White wants West Mesa mystery solved

property crime is a big problem for albuquerque homeowners -- and it's one of the things darren w...  More »

property crime is a big problem for albuquerque homeowners -- and it's one of the things darren white says he will target when he becomes the city's new chief public safety officer in a couple of weeks. jeff maher sat down with white today to talk about his priorities. jeff. as chief public safety officer, white will oversee the albuquerque police and fire departments -- as well as emergency management and the safe city strike force. addressing property crime is big for him, but his top priority deals with an unsolved mystery. eleven women and an unborn child -- all unearthed earlier this year in a hundred acre dirt lot out on the west mesa. police have some suspects in mind, but no arrests have been made in the case. darren white, who will soon be in charge of the police department -- hopes to change that. soon, he'll be meeting with the families of the victims "i want to be able to tell them that with this new administration coming in, this will not be put to the back-burner, this will get all the attention that it deserves" city councilor ken sanchez met with white recently to urge him to make the west mesa murder mystery his top priority. "we have possibly a serial killer still on the loose, we don't know where he's at, he might be deceased, but i think there should be some information that goes to those families" like mayor-elect richard berry, white also wants to see more officers on the streets -- especially to fight gangs, and property crime. he says the court system is going too easy on criminals, especially those convicted of property crimes who keep getting out and continue breaking into people's homes to support their drug addictions. white says judges need to hand down the maximum sentence more often... especially when it comes to property crimes. "you know jeff, i'm a lock them up and throw away the key kind of guy, i make no bones about it, but if all i'm doing is locking up the same people over and over again, nothing is going to change" white will be taking office december first. his last day as sheriff will be november 30th.  « Less