2024 Metro Crime Initiative
A system-wide call to action on gun violence, addiction, and domestic violence.
Fighting Crime and Fixing the Broken Criminal Justice System are the Top Priorities in Albuquerque.
Through the third Albuquerque Metro Crime Initiative (MCI), we are pursuing concrete actions in the 2024 legislative session to make our communities safer now.
Action and Investments That We Can Make to Fight Crime in Albuquerque
Reduce Gun Violence
Repeated and new asks include:
- Stronger penalties for possessing firearms in drug distribution crimes.
- New charges for firing off a gun in public.
- Remove the preemption on cities from addressing assault rifle proliferation.
- Add federal prosecutors to New Mexico, addressing gun and drug-related offenses.
Bolster Courts to Close the Revolving Door
Repeated and new asks include:
- Establish a dedicated ‘fentanyl court’.
- Establish a fentanyl specific response team.
- Longer sentences for 2nd degree murder.
- Designate 2nd degree homicide by vehicle to a serious violent offense.
Fight Crime
Repeated and new asks include:
- State funding and direct participation in warrant backlog initiative.
- Enact stricter street racing penalties.
- Funding for regular presence of New Mexico State Police (NMSP) in ABQ with a traffic unit to patrol highways and dedicated narcotics and auto theft investigators.
- Enhance criminal sentencing for road rage and violent crimes on the roadways.
Fund Crime Fighting Technology and Infrastructure
Repeated and new asks include:
- $6.5 million helicopter & help from NMSP to patrol when APD’s helicopter is unavailable.
- Fund community command posts on Albuquerque’s east and west side.
- $20 million expansion of the Real Time Crime Center, and $10 million in new cameras to help with investigations.
- Secure funding for the jail to quickly process individuals taken into custody and provide constitutional detention.
Strengthen Collaborations and Procedures
Repeated and new asks include:
- Establish medical check protocols between UNM Hospital and Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC).
- Notify law enforcement when offenders are deemed incompetent by the courts.
- Improvements to conservatorship programs for severely addicted.
- Work with Bernalillo County to identify and resolve bottlenecks when individuals are taken to jail.