Need to contact APD? Now there’s an app for that

Smartphone users can report crimes, text dispatcher, get info with new app

Albuquerque police launched an app on Friday that allows smartphone users to file certain police reports, give crime tips and even text a police dispatcher, if, say, a person couldn’t safely dial 911.

The free ABQ Police app also allows people to access crime maps and data, a police directory, Crime Stoppers, alerts from police and the Albuquerque Police Department’s news releases and social media pages.

It’s available for download at Apple’s App Store and Google Play Marketplace.

“Sometimes people are reluctant to be a witness,” Police Chief Gorden Eden told a news conference. “If they see something happening, they can actually take a photograph of it and submit it to Crime Stoppers.”

The app, developed by MobilePD, cost the city $62,000. There are similar apps in Baltimore; Austin, Texas; and Portland, Ore.

People in Albuquerque have been able to file certain reports online, but that was through the city’s website rather than an app.

“We don’t want you to have to be anchored to your desk to get ahold of us,” Mayor Richard Berry said. “This is a needs-driven initiative.”

Berry said the app is an example of the city’s emphasis on being “tech-savvy.”

“We are really walking that walk of being a techsavvy city,” he said. “We want to be engaged with the people that we serve.”

City officials broached the idea of emphasizing that the public use the internet to handle lowpriority police reports, instead of calling for officers, about a year-and-a-half ago after the city released a staffing study completed as part of a yearslong reform effort by police.

Part of the study looked at response times. And it found that because officers were busy with more pressing matters, tens of thousands of times in a year officers took more than two hours to respond to a 911 call.

The app also gives people directions to file complaints against officers to the Civilian Police Oversight Agency.

A video on how it works can be found at youtu.be/eZI77_63Eng.