Albuquerque police say robbery case numbers dropped in the last year

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The Albuquerque Police Department says reports of robberies have seen a big drop since last year. They said new technology and the way they investigate these cases have been some of the major reasons for this change.

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APD Chief Harold Medina announced a 33% decrease in robbery reports throughout Albuquerque year-to-date, compared to this point in 2023. He credits a few factors, including better information-sharing within the department.

“We’ve also moved robberies to different divisions, we’ve re-shifted some of our people so that they’re working with more similar units that may be chasing the same offenders, so we have better identification of repeat offenders,” said Chief Medina.

The chief said one of the ways they’ve improved robbery investigations is by having the retail crime unit and the robbery team work together and share information allowing them to identify repeat offenders and track them more quickly.

APD gave examples of high-profile robbery cases including one suspect who was caught based on his Snapchat activity. A second case covered involved a pair that was wanted for a string of robberies at multiple Blake’s Lotaburger restaurants. The department says a big help in solving these crimes has been the “DIVRT” team, which helps APD collect surveillance video, giving officers valuable information, and more time to focus on other areas of the investigation.

“Just to give you an example of how helpful DIVRT has been for us this year, they’ve gotten video for us from over 700 cases, 82 of those which have been robbery cases. So, it’s been instrumental in us solving these cases,” said APD Commander Jeff Barnard.

Chief Medina also mentioned the department’s effort to add license plate readers throughout the city is also expected to help with robbery investigations. The chief said they will also be adding more cameras throughout Albuquerque. The biggest decrease was in commercial robberies with just half the number the department responded to between January and August 14 this year compared to last year.

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