Crime-fighting tools focus of San Francisco trip

DA, sheriff, mayor among 25 who will meet with officials in Bay Area

A group of Albuquerque prosecutors, business leaders and other local officials will travel to San Francisco to spend part of next week discussing how prosecutors there have incorporated technology and other strategies into criminal cases.

The goal of the trip will be to use similar practices in Bernalillo County criminal courts, said Adolfo Mendez, the chief of policy and planning for 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raúl Torrez.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón created a Crime Strategies Unit in 2014 that aims to address chronic crime by targeting criminals and areas using data and crime rates. San Francisco has hosted at least one symposium on those crime-fighting strategies in recent years.

Felony and misdemeanor arrests in San Francisco County have been decreasing significantly in recent years, according to California Department of Justice data. There were more than 17,000 felony arrests in 2005 and fewer than 8,000 such arrests in 2014, according to the data.

“The San Francisco District Attorney and his team are national leaders in the use of data and analytics to better understand crime drivers in a community, and use this information to drive their prosecutions,” Torrez said in a prepared statement. “This research trip will be successful if we’re able to identify and bring back to Bernalillo County key crimefighting innovations that will help us efficiently and effectively improve public safety.”

Crime rates in Albuquerque have been rising in recent years and it’s an issue at the forefront in the mayoral race. Recently, the city launched a

plan to address crime in the Downtown area.

So, on Sunday, a group of 25 people from Albuquerque will make the trip to the Bay Area to see how San Francisco has used technology to target certain criminals. An agenda for the trip shows the group will be discussing alternative programs for offenders, specialty units with the District Attorney’s Office, how business leaders can help address crime and other topics.

The group includes Mayor Richard Berry, Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales III, State Police Chief Pete Kassetas, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce Terri Cole, and others.

“If we had this kind of capability, we can reduce crime because we are putting the highest-risk defendants in jail and the lowrisk defendants in diversion programs,” Cole said. “From the business community perspective, we’re interested in seeing how we might help our DA model that same program.”

The trip will take place from Sunday through Tuesday.

The Albuquerque Innovation Team, or “ABQ i-team,” is funding most of the trip, though the exact cost wasn’t available on Thursday. The team is a city-affiliated group that is funded with a grant. The team’s current priority is to analyze and study crime in the area, said Scott Darnell, the director of the team.

“One of the fastest and most effective ways to reduce crime in our community is to help the district attorney get the tools that he needs to effectively do his job,” Darnell said.