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Santa Fe police report mixed April call trends, highlight ICAC arrests and ORCA shoplifting prosecutions
Summary
Police briefed the committee on April data showing increases in self-initiated contacts, decreases in some public calls, recent ICAC arrests and use of the ORCA law to aggregate serial shoplifting into felony charges; the department also shared traffic, bike-team and DWI statistics.
Police Chief Grundler briefed the public-safety committee on April operational data and investigations, highlighting proactive, self-initiated police contacts, several felony-level shoplifting cases under the Organized Retail Crime (ORCA) statute and participation in a multistate ICAC operation.
Grundler said some categories of calls were down while proactive self-initiated contacts were up. He reported vacancies and multiple cadets moving through the academy and field training. A captain presented a patrol case involving a stabbing outside an Allsup's and described how investigators located suspects with surveillance video and executed a high-risk stop; one suspect was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
A detective'led ORCA investigation aggregated repeated shoplifting incidents across multiple stores and produced felony charges, including a case totaling roughly $4,766 across eight incidents at a single retailer. Grundler said the district attorney's office is using aggregation authority from a 2023 statute to pursue more serious charges in serial shoplifting cases.
Police also described a weeklong ICAC operation run with federal and state partners that produced arrests, including several made by Santa Fe detectives. The department said two local detectives made multiple arrests and that the unit is generating statewide interest for its investigative approach.
Support-services staff reported that the bike team led two operations in April addressing illegal camping that resulted in 17 arrests; traffic teams wrote hundreds of citations, handled crashes and re-certified officers as motorcycle instructors. DWI teams and auxiliary officers also contributed arrests and citations.
Committee members asked how ORCA aggregation works across multiple stores; staff replied the DA often aggregates incidents from multiple retailers when those incidents are related. Chief Grundler and staff stood for questions and noted they would return with additional case-level details at a later meeting.
