Crime is often used as a political weapon during elections. I found mayoral candidate Asenath Kepler's "crime plan" press release disturbing in that it picks out certain incidents over the last year and attempts to scare residents into voting for her.

Many of her ideas were tried and failed during the times when Debbie Jaramillo was mayor and Chief Donald Grady was running the police department.

Substations sound good to residents because they think that an officer will be sitting in a substation waiting for a phone to ring and then they will rush out to a crime just blocks away. Manned substations take officers who could be out on the streets doing preventative patrolling, catching speeders, looking for burglars and being a presence in the community and put them behind a desk.

It was tried in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and was a complete failure. You can see remnants of the old substations at Frenchy's Park, the downtown Public Library and on Alameda Street. The city police and the county sheriff's office along with state police and other agencies have a successful joint burglary task force which is working to bring down burglaries and property crimes with success.

Property crimes are on the rise throughout the nation, and New Mexico and Santa Fe is not immune. However, by creating a false reputation of Santa Fe as a high-crime city, this candidate's political scare tactics are hurting all of us. This could further damage our already lower tourist and travel industry, which is reeling from the economic downturn as a whole.

I have been impressed by Mayor Coss' ability to increase police officers in the city police force from 124 to 154 officers over the last four years. This increase in the number of police officers on the streets is greater than under any other mayor in Santa Fe's history. When you pull out the mostly economy-driven property crimes in Santa Fe, you will find that violent crime, sex crimes, and overall crime are at their lowest levels in eight years.

There is always more that we in law enforcement can do, but we must be very suspicious of candidates who try and scare up votes rather than earn them.

Greg Solano is the sheriff of Santa Fe County.