I agree 100% with ACLU Director with APD Forward Peter Simonson when he says the Mayor’s $60,000 crime study to find out why Albuquerque has had such a dramatic increase in crime “proves absolutely nothing” and “The Mayor is using the [crime study] report to blame someone else for the fact that crime has risen in Albuquerque”. https://www.abqjournal.com/875928/filings-show-concerns-over-crime-study.html

Mayor Berry when his crime study first came out said “you have to put the bad guys behind bars” to get crime down. No Mayor, you have to have enough cops to investigate cases in order investigate the crimes to prosecute and get convictions. Mayor Berry and Chief Gordon Eden are so ignorant or incompetent that they do not understand police numbers and presence do make difference in bringing crime down to the point they had to spend $60,000 for a study instead of taking responsibility for what they have done to APD.

The District Attorney’s Office reports that in the last seven years, felony indictments have gone down from 5,000 a year to 2,000 a year. Also, traffic court arraignments on misdemeanor traffic cases have gone from 60,000 a year 7 years ago to 25,000 a year today. Seven years ago when Berry took office, APD had 1,100 sworn cops. Today it has 850 cops with only 420 patrolling the streets taking 69.000 priority one 911 calls. APD’s felony divisions, such as homicide, burglary and auto theft units, are so understaffed and over worked with case loads, they are having difficulty completing the investigations and getting the reports, witness statements and processed evidence over to the DA’s office for prosecution, hence the decline in cases being indicted, people being convicted and sentenced. A prime example is APD’s Auto Theft Unit has 4 detectives with each having 1, 000 open cases. APD has so few cops patrolling the streets taking other calls that traffic citations are a very low priority with drivers taking advantage by ignoring traffic laws.