BY MIKE AND KYLE WHEELER
Former County Councilors
Los Alamos
We support David Izraelevitz for Sheriff. We have known David for quite a few years now. He has served 11 years on the Los Alamos County Council (he was appointed to fill a vacant position, then was elected twice to four-year terms). As former county councilors, we know what a commitment to the community that is. In addition, he was a founding member of the Los Alamos Community Foundation, which has turned into a force for good in our little town, surpassing our expectations in many positive ways. He is a volunteer in numerous non-profits and his dedication to this community, in which he and his wife raised their sons, cannot be questioned.
The reason we support David for Sheriff is because he specifically wants to abolish the office of the Sheriff. Los Alamos is unique among the 33 counties of New Mexico: we have a Home Rule Charter, which allows county offices to be abolished as long as their duties are appropriately delegated. This has happened with the office of the Treasurer and the office of the Surveyor. Currently, Los Alamos County delegates all law enforcement responsibilities to the Chief of Police, including summons, subpoenas, similar civil actions, and operating the county jail. While the office of the Sheriff is needed in large counties where the city police cannot cover the area, our office is a relic of our county. We have had excellent sheriffs in the past; specifically, many of us remember Louis Rojas, who was our sheriff for 34 years and served the county with distinction. Yet not all people who want the authority of wearing a badge have the integrity of Sheriff Rojas. Some have exposed the county to liability and extra expenses including unneeded staff (administrative or deputies), additional vehicles, radios, and office space. There is no part of our county where the duties of a sheriff aren’t covered by our local police. Thus, having a sheriff in this county is redundant and exposes our county to liability and needless expenses. We often see articles in the Santa Fe New Mexican where sheriffs commit crimes or overstep their boundaries; just this week a sheriff in Santa Fe County requested a subscription to powerful software that can identify people from snapshots of their faces.*
One argument you might hear espoused is a doctrine called Posse Comitatus, Latin for “county power.” This doctrine is exposed by many anti-government groups and has presented serious problems to the courts and law enforcement. To learn more about that, there are many books and articles about it if you are interested in going down that rabbit hole.
We’ve been down this road before, specifically in 2011 (when Kyle was on the Charter Review Committee) and 2015. It’s time to move forward and abolish this office.
*Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office seeks powerful facial recognition tech from controversial
Clearview AI, by Nicholas Gilmore, Santa Fe New Mexican, April 14, 2026