{"id":48049,"date":"2025-10-17T16:13:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T23:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=48049"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:13:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T23:13:36","slug":"our-mayoral-election-series-concludes-officer-induced-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/our-mayoral-election-series-concludes-officer-induced-jeopardy\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Mayoral Election Series Concludes; \ufeff\u2018Officer-Induced Jeopardy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
Subscribe to NMiF Enews<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n
\n
\"Aerial<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Something wicked this way comes…\u00a0

Wait. That\u2019s something else and, of course, I am not Ray Bradbury. What I meant to say is that Election Day rapidly approaches \u2014 Nov. 4, for those keeping score at home. We\u2019ve been busy for the last several weeks interviewing candidates in two of the most closely watched contests in this year\u2019s cycle: the mayor\u2019s races in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.\u00a0

Both fields are crowded, with eight people running in Santa Fe and six more in Albuquerque. That means there have been a lot of interviews. To watch \u2018em all, you can hop over to our Youtube page<\/a>. And for an explanation about how we designed our coverage, I wrote about that last month.\u00a0

In this week\u2019s show, we conclude our interview series with two candidates in that Santa Fe race who probably won\u2019t be grabbing lunch, coffee or drinks together anytime soon: City Councilor Michael Garcia and County Commissioner Justin Greene. Some bad blood \u2014 and perhaps dirty pool \u2014 going on between the two spilled into public view earlier this week via the pages of the Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. I won\u2019t belabor the bones of contention here, though we did ask Greene about the kerfuffle.\u00a0

As with all our candidate interviews, we tried to stay focused on illuminating policy positions and ideas that will help voters at the polls. We hope you came away at least a little bit more educated about the candidates running for these important offices.\u00a0

Switching gears…\u00a0

The back half of this week\u2019s show features a story many months in the making. It centers around a fatal police shooting in Torrance County back in 2022. I first learned that the family of the victim, Travis Boawn, was suing the county last fall. They allege that sheriff\u2019s deputies violated his rights under the relatively new state Civil Rights Act when they shot him nine times \u2014 90 seconds after arriving at the home Boawn shared with his mother.\u00a0

I spent most of my journalism career as an investigative reporter focused on the criminal legal system for several print, television and digital news organizations. In that work, I dedicated many gallons of ink and millions of pixels to police violence<\/a>, which has plagued this state more than almost any other over the course of the past few decades. One concept that\u2019s come up again and again is \u201cofficer-induced jeopardy\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s when the police pick a fight, end it with violence, then claim self defense.\u00a0

All too often, this idea manifests when the victim of that violence is in the midst of a mental health crisis.
\u00a0
Boawn had been living with paranoid schizophrenia for many years before deputies killed him, and officer-induced jeopardy is at the heart of his family\u2019s lawsuit. They hope the New Mexico Civil Rights Act will ultimately force police officers \u2014 and the governments that employ them \u2014 to consider\u00a0the minutes and hours before an encounter that could lead to violence, as opposed to the mere seconds required now. And they hope those who do not make such considerations will be held accountable under the state Constitution.\u00a0

This is a different kind of story for us, one we haven\u2019t had the resources to tell in this way previously. We\u2019re grateful to Boawn\u2019s family for trusting us with it and for all the time they spent telling us who Travis was, what they lost on Valentine\u2019s Day in 2022 and what they hope comes of their case.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I am personally grateful to Cailley Chella, the newest member of our team, without whom this story would have looked very different \u2014 and not nearly as good.\u00a0

-Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div>

Read more from<\/p>

Jeff Proctor<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n