Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Police to promote new program

‘Turn Them In Thursday’ invites online public participation in recovering absconders.

CLOVIS — A new initiative from the Clovis Police Department invites a little more community engagement with the work of apprehending absconders of probation and parole.

“Turn Them In Thursday,” debuted Jan. 11 on the CPD Facebook page, with an individual to be featured each week in a post that includes a mug shot, charges and a request for the offender to turn themselves in.

By recollection of CPD Capt. Roman Romero, this is the first effort of its kind by local police. The department has distributed news releases and “Be On the Lookout” alerts on its social media page for over five years, but not until this month has it made such public broadcasts concerning those whose offenses were less of-the-moment.

“We’re going to continue doing this, with (the New Mexico Adult Probation and Parole Office), as we realize there are a lot more people paying attention to our Facebook,” Romero said Friday. “Most people are so engaged in their phones that this kind of information propagates, and it may put (an absconder) in a position where they realize that it’s easier to come in than it is to hide.”

The assertion of the department’s digital presence is then a reaction to some changing circumstances of law enforcement in the second decade of the 21st century, Romero explained.

“Probation and parole contacted us and it’s not just patrolling the neighborhood and finding someone doing something wrong,” he said. “That’s not the way the world works anymore.”

The mounting pressure of the public eye on an absconder is what Romero hopes will bring them forward.

“It’s like when you’re a kid and they tell you it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown,” he said. “It’s a lot less work when you’re not constantly looking over your shoulder.”

And it’s not unheard of for the public-pressure strategy to seem to work, as seen in past cases. In late July, after CPD released the name and mug shot of a home burglary suspect then-at-large, Skyler Romero turned himself in early the next month.

This week, Skyler Romero pleaded guilty to an aggravated burglary charge pertaining to that incident and was sentenced to six years in the Department of Corrections. 10th Judicial District Attorney Tim Rose said he would have faced up to twice as much time if convicted in trial on all accounts, including the tampering with evidence and larceny of a firearm charges that were dropped in the plea agreement.

Of course, police don’t expect the new initiative’s success to hinge solely on absconders doing the work themselves. Sometimes, banter in the comments section of a post can be enough to give police “an idea where these people are going or hiding,” Romero said.

Public response to the new CPD measure was largely supportive, though some expressed concern that singling out a specific individual each week might encourage vigilantism in the community.

Romero said Friday he did not share that concern.

“I don’t see an odd Star Chamber of people going out and hunting people,” he said. “That’s for Hollywood.”

Others in the city thought the program had good potential.

“I think it’s a good way to start out to get people to notice that there are more offenders out here on the street,” said Benjamin Baca. “At the same time, you have a lot of people that know these people that are going to hide them, too.”

The weekly series has seen just two iterations so far, and as of Friday it hadn’t yet yielded fruit. The CPD selection each week comes from recommendations by the probation office.

“We haven’t had a lot of bites on (our first post),” Romero said. “But somebody out there knows where he’s at.”