Las Cruces has become the latest city in New Mexico to start a program using mental health workers instead of police to respond to people in crisis. A similar program in Albuquerque, started in 2020, has not led to a reduction in police shootings of people with mental illness.
Author Archives: Vanessa G. Sánchez
Born and raised in Ecuador, Sánchez has written in-depth stories about issues affecting underrepresented communities, including migrant workers and asylum seekers in the U.S. She contributed to the award-winning investigations “Essential and Exposed” and “Printing Hate.” As an intern and Bradlee Fellow at The Washington Post, she covered education, local government and politics in the Baltimore-Washington region. She joins Searchlight as a yearlong Roy W. Howard fellow to cover health policies affecting children and families in New Mexico. Sánchez holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland.
