Albuquerque Police Chief, Harold Medina, recently said progress has been made in reducing crime in the city.
The department shared statistics compiled from 2017 to 2022 at a news conference March 16 that showed violent crime was down 6% during that span, and property crime was down 40%. Property crime includes burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson, while violent crime includes murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
“(Crime) is a major concern in the community, and we’re doing two things, we’re battling actual crime numbers and the perception of crime,” Medina said, according to KRQE. “We’ll always have to work to reduce that perception of crime and make sure the community knows exactly where they’re at.”
Gilbert Gallegos, APD communications director, said 2017 was included in the report because “That’s the year that most of these crimes hit their highest point, especially property crime and violent crime.”
While overall crime may be down, the report found violent crime is on the rise.
Medina said 2022 was a record year for homicides within the city with 120, which exceeds the previous record of 110 set in 2021. Homicides are up 71% from 2017 to 2022, according to the APD. In 2017, 70 homicides were reported.
“We’re very clear, we still have a homicide problem,” Medina said. “We can’t deny that, we still have a homicide problem. Although all the other crimes are down, we still have a homicide problem, and our intent is to continue to investigate them and do everything we can and make that our No. 1 focus.”
The police chief also said that “more than 150 murder suspects” were taken off the streets in the last 15 months.
Aggravated assault is the most common form of violent crime up from 4,213 cases in 2017 to 5,399 cases in 2022. In 2021, 5,669 aggravated assault cases were reported.
To combat violent crime, the APD announced the creation of the Investigation Enhancement Division, a partnership between community detectives and investigators who provide information to prosecutors and judges.
“What we’re hoping to do is increase the type of person we’re assisting the DA’s (District Attorney’s) office in filing detention motions on,” APD Deputy Commander, Kyle Hartsock said. “We think more people should be detained in jail for some of these violent crimes and the way we’re going to attack that is by giving as much information as is possible to the prosecutors and judges so they can make these decisions.”
The number of burglaries, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson cases is down in every category when comparing 2022 numbers to 2017, according to the report. The department said there has been a 40% decline in property crime cases over the last six years.
Auto theft continues to be a problem with 5,631 cases of motor vehicle theft in Albuquerque in 2022. That’s up from 5,065 cases in 2021, but over a six-year stretch, auto-theft cases are actually down 27%.
“I think this is where, you know, we need help, we need help in a lot of different ways,” Medina said. “We’ve done a good job of trying to advertise, ‘don’t leave cars warming up in your driveway,’ ‘don’t leave keys in your ignition,’ but I think there’s also some responsibility of auto dealers.”
While the police chief said, much work needs to be done, he also encouraged people to recognize the progress the APD has made over the past six years.