Albuquerque Metropolitan Area Crime Discussions (HOA, association, housing)

[West Side Shopper]

Perhaps this is just my imagination:

Mayor Barry declared war on property Crime in ABQ, BRAVO!!! and according to a recent press conference they have succeeded in many ways at curbing property crime (down 20 to 30 percent depending on the the category)

This is great since Albuquerque was ranked pretty high in all the categories to which it reports to the FBI UCR. (Uniform Crime Report, more on that later)

Auto Theft in ABQ was 7th in the 367(?) MSA's (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) Laceny was off the chart and so was Forcible Rape (top 5?) Assaults and batteries were high and murder was more than the norm.

But, successes aside, now that we have targeted property crime I seem to be hearing of at least 1 or 2 murders a week. I have not been keeping count but as long time New Mexican I cannot say I have seen it worse than now.

I was a little miffed when this past summer APD would only tell the news media "Its a suspicious death." avoiding the word homicide. The OMI (Office of the Medical Investigator) would only release holding statements to the effect of the "subject showed signs of trauma",,,hmm sounds like they mean MURDER.

So how many murders have happened here in ABQ and is it a substantial increase over the last 5 years? Does anyone know?

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by West Side Shopper

I seem to be hearing of at least 1 or 2 murders a week. I have not been keeping count but as long time New Mexican I cannot say I have seen it worse than now.

Your not keeping track but what do you know? We went through this with someone else claiming numbers which they could not even come close to confirming. If you have not noticed, crimes do not stay at a constant rate.

And now you are claiming at least 1 or 2 murders a week which would be at least 52 or 104 murders per year?

Hyde killed five people in one day last year or the year before. We know one of the victims family.

Originally Posted by West Side Shopper

I was a little miffed when this past summer APD would only tell the news media "Its a suspicious death." avoiding the word homicide. The OMI (Office of the Medical Investigator) would only release holding statements to the effect of the "subject showed signs of trauma",,,hmm sounds like they mean MURDER.

No, they mean trauma... I drove a wrecker for a state police agency for a while, moving and towing crashed vehicles. Now that's trauma, and yet they didn't call it murder... Smashed bodies, and it was just an "accident", about 33,000 people per year in the US killed by vehicles. That's 90 people per day!

Originally Posted by West Side Shopper

So how many murders have happened here in ABQ and is it a substantial increase over the last 5 years? Does anyone know?

I do not know for sure, the only real issue which has some crime statisticians wondering is the ten shootings by Police this year with seven kills... (I hope I got that correct).

UPDATE:

Originally Posted by Poncho_NM

UPDATE May 9th, 2010: By my count, twelve possible murder victims in the city of Albuquerque, NM for 2010:

Deadly Shooting Under Investigation, Investigators Say Shooting Is Suspicious, May 8, 2010, The Albuquerque Police Department is investigating a deadly shooting about 8 p.m. Saturday at the Motel 6 on Coors and Iliff streets. Officers found a person dead.
Deadly Shooting Under Investigation - Albuquerque News Story - KOAT Albuquerque (http://www.koat.com/news/23497234/detail.html - broken link)

That is 12 murders in 4 months or about 36 murders per year, less that the earlier 1 to two per week...


This thread is being merged with that thread previous thread.


Rich

[dstarstories]

@West Side Shopper

You may find this site handy: Albuquerque, NM Crime Map - Showing Crimes in Albuquerque - Crime Statistics, Alerts and Reports - Crime Stops Here

On the ABQ crime map -- after setting the parameters for your query -- click the tab for "analytics" and you will get a chart and graph comparisons for crime levels and their changes within your parameters.

[West Side Shopper]

"NM 2nd in Assaults on Police Officers", ABQ Journal October 2007
"Metro Area one of the most Dangerous", ABQ Journal October 2007(Area in Top 10 % for violent Crime) , quoting that ABQ ranks 43rd in the nation for Murder, 51st for Rape, 74th for robbery, 32nd for Aggravated Assault, 58th for burglary, 95th for Larceny, 17th for auto theft.

