Before he was Mayor, Richard Berry was a property crime victim. Criminals stole his pick-up truck. They later dumped the truck in the foot hills and set it on fire.
Berry used that image as a backdrop during his campaign to raise awareness that property crime in Albuquerque is a serious concern against which he planned to fight.
So far, 62 of the 150 most wanted property crime offenders have been arrested.
“We are making a statement that this is our city, our property and this is our plan to make Albuquerque a tough town for thieves,” Berry told a group of business leaders in January.
In his plan, he calls for the Albuquerque Police Department to fingerprint everyone who is arrested, seek federal prosecution for property crimes involving firearms, offer cash incentives up to $1000 for people who turn in property crime offenders and integrate technology, including Twitter, into the city’s strategy to track stolen vehicles and repeat criminal offenders.
“He has some ideas that are very simple to incorporate into the department,” said APD spokeswoman Nadine Hamby.
According to the website, since January 31 there have been 515 crimes reported to APD within a 1-mile radius of the UNM Hospital parking structure. North to south, the boundaries of the Lobo District — as it’s called on the website’s crime map — cover the law school to Garfield Avenue. East to west, it’s between I-40 and the La Montañita Co-Op in Nob Hill.
It is still too early to tell if his plan is successful, said TJ Wilham, the city’s Public Safety communications director.
Wilham said the plan found early success in tracking down and arresting Albuquerque’s most wanted property crime offenders.
“We have seen a reduction in property crime, and more arrests have been made,” he said. “It affects everyone in the community. It is not a victimless crime. I’ve heard people say they’ve lost their business because of property crime. Stopping it is important to developing economy. He wants Albuquerque to be an attractive place to live.”
According to FBI statistics, Albuquerque had 31,994 property crimes reported to police in 2008. Denver had 19,316. El Paso had 19,702, even though the cities have comparable populations. Data from 2009 wasn’t available.
To monitor crime, the city uses an online database called Crime Mapping. Any citizen can access 2010 crime data from his/her personal computer. However, the data only is only available for 2010. Wilham said the city has had a contract with the website for several years but was unsure why data from previous years was unavailable.
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He said the Crime Mapping system is important because it allows citizens to patrol their neighborhood and work cooperatively with APD to prevent crime.
“You can’t just rely on the police,” Wilham said. “Everyone needs to take a proactive role.”
This year, 107 disturbing-the-peace incidents were reported in the Lobo District, which is the crime APD responded to most in the area, according to the website. Hamby said a disturbance crime is anything from a transient asleep on the sidewalk to someone who needs medical attention, a loud party, an illegally parked car and someone walking up and down the street causing a ruckus.
“There is a lot of foot traffic that goes through those areas. It probably also has to do with the amount of students who reside in the area,” Hamby said. “When you put a lot of students together there seems to be more disturbances.”
In the Lobo District a combined 51 percent of crimes were assault, theft or auto burglary. So far in 2010, there have been 21 DWIs, six drug crimes and two sex crimes investigated by APD, according to the website.
APD has also responded to burglary, vandalism, robbery and fraud criminal complaints that have taken place in the Lobo District.
Out of six areas surveyed, the Lobo District is ranked fourth in terms of crime reported. So far in 2010, downtown Albuquerque has had the most crime reported.
In response, Wilham said APD has set up sting operations with marked vehicles and bicycles to catch thieves in the act.
“We wait for people to come and steal the property, and sure enough someone always does,” he said.
According to its website, the city pays $4,000 from money received through DWI seizures to publish a list every third Friday of the month in the Albuquerque Journal. The full page color ad shows suspects’ names, ages and mug shots. Businesses have begun to post the ads in their stores. Out of the 150 profiled suspects, 62 have been arrested, according to the website. The city also pays to put serious property crime offenders on electronic billboards across the city. Eight have been featured, with five arrests made this year, according to the website.
“Some businesses have said they want 6-foot tall posters,” Wilham said. “We’ve heard of suspects walk into a business and immediately leave because they see their face on the wall. We want more mug shots throughout the city.”
