Sheriff Manny Gonzales is running for Mayor on a “law and order” campaign against incumbent Mayor Tim Keller bolding proclaiming he can do a better job than Keller when it comes to crime. Every time a homicide occurs in Albuquerque; Gonzales issues a press release or takes to social media proclaiming that voters need to “take back” the city from the criminals.
It turns out that Sheriff Manny Gonzales has been just as ineffective in bringing down crime in the county as Mayor Keller has been in bringing down crime in the city.
This blog article discusses crime rates separately for Bernalillo County and Albuquerque.
APD VERSUS BCSO, NIBRS VERSUS SRS
Comparing the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) crime statistics with the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) crime statistics is somewhat muddled because the agencies do not use the same data reporting system. None the less, it can be done with sufficient clarity to know that both Sheriff Gonzales and Mayor Tim Keller have been failures to bring down crime.
In 2018, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) began reporting the city’s annual crime statistics using the Federal Bureau Of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which breaks down crimes into 52 separate categories into 3 major categories. The 3 major NIBRS categories are Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Property, and Crimes Against Society.
BCSO continues to use the eight-category format called the Summary Reporting System (SRS). The 8 major classification of crimes under SRS are: Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter, Forcible Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, . Larceny-theft, Motor Vehicle Theft and Arson. The postscript to this blog article contains a more detailed explanation of both NIBRS and SRS.
Bernalillo County’s population is about 678,000 when you include the population of Albuquerque. APD’s primary law enforcement jurisdiction is within the city limits. The Sheriff’s Office has primary law enforcement over the 973 square miles outside the city limits where upwards of 118,000 reside.
CRIME RATES FOR COUNTY UNDER BCSO SHERIFF MANNY GONZALES
On Sunday July 17, the Albuquerque Journal published a below the fold front page article entitled “Statistics show increase in Bernalillo County Crime in 2020” with the article written by Journal staff reporter Elise Kaplan. The link to the entire news article is here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/2410705/statistics-show-increase-in-bernalillo-county-crime-in-2020.html
According to unofficial data released to the Journal in response to an Inspection of Public Records Act, both violent and property crimes have increased in the unincorporated areas of Bernalillo County in 2020. The statistics sent by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office to the FBI for its annual Crime in the United States report revealed that the violent crimes of homicides, rape, robbery and aggravated assault combined increased by 26.6%, from 792 incidents in 2019 to 1,003 in 2020. Property crimes consisting of burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson combined increased 16.5%, from 2,647 to 3,084 crimes.
A Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman stressed that the statistics are “considered raw data and unofficial” and that the Sheriff’s Department was in a transition period and becoming compliant with a new way of reporting data to the FBI.
In comparison, crime within city limits followed different trend lines during the same period of time. Property crimes within the city decreased and violent crime increased only slightly. For 2020, the Albuquerque Police Department reported a 10% decrease in “crimes against property” and a 2% increase in “crimes against persons” and a 4% increase in “crimes against society” which includes animal cruelty, drug offenses, prostitution, weapon law violations and more.
Homicides in the city have increased dramatically since the start of 2021. According to one report, as of July 25, the number of homicides in Albuquerque now stands at 81. These numbers include all homicides as reported by the Albuquerque Journal Homicide map, two homicides that the NMSP are investigating but that occurred in the city limits, all justified homicides, and the two children killed by their mothers in a drunk driving accident.
https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/homicide-update-spin-and-lame-local-media
VIOLENT AND PROPERTY CRIMES INCREASE IN COUNTY
A breakdown of BCSO reported crime under Gonzales for the last 2 years is as follows:
BCSO VIOLENT CRIME STATISTICS
Homicides: 2019: 9, 2020: 8 (-11.0% decrease)
Rapes: 2019: 54, 2020: 91 (+68.5% increase)
Robbery: 2019: 86, 2020: 127 (+47.7% increase)
Aggravated Assault: 2019: 643, 2020: 777 (+20% increase)
Total: 2019: 792, 2020: 1,003 (+26.6% Increase)
BCSO PROPERTY CRIME STATISTICS
Arson: 2019: 4, 2020: 11 (175% increase)
Burglary: 2019: 569, 2020: 615 (9% increase)
Larceny Theft: 2019: 1,175, 2020: 1,507 (28.3% increase)
Motor Vehicle: 2019: 899, 2020: 951 (5.8% increase)
Totals: 2019: 2,647, 2020: 3,084 (16.5% increase)
The 9 homicides that occurred in Bernalillo County in 2019 and the 8 homicides that occurred in 2020 do not include BCSO officer involved deadly use of force cases. There were at least 3 BCSO cases where settlements were reached in the last few years where deadly use of force was used. A fourth case involved a stolen vehicle chase by BCSO. The homicides include the following:
1. The killing of Elisha Lucero, who suffered psychosis and schizophrenia, was shot by BCSO Deputies 27 times and died at the scene with the case settled for $4.5 million. The BCSO Deputies pulled their revolvers and shot her claiming they feared for their lives after the 4-foot-11 Lucero, naked from the waist up, ran out of her home screaming and armed with a kitchen knife.
