Las Cruces will get 26 new police officers after cadet graduation

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico - More than two dozen cadets will join a short-staffed police department in Las Cruces after their graduation on Friday afternoon.

At 1 p.m. on Friday, 28 cadets will graduate from the Las Cruces Police Department's 51st academy. Two of the graduates are headed to the New Mexico State University Police Department, but the remaining 26 will join LCPD, according to the city.

The academy provides more than 1,000 hours of education and training, according to the police department.

At the height of the pandemic, the department was short dozens of positions. In mid-2021, the department had to pull eight school resource officers from campuses across Las Cruces because of the staffing shortage.

"That’s kind of sad because there’s a huge benefit for having our officers at all the schools," a police spokesman told KVIA in August 2021.

ABC-7 is working to learn exactly how short-staffed the department is now.