This month’s membership meeting (June 15, 2022) gave us the opportunity to hear from El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen. We were able to hear and ask about a wide range of topics: violence in El Paso’s entertainment districts, training and recruitment challenges, morale challenges amid protests in 2020, efforts to maintain and expand El Paso’s police force, New Mexico’s legalization of marijuana, mass shootings (Walmart in 2019, and school concerns), help for homeless people with mental illness, plans for the new police headquarters, budgetary needs, ways to encourage El Paso’s police, and more.
Here are a few takeaways:
- Retirements and low numbers of new recruits, combined with inadequate funding from the city means the existing police force is stretched thin. Officers are working overtime which is exhausting and expensive. Funding and encouragement, not demonizing the police, will go a long way to improve the situation.
- Chief Allen has strengthened the training process that prepares officers to serve in El Paso. It takes a special type of person to serve and protect and face the tragic situations caused when laws are broken. Eleven months of training is required in addition to some college course work. There are currently 35 people set to graduate. There are 25 in the next cohort.
- The construction of a new police headquarters outside of Five Points has been complicated by extreme increases of construction costs in recently years.
In this well-attended meeting of our Five Points Development Association, members expressed appreciation and support for Chief Allen and the hard work of El Paso’s Police. Members expressed the need for ongoing police presence in Five Points when the headquarters moves to new facilities.
Learn More about the Plans for the New Police Headquarters and Academy Facilities
El Paso City Website:
- The 2019 Public Safety Bond
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Presentation: photos, graphics, and information about the projects (pdf file)