2. The killing of Fidencio Duran, 88, suffering from dementia, who died after he was shot over 50 times with a “pepper ball” gun by BCSO Deputy Sheriffs and with K9 police dog was released on him breaking his pelvis. The case settled for $1,495,000.
3. The $700,000 August 17, 2018 announced settlement for the wrongful death of Robert Chavez, age 66, who was killed when a BCSO stolen vehicle chase resulted in a crash into Chavez’s vehicle. Chavez broke his back, shoulder, forearm, wrist, ribs and pelvis in the crash and also had other internal injuries. Chavez went into a coma and died 11 days after the crash. The BCSO Sheriff Department’s old policy would not have allowed officers to pursue for a stolen vehicle, but Sheriff Manny Gonzales changed the hot pursuit policy allowing such chases a year before the fatal crash.
4. On May 21, 2020, it was reported that the family of Martin Jim, 25, a man killed in a 2017 incident settled the federal excessive force lawsuit against the county for $1.5 million. An earlier $400,000 state court settlement arising from the same deadly shooting paid to Jim’s partner, Shawntay Ortiz and his four-year-old son, amounted to $1.9 million. That is an addition to the $1.36 million settlement paid to the estate of the driver of the pickup truck, Isaac Padilla, 23, who was also killed. Another $40,000 was paid to two other passengers in the truck. The total payout to resolve legal claims related to Deputy Joshua Mora’s actions was $3.3 million.
The incident involved a high-speed chase of a stolen truck. A BCSO Deputy rammed the truck obliterating the front driver’s-side wheel. With the truck at a standstill, two BCSO deputies parked their vehicles to block the truck from moving forward.
BCSO Deputy Joshua Mora soon arrived on the scene. Mora is the son of then-undersheriff Rudy Mora and had worked for BCSO about 18 months as a sheriff’s deputy. In the span of 18 seconds, Mora jumped from his car, ran to the truck, yelled commands at the driver, and fired 7 shots into the vehicle occupied by 3 passengers, including a 4-year-old child. Mora did not know Martin Jim was sitting in the back seat. A settlement in the case was reached after Senior U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera of Albuquerque ruled that a “reasonable jury could conclude that Deputy Mora acted unreasonably.”
BCSO FAILS TO REPORT STATISTICS TO FBI
BCSO’s crime stats have not been included in the FBI’s annual report since the 2018 publication on the 2017 data. An agency’s participation in the annual report is voluntary. For the 2018 reporting year, BCSO only submitted five months of data and for 2019 the FBI had not received any data by the deadline. According to a BCSO spokesperson, prior to June 2018 APD handled BCSO’s data submissions. The deadline to submit 2019 stats was March 2020 but BCSO wasn’t certified as being compliant until May, 2020.
On December 21, 2020 Sheriff Manny Gonzales provided “unofficial and preliminary” crime stats for the year. Gonzales credited Federal Task Forces BCSO participated in for a decrease in both violent crime and property crime in Bernalillo County. It turned out that the statistics were wrong because the data was raw data and it had not been brought into compliance for NIBRS submission.
The data provided by Sheriff Manny Gonzales Office at the December 21, 2020 news conference with former US Attorney John Anderson differ significantly from what his office provided to the FBI. At the news conference, BCSO reported that there had been 81 reported robberies in 2020, a double digit decrease from the year before. However, the department reported 127 robberies to the FBI, a 47% increase from the year before.
