House Memorial 57 requests collaboration among key stakeholders, including a designee from the Department of Public Safety, the Director and Deputy Director of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy, and a representative from the Public Employees Retirement Association. The purpose of this collaboration is to study the challenges related to the recruitment and retention of instructors at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy. The memorial emphasizes the importance of high-quality training and standards in law enforcement, highlighting that the current retirement eligibility requirements create significant barriers for attracting qualified candidates to instructor positions.

The memorial points out that instructors at the academy are required to transition from a retirement plan that allows for retirement after twenty years of service to one that requires twenty-five years, making it less appealing for experienced officers to accept instructor roles. This discrepancy has resulted in the academy being only forty percent staffed in instructor positions, as potential candidates are deterred by the less favorable retirement benefits. The memorial calls for a consensus recommendation to be made to the legislative interim committee by September 15, 2025, to address these recruitment and retention issues, which are critical for the effectiveness of policing strategies in New Mexico.