APD is solving more homicides than in recent years

While the Albuquerque Police Department has generally been solving fewer than 10% of property crimes over the past couple of years, it has been steadily improving on solving homicides, according to data in the mayor’s proposed budget. 

In fiscal year 2022, the Albuquerque Police Department cleared 71% of homicides but in the next fiscal year, it cleared 83%. By mid-fiscal year 2024, it cleared 93%. Clearance rates include those from previous years are solved in that time frame. According to an end-of the year report for 2023, APD had solved 53 of the year’s 93 homicide cases — 58% — as well as 31 cases from previous years.

This is quite a bit better than the national average, where police cleared about 52% of murders and nonnegligent homicides in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.

Spokesperson Franchesca Perdue said the department has improved its homicide clearance rates by leaning “heavily into technology” and attributes “much of their success to the tools now available.”

“Weekly meetings for gun violence information sharing are being held to ensure detectives can share information and connect cases when possible,” she said. “Detectives are now gaining traction on investigations through training and experiences and the goal is to maintain the stride moving forward.”

Perdue said APD continues to grow its homicide and digital intelligence units and has implemented a detective academy to allow an additional 120 officers to get special training each year, which increases the quality of casework. 

She said they also have implemented “accountability check-ins with detectives to maintain the status of cases.”

Although more homicides are being solved, the same is not true for other crimes against persons — a category that includes rape and assault as well as murder. According to the proposed budget, APD has cleared between 40% and 44% of these crimes since fiscal year 2022. The goal is to clear 60%. 

Nationally, the Pew Research Center reports that police cleared about 36% of the violent crimes — a category that generally overlaps with the “crimes against persons” designation.

In response to questions about how APD plans to improve its clearance rate for this category, Perdue touted the improvements to the homicide clearance rate — saying those are “the most complicated cases to investigate.”

She said the department has now solved 85% of this year’s homicides, including an additional eight cases from previous years.

“The Gun Violence Reduction Unit will be moved to the same division that houses the Homicide Unit to better standardize how these cases are investigated and improve information sharing,” Perdue said. “Oftentimes, shootings are only one incident away from becoming a homicide and by joining these units for intel sharing, the goal is to intervene before shootings become fatal.”

Perdue said it’s important to remember that there are people behind all cases. 

“Victims and families of victims are impacted by these crimes and although we are happy to be solving these crimes, we understand this is still hard for the families and victims,” she said.