Similarly, BCSO said there had been 377 burglary cases through 2020, which is a 29% decrease from the previous year, but reported 615 burglaries to the FBI or a 9% increase over the previous year. At the news conference BCSO said there were 945 larceny (theft) cases or a 19% decrease from the previous year but BCSO reported 1,507 cases of larceny to the FBI, a 28% increase.
The link to the full Journal report is here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/2410705/statistics-show-increase-in-bernalillo-county-crime-in-2020.html
In all the 6 years Manny Gonzales has been Bernalillo County Sheriff, he has been conspicuously silent on just how bad the crime rates are in Bernalillo County. There is a very good reason for that silence. On April 8, the Albuquerque Journal published on its front page a story written by Journal staff reporter Matthew Reisen with the banner headline “BCSO has been silent about this year’s homicides.”
It was reported that BCSO waited until the week of April 5 to report on the 2 homicides that occurred in the county and being investigated by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. Further, the BCSO waited until April to report that the December 2020 death of Francine Gonzales, 36, on the West Side was ruled a homicide after an autopsy in late March.
The link to the full report is here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/2377985/sheriffs-office-was-mum-on-2021-homicides.html
The most troubling fact in the Journal report was glossed over. Buried in the article is the statement:
“Last year, BCSO’s crime statistics were not included in the annual FBI report because the agency didn’t meet the March deadline to report them, and they couldn’t be certified in time.”
In previous years, including 2020, BCSO regularly sent out email and Twitter alerts when BCSO detectives opened a homicide investigation. BCSO usually gave details on the incident and solicited tips from the public. Until April 7, BCSO had been silent on the 2021 cases, yet increased email and Twitter notifications for warrant roundup operations and “repeat offender” arrests often criticizing the actions of courts for previously releasing the suspects.
BCSO Transparency and Public Information Coordinator Jayme Fuller explained the delay in reporting on the 2 homicides as not always talking about homicides, or other incidents, until reporters ask about them and they confirm them with BCSO supervisors.
BERNALILLO COUNTY CRIME RANKINGS
The “Best Places to Live” web site compiles data on cities and counties throughout the United States ranking them in such categories such as cost of living, job market, economy, real estate, education and health and weather. Crime is one of the most important categories. Best Places to Live ranks crime on a scale of 1, low crime, to 100, high crime.
According to the data published Bernalillo County, New Mexico, violent crime is 42.3 with the US average being 22.7.
Bernalillo County property crime is 66.5 with the US average being 35.4.
https://www.bestplaces.net/crime/county/new_mexico/bernalillo
CITY CRIME RATES UNDER MAYOR TIM KELLER
On Wednesday, February 24, 2021 then Interim Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Median released the city’s 2020 crime statistics as reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It was the third year in a row that the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) has compiled crime statistics using the National Incident-Based Reporting System, (NIBRS) as opposed to the Summary Reporting System (SRS) used for decades.
Starting in 2018, APD began to report crime using NIBRS, which has 3 major reporting broad categories:
Crimes against persons
Crimes against property
Crimes against society
The 3 major categories are then broken down into 52 sub-categories. NIBRS counts virtually all crimes committed during an incident and for that reason alone NIMRS is far more sophisticated than the “most serious incident-based” reporting SRS reporting system.
Each offense collected in NIBRS belongs to 1 of 3 categories:
CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS include murder, rape, and assault, and are those in which the victims are always individuals.
CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY include robbery, bribery, and burglary, or to obtain money, property, or some other benefit.
CRIMES AGAINST SOCIETY include gambling, prostitution, and drug violations, and represent society’s prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity and are typically victimless crimes.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/nibrs/2018/resource-pages/crimes_against_persons_property_and_society-2018.pdf
STATISTICS RELEASED
The statistics released on February 24 by APD reveal that during the last 3 years, Crimes Against Property have decreased by a mere 7%, but violent Crimes Against a Person and Crimes Against Society have continued to rise. Following are the raw numbers in each of the 3 categories of Albuquerque’s crime statistics:
CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY (Includes robbery, bribery, and burglary)
2018: 57,328
2019: 51,541
2020: 46,371
CRIMES AGAINST A PERSON (Include murder, rape, and assault)
2018: 14,845
2019: 14,971
2020: 15,262
CRIMES AGAINST SOCIETY (Include gambling, prostitution, and drug violations)
2018: 3,365
2019: 3,711
2020: 3,868
https://www.cabq.gov/police/documents/apd-homicide-list-for-web-site-as-of-15feb2021.pdf
RAW NUMBERS ANALYZED
CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY (Includes robbery, bribery, and burglary) declined by a mere 7% from 2018 to 2020.
