Clayton Police Department

911 Dispatch center upgrade grant recieved.

The State of New Mexico local government finance division has notified the Clayton police department of a 911 communication center grant. The grant was applied for by Chief Scott Julian and office manager Sandy Palmer. The Clayton/Union county communication 911 center has not had any upgrades for nearly eight years and has been encountering equipment failures for several years. The $400,000 grant will provide a complete 911 equipment and office furniture upgrade, a new generator system will also be in place to provide instant power in time of power loss. The 911 system will recieve the most modern software/equipment available and will benefit all citizens of Union County. Chief Julian added that we were very fortunate to recieve the grant considering we were competing with much larger Municipalitys/Countys all over the state.

Grant funding recieved

The Clayton police department has recieved two seperate grants from the state of New Mexico. The narcotic enforcement grant will be used to conduct highway narcotic interdiction patrols and purchase safety equipment for the meth lab team. The traffic safety grant will be used to deter and detect drunk drivers through saturation patrols.

Burglary suspect apprehended 

Clayton police clandestine meth lab team certified.

In response to the illegal meth issues located within the Clayton area, the police department sent Sgt Chris Dale and Agent Raul Garcia to the 40 hour clandestine meth lab certification course. The officers are certified to dismantle operational and non operational labs and also remove extremely volitile chemicals. The Clayton police department previously had to use the state police or sheriffs dept meth lab teams until now. 

Traffic stop leads to drugs and currency.

On July 3rd, Narcotic agent Raul Garcia stopped a vehicle traveling through Clayton for a traffic violation. Subsequent investigation with the the two occupants led to the officer using his police K-9 to sniff the outer portion of the vehicle. The K-9 alerted to the trunk portion of the car. Officers obtained consent to look in the trunk. Officers located a small amount of suspected marijuana which was believed to be packaged for sales. At this time a search warrant was obtained and the driver and passenger were detained. Upon executing the search warrant, officers located over $7,000 in cash inside a travel bag. The currency and suspected Marijuana were placed into evidence and the occupants were charged.

Clayton police teams up with high intensity drug trafficking office.

The Clayton police department is pleased to announce that it has recieved overtime funding from the high intensity drug trafficking office. Officers will be scheduled to conduct illegal narcotic saturations patrols and highway narcotic interdiction operations throughout Clayton on a random basis. Chief Julian added that due to the two major federal highways that are in Claytons jurisdiction, there is information available that the Mexican drug cartels are trafficking drugs, weapons and currency through our area. We are committed to stopping these items from making their way into and through Clayton.

100 mph car chase ends in apprehension of driver.

Proposed annexation scheduled for March 9th.

The Clayton Town council has approved a request to extend The Town limits on highways 56 and 87 from the current Town limits east 2 miles to Dr Michael Jenkins road. The proposal was submitted to the Council based upon a public safety survey by the chief of police. Chief Julian added that there is no police patrols provided by the sheriffs department or state police. Clayton officers travel these highways on a daily basis in order to get to the detention facility so it made more sence to annex these highways into the Town limits. As of March 9th, Clayton officers will begin to provide police services on these stretches of roads. 

Clayton police department awarded recognition certification at NM Municipal league conference in Taos.

Clayton Police department receives recommendation for state recognition

On April 15 the Clayton police department received official notification from the New Mexico law enforcement professional standards council assessment team that it has been recommended for the state recognition certification. The department has undergone an intensive evaluation process conducted by the assessment team, which consisted of 50 different standards and evaluations of patrol, domestic violence, evidence process/storage, internal affairs, employment, compliance with employment law and liability were just a small number of standards mentioned. The department completed the program in eight months, which normally takes between 1-2 years. Staff really pulled togher and made this happen. They were great and played a huge role in the process.

As part of the certification, the department will join only a limited number of departments across the state that have been able to achieve this sought after certification. Liability has been reduced for the department and for the town, a structure that ensures all staff fully understand their job responsibility’s and have a working knowledge of our standard operating procedure manual has been established. This is just the beginning for us, the process was extremely difficult to achieve now its up all staff to ensure that we maintain the standards that are expected of us. The department will receive its official award from the New Mexico municipal league and the New Mexico law enforcement professional standards council at the municipal league annual conference in September.

Recognition/Accreditation program overview http://nmml-lea.org/