ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Albuquerque reached 35 homicides for the year, now the Albuquerque Police Department is announcing a new initiative they believe will help tackle violent crime in the city, starting with the Montgomery corridor. Of the 35 homicides since the start of the year, four of them have been along Montgomery, on top of that there have been two other shootings in the same area.
“I believe there is 12 or 13 apartment complexes between San Mateo and Carlisle,” said APD Commander Greg Webber. “You’re talking about a lot of people in a small area, so of course you’re going to have a lot of calls, and you have the potential for other issues to happen,” Webber said at a Friday morning press conference.
APD says the common denominator in most of the violent crime and homicides in the city, is drugs. For the next month and a half officers are increasing their presence along Montgomery. They’ll be hosting outreach events with businesses and apartments in the area, and using technology at the real-time crime center to tackle the violent crime in the area. They say having more boots on the ground will deter criminals.
This is not the first time APD has announced an operation like this one, where they focus on community policing. With a staggering number of homicides this year, including another on Thursday night, KRQE News 13 asked if these initiatives are actually working. APD Chief Harold Medina says there’s no one solution for fixing the crime problem in the city.
“We have to fix the criminal justice system in the city of Albuquerque,” Chief Medina said. “We have to stop that revolving door of the criminal justice system,” Medina explained.
The Mobile Command Post will be set up at Noah’s Ark Children’s Academy, Thursday through Sunday while the operation is going on. The operation will last through May 22. Chief Medina says the area near Eubank and Lomas could be seeing an increase in patrols next.
