BELEN, N.M. (KRQE) – Belen Consolidated Schools is ramping up security. The school district is adding three new resource officers.
Belen Police Chief James Harris said the department was able to fund one office, the school district was able to fund the second and between the two and the city they were able to fund the third.
Just three days into the school year, Belen High School was placed on locked down after there were reports of a possible weapon on campus. “Because of our quick responds because of having an officer on scene at the time, we were able to quickly identify and detain a suspect. We were ultimately able to find a gun which thankfully was a BB-gun,” said Harris.
Officer Sarah Martinez patrols all seven elementary schools. She said she wanted to be part of the solution, keeping students safe and now she’s even getting feedback from her son. “I get to interact with him and get to get his feedback of how he feelings and his friends,” said Martinez.
Officer Kyana Garcia is the Belen Middle School Resource Officer and said all of the three new officers went through a week of training in Albuquerque. That instruction was specific to the dangers officers may face while being on school property.
Belen Mayor Robert Noblin said everyone in city council was on board when it came to moving forward with the plan to implement the resource officers.
