Council hopes new team cuts response time

Group of 25 investigators would be devoted to property crime calls

Depending on the call volume at a given time, Albuquerque city officials say, it can take police several hours to respond to a low-priority property crime call.

But additional help could be on the way soon.

The City Council gave unanimous approval last week to hire 25 civilian crime scene investigators, who will respond to lowpriority property crimes.

The pilot program is intended to allow for a more complete and timely investigation into crimes that sworn officers don’t always have time for and free up those officers for more pressing 911 calls, said City Councilor Brad Winter, who sponsored the legislation with City Councilor Ken Sanchez.

“It’s a win-win,” Winter said. “It’s definitely a win for the community.”

The city has budgeted $300,000 for the program for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. The civilian investigators will work initially in the Northeast, Southeast and Southwest area commands.

Rob Perry, the city’s chief administrative officer, said officials hope to have the teams investigating crimes by April.

Albuquerque’s property crime rate has been increasing since hitting a 30-year low in 2010, according to FBI crime statistics. In 2015, the number of property crimes in the city jumped to 34,082, up from 30,437 in 2014, according to the FBI.

But the city’s property crime rate remains far below the levels experienced in the late 1980s and 1990s, according to the FBI’s website. For example, in 1998, there were 9,490 property crimes per 100,000 residents. In 2014, the FBI calculated that there were 5,446 property crimes per 100,000 people.

Still, Winter said, there is a sense of urgency to do something about the crimes.

“I see people in the line at Smith’s and they are upset because everybody is affected by property crimes,” he said.

Winter said he envisioned the civilian investigators would include a mix of experienced police service aides who want to eventually become full-time Albuquerque police officers and retired law enforcement or military personnel who are seasoned investigators.

The investigators will not be armed and will only respond to Priority 3 calls, which are property crimes where there isn’t an active suspect.

Perry told the council last week that the department usually takes about an hour to respond to those calls, but there have been cases where the police

response took several hours.

“The (civilian investigators) can go conduct a thorough and personal investigation, so the citizen has a good experience, not an encounter with an officer who has to jump to another call,” Perry said. “We think it will help us bring more solvability to property crimes as well.”

The investigators will make about $17 an hour, depending on their experience and training, Winter said.

Police departments in Austin, Texas, Denver and Oklahoma City have similar programs, Perry said.

Mayor Richard Berry originally made a similar proposal for addressing property crime. He called on the city to contract with an outside firm that employed retired police officers. But the council-approved measure will make the investigators city employees.