Q&A: Police Chief Pat Gallegos

Editor’s note: This is the final story in a series of stories about local police officers for National Law Enforcement Week.

Portales Police Department Chief Pat Gallegos has been the chief of the department for almost three years.

He sat down with the Portales News-Tribune to update the community on recent happenings and the progression of his department.

Gallegos

How is the investigation coming along with the March homicide regarding to bodies being found in a burned structure? Any progress, leads or suspects?

There have been leads, and they (officers) are still following up on the leads that they have. Basically, that’s where we’re at with everything, is just following up on leads as they come in. We have some people of interest, but we still have to follow the leads (to get further). As far as details, we can’t go into any details on what they (officers) know.

The department has been through a lot the last two months with an officer shooting, a homicide and a vehicle fatality. When it gets hard with that many intense situations, is it more of a challenge to keep up officer morale?

Not really. I think the morale here has been really good the last couple of months. They (officers) have been extremely busy, and I have been very impressed at how the officers have handled themselves. They understand having to be busy, and they don’t complain.

Basically, the love of the job (is what keeps morale up). They do get tired, and we have to give them some breaks, but as far as them staying busy, it makes time go by faster for them also. I think a lot of officers love staying busy. It’s actually down time that makes me worry about morale (laughs).

What qualities does your department look for in new police officers?

The first one is integrity, of course. That’s the number one thing we look for in an officer, because without integrity, you can’t really be an officer. That and a good personality, good listening skills, writing skills, being articulate in situations, being physically fit, because we have to send them to the academy.

When you stepped in as police chief three years ago, the department has gone through a few rough years as far as reputation due to various incidents that had taken place. Since department administration has changed, do you feel you and your staff have changed the face/reputation of the department?

I feel that we have. We’ve been getting a strong pull of applicants every time (we have an opening) wanting to come over here. I believe the morale is a lot better now than it was three years ago. This is the first time we’ve been two down in a while, and we expect to fill those positions quickly. Other than that, what we try to do is give them better equipment, better facilities to work in, create a better atmosphere that they want to come and work in. And in talking to the officers, I believe I have completed that goal.

One of our biggest goals was to be accredited through the state of New Mexico again, and we are on track to accomplish that. Our goal is to be assessed in August for that. (To be accredited) There’s a small set of guidelines to make sure certain policies are in our procedures, and we have to make sure all the policies we have in place are being followed.

— Compiled by Managing Editor Alisa Boswell