Albuquerque homicides on pace with last year’s record

By Stephanie Muñiz

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — Albuquerque police have 75 homicides this year. In 2021 Albuquerque had its deadliest year on record.

So far, Albuquerque is on pace with last year’s homicide numbers.

Nick Bakas, the city’s former chief public safety officer, said, “It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. I think that the trend is nationwide. But of course, here locally, what is glaring to me is that we need police officers.”

In 2021 during the month of July, Albuquerque saw 10 homicides bringing the total of the first seven months to 71.

This July, we also saw ten homicides. However, now Albuquerque has 75 for 2022.

The city’s former chief public safety officer believes there should be more officers on the streets.

Bakas said, “There just are not enough officers out there to have any proactive approach if they can go calls, the calls, the call. I don’t even think they can do that with the volume of calls.”

This is what Albuquerque police Chief Harold Medina had to say this January 2021.

Medina said, “I think court leadership from the very bottom all the way to the top needs to listen to what the people in Albuquerque want. They want us to be tough on violent criminals, and they want violent criminals to stay in jail.”

According to APD, most of the homicides for both last year and this year involved a gun.

The majority of the homicides this year have been in the southeast area command.

“I hope we can get a handle on it and I hope we can get our resources together and address the problem and have a positive effect in the reduction of crime in general. But we have a long way to go,” Bakas said.

According to APD, 54 of this year’s homicides were categorized as being part of a fight.

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