There are 349 MSA's

The Morgan Quinto Press, which bases ranking for safest Cities on the FBI UCR reported ABQ as the 92nd least safe City

"Danger Zone", NM Ranked as the Third Most Dangerous State, ABQ Journal May 2008 "New Mexico has ranked in the study's (Congressional Quarterly Press) top three in six of the past nine years. Last Year (2007) it ranked second and in 2000 and 2001 it ranked first"

I'm aware that crime goes up and down. Last year we had a banner year for Auto Theft and were ranked 7th. In 2008 we were ranked 13th in the nation for property crimes. (FBI UCR)

But bouncing up and down on the top of scale is different from bouncing up and down on the bottom of the scale.

Office of the Medical Investigator publishes a annual cause of death report. NM hovers around 8.6 per 100,000 for homicide while the national average is around 6.1 per 100,00 and falling.

We are and always have been at the top of the scale. Crime Stoppers was created by APD detectives in 1970 because we were ranked number one in the nation for crime.

So, my question is and remains, Does anyone know what the current number of murders in Albuquerque is?

The reporting agencies to the UCR are not required to report until June of the following year what their final numbers are. So 2010 numbers will not be available til June 2011.

[randomtraveller]

WSS - Your data on Albuquerque being in the top of the congressional quarterly rankings is a little deceptive.

In the current QC (which is the same company as MorganQuitno now), ABQ ranks 72 out of 393, which is high. However, those rankings are for all cities over 50K people.

When QC ranked cities by population and then compared cities of >500K (of which there are 34), ABQ is in the middle:

SAFEST
1. Honolulu, HI
2. El Paso, TX
3. New York, NY
4. San Jose, CA
5. Austin, TX
6. San Diego, CA
7. Seattle, WA
8. Portland, OR
9. Denver, CO
10. Los Angeles, CA

MOST DANGEROUS
1. Detroit, MI
2. Memphis, TN
3. Baltimore, MD
4. Washington, DC
5. Atlanta, GA
6. Philadelphia, PA
7. Indianapolis, IN
8. Columbus, OH
9. Milwaukee, WI
10. Dallas, TX

I know at least Houston, OKC, and Las Vegas are ahead of ABQ here so you may not even be in the top half (I didn't take the time to really search the list--just saw a couple of obvious ones).

Also, on state rankings, NM lacks a large rural population which tamps down crime statistics in most states. The ABQ metro is almost half of the state's population so the city has a big affect on the state's crime statistics. I admit it would be a lot nicer to see ABQ in the top ten safest but it's not in the bottom ten either. I wasn't able to find the older congressional quarterly reports but I find it hard to believe ABQ would top any of the cities in the top five most dangerous list above.

EDIT: Tucson, Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Nashville are all also ahead in the crime rankings so unless I missed one ABQ is 18 out of 34 and in the bottom half of the most dangerous list (or in the top half of the safest list).

[johnnyw]

Originally Posted by randomtraveller

WSS - Your data on Albuquerque being in the top of the congressional quarterly rankings is a little deceptive.

...


EDIT: Tucson, Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Nashville are all also ahead in the crime rankings so unless I missed one ABQ is 18 out of 34 and in the bottom half of the most dangerous list (or in the top half of the safest list).

Whenever surveys show ABQ has bad crime statistics, people like to argue that the comparison is biased, not the same size of city…etc. If one compares ABQ vs. LA or NYC, people in LA & NYC will say the same thing since ABQ is not the “Same Size”, and yet, from your data, ABQ is even worse than those cities. For cities > 500K, ABQ is at the bottom (population wise), and the crime is in the middle? If the population is proportional to the crime rate, why NYC, LA…and most of your safest cities are safer than ABQ? My point is, how much does the population density affect the crime rate? Is that really the major criteria? From your safest/most dangerous list, do you think higher population density means higher crime RATE? If so, NYC, San Jose, LA…should all be on the most dangerous list, but they are on the safest list…The bottom line is: ABQ is not a safe city no matter how you interpret the data.

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by West Side Shopper

We are and always have been at the top of the scale. Crime Stoppers was created by APD detectives in 1970 because we were ranked number one in the nation for crime.

In 1976 a young man was shot to death by two thugs in an armed robbery. As a result of that murder, detectives with Albuquerque Police Department teamed up with KOAT TV-7 to request anonymous information about the murder and offer a cash reward.

