LAS CRUCES — Kim Stewart is ready for the second round.
The Doña Ana County Sheriff announced Thursday that she would seek a second term during a news conference in the village of Doña Ana.
The announcement stages a Democratic primary showdown between two longtime cops. Late last year, former New Mexico State Police Captain James Frietze announced that he would be running for the sheriff’s office in the upcoming 2022 election.
For Stewart, 69, running for a second term is about building and overseeing the changes she’s made in her first three years, she told The Sun News during an interview on Wednesday.
If reelected, Stewart said she wants to focus on solidifying the roles, responsibilities and organizational structure of the sheriff’s office. When she inherited the position, she said it was a mess.
“I spent the first year trying to sort out the problems of the previous administration, trying to create an organization and a structure where frankly none existed,” she said.
In addition, Stewart said she will continue to expand training opportunities for MPs and work to maintain DASO’s low turnover rate.
Unlike other departments statewide and across the country, DASO has not seen a significant decrease in police officers. Stewart attributes this to a work environment that prioritizes mental health and provides officers with opportunities for training and promotion.
During her announcement speech Thursday, Stewart emphasized the role community partnerships have played in her previous tenure as sheriff, such as with the village of Doña Ana.
She pointed to a tip DASO lawmakers received last month from a resident of Doña Ana. The tipster reported a suspicious vehicle parked in his neighborhood with a man in it. When the deputies confronted the man, he rammed two DASO SUVs and led the deputies in a chase out of Doña Ana and into Las Cruces.
The man was subsequently arrested. He faces state and federal charges. Stewart said that type of tip only comes when communities feel they can cooperate with law enforcement.
“You know your community, you know what you need,” she said during her speech.
winding path
Born in California, Stewart began her professional life as a wilderness firefighter in Orange County. In 1974 she graduated from the University of California Irvine with a bachelor’s degree in history. She told the Sun News that she wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a lawyer.
But before she embarked on any graduate or professional program, Stewart said she wanted to take some time off from school.
“I lived in a remote canyon in California that burned down every two years,” Stewart said. “I was always busy.”
While working as a firefighter, Stewart said that an Orange County sheriff’s deputy planted the seed in her head that one day she could become a police officer. Unlike many who become police officers, Stewart had no immediate family on the job. But she had a mother who practiced law, and she said this was her foot in the door to become interested in a career involving justice.
Despite her interest in the field, Stewart said that sexist beliefs and policies could have prevented her from becoming a police officer. But after waves of lawsuits in the 1960s and 1970s, California departments such as the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angels County Sheriff’s Department were forced by court orders to hire more women and allow them to fill the same roles as men.
“A lot of small agencies were like, ‘Well, you know, if the LA sheriffs can be hit with a court order, so can we,'” Stewart said. “I was like, ‘Well, let me try this. Let me see how my personality matches that.'”
The rest was history – in the truest sense of the word.
Throughout her career, Stewart was often the first woman hired as a police officer in that department. Even in Doña Ana County, Stewart is the first and only woman to ever hold the position of sheriff.
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Stewart has also been a plaintiff in several discrimination and civil rights violation lawsuits throughout her career, including the 2015 Doña Ana County lawsuit.
At the 2015 trial, she testified that prior to her release in January 2011, she faced months of retaliation from district chiefs for investigating complaints of racial discrimination within the Department of Animal Control and Codes Enforcement.
After the trial, a Doña Ana County jury found that Stewart’s county officials had violated rights under the human rights law and the state’s Whistleblower Protection Act, and awarded her just over $1.2 million in emotional distress and lost wages and benefits.
In 2016, Stewart and the county signed a $1.59 million settlement, according to county records.
In 2018, Stewart ran for sheriff for the first time, ousting incumbent Enrique “Kiki” Vigil in the Democratic primary and ousting Republican Todd Garrison, who was sheriff for ten years prior to Vigil, in the general election.
When she won, Stewart became the first woman elected sheriff in Doña Ana County history and the first openly gay sheriff in New Mexico history.
Since taking office, Stewart has again come into conflict with the county administration. During a press conference in January, she slammed the district manager for not allowing DASO employees to work from home and vowed to defy his orders for employees to continue working in the building.
The ongoing battle between the sheriff and county manager is nothing new, Stewart said. As such, one of her priorities, if re-elected, would be to lobby the state legislature with the goal of persuading the legislature to create clearer definitions of responsibilities between managers and sheriffs.
But before any of that can happen, she needs to hold on to her place. The Democratic primary is June 7, 2022.
Justin Garcia is the public safety reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Just516garc.
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