CRIMES AGAINST A PERSON (Includes murder, rape, and assault) showed that violent crime including aggravated assaults, shootings and stabbings, increased by 4%. The 4% increase was the same as in 2019 with assaults having a 4% rise. In 2019, violent crime increased 1%. This coincides with the city having reach 80 homicides breaking another record. Bernalillo County recorded 241 shootings. With a 2% increase in violent crime, 2020 fell short of the homicide count but had the second-highest number of homicides with 76 and with Bernalillo County reporting 292 shootings. According to the statistics released, the use of firearms as the percentage of homicides committed with a gun jumped from 69% in 2019 to 78% in 2020.
CRIMES AGAINST SOCIETY (gambling, prostitution, drug violations) had 61% increase weapons law violations last year. In 2019, weapons law violations, which include the illegal use, possession and sale of firearms, recorded a 19% increase and an 11% rise in drug offenses.
https://www.abqjournal.com/2363157/2020-saw-a-rise-in-violent-crime-drop-in-property-crime.html
ABQ’S CRIME STATISTICS IN A NUTSHELL UNDER MAYOR KELLER
In 2020, FBI statistics reveal that Albuquerque has the dubious distinction of having a crime rate about 194% higher than the national average.
A synopsis of the statics during Mayor Tim Keller’s 3 years in office is in order.
HOMICIDES
In 2018, during Mayor Keller’s first full year in office, there were 69 homicides.
In 2019, during Mayor Keller’s second full year in office, there were 82 homicides.
In 2020, there were 76 homicides in Albuquerque.
As of July 27, 2021, APD lists 72 homicides in the city, 65 incidents and 10 in July, another record broken. The link to the listing of murders is here:
https://www.cabq.gov/police/documents/apd-homicide-list-for-web-site-as-of-19jul2021.pdf
EDITOR’S NOTE: Albuquerque had more homicides in 2019 with 82 homicides than in any other year in the city’s history. The previous high was 72, in 2017 under Mayor RJ Berry. Another high mark was in 1996, when the city had 70 homicides. As of July 27, APD reports 71 homicides.
NON FATAL SHOOTINGS
According to ABQReports, APD Chief Harold Medina started tracking gunfire incidents. A response to an Inspection of Public Records made to ABQReports was made on March 5, 2021 and on July 27, 2021, APD provided the statistics with no explanation of the delay. ABQ Reports Reported that Non-Fatal shootings in the City of Albuquerque from January 1, 2021 to February 28, 2021 were 335. From May 31 to June 20, in just 20 days, Albuquerque recorded another 123 non-fatal shootings. The link to the full report entitled “Gun Violence Stalks Albuquerque” is here:
https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/gun-violence-stalks-abq
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
There is little doubt that crime is the biggest issue in the 2021 election for Mayor. Mayor Tim Keller, who has been in office for close to 4 years, and Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales, who has been in office over 6 years, have both been ineffective in bringing down the city and the county crime rates. Sheriff Manny Gonzales and his BCSO are just as hapless in dealing with spiking crime rates as has been Mayor Tim Keller and APD.
When Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales says he can do better than Keller when it comes to crime, he acts like no one knows he has been Bernalillo County Sheriff for 6 years and in law enforcement for over 25 years. Manny Gonzales wants voters to think his jurisdiction and law enforcement activities are confined to the county and do not include the city of Albuquerque which is APD’s territory.
Truth is, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and the Albuquerque Police Department have concurrent jurisdiction. Any attempt by Gonzales to distance himself from the city’s high crime rates needs to be called out for what it is and that is a political ploy to avoid transparency and accountability of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department during his tenure.
The yearly FBI statistics are the best measure as to performance measures of BCSO. Further, Bernalillo County and BCSO rely upon those statistics to secure federal grant funding. BCSO’s crime statistics not being included in the annual FBI report was likely no mistake. No doubt Gonzales wanted to hide the statistics that show the out-of-control high crime rates are just as bad in the county as in the city as he runs for Mayor.
