NEW DPS SECRETARY NAMED

SANTA FE -- A "cop's cop" who supports Gov. Gary Johnson's drug legalization
efforts is the new secretary of the Department of Public Safety. Nick Bakas

The appointment of Nicholas Bakas, 50, who retired after 26 years with the
Albuquerque Police Department, was announced by Johnson today. Bakas
succeeds Darren White, who resigned because he disagreed with what he called
Johnson's "crusade to legalize drugs."

White was at today's news conference in his new job -- as a reporter for a
television station.

"I fully support the governor's initiative in this area," Bakas said. "I
find as a professional police officer ... his initiatives, his search for
solutions, his search for answers, timely and necessary. I do not find it an
affront to my career."

Bakas said he supported drug legalization within the context of "regulation,
control, taxation, education and treatment."

Johnson said he was concerned that he hire someone for the job who had an
open mind on the subject.

"Nick impressed me as a cop's cop ... someone who stated in our interview
that police are not afraid of change," Johnson said. "They're just as eager
to engage the debate as anyone else."

Bakas also emphasized that the governor never suggested "that I mirror his
position, that I parrot his words, that I go along with his policies."

"I have not been shackled," he said. "I have not been muzzled. I have not
been corraled. All that the governor has asked me to do is run and lead the
Department of Public Safety and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

Bakas, who has a master's degree in public administration and a law degree,
both from the University of New Mexico, retired from APD in October 1998. He
was the captain of the Southeast Area Command at the time.