ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The City of Albuquerque is planning to spend nearly $100,000 to take a closer look at staffing at the Albuquerque Police Department.
According to the city’s transparency website, the city agreed to a contract with Alexander Weiss Consulting firm that will conduct independent studies surrounding staffing numbers within the police department.
The number of officers in Albuquerque has been a hot button issue throughout the years with the rising rate of crime in the city.
This isn’t the first time the city has done an APD staffing study, back in 2015 a study from the same consulting firm revealed that APD had trouble recruiting. After that study, APD decided at the time to get 80 officers onto the street, patrolling different parts of the city.
The department’s hope back then was to get the department’s number of officers to $1,000 which Mayor Keller said in a press conference last week they’re on the verge of accomplishing.
“We have made significant progress,” said Mayor Keller. “In terms of how we deal with community policing, in terms of the number of officers we have, now approaching almost 1000 strong.”
A spokesperson with the police department said they currently have 984 sworn officers and only about half, 532 of them are out patrolling the streets. It’s still unclear what the exact goal of this study is and what it will entail. The mayor’s office and APD said this is a city council initiative and didn’t provide any other details.
KRQE News 13 reached out to city councilors to learn more about the study but did not hear back. KRQE News 13 also reached out to the firm conducting the study but they didn’t share any details either.
