This week on New Mexico in Focus, we have an in-depth, two-part conversation about police shootings in New Mexico. According to an analysis by Searchlight New Mexico, police shot 357 people statewide over the last 10 years — more than in any other U.S. state per capita during that period. Executive Producer Jeff Proctor asks a special roundtable why cops shoot so many people in New Mexico and whether failures at other levels of government too often leave life-and-death decisions in the hands of the police.
In the second part of their discussion, Proctor asks the group why legislators are advocating for the creation of a centralized, independent office to investigate and review police shooting cases. Plus, the roundtable considers what’s at stake for the potential criminal trial of Las Cruces police officer Brad Lunsford, the second cop in the state’s modern history to be charged in an on-duty fatal shooting.
Earlier this month, the Daily Lobo student newspaper broke a story documenting the University of New Mexico's violations of a federal transparency law. Jeff joins the two reporters, Lily Alexander and Lauren Lifke, in our studio and asks them to walk us through their investigation of problems with the campus security alert systems.
Rarely in the United States do we remember that rivers are living beings themselves — and they have something to teach us. With funding from The Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder, Our Land’s Laura Paskus visited the Gila River, including a stretch that would have been changed forever if New Mexico had built on a controversial diversion. In this special segment, we consider what lessons the Upper Gila River holds for the future — and the rest of the Colorado River Basin.
NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 29 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.
Host
Lou DiVizio
NMiF Segments
Police Shootings in New Mexico: The Investigations
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guests
Sharon Walton, Retired Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court Judge
Leon Howard, Deputy Director, American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico
Joshua Bowling, Investigative Reporter, Searchlight New Mexico
Police Shootings in New Mexico: The Prosecutions
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guests
Sharon Walton, Retired Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court Judge
Leon Howard, Deputy Director, American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico
Joshua Bowling, Investigative Reporter, Searchlight New Mexico
Daily Lobo Journalists Uncover Clery Act Violations at UNM
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guests
Lily Alexander, Reporter, The Daily Lobo
Lauren Lifke, Reporter, The Daily Lobo
Listening to the Gila
Correspondent
Laura Paskus
Guests
Martha Cooper, Freshwater Director, The Nature Conservancy
Joe Saenz, Chihe´ne (Warm Springs Apache)
New Mexico in Focus is the New Mexico PBS prime-time news magazine show covering the events, issues, and people that are shaping life in New Mexico and the Southwest. NMiF takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic health, education, and art issues, and explores them in-depth with a critical eye to give them context beyond the "news of the moment.
NMPBS Executive Producer, Public Affairs, is Jeff Proctor. New Mexico in Focus Senior Producer for Public Affairs is Lou DiVizio. “Our Land” Senior Producer is Laura Paskus. The producer of New Mexico in Focus is Antonio Sanchez and Co-producer is Kathy Wimmer.
Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by the McCune Charitable Foundation and Viewers Like You.
Funding for the Your New Mexico Government Project comes from the Thornburg Foundation and New Mexico Local News Fund.
Funding for Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present & Future, is provided in part by the Neeper Natural History Programming Fund for KNME-TV.