According to preliminary crime statistics shared by the Albuquerque Police Department during a press conference Thursday morning, there has been about an 8% decrease in violent crime in 2022.
This was compared against the same period of time during 2021 and marked the lowest rate of violent crime in six years.
Dating back to 2017, property crime saw 6-year decrease of 40%, rape decreased by 36%, robbery by 46%, motor vehicle theft by 27% and arson by 20%.
The only two crime groups that actually grew during this time period were aggravated assault by 5% and murders by 9%.
Even with these numbers growing, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina praised the work of law enforcement officers arresting and removing murder suspects from the streets.
Another focus of the department Medina said was the targeted enforcement against career criminals, arresting them for less heinous crimes in the hopes it will curb more violent crimes in the future.
“One of the big things we’re doing is we know that a lot of tomorrow’s homicide offenders are committing lower level, repeat offenses type crimes today. Let’s get these people the help they need right off the bat, rather than substance abuse or alcohol or whatever the issues may be, mental health. Let’s get them the help they need and that’s what we're hoping to do, intervene with some of those low level people who are working their way up to potentially being homicide offenders, making sure we get the courts involved and making sure we hold them accountable at that level and hopefully they will not become those homicide offenders because we intervened early in the criminal justice system.”
To assist in this effort to help catch possible violent criminals earlier, APD is also launching the new Investigation Enhancement Division, which will specialize on targeting career criminals and focusing crimes that include domestic violence and stalking, drive-by shootings, road rage, burglary and white collar cases.
The unit will also help ensure successful prosecutions through a close working relationship with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office.