ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico state lawmakers passed $10 million last year for law enforcement agencies to clear felony warrants.

According to the most recent stats, that money is being well-spent.

“There’s policy, budgeting and legislation, and you need all three to be successful in addressing crime,” said state Rep. Joy Garratt, D-District 29.

During last January’s session, Garratt scored in the budgeting category when she landed that funding.

“That came out of a bipartisan effort. Bernalillo County said, ‘We want this.’ People across the state said, ‘We want this’,” she said.

Metro agencies received $5 million and the rest of the state got the other $5 million.

Recent numbers show it helped law enforcement clear more than 1,600 warrants so far – with 1,400 in Bernalillo County alone. Among those were 26 suspects accused of murder.

“That shows when you come together with a common goal, you don’t finger point, and you have honest communication with all parties, you get results that are effective,” Garratt said.

Murder suspects include Dorian McCuller. He was accused of killing a man last summer, near several witnesses, during a fight over a woman. Other suspects include Daniel Hadders – accused of working with another man to kill a local scientist inside his home – as well as Richard Anderson and Lanise Padilla, who were accused of killing a man over a small amount of cocaine.

“We know that there were criminals out there that belonged behind bars, but we had to find them,” Garratt said.

Garratt plans to ask the New Mexico Legislature for another $10 million this January to continue the program.

“We felt it would be effective. Now that we have the results, and saw that it’s effective, one of our goals will be to continue to fund it,” she said.

Garratt said she supports Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen and District Attorney Sam Bregman’s ideas for changing the state’s Children’s Code. They want to raise the age for juvenile sentences from 21 to 25 and to charge teens as adults for more crimes besides first-degree murder.

As a former middle and high school teacher, Garratt says change needs to happen in the classroom too.

“So kids don’t start joy riding, stealing cars, shooting, getting guns, we have to make sure our education is relevant, hands on and so engaging that those kind of criminal activities aren’t attractive,” she said.

Since last July, metro law enforcement in the metro used just over $1.2 million of the available $5 million to clear active warrants, according to the district attorney’s office. That was as of the end of June.