General Meeting News (5/26)

Tonight's guest speaker was Laura Kuehn, APD police liaison, and she spoke about a great many topics.

First, she spoke about the upcoming National Night Out, which will be held on August 4. South Los Altos's NNO will begin at 6 p.m., and it will be held at our Daniel Webster Park, which is located at the corner of Copper & General Arnold. Last year everyone had a great time, and we hope to see even more people this year! Plans are being made, but we expect to have music, food (from food trucks as well as potluck), games, prizes, and a whole lot of fun! It will also coincide with the August Neighborhood Association General Meeting.

Laura also spoke about various initiatives and programs that the Albuquerque Police Department is engaged in, to help make our city a safer and friendlier place to live and work. For instance, the next "Coffee with a Cop" will be at June 4 from 10-11:30 a.m. It is hosted by El Mesquite Market near San Pedro & Central, and they will have sample pastries! Stop by to meet some of the brave "men in blue", and support and thank El Mesquite for hosting.

APD is also now offering de-escalation training for businesses! This training is designed to foster good communication skills, as well as training businesses in the signs to look for in people who may be under the influence, and how best to handle them, to keep the situation as calm as possible. You can read more about it at KOAT or KRQE.

Other operations Laura spoke about include the following:

• Working to identify medians and repeat offenders on medians where panhandling frequently occurs, in light of the Supreme Court ruling that it is considered a First Amendment right. (The entire ordinance is on the city website.)
• NEST – “Neighborhood Engagement and Support Team” – Gibson Public Safety District to address individuals experiencing homelessness
• Warrant roundups to help clear backlog
• Bus stops & transit transportation – proactive and response team
• Party patrol operations & gun violence reduction – especially around graduation time
• Ongoing encampment operations

Finally, she gave a rundown of several crime statistics (year-to-date). First, she noted that in our South Los Altos neighborhood, there were 2,452 total calls for service. About half of those are proactive, which she explained as being times when an officer noticed something suspicious while already out, a homeowner or business asked for cops to periodically check the property while they’re out, and other things of that nature. She also noted that there were more than 65,000 car stops in the entire city, with 172 in our neighborhood. Other statistics for our neighborhood included the following:

• 63 calls for shots fired
• 57 warrants (can be multiple warrants for one person)
• 1 DUI
• 13 narcotics-related calls
• 123 disturbances
• 16 vandalism
• 6 residential burglaries
• 2 shoplisting
• 26 theft, fraud, embezzlement
• 19 auto thefts, 8 auto burglaries
• 15 fights in progress
• 3 robberies
• 0 kidnappings
• 104 family disputes
• 28 aggravated assaults

​We thank Laura Kuehn for taking the time to share this information and answer questions from residents. It was encouraging to hear about the many efforts underway to improve public safety and strengthen community engagement throughout Albuquerque. As always, staying informed and involved is one of the best ways we can work together to keep South Los Altos a safe, welcoming, and vibrant neighborhood.

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