[Neighbors] APD speeding citations down 37% - why Coal/Lead are race way roads

Tue Jul 26 18:46:39 MDT 2016

Greg, thanks for that update and you are right.

Road construction funding of any kind – federal grants, local bonds etc - cannot be used for police services so it is important to point out that each is considered and funded differently.

As you might have read in several recent emails or heard in public meetings, APD is now recruiting 3 full academy classes a year – the max we have the capacity to train in the academy and bring onto the street for field service at any one time.

The city just approved a contract with APD’s union to permit scheduling of officers on 12-hour shifts which eliminates some of the overlapping scheduling that exists now – freeing up more officers for the street.

In addition, we’ll be looking at a new staffing structure and I’ll be sponsoring new legislation to help APD prioritize calls for service better so we have more officers available for priority 911 calls.

You can read more about the rising crime numbers, current police deployments and some solutions on the table here; http://www.abqjournal.com/809460/the-solution-to-rising-crime-in-albuquerque-is-not-a-new-study.html

Sadly, this is a longer process than any of us would like.

From: Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm-bounces at mailman.swcp.com> on behalf of Greg Weirs via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm at mailman.swcp.com>
Reply-To: Greg Weirs <vgweirs at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 3:11 PM
To: "neighbors at nobhill-nm.com" <neighbors at nobhill-nm.com>
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] APD speeding citations down 37% - why Coal/Lead are race way roads

Actually, I have heard that funding more APD officers is not the issue at this point, but training them. As you may know, APD is having its problems these days and morale among the officers has been low, which leads to short staffing. Training new officers takes time. It will be years until the APD is fully staffed, and more officers are available for traffic enforcement. I don't see how that has anything to do with ART.

Greg

On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 10:30 AM, Anderson Robert via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm at mailman.swcp.com<mailto:neighbors_nobhill-nm at mailman.swcp.com>> wrote:
With all the millions being spent on reducing our roads to one lanes we could hire more police to take the criminals off our streets.

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D1E76E.0AB35A00]By Megan Cruz<http://www.koat.com/tv/news-team/General-Assignment-Reporter/24975724>
APD speeding citations down 37%
May sees biggest decline in citations by almost 400
UPDATED 11:21 AM MDT Jul 25, 2016
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —Albuquerque police are issuing far fewer speeding tickets this year compared with last.
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According to numbers from New Mexico's Administrative Office of the Courts, Albuquerque police issued about 3,000 tickets between January and May 2015. Between the first five months of this year, only about 1,900 have been issued.

That's down about 37 percent.

The data also shows there are fewer tickets being written every month this year than last.

The most startling figure is the comparison between May 2015 to May 2016. Data shows 390 fewer tickets were written in May this year. APD officials said that month, officers were tied up by eight fatal crashes and helped escort presidential hopefuls through the city.

APD officials said the significant drop in speeding citations could also stem from the department only having nine officers patrolling the roads, as compared with the 24 officers it had last year.

The department has been struggling with a shortage for years.

Officer Tanner Tixier said the department would ideally like to have about 510 officers in the field but right now, there's only about 410.

Tixier said when the traffic unit is tied up, there is no one else to fill the officers' shoes.

"We didn't have the bodies to take out of the field or out of investigations division to fill the motors division," he said.

Department officials said they are actively recruiting. They hope to fill spots on the traffic unit soon because they don't just catch speeders, they help make streets safe.

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--
Greg Weirs
505 265 9995
vgweirs at gmail.com<mailto:vgweirs at gmail.com>
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