don’t know if you know that but, the sheriff’s office, a sheriff only has to be in the office 8 hours per month. If I get elected. I plan on being there every single day and continuing to run the day-to-day just like I do right now instead of just my division, but for the entire department. It’s unfortunate because it impacts everybody, impacts the folks working at the sheriff’s office, and it impacts the community, the level of services we provide. Things have changed and not for the better.