Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants regular, statewide updates on gun violence from police departments across New Mexico.
A two-page draft discussed with lawmakers last week would require all police departments in New Mexico to turn in monthly reports on criminal activity and ballistic information to the Department of Public Safety.
The proposal is one of five that Lujan Grisham wants lawmakers to consider in the special session scheduled to begin July 18.
The law already requires police departments to turn in monthly reports on crime in their jurisdictions to the department of public safety, but the bill seeks to add “ballistic information” to what must be included in the reports.
The department would have to “provide standards and procedures and related training” to state and local police departments as needed for them to turn in reports every month under the draft bill.
That information would be used “to formulate responses, to make informed presentations on the current situation,” Lujan Grisham’s senior public safety advisor Benjamin Baker told lawmakers.
“I think that is statistical data for helping inform us what’s good policy, what’s good lawmaking, and what’s good advice to bodies such as this,” Baker told the Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee on June 26.
Rep. Alan Martinez (R-Rio Rancho) asked if the crime reporting is not already being done.
“No, it is not being done in a way that is enforceable by anybody else,” Baker responded. “We have worked towards getting it.”
Baker said the National Incident-Based Reporting System run by the FBI is a “functional, great way that it specifically categorizes crime, but it is voluntary.”
“It is very difficult to pull together relevant and contemporary data that paints a picture statewide,” Baker said.
Bernalillo County started to provide the data to the state eight months ago, Baker said, but there are 193 “public safety agencies” throughout New Mexico. Only 95 agencies in New Mexico reported their data to the national system in 2022, according to FBI data.
“Getting them to share and collaborate on the data piece is critical from our perspective,” he said.
Rep. Jared Hembree (R-Roswell) pointed out New Mexico law already requires a “uniform crime reporting system,” and every police department “shall” submit crime incident reports to DPS each month.
“So that doesn’t seem voluntary, and seems to be very similar to this draft we have right here,” Hembree said.
Baker said the administration thinks the law needs to be revisited to also include ballistic data, because there is new technology related to ballistic information which wasn’t considered by previous legislation.
“Technology has changed, the reporting repository has changed, and I think what we need is a new way of getting that information to us so we will be able to use it on our level,” Baker said.
He said the goals of the legislation would be to make it easier for local departments to get plugged into the FBI reporting system, and to get more specific information about “what we would call a violent crime gun epidemic that is happening within our state.”
Martinez asked what would happen if police departments do not comply with the law.
“What do we do when the cops don’t do what we tell them to do?” Baker asked. “I think there are a number of things that, when legislation is passed by this legislature, particularly as it relates to any government agency that receives funding, there is an appropriate mechanism to hold to account folks who do not comply with laws that have been passed by this Legislature.”