It used to be that most burglaries in Santa Fe could be chalked up to three categories of thief: drug addicts, professional crews and opportunists.

But within the last year, city police have noticed a new set of players who are contributing to a burglary rate — especially a residential burglary rate — that keeps on rising: juvenile gang members.

"Now with the gang involvement, they're taking what they want and the kids are making a lot of money from it," said Detective Matt Martinez, a member of the city Police Department's gang unit. "They're doing it because they only get a slap on the wrist. It's easy money."

Gangs have been designating burglary duties to specific crews within the gang, who receive lists of items people want and go out and steal them, he said. Other crews are run by adults who use underage kids because they know juveniles won't face consequences as strict as adults, Martinez said.

Take, for example, a gang-run crew out of Santa Fe that police investigated last summer, he said.

"Their sole job was to steal crotch-rockets," said Martinez, referring to sleek, sporty motorcycles.

The crew stole between 12 and 15 motorcycles from Santa Fe, Española, Las Vegas, N.M., and Albuquerque before police broke up the ring, Martinez said. Seven or eight of the motorcycles were recovered, he said.

"We need to hit the problem the same as we do with adults," Martinez said. "They need to be incarcerated. They need to pay for what they've done."

With residential burglaries up by 79 percent during the first nine months of 2009 over the first nine months of 2008, it's a safe bet that many Santa Fe residents would likely agree with Martinez. However, some who work in the criminal-justice system — mainly above the street level — caution that locking up kids, especially for the long term, can backfire and needlessly create more prolific criminals.

"What do we actually get out of us locking them up?" said Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler. "Is there any positive benefit to it? They need some punishment and some consequences. Some need jail. But others ... all we create is hardened teenagers. But then what do we do with them?"

That's the question Santa Fe Mayor David Coss wants to explore. And even with the economy wreaking havoc on the local budget, Coss said last week that he wants to find money to address the problem.

"I can't in any sense tolerate breaking in to somebody's house," Coss said. "But when we have this many juveniles arrested (for burglary), this high a dropout rate and high rates of domestic violence — it shows we're not doing enough. We need to do something different."

At Capital High School, just 45 percent of the ninth-graders who enrolled in 2006 graduated last year. At Santa Fe High School, that number was 61 percent. Santa Fe police arrested 55 juveniles for burglary in 2009, Wheeler said.

Coss' concern over the involvement of juveniles in the burglary problem was piqued earlier this month after city officers caught six juvenile burglars in one weekend, he said. But what really stuck in the mayor's craw was that two of those kids were wearing GPS bracelets for past run-ins with the law, he said.

"They need more supervision," he said.

That prompted Coss to ask for a meeting with Wheeler and state District Judge Michael Vigil — who is set to take over the Children's Court docket from Judge Barbara Vigil on Jan. 1 — to discuss ways to alleviate the problem. The mayor said he proposed getting local organizations that mentor troubled kids — like Youthworks and the Boys and Girls Club — more involved.

"If we're gonna give these kids a second chance, somebody's gotta watch them and make sure they take that second chance," Coss said. "We need to know where they are. And I don't think you do that with GPS and ankle bracelets."

Coss acknowledged that city resources are tight and said he didn't know where money to boost those organizations might come from. Still, he said such efforts are a priority with him.

"I'm willing to put city money toward youth," Coss said.

But Coss also said that incarceration can play a valuable role in the process.

"It has a deterrent effect and it gets their attention," he said. "Nobody wants to keep juveniles locked up for a long time, but you can't have them breaking and entering on others' homes while they're on probation."

Both Detective Martinez and Wheeler credited the Juvenile Probation Office with approving incarceration for juvenile burglars far more often than it used to.

Judge Michael Vigil declined to comment on his meeting with Coss and Wheeler, but frequently voices from the bench his opinion that throwing young people with little or no previous record to the wolves in prison is not beneficial to anyone. In fact, the judge recently handed out five-year probation sentences to several teenage burglars who broke into numerous Santa Fe homes and businesses from July 2007 to January 2009. Most had no previous criminal record.

Martinez said he and other police officers found the sentences frustrating.

"These kids, they violated how many people's privacy?" he said, adding that he doesn't think additional money for youth programs will make a difference. "The only thing (that will help) is incarceration."

Chief Wheeler said that while he understands Martinez's point of view, he also understands the judge's paradigm and plans to keep the lines of communication open with him.

"We've seen that from Judge MIchael Vigil over the years," Wheeler said. "He gives someone the opportunity to change their lives. But once they show a pattern, he gives them the (prison) time they deserve."

Wheeler said he wants to include government and local businesses in an effort to identify kids' interests — like music or auto mechanics — and get them involved in a mentorship program with a business or a professional person. He'd even like to bring interested kids into the Police Department for odd jobs or professional mentoring.

"That way it's something positive for them and it benefits the business community, too," Wheeler said. "I'd like to get to the core of the problem. What's making these kids offend?"

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.