SANTA FE, N.M. – The Santa Fe Police Department says violent crime has gone up nearly 5% compared to this time last year. Now, just like in Albuquerque, New Mexico State Police is stepping in. 

KOB 4 spoke to state police Tuesday about their latest operation. They started this extra patrol at the beginning of December. In just the first week of the operation, they made five major arrests, four of them were wanted felony offenders, including Jacob Martiez.

The 37-year-old was wanted on charges of sexual exploitation of children. He is now at the Santa Fe Detention Center.

Other offenders were arrested on drug, gun, and assault charges.

While this state police operation is in Santa Fe, it is not a part of the governor’s public health order. State police officers say they saw such a success in Albuquerque they want to apply to approach to other cities.

“If you’ll remember when we started our Albuquerque operations, the chief said, ‘You know, we’re here to stay.’ There’s no end date, right. And we’ve kind of started to apply that train of thought to other areas of the state, Santa Fe, Española. I know, we ran an operation down in Clovis not too long ago,” said NMSP Spokesperson Ray Wilson. 

Wilson says this operation doesn’t have a timeline. Instead, they will stay in Santa Fe until they see an improvement in the crime rate then they will shift focus to another city