APD investigates a fatal shooting in southeast Albuquerque on March 4, 2024
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Murders in Albuquerque are down compared to recent years, according to the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) Chief Harold Medina.
As of Tuesday, there have been 47 murder victims in Albuquerque; that’s down by more than a quarter compared to this time last year. “I think nationally you see the same trends that a lot of other major cities have spiked and they’re starting to go back down,” said Gilbert Gallegos, public information officer for APD.
VIEW: APD’s presentation on 2024 homicide data
The murder rate in Albuquerque has been on the decline for the past couple of years after peaking at 70 homicides during the first half of 2022. “27% decrease between ’22 and ’23, and then a 33% decrease since 2022,” Gallegos said.
APD said so far this year, they’ve arrested 74 suspects—48 for murders committed this year, and 26 from cases before this year. Roughly 80% of the murders involved a gun, and a majority of the suspects ranged from ages 18 to 35. “The vast majority are Hispanic offenders,” Gallegos said, “It’s about 82% male and 17% female and very similar with suspects.”
The department has solved 75% of the cases that have come in so far this year. Medina credits the decrease in the number of cases partially to the courts hearing more cases and the district attorney prosecuting these cases—keeping dangerous offenders off the streets.
“We’re getting better working as a system together; we’re finding ways to make things work within this broken system; we know we still have challenges,” Medina said.
He also attributes it to picking up suspects with warrants and working on cases from previous years. “I attribute it to the fact that we’re clearing these cases so fast in the past you know we had those incidents where somebody was you know related to three deaths or four deaths and two deaths and now we’re trying to pick them up as quickly as possible before they commit another shooting,” Medina said.
He hopes his department’s proactivity sends a message to the criminal community: “We want the criminal element to know that there’s a high likelihood that you’re going to go to jail if you commit a crime.”
Medina said the murder rate is trending down towards pre-pandemic levels. He said just last week, the department cleared more than 200 felony warrants.