A. Annually on or before April 15, the division shall consider and determine the relative needs as requested by tribal, municipal, school district and university police departments, county sheriff's departments, the department of public safety and the academy for money in the fund in the succeeding fiscal year pursuant to the provisions of Subsections C and E of this section.
B. As necessary during the year, the division shall transfer an amount from the fund to the peace officers', New Mexico mounted patrol members' and reserve police officers' survivors fund that enables the balance of the peace officers', New Mexico mounted patrol members' and reserve police officers' survivors fund to be maintained at a minimum balance of three hundred fifty thousand dollars ($350,000).
C. The division shall determine the rate of distribution of money in the fund as follows:
(1) all municipal police, school district police and county sheriff's departments shall be entitled to a rate of distribution of forty-five thousand dollars ($45,000);
(2) university police departments shall be entitled to a rate of distribution of forty-five thousand dollars ($45,000);
(3) the academy shall be entitled to a rate of distribution of twenty-four thousand five hundred dollars ($24,500) to carry out the purposes of Section 29-7-7.7 NMSA 1978;
(4) tribal police departments shall be entitled, unless allocations are adjusted pursuant to the provisions of Subsection D of this section, to one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each commissioned peace officer in the tribe. To be counted as a commissioned peace officer for the purposes of this paragraph, a commissioned peace officer shall have been assigned to duty and have worked in New Mexico for no fewer than two hundred days in the calendar year immediately prior to the date of payment. Payments shall be made for only those divisions of the tribal police departments that perform services in New Mexico. A tribal police department shall not be eligible for any disbursement under the fund if commissioned peace officers cite non-Indians into the tribal court for civil or criminal citations;
(5) municipal, school district and university police and county sheriff's departments shall be entitled, unless allocations are adjusted pursuant to the provisions of Subsection D of this section, to one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each police officer or sheriff's deputy employed full time by that department who has been certified by the academy, or by a regional law enforcement training facility in the state certified by the director of the academy, as a police officer or has been authorized to act as a New Mexico peace officer pursuant to the provisions of Section 29-1-11 NMSA 1978; and
(6) municipal police, sheriff's and school district police departments that assign officers as school resource officers shall be entitled to one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each assigned school resource officer's training pursuant to Section 1 [29-7-13 NMSA 1978] of this 2020 act.
D. After distributions are determined in accordance with Subsection A, Subsection B and Paragraphs (1), (2), (3) and (6) of Subsection C of this section, if the balance in the fund is insufficient to permit the total allocations provided by Paragraphs (4) and (5) of Subsection C of this section, the division shall reduce that allocation to the maximum amount permitted by available money.
E. After all distributions have been made in accordance with Subsections A through D of this section, and if the balance in the fund is sufficient, the department of public safety shall be entitled to a rate of distribution of not more than two million dollars ($2,000,000).
History: 1978 Comp., § 29-13-4, enacted by Laws 1993, ch. 179, § 6; 1998, ch. 83, § 3; 2000, ch. 59, § 1; 2002, ch. 78, § 5; 2002, ch. 92, § 3; 2017, ch. 1, § 2; 2017, ch. 35, § 3; 2020, ch. 67, § 4.
ANNOTATIONSThe 2020 amendment, effective July 1, 2022, increased the amounts distributed from the law enforcement protection fund, and provided for distributions from the fund to the department of public safety and school districts; in Subsection A, after "municipal", added "school district", after "university police", added "departments", after "sheriff's departments", added "the department of public safety", after "the provisions of", deleted "Subsection" and added "Subsections", and after "C", added "and E"; in Subsection C, Paragraph C(1), after "municipal police", added "school district police", and after "departments shall be", deleted the remainder of the paragraph and added "entitled to a rate of distribution of forty-five thousand dollars ($45,000)", in Paragraph C(2), after "rate of distribution of", deleted "seventeen thousand dollars ($17,000)" and added "forty-five thousand dollars ($45,000)", in Paragraph C(3), changed "Section 1 of this 2017 act" to "29-7-7.7 NMSA 1978", in Paragraph C(4), after "Subsection D of this section, to", deleted "six hundred dollars ($600)" and added "one thousand dollars ($1,000)", in Paragraph C(5), after "municipal", added "school district", after "Subsection D of this section, to", deleted "six hundred dollars ($600)" and added "one thousand dollars ($1,000)", and added Paragraph C(6); in Subsection D, after "Paragraphs (1), (2), (3)", added "and (6)"; and added Subsection E.