Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment in a series titled Downtown Albuquerque Reboot, about the city’s center, its challenges and the plans to address them. Read about why the area matters here, about vacant buildings here, peruse a photo essay about lowriders here, and end with what the area has to offer here.
On a recent Monday morning, long-time Downtown Albuquerque restaurant owner Steve Vatoseow said most of the crime he sees every month is broken windows and vandalism.
The historic Lindy’s Diner has been in business at the corner of Fifth Street and Central Ave. since 1929 and Vatoseow’s family has owned the establishment since 1960. He said it’s the oldest diner on the famed Route 66 in New Mexico.
Just up the block from Lindy’s Diner is the Downtown Albuquerque Police substation which is staffed by nine officers, and two supervisors. It opened in September 2022.
Between 2022 and 2023, some of the more serious crimes such as murders and rapes decreased in Downtown Albuquerque, while the department has noted an increase in violations for using drugs, according to data from the Albuquerque Police Department.
“Our officers work hard to try to establish criminal charges on individuals and then work with the victim if they want to prosecute for being battered or being beat up,” said Deputy Commander Jose Sanchez. “I think that’s sending out a message which is…driving some of those issues down.”
The decrease in some crimes Downtown shows that his officers are out there doing what they’re good at, said Sanchez, who heads the Valley Area Command’s Downtown unit.
“That’s addressing and targeting the drivers of crime…trying to get those people out of our Downtown community,” he said. “The partnerships, the engagement with the businesses, just again, the overall community downtown, in my opinion, has been great and continues to improve.”
Murders, rapes and car theft decreased last year in Downtown, but overall crime increased by 10%
Aggravated assault is one of the most common types of crime officers encounter Downtown, Sanchez said. Between 2022 and 2023, aggravated assaults in Downtown decreased by 9% — from 191 to 174, according to data provided by APD.
Another category dubbed “all other offenses” — which could include fights in progress and disturbances — increased 66% last year from 100 incidents to 166 incidents.
The largest increases were seen in drug equipment violations, which increased from 13 in 2022 to 103 in 2023 — a 692% increase. Drug and narcotics violations increased from 44 in 2022 to 117 in 2023 — a 166% increase and kidnapping and abduction increased by 109% — from 11 incidents in 2022 to 23 incidents in 2023.
The largest decreases were in murder and negligent homicide, which fell 50%. In 2022, there were six homicides in Downtown Albuquerque, and in 2023, there were three homicides Downtown. Rape decreased from 22 incidents in 2022 to 10 in 2023 — a 55% decrease — and car theft went from 162 incidents in 2022 to 123 incidents in 2023 — a 24% decrease.
Overall, crime in Downtown Albuquerque increased in 2023 by 10%, with 3,228 incidents in 2023, and 2,932 incidents in 2022, according to the Albuquerque Police Department.
Throughout the city last year, property crimes stayed basically constant between 2022 and 2023, while crimes against people — a category that captures most violent crimes — increased 5% from 12,731 to 13,387. Reports of crimes against society — which includes drug possession and weapons violations — increased almost 50% from 5,321 to 7,929, which police attribute to more proactive enforcement of drug possession and following up on shootings.
It’s not the wild west
When it comes to crime Downtown, Vatoseow said he thinks it gets amplified when it’s something like a stabbing, a shooting, or a murder, but that such incidents could happen anywhere.
“It gets magnified because it’s Downtown Albuquerque, but if you notice, it happens all over town. It’s not just Downtown,” he said. “It’s not like we have these wild, wild west criminals walking down the street shooting guns or anything like that, but it does happen.”
He said fights often break out amongst people who are drinking at bars in the area. The homeless population also plays a role, he said.
Vatoseow deals with broken windows and graffiti at Lindy’s Diner about once a month, he said. He recently put the diner up for sale and said he calculates the cost of having his windows broken every month into his cost of doing business Downtown.
But crime hasn’t always been just broken windows or vandalism for Lindy’s Diner. Two years ago a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed near the restaurant, and Vatoseow said still thinks about the case every day.
“Our goal is for people to feel safe and be safe”
The Downtown area, Deputy Cmdr. Sanchez said, is unique.
“It requires a little bit more attention in putting the officers in the middle of Downtown, like right in the center of the entertainment district. I think it’s a huge benefit for the business owners and the community in general,” Sanchez said.
Mayor Tim Keller’s administration has also done a lot to support the Downtown substation, Sanchez said. He said cameras have been added to parking structures where there have been problems, there are license plate readers that help identify stolen vehicles and they’ve added additional lighting in alleyways.
“For any law enforcement, our goal is for people to feel safe and be safe, especially in the Downtown community,” he said.
The Downtown Public Safety Center is a small substation where citizens can file police reports. For more serious crimes there’s a phone in the lobby that will direct people to APD’s Emergency Communication Center.
“They can wait in the lobby and wait for an answer to come,” Sanchez said.
He said people can also ask officers questions at the substation.
Sanchez said officers who work at the substation are always out on patrol, mostly by foot. The substation just got new electric bikes for the officers as well.
Sanchez says the officers work to build partnerships with businesses by checking in with them almost daily.
“Every morning the officers go out, they do foot patrol and engage with individuals out on the streets, whether they’re unhoused, whether they’re people coming to work,” he said.
But Vatoseow said officers rarely visit Lindy’s. He said they come out once a month or every two months and walk around for two to three days.
“It’s like a horse and pony show,” he said. “It has to be like on an ongoing basis. They have to just patrol the streets, get the horse patrol out here, get the guys walking the beat. That’s a deterrent. Just having cops down here.”
There are currently five officers and a sergeant working during the day, and four officers and a supervisor working the swing shift. Sanchez said he’d like to add one more officer to the day shift and two more officers to the swing shift.
Swing shift officers work Wednesday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. Though the substation is closed at those times, the officers are out on the streets patrolling and can also take reports, Sanchez said.
In a Dec. 13 memo to Police Chief Harold Medina, Sanchez outlined plans to use off-duty officers — getting paid overtime — to “improve the quality of life” within the Downtown area. Sanchez states in the memo that the goal of the operation is to implement a “zero-tolerance approach to criminal activity and traffic safety” and lays out a plan for Friday and Saturdays.
Vatoseow said the problem is that there aren’t enough officers who work at the substation to cover Downtown Albuquerque continually.
“It’s just a shortage. It’s a numbers thing. They just don’t have the officers to do it. That’s what it’s going to take, more officers here patrolling the street,” he said.
And Sanchez agrees. When asked how many additional officers he’d like to employ at the substation, Sanchez said “About 100.”
But that isn’t realistic.
“I don’t think there’s really a perfect number of officers,” Sanchez said.