APD Releases 2020 Crime Stats: 7% Decline for Second Straight Year

Property Crime Continues to Go Down, Violent Crime Up Slightly

ALBUQUERQUE – The Albuquerque Police Department released preliminary crime stats for 2020 that show a second straight year with a 7% decrease in overall crime. The continued drop in property crime, which accounts for most crime in Albuquerque, represents a 13% decrease in crime since 2018.

The presentation can be found on APD’s web site. 

Overall, APD reported the following overall crime comparisons:

2018:  75,538

2019:  70,223

2020:  65,503

“We have more work to do, but this trend is encouraging because we continue to cut property crime,” Interim APD Chief Harold Medina said. “We’ve had 11,000 fewer property crimes since 2018, and those are the crimes that most people experience.

“The crime stats for violent crime, while not as dire as most big cities experienced in 2020, reveal the challenges we face with gun crimes and shootings. We took more guns off the streets, but we’re fighting an uphill battle. We need everyone, including the public, to help us prevent gun violence.”

The United States experienced the largest one-year increase in homicides in 2020, according to news reports. Much of that increase has been attributed to gun violence. In Albuquerque, homicides increased in recent years, but were down 5% in 2020.

APD is publicly releasing its crime stats using the same methodology the FBI will be requiring of all police departments in the nation. This is the third year APD is using the National Incident-Based Reporting System, known as NIBRS.

The FBI is requiring the use of NIBRS, rather than the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) data. The NIBRS data provides a broader range of crimes and all crimes involved in an incident. The old system only required the highest reported crime for each incident.

Because the NIBRS format is so different than UCR, the 2020 stats can only be compared to stats in 2019 and 2018. All crime stats from prior years are not comparable.

Below are comparisons for the past three years based on three major categories:

• Crimes Against Property, such as robbery, bribery, and burglary is to obtain money, property, or some other benefit.
• Crimes Against Persons, such as murder, rape and assault, are those offenses whose victims are always individuals.
• Crimes Against Society, such as animal cruelty, drug violations, gambling and prostitution, represent society’s prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity.

More details about NIBRS can be found on the FBI web site.