The mayor of Roswell has filed paperwork to create a Chaves County grand jury, which he hopes will save time for police officers.
The Roswell Daily Record reports that Mayor Dennis Kintigh on Wednesday presented Chaves County Clerk Dave Kunko with a petition calling for the convening of a grand jury.
The state Constitution allows citizens to create a grand jury if at least 2 percent of a county's registered voters request it.
Kintigh says the next step is to take his petition, which has 47 pages of signatures, to district judges.
The mayor says a grand jury could greatly reduce the amount of time officers spend waiting to testify at preliminary hearings.
He said in late August that a grand jury can also compel reluctant witnesses to testify.
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