Alamosa and Monte Vista PDs join forces to take on drug crime
By Owen Woods | owen@alamosacitizen.com
THE Alamosa City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve an intergovernmental agreement between the Alamosa Police Department and the Monte Vista Police Department. The agreement is designed to create a joint effort to investigate drug crimes and drug-related crimes that occur between the two cities.
Alamosa Chief of Police Ken Andserson said that formal agreement will help “to continue to try to join efforts with the different city and expand those efforts to continue to take a strong stance against the illegal distribution of narcotics.”
The departments have noted that they encounter similar violations of law “related to narcotics with the same offenders,” the city’s agenda items read. “Joining resources to aggressively investigate these criminal acts will benefit both agencies with their effort to make their communities safer.”
This agreement will allow the two departments to share information and evidence much easier. It will facilitate mutual aid and joint law enforcement to allow them to pursue drug crimes and drug-related crimes as defined in local, state, and federal law. The departments say that as individual agencies they are faced with limited resources and increasing demands for service, making local, organized drug enforcement difficult.
“I think it’s something that should have taken place a long time ago,” Anderson said. “Joining the effort with the other agency is obviously going to assist and benefit our community as well as Monte Vista.”
The ordinance indicates that drug abuse and violent crime have increased “significantly within and between the communities in recent years.” The two cities are connected by HWY 160 and HWY 285 and sit 17 miles apart from one another. The seamless connection between the two areas, the departments say, has provided “a conduit for drug traffickers and criminal elements to utilize.”
The agreement can be terminated by either agency at any time and for any reason, or simply no reason at all. Written notice is required within 30 days of an agency’s termination.
Any criminal charges filed by either police department will be investigated by the 12th Judicial District Attorney’s office just as any others are.
