By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Rio Rancho’s overall crime numbers dropped again last year, but drivers didn’t get the same break — and the city’s 911 center answered 30,000 fewer calls after splitting from the county, according to the Police Department’s newly released 2025 Annual Report.
Crime down, but not everywhere
Reported offenses fell to 6,605 in 2025, down from 7,282 in 2024 and 8,390 in 2023, per the department’s federal incident-based crime data. Homicides dropped from eight cases in 2024 to two in 2025. Burglaries, motor vehicle thefts and shoplifting cases all declined as well. The Criminal Investigations Division closed 354 cases last year off 377 assigned — a lighter caseload than the 522 cases the division handled in 2024.
The roads didn’t follow the trend
Total reported crashes climbed for a third straight year, hitting 2,582 in 2025 — up from 2,303 in 2024 and 2,053 in 2023 — with injury crashes also rising to 454. Fatal crashes dropped to five, from seven the year before. DWI arrests rose to 366, and the department’s Safe Traffic Operations Program issued 28,509 speeding citations, using mobile units that grew from eight to 10 speed-camera towers by year’s end. Mothers Against Drunk Driving named RRPD’s DWI Unit the top in New Mexico for 2025.
911 numbers scrambled by a county split
The Rio Rancho Emergency Communications Center logged 149,332 total calls in 2025, a steep drop from 179,380 in 2024. That’s not simply less demand — the city completed its separation from the Sandoval County Regional Emergency Communications Center in fall 2025, meaning Rio Rancho dispatchers stopped fielding county calls altogether. Response times moved in mixed directions: the highest-priority calls got a faster response (8 minutes, 8 seconds, down from 8:33), but mid-priority call response times grew longer (11:07, up from 10:46).
Staffing is the department’s stated top concern
Chief Stewart Steele wrote in the report that retirements and unplanned departures have made hiring and retention the department’s top priority heading into next year, alongside building out a real-time crime center and upgrading dispatch technology.
By the numbers
- Citizen complaints against officers: 92 in 2025, up from 77 in 2023
- Internal Affairs investigations: 16 in 2025, down from 22 in 2023
- New Quality of Life Unit (started 2025): 3,105 calls for service, 112 arrests, 346 unhoused-encampment contacts
- Crisis Intervention Team: 422 behavioral health calls, 96 emergency mental health evaluations, 14 extreme risk firearm protection orders filed
Read the full Rio Rancho Police 2025 Annual Report:
rrnm.gov/2784/Annual-Report