The City of Albuquerque is one of the top five cities in the United States where Indigenous people go missing or are murdered, according to a report by the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle. 

But, the city says, over the last two years Dawn Begay, the city’s Native American Affairs Coordinator and Commander Gerard Bartlett of the Albuquerque Police Department have worked with local law enforcement agencies and other jurisdictions to bring the number of unsolved cases down from 500 in 2019 to 78 in 2023. 

The city says the two are part of a larger initiative to address MMIP and “have not specifically brought the numbers of cases down, they have helped internally organize and have built partnerships collaborating with law enforcement and public safety throughout the state.”

Begay and Bartlett recently won the national Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Partnerships for Public Safety because of their work coordinating agencies for a massive Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative. They went to Washington D.C. late last month to receive the award.

The Albuquerque field office of the FBI has also played a big role in this initiative. FBI representatives joined Begay and Bartlett in accepting the award, along with the Indian Affairs Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

But, the FBI, said it’s unclear how these missing people cases were resolved. 

“It is difficult to understand the genesis of the 500 unsolved cases statistics cited in 2019 because we do not know or have access to the underlying source of data,” a spokesperson for the FBI said. “However, it appears that the 500 unsolved cases reflects the number of missing Indigenous persons reported to law enforcement over the course of the entire year and not the total number missing on any given day.” 

How it began and how it’s going 

Michelle Melendez, director of the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, said the FBI was able to start a pilot program in New Mexico because of the groundwork Begay has done in the last two years to bring 50 jurisdictions together in New Mexico. 

In 2022, the Albuquerque FBI field office began looking into cases of MMIP in New Mexico by working with the Criminal Justice Information Center in Virginia, which provided weekly reports from the NCIC on missing Indigenous people. 

The project wrapped up in July 2022 and resulted in the publication of a list to give the public an opportunity to verify missing Indigenous people in the NCIC. 

“We saw that initial list increase from 177 to the current number of 207 as the list became more accurate. Only then did we have the confidence to begin to cite our numbers to the media and speak publicly about the data,” an FBI spokesperson told City Desk ABQ in an emailed statement.

The FBI said this project not only looked at missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, but also men. It found that roughly 60% of missing person cases involved Native American men, while 40% involved women. 

One thing the FBI said that complicated matters, is that it is possible for someone to be reported missing in a calendar year more than once. 

“Over an 18-month period, July 2022 – January 2024, there were approximately 1,400 Indigenous Persons reported as missing to law enforcement,” FBI officials said. 

But 91% of those cases have been resolved and the individual is no longer included in the NCIC as a missing person. 

“Unfortunately, we don’t always know why or how the cases were resolved because that information remains with the law enforcement entity responsible for that case and is not captured in NCIC,” the FBI said. 

The FBI said this work provides an accurate picture of who is missing in New Mexico and the city. 

“As of mid-January 2024, there are 207 individuals missing in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation,” the FBI said. “As of February 2024, there were 23 Indigenous persons listed as missing in the greater Albuquerque area by APD, BCSO, Bernalillo PD, and NM State Police – Albuquerque District.” 

The city of Albuquerque’s efforts 

The FBI said it credits the City of Albuquerque with establishing its Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Tribal and Metro Public Safety Meetings, and the NM Indian Affairs Department’s production of the State Response Plan, so law enforcement agencies and the public understand the importance of investigating these cases and reporting loves ones missing as quickly as possible. 

“Both the City of Albuquerque and Albuquerque Police Department are key partners in our investigative and outreach efforts to Native communities,” the FBI said. 

Since the start of their work, the FBI said they continue to assess their progress. 

“We cannot speculate on the numbers in 2019 because it was prior to our work,” it said. “However, one thing we can point to with pride is the decrease in the length of time for a family to report a missing female to law enforcement—a 43% decrease between July 2022 and January 2024.” 

Editor’s Note: this story has been updated to clarify the role of Dawn Begay and Cmdr. Gerard Bartlett.