CABQ and State Leaders Lay Out Legislative Plans to Fight Crime
By: ABQ RAW staff
POSTED: 11/16/2022 @ 1:00PM
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller speaks to the media about crime and legislative goals for 2023.
FULL press conference providing an update reference the Metro Crime Initiative
Downtown Albuquerque -
City of Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, Albuquerque Police brass, State Lawmakers, and a crime victim family held a press conference at APD headquarters laying out their legislative plans for the 2023 60-day New Mexico Legislative session.
Mayor Keller touted his Metro Crime Initiative (MCI) and how it is geared to lowering crime within Albuquerque. The initiative has a checklist of items the Keller administration hopes to accomplish going forward. At the press conference we asked if there will be any actual data metric used to track the successes of each category.
"The idea is to address the entire criminal justice system. So, we've recognized, I think, especially at APD, where we've had challenges or have not, things are falling through the cracks and there's areas where we can improve and we're asking the entire criminal justice system to do the same thing. The mayor said, we don't want to point fingers, but we also want to point out where we are falling through the cracks, address them and, you know, lower crime eventually," said APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos.
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MCI check list that City of Albuquerque has put out.
Representative William "Bill" R. Rehm - (R)
“Unfortunately, this progressive effort is too little, too late for the over 150 New Mexicans who have been murdered in Albuquerque this past year,” said State Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Albuquerque).
He went on to say, “There exists a litany of previously proposed legislation these same Democrats have left to the wayside, and now want to plagiarize, calling this their agenda. Even when DA Raul Torrez pointed out their failed bail bond amendment, the Democrats failed to move commonsense anti-crime proposed legislation forward. Republicans will never give up on continuing to fine tune our criminal laws to address the out-of-control crime. Again, I will present a true anti-crime agenda that will provide much needed relief for the many New Mexicans who have suffered because of Albuquerque lawmakers’ failure to act. Over the summer I have been working with the Mayor and his staff and I am stunned they do not mention our work. Their flimsy crime agenda demonstrates a real lack of bipartisanship, and ignores the dangerous criminal activity in our city.”
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Democrat State Representative Marian Matthews of District 27.
“Criminals and gangs coming are entering into stores, often armed with guns, terrifying customers and employees while they steal as much as they can. Using robbery and racketeering charges, the Organized Retail Crime Bill builds off our existing work to give law enforcement substantially more tools to deter and prosecute these criminals,” said Democrat State Representative Marian Matthews of District 27.
State lawmakers are holding committee hearings, private and public meetings to discuss what bills will be submitted in the upcoming 60-day session. The press conference today indicated Democrat lawmakers will be pushing for stronger gun and retail crime laws.
City of Albuquerque's Press Release Regarding the legislative goals.