By Jesse Jones, The Paper. — When Burqueños look at local and federal crime reports, they might be surprised to find that Washington and City Hall disagree on exactly how many people were murdered in Albuquerque last year. We wanted to know why that is and we found that even APD isn’t entirely sure why the numbers do not align.
The FBI recently released updated crime stats for cities across the country and we noticed that the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer reported 75 homicide offenses in Albuquerque in 2025, while the Albuquerque Police Department reported 65 victims across 63 cases. Part of the confusion stems from how homicides are categorized. APD’s procedures define criminal homicide as “the unlawful killing of one person by another.” APD investigated 11 justifiable homicides in 2025, such as self-defense or police use of force, and excluded them from its criminal count. The FBI uses the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to group both lawful and unlawful killings under overall homicide offenses, even though it separately tracks justifiable homicide as “not a crime.”
The reports also differ on solved cases due to varying rules. APD recorded 59 clearances out of 63 cases in 2025, while the FBI logged 48. APD considers a case solved when a suspect is charged, arrested or deceased, while NIBRS uses specific criteria to clear offenses through arrest or exceptional means.
APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said an administrative lag may help explain some of the difference. Detectives may initially label a killing as “likely justifiable” pending toxicology reports or review by the District Attorney’s Office. APD’s Records Unit cannot reclassify a homicide as justifiable until prosecutors or investigators make a final determination. Because APD submits its data on a set schedule, those late updates often miss the FBI’s published reports. “We send updates throughout the year, but that doesn’t get changed in the FBI’s published reports, for some reason,” Gallegos said. APD would need to work with its Records Unit to determine why the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer shows 75 homicide offenses for Albuquerque, he said.
Albuquerque is not alone. In 2025, Santa Fe reported eight homicide offenses compared with five murders in FBI data, while Las Cruces reported 15 criminal homicides and negligent manslaughters compared with 14 in FBI data. Tucson reported 53 homicides, compared with 38 in FBI data, and El Paso reported 30 compared with 26. Colorado Springs reported 23 homicides, compared with 25 in FBI data. The differences show that local and federal homicide totals do not always line up.
Nonetheless, both APD and FBI tallies show that the total number of homicides in the Duke City is decreasing. In 2024, APD reported 98 homicides compared to the FBI’s 107.
Residents can track local safety trends by checking the city’s crime stats by area command page, attending monthly Community Policing Council meetings or subscribing to their area command’s newsletter.