During the last 3 years under Mayor Tim Keller’s leadership as well as the leadership of Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales, things have only gotten worse in the city as well as the county when it comes to murders and violent crime rates. When you listen to both, you hear them say things will get better. Gonzales especially says he can do better than Keller as mayor.
Gonzales doing better than Keller as Mayor is not at all likely given he has failed at the county level during his entire tenure as Sheriff and he has failed to keep up with changes in law enforcement and constitutional policing practices.
At this point in time, voters have to decide between the lesser of two evils.
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POSTSCRIPT
EXPLAINING SUMMARY REPORTING SYSTEM (SRS) VS. NATIONAL INCIDENT-BASED REPORTING SYSTEM (NIBRS)
“In 2018, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) began reporting its annual crime statistics using the Federal Bureau Of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS is the most current national framework for reporting crime and replaces the FBI’s Uniform Crimes Reports known as SRS. This change is important because, compared to UCR, NIBRS provides more comprehensive and detailed information about crimes against person, crimes against property and crimes against society occurring in law enforcement jurisdictions across the county.”
https://www.cabq.gov/police/documents/crimestats2018_19_apd.pdf
The raw data provided by both APD and BCSO is essentially in the same format, but the difference is how NIBRS uses those codes and deciphers it into their published data submitted to the FBI. According to a BCSO spokesperson, NIBRS is an optional program and all law enforcement agencies may collect raw data in the way they wish and still be NIBRS compliant as long as the final NIBRS submissions meet the FBI’s technical specifications.”
According to a national study from the U.S. Department of Justice, there is only a small increase of between less than 1% to 4.5% depending on the category of crime when agencies switch from reporting their data in the traditional summary format. SRS only counts the highest-level crime committed during an incident while NIBRS counts each crime committed during an incident.
SRS SYSTEM
Prior to 2018, APD reported data using the Summary Reporting System (SRS), which included 8 crime categories and counted only the most serious offense during an incident. The SRS system is still used by BCSO. The 8 offenses were chosen because they are serious crimes, they occur with regularity in all areas of the country, and they are likely to be reported to police. In the traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS), the eight crimes, or Part I offenses are:
1. Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter
2. Forcible Rape
3. Robbery
4. Aggravated Assault
5. Burglary
6. Larceny-theft
7. Motor Vehicle Theft
8. Arson
A link providing a complete definition of each category under the SRS system is here:
https://www.bjs.gov/ucrdata/offenses.cfm
NIBRS SYSTEM
Starting in January 2021, the FBI will no longer accept data in the SRS format. The FBI is requiring crimes to be counted through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). In NIBRS, there are 3 major reporting broad categories:
Crimes against persons
Crimes against property
Crimes against society
The 3 major categories are then broken down into 52 sub-categories. NIBRS counts virtually all crimes committed during an incident and for that reason alone NIMRS is far more sophisticated than the “most serious incident-based” reporting SRS reporting system.
“In the National Incident-Based Reporting System” (NIBRS), each offense reported is either a Group A or Group B offense type. There are 23 Group A offense categories, comprised of 52 Group A offenses and 10 Group B offense categories. Law enforcement agencies report Group A offenses as part of a NIBRS incident report, but they report only arrest data for Group B offenses.
Each offense collected in NIBRS belongs to one of three categories: Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Property, or Crimes Against Society.
Crimes Against Persons include murder, rape, and assault, and are those in which the victims are always individuals.
Crimes Against Property include robbery, bribery, and burglary, or to obtain money, property, or some other benefit.
Crimes Against Society include gambling, prostitution, and drug violations, and represent society’s prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity and are typically victimless crimes
https://ucr.fbi.gov/nibrs/2018/resource-pages/crimes_against_persons_property_and_society-2018.pdf
“In NIBRS, law enforcement agencies collect detailed data regarding individual crime incidents and arrests and submit them in separate reports using prescribed data elements and data values to describe each incident and arrest. Therefore, NIBRS involves incident-based reporting. … There are 52 data elements used in NIBRS to describe the victims, offenders, arrestees, and circumstances of crimes.”
A link to a complete guide to the NIBRS crime reporting system is here: