With crime in Santa Fe rising to near the top of voters' concerns, the amount of crime-in-the-city rhetoric coming from the leading mayoral candidates also has increased.

Asenath Kepler has consistently criticized incumbent Mayor David Coss' administration for not putting enough police on the streets, ignoring what she says is increasing community fear and going forward with annexation plans she calls "a train wreck waiting to happen."

Coss admits the city has a residential burglary problem but says violent crime, for the most part, is down on his watch, the number of police on the streets is up and that annexation is the right thing to do for the city's long-term future.

So what's the real story?

Coss claims he has boosted the numbers of officers during his four years in office and has been quoted in local news media as saying a plan to add 45 more officers over three years is "on track."

What Coss actually has done is fill more than 25 vacancies on the force during his term in office — action that was prompted by Kepler, who sounded the alarm on the subject when she served as city manager in 2006. When he took over, 27 out of 155 officer positions at the Police Department were vacant.

In order to fund those positions, councilors approved a property tax increase in 2006. In 2008, councilors approved another property tax increase that was supposed to fund half of a proposal to add 15 officers a year over three years. The problem was, the other 50 percent of the funding for that plan was to come from less-certain sources.

During the first fiscal year of that expansion program — 2008-2009 — councilors funded four of the 15 police positions, according to city Finance Director David Millican. For fiscal year 2009-2010, the Police Department expansion was suspended because of an overall budget crunch, he said.

That means the Police Department has money for 159 total positions, Police Chief Aric Wheeler said. Currently, there are 157 officers working for the department and two vacancies, he said.

The department also has secured funding from the federal government's economic-stimulus funds to pay for another eight officers for three years, Wheeler said.

Coss said Friday that he thought this fiscal year was the first year of the approved expansion program, which he thought remained in effect. He still thinks the city needs more police on the streets but said that it likely won't happen until gross receipts tax revenue rebounds.

Kepler, who has been endorsed by the city police officers' union, said there simply aren't enough officers on the streets now and that increasing their numbers is a top priority for her. She said the current minimum staffing number of nine patrol officers per shift is not nearly enough.

"We are spending money on a lot of unnecessary projects," Kepler said. "Our core mission is delivering public services and one of those is public safety. If we cannot adequately take care and protect people, we are falling down in our mission in local government."

Kepler also said she remains against going forward with plans to annex hundreds of acres and thousands of residents into the city — set to take place by the end of 2013 — and will go to court to stop it if necessary. The police union has protested loudly that the department doesn't have enough manpower to cover the areas taken over late last year under the annexation's first phase, which encompassed 1,900 acres and at least 1,300 more residents.

"I'm not going to endanger the lives of public safety officers or residents because of some agreement entered into for political reasons," Kepler said.

But Coss said an annexation deal reached with Santa Fe County will create a contiguous city border and that the gross receipts tax proceeds from the areas to be annexed — including the planned Las Soleras subdivision between Cerrillos Road and Interstate 25 — means the long-discussed annexation plan is a "recipe for good government."

Meanwhile, Coss accused Kepler of being alarmist in her characterizations of the city's crime problem. He said her tactics ignore the reality of the situation and are meant to scare the public. For example, a recent news release about Kepler making crime her "top priority" began with statements about recent violent crimes in the city.

Coss took umbrage because statistics show violent crime in the city is actually down 13 percent during Coss' four years in office when compared with 2002-2005. While homicides are up — from between two and four in 2002-2005 to between four and five from 2006-2009 — all other violent crime categories are down except robberies and attempted murder, which are up slightly, the statistics from the Police Department show. That includes declines in rape, domestic violence and assault and battery, the statistics show.

However, residential burglaries were up 60 percent in 2009 as compared to 2008 — from 514 to 820, according to the statistics. That number of residential burglaries is higher than even 2007 — when the number jumped to 724 from 438 in 2006 amid a corruption investigation into the city Police Department.

Coss blamed much of the residential burglary problem on juveniles and said he supports programs that help young people obtain job training and stay out of trouble.

Kepler also said she supports such programs. However, she denied being an alarmist and said that in talking with residents door to door, she has found a lot of scared people who worry about their houses being burglarized and ransacked, or don't feel comfortable sleeping with the windows open in summer.

She also said violent criminals appear to be "more emboldened" lately, and pointed to more violent incidents in the downtown area.

"It's not something we can sit back and say it's not really violent crime," she said. "Break-ins are a real violation and they affect people. And it's because we don't have enough police officers."

For his part, City Councilor Miguel Chavez — the third candidate for mayor in the March 2 municipal election — said he thinks the city should spend its money more wisely, and that the city needs more police on the streets. Still, he said scaring the electorate is not the way to put more police on the street.

"To add to the fear element doesn't solve the problem," Chavez said.

When voters were asked in a poll for The New Mexican what they felt was the single most important issue facing Santa Fe today, 15 percent responded that it was crime and drugs. That response to the open-ended question was second only to the economy and creating jobs, which was the top concern for 39 percent of the 400 likely voters contacted Feb. 1-3 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.

When respondents were asked, "Overall, who do you feel has the greater responsibility for dealing with the problem of crimes committed by juveniles?" a majority — 55 percent — chose "the parents and families of the offenders" and 12 percent picked "the local law enforcement system," while 28 percent said both equally are responsible and 5 percent weren't sure.

The poll, which poll had a 5-point margin of error, also asked voters how they would rate the city's performance in dealing with property crime. Only 3 percent chose "excellent," while 27 percent said "good," 45 percent "fair," 21 percent "poor," and 4 percent were undecided.

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