The New Mexico Business Coalition recently hosted a ABQ Crime Crisis BASH, an event with people discussing the crime rate in Albuquerque. Carla Sonntag, NMBC president, said the New Mexico Business Coalition is exploring the idea of suing the city of Albuquerque.
"Albuquerque is experiencing a crisis with homelessness, open drug use, theft, vandalism and numerous other related crimes," Sonntag said at the event. "Because these issues are impacting business operations and everyone's quality of life, New Mexico Business Coalition is in discussion with experienced legal counsel to file a civil action against the City of Albuquerque. The purpose of this action would be to cause the city to enforce laws currently being ignored. This lack of action is resulting in harm to city residents and businesses."
According to an NMBC release, the BASH event included live discussions with city council members Renee Grout of District 9, Louie Sanchez of District 1 and John Daviau of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. These conversations laid the groundwork for Sonntag’s announcement of the plan to file a lawsuit against the city of Albuquerque.
The event was held at Revel Entertainment, with a catered buffet by Chello Grill. The New Mexico Business Coalition’s plan is to raise $50,000 in order to hire attorneys to review legal options, the release reported.
According to an April report by KOAT, Albuquerque ranks 17th out of the 70 largest cities in the country for homicide rate, according to a report looking at trends for murders, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. According to this report, there were 106 homicides in 2021 and 115 in 2022, an 8% increase.
Albuquerque was one of 27 cities across the country that saw an increase in homicides in 2022, as there was a 5% drop in homicides nationwide. Notably, Phoenix saw a 13% increase in homicides as well, KOAT reported.
According to the most recent data from 2022, the violent crime rate in New Mexico as a whole is 7.8 incidents per 1,000 people. This is actually lower than the New Mexico violent crime rate in 2021 of 8.2 incidents per 1,000 people, but still is the second-highest rate in the U.S., behind only Alaska’s violent crime rate of 8.4 incidents per 1,000 people, SafeWise reported.
The property crime rate in New Mexico was at 28.4 incidents per 1,000 people in 2022, down from the 31.8 rate the previous year. The national average of violent crime rate is 4.0 incidents per 1,000 people, and the national property crime rate is 19.6 incidents per 1,000 people, according to SafeWise.
According to a recent report by the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee, the number of homeless individuals in New Mexico has increased from roughly 2,600 to 4,000, which is concentrated largely in Albuquerque.