Irene Pfeffer, 89, was asleep when someone smashed through her glass sliding door.

The burglar was in her wallet and out the door before Pfeffer, who is hard of hearing, woke up to find glass speckled across the floor.

It was around 3 p.m. Jan. 16, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when her son, District Judge Stephen Pfeffer, got a call from his sister.

"We weren't sure if the person was still in the house," Judge Pfeffer said.

Santa Fe police arrived at the house north of Fort Marcy park and searched for evidence. What they didn't know was that neighbor Karen Snell had an attempted burglary happen at her house at almost the same time.

Snell saw a young man enter her backyard and approach her house, and she started yelling.

"I screamed that I would call the police and told him to leave," said Snell, a retired prosecutor from the District Attorney's Office.

She got in her car as the man fled on foot and followed him until he got into a vehicle. Snell jotted down the plate number.

The tip went to the city and county's new combined Burglary Task Force, which had been initiated that day.

The task force allows both Santa Fe police and the sheriff's department (both agencies have three officers in the unit) to more easily share information. Better communication will result in more arrests, they hope.

A record 881 residential burglaries were reported in the city 2010, an average of almost 2 1/2 per day.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office recorded a drop of about 12 percent in burglary reports last year, to 748 reports from 848 in 2010.

In its first week, the task force arrested six burglars and closed six cases. Over the last three weeks, it has made 12 arrests and recovered more than $12,000 in property.

Two days after the burglary of Irene Pfeffer's home, the task force arrested a juvenile, who they believe entered Snell's backyard, and Chris Peña, 36, of Santa Fe.

"It's just one of those cases where a witness gets a license plate and a lot of times, that's all we need," said police Sgt. Jason Wagner, head of the Burglary Task Force. "Any little bit of information helps."

Peña has been charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, two counts of conspiracy to commit burglary and a charge of receiving stolen property. He is being held at the Santa Fe County jail.

Proactive policing

One of the biggest changes in the area of burglary investigation has been surveillance. After the a record year for burglaries in 2010, detectives in the city police Property Crimes Unit started to compile a list of known offenders.

It began as a top-10 list, grew to 100 and is currently at about 125 active suspects. Sgt. Peter Neal, who worked as the head of the unit for 31 months, believes the list could grow to 200.

Neal stepped down from his role to return to patrol, and Sgt. Gardner Finny is taking his position as the head of the unit.

The top-100 list is a compilation of information on suspected active burglars in Santa Fe. A suspect doesn't have to be a repeat convicted offender to be on the list. If someone has been arrested for a burglary but is still on the street, they make the list.

The list includes where a suspect lives and works, and what vehicles he or she may drive, sometimes including a vehicle owned by relatives.

"These are people that we don't want to fall through the cracks," Neal said. "Instead of a burglar getting arrested on Tuesday, getting released on Wednesday and doing another burglary that Friday, we want to see them get arrested on Tuesday, get arraigned in front of the judge, get a high bond and stay in jail for a couple weeks until trial."

Peña, for instance, was released on parole from the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants just one month before he was charged in connection with the case near Fort Marcy park.

Peña had spent the last 12 years in and out of jail for convictions on two counts of aggravated burglary and another for larceny.

"You can see a direct correlation between the numbers that are in jail and the burglaries that are happening," Neal said.

Neal said around 40 percent of suspects on the top-100 list are serving time. The goal is to have at least 50 percent behind bars.

Between February and April of 2011, Santa Fe police were keeping around 60 percent behind bars, and residential burglary numbers for those three months hovered around 40 per month. Neal said that number is still too high for a city of Santa Fe's size, but it's a lot better than the 95 reported residential burglaries in October 2011.

The Burglary Task Force, which has made at least two arrests per week in its first three weeks, is one way to keep those people in jail.

"I think what we're going to see is that their numbers are going to justify them being in place for a while," Neal said.

Neal and Wagner also know that their efforts alone are not enough.

A narcotics unit also is in the works, and it may be up and running in the next two months, according to Santa Fe police Lt. Louis Carlos.

"We know for a fact that a lot of these property crimes, the suspects are linked to narcotic use, abuse, sale and trade," Carlos said. "It's a component that we have to tackle."

A heroin addict may have a routine where he or she breaks into two or three cars a day, Neal said, and sells the stolen goods to a resale store for $10 or $15. That money feeds the addict's daily drug fix, and the cycle repeats itself.

"We know a lot of them do heroin," Wagner said. "That's what's driving this whole issue."

The Property Crimes Unit, the Burglary Task Force and the narcotics unit would be a "triad" of 13 officers that Neal thinks could begin to grab hold of Santa Fe's burglary problem at its root.

"They're all going to have to work together because they're dealing with the same people," Neal said.

Protecting yourself

In the case of the Pfeffer burglary, the task force was able to make an arrest, thanks to the license plate Snell snatched.

According to police, any detail like this can lead to an arrest.

Whether it be a partial plate number, a color and make of a getaway car, or a serial number of stolen property, officers can use that information to look for matches in their top-100 list.

"We jump on whatever is good, fresh information so that we can make an impact right away," Wagner said.

Police advise that owners record serial numbers for computers, game consoles and televisions. Police give the serial numbers, along with the top-100 list of suspected burglars, to local pawn shops and gold buyers.

Although some may believe police are unfairly targeting burglary suspects and their families, longtime defense attorney Mark Donatelli said police have been sharing information like this with pawn shops for decades.

"Pawn shops have always worked closely with police on sharing information," Donatelli said. "It's what [the police] do with the information after that could render it reasonable or unreasonable for search and seizure."

Donatelli elaborated by saying police can't just pull over a car that is registered to a family member of a known burglar. However, if police suspect someone in the car sold stolen property to a pawn shop, and followed them until that suspect left the vehicle, they would have enough probable cause for an arrest.

Santa Fe police completed a search warrant last week for two local resale stores that had been observed to be dealing with known burglars. They took an inventory of the items being sold; if they have serial numbers to match up, that property could be returned.

Auto burglaries can often be avoided by removing valuables from cars, police advise. If burglars do not see a cellphone, a laptop computer or anything valuable, they likely wont break in.

Residential burglaries can be avoided by locking windows and reporting suspicious activity.

According to Neal, burglars "case" neighborhoods in a variety of ways. If someone suspicious is seen going door to door, residents should call police. If someone suspicious is cruising slowly through a neighborhood, report it.

Contact Nico Roesler at 986-3089 or nroesler@sfnewmexican.com.


Santa Fe Police Department property crimes report

2010 vs. 2011 and Percent Change

Residential burglaries: 881,  783; down 11%
Commercial burglaries: 258, 231; down 10%
Auto burglaries: 1,152, 857; down 26%

Total property crimes (including damage and vandalism): 3,133, 2,755; down 12%



Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office property crimes report

Residential burglary: 522 (2010); 511 (2011)
Commercial burglary: 39 (2010); 51 (2011)
Auto burglary: 200 (2010); 143 (2011)
Overall decrease of 12% from 2010-2011



Burglary Task Force (both Santa Fe Police Department and Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office)

Week 1, Jan. 16-20:
Arrests: 6
Cleared burglaries: 6
Search and arrest warrants: 4
Recovered stolen property: $9,800

Week 2, Jan. 23-27:
Arrests: 2
Search warrants: 1
Recovered stolen property: $3,000
Week 3 Jan. 30 - Feb. 3:
Arrests: 4
Arrest warrants: 1