Las Cruces Police Chief proposes ordinance to curb shopping cart thefts, gets pushback

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KFOX14) — Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story wants to implement a new city ordinance that aims to clean up the city by tackling stolen shopping carts.

“It’s theft, larceny, stealing, or whatever you want to call it. And as soon as we say ‘that’s okay,’ then we basically say ‘all theft is okay.’ Well if all theft is okay, then what other crimes are okay and should be tolerated,” Story said.

Not all city councilors were on board with the proposed ordinance.

“In both cases, the end result is incarceration or potential incarceration,” Councilor Yvonne Flores said.

“Once people have a criminal record, it is much much harder to find housing,” Mayor Pro Tem Johana Bencomo said.

Those two city leaders opposed the proposed ordinance that would change the punishment someone could face for stealing a shopping cart.

Story presented the idea as a way to possibly lower homelessness and crime.

“Shopping carts seem like such a trivial thing, but the reality is they’re everywhere if you open your eyes or you start looking for shopping carts and all the trash and debris everywhere,” Story said.

The ordinance would allow Las Cruces judges to assign community service or treatment to those who can’t afford to pay a fine.

“We’re trying to address crime, and hopefully in doing so we’re allowing these people to get the services by plugging them into those services,” Story said.

The ordinance would also hold businesses accountable for keeping track of their carts.

“The ordinance itself is so we can have every part of it the business part and the criminal aspect of possession of stolen property,” Story said.

The proposal comes after the department released crime statistics last week showing violent crime is up and property crime is down.

RELATED: Las Cruces police tackle rising violent crime, unveil new strategies at town hall

“Everything is related. Now, is it going to drive down violent crime significantly? Probably not. Property crime, it’s more related to,” Story said.

Despite some uncertainty by his council, Mayor Eric Enriquez said the ordinance is a step in the right direction.

“We need to move forward and some of the ordinances to hold people accountable and allow police to have the needed direction to do their job to instill the peace in our community,” Enriquez said.

Story said he will be working on some adjustments and hopes the ordinance will make its way to the agenda for voting in June.

RELATED: Las Cruces police propose laws against aggressive solicitation, shopping cart neglect

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