ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – They won’t be the ones who come to fix your problem, but they take your initial complaint to give to the people who will. Numbers show people are reporting a lot to Albuquerque’s 311 system.
The organization is receiving tens of thousands more reports compared to the same time last year.
A quick scroll through the 311 website shows reports of graffiti, overgrown weeds, trash, encampments, and generally anything citizens want to draw the city’s attention to.
“Think of us, again, as a concierge and the front desk for the City of Albuquerque. What we’re doing is making sure that the call gets to the right department. What the department then does with the call, that’s pretty well up to the department at that point,” explained Mark Leech, director of the Department of Technology and Innovation with the City of Albuquerque—which oversees 311.
Monthly performance reports published online show 311 gets thousands of calls a month—between about 60,000 and 90,000 each month since September 2022.
“We’ve kept data since 2005, and it’s publicly available, and this is part of our commitment to transparency,” Leech stated.
Call volumes from around the city have been on the rise since last September, according to that data. They’ve been getting nearly 30,000 more calls last month than about this time last year.
“It does seem like a big spike,” Leech commented.
The top three categories people are reporting problems for include transit-related, Solid-Waste-related, and animal welfare-related issues.
“We think part of the increase in the volume is just the people coming out and about, they’re more active since the pandemic, and they’re noticing things, and they’re wanting to make improvements to the city,” Leech stated. Typically, they see more reports around the holidays.
However, Leech said once they assign the complaint to a specific department, that’s where their involvement ends: “The department might give additional updates as it’s going along, but really at that point, it becomes a department issue to solve.”
Since May of last year, there have been more than 375,000 calls to 311.
