The 2022 Albuquerque Police Department Annual Use of Force Report was recently released to the public, and it showed a few new trends. Overall, there was a decline in the number of incidents that used force by the APD, but an increase in the number of shootings by APD officers, numbers that alarmed some in the Albuquerque community.
"Albuquerque has changed and APD has changed over the 9 years since the CASA was negotiated. The city has become more violent and APD has been trained in constitutional policing practices," Albuquerque attorney Pete Dinelli wrote in an Aug. 28 blog post. "It’s because of the city’s dramatic increase in overall crime rates that there have been more police officer involved shootings as police officers are finding themselves in more predicaments where they feel the need to protect themselves and not attempt to deescalate a situation and use force or deadly force."
Last May, KRQE News reported that an annual force report is required of the city due to a 2014 Court-Approved Settlement Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice after it was found that the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) engaged “in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force, including deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.” In order to be free of independent monitoring, the APD needs to reach a 95% compliance level was at 92% as of the date of the report.
In its report, the APD defines “force” as “any physical means used to defend the officer or other people, restrain, or otherwise gain physical control of an individual who is resisting.” In 2022, the APD had 590 force incidents and 626 force interactions, which was down 18% from 2021, when the APD had 764 force interactions, and down 35% from 2020, when the APD had 960 force interactions. The 2022 numbers are down from 2018 and 2019 as well.
Out of those force incidents and interactions, about 4% were determined to be outside of APD policy. According to APD, “force is deemed in policy when every force technique is used correctly and was deemed to be reasonable, necessary, proportional, and minimal.”
According to the report, in 2022 APD shot firearms at 18 individuals, a record high. Ten individuals were killed, and three were injured. In those 18 incidents, 14 times the individual was armed or attempting to arm themselves; three times the weapon was later found to be not lethal; and in one instance, the suspect was throwing rocks at officers. In total, 16 of those incidents were determined to be within APD policy, and two weren't, and the officers in those two incidents were fired. The two incidents that weren’t within APD policy were the rock throwing incident, which wasn’t fatal, and a situation where a suspect had a key fob, which also wasn’t fatal.
"The tragic reality is the city will likely see more police officer involved shootings even if APD achieves 100% compliance in the 3 settlement compliance levels and as all 271 mandated police reforms under the settlement are implemented and as the DOJ prepares to leave," Dinelli wrote in his blog post. "A violent city has become our new norm."
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. 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.