The Crime Stoppers program started here in Albuquerque and has gown into over 1,000 programs around the world. They have other programs also. Their website: Stop Crime < Albuquerque Metro Crimestoppers | www.CrimestoppersNM.org

And their Crime Stoppers USA related site: Crime Stoppers USA

Originally Posted by West Side Shopper

So, my question is and remains, Does anyone know what the current number of murders in Albuquerque is?

By my count, here are 22 possible Albuquerque, NM murder victims for the year 2010, believed to be current as of December 16, 2010. There could be errors. At least two victims were removed due to acquittal or charges dropped.

Carlos Mendiola, stabbing, Jan 1, 2010 by Thomas Kemper, 30
Geraldine Book, 91, murdered in her living room, Feb 2010
Unidentified victim shot and killed Feb 12, 2010 Charleston Street NE just north of Central Avenue, suspect Victor Gortoriz, 27
Tevion King, shot Apr 24, 2010
Cedric Boykins, shot, Apr 24, 2010
Elizabeth Brito, 22 stabbed by boyfriend, Apr 2, 2010 Jeremiah Gurule 22
Hector Torres, 54, shot Mar 9, 2010 by Ralph Montoya, 37
Stefania Gray, 43, shot,Mar 9, 2010 ex-girlfriend of Ralph Montoya, 37
Joel Leyba, stabbed Mar 22, 2010 by Angela Sanford, 30
David Maldonado, 54, Head wound, Jan 27, 2010
Connie Maldonado, 52,throat had been cut, Jan 27, 2010
Guadalupe Ashford, 28, blunt force trauma, Jun 2010 by Truett C. Thomas, 49
Sharon Cunningham, 47, fatally shot, Jul 12, 2010, Emcore Shootings,
Michele Turner, 36 fatally shot, Jul 12, 2010, Emcore Shootings,
James Freeman, 41,fatally stabbed, Sep 19, 2010
Dawn Monique Vigil, 19, fatally stabbed, ~Sep 2 2010, by Dorall Smith, 32.
Paul Barker, 51,murdered Oct 24, 2010.
Kimbrel Stowe, 50, fatally shot, Oct 10, 2010, by Maricarmen Scott, 19
Dwayne Johnson, 18, shooting, Nov 7, 2010
UNIDENTIFIED 30 year old man, fatally stabbed by Joseph Gros-Ventre, Nov 12, 2010.
Yuriko Santana-Hernandez, 21, stabbed Aug 22, 2010, Jesus Joaquin Arredondo Soto
Julian, Santana-Hernandez, 1, stabbed Aug 22, 2010, Jesus Joaquin Arredondo Soto

Rich

[johnnyw]

Good job, Rich - for providing the data.
As I recall, some people said that the “vast majority” of the homicides in ABQ are drug/gang related. As long as people are not part of the gangs or dealing with drugs, it is “highly unlikely” to be a victim…. I was wondering how many of these 22 cases were drug/gang related.
From the data Rich provides, most of the identified victims are 40+ yrld and some females. There’s even a 91-yrld and an 1-yrld. Unless ABQ gang members are mostly aged, females or infants, those who claim crimes won’t touch regular residents --- probably need to think again…

[marmom]

Originally Posted by johnnyw

Good job, Rich - for providing the data.
As I recall, some people said that the “vast majority” of the homicides in ABQ are drug/gang related. As long as people are not part of the gangs or dealing with drugs, it is “highly unlikely” to be a victim…. I was wondering how many of these 22 cases were drug/gang related.
From the data Rich provides, most of the identified victims are 40+ yrld and some females. There’s even a 91-yrld and an 1-yrld. Unless ABQ gang members are mostly aged, females or infants, those who claim crimes won’t touch regular residents --- probably need to think again…

I've always said most crime here, especially violent crime, is domestic or drug/gang related. I bet a lot of the homicides on Rich's list were domestic...such as the Emcore tragedy, and likely the 1yo and mother of the 1yo at the end of the list.

[ay jayy]

If we end the year with 22 murders, that is a very low number for a city of ~540,000