ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Leaders within the Albuquerque Police Department said they observed a roughly 30% drop in crime following the arrest of an alleged serial offender in northeast Albuquerque.

“When you look at it, you know, we know that about 10% of the same people are committing most of the crime within our city,” said Cecily Barker, the deputy chief of Albuquerque police.

Police took 30-year-old Justin Lang into custody Nov. 12 on several outstanding warrants, according to APD. Lang’s criminal history includes several counts of shoplifting, burglary, assault, and property damage charges. Investigators accuse Lang of causing a plethora of problems for his neighbors at an apartment complex near Montgomery and Tramway before his arrest.

“One of the commanders of the Foothills Area Command had mentioned that he had a lot of crime going on in an area,” Barker said. “As we conversed about that, we found that, [with] the active criminal activity going on, Justin Lang was the primary suspect for that.”

It’s not an unusual story for Albuquerque. However, Barker said APD wanted to keep tabs on the neighborhood after arresting Lang.

“We asked our Real Time Crime Center to take a look at the criminal activity in the area that Mr. Lang was known to frequent. And we did find that both calls for service and crime went down in that area, specifically,” Barker said.

In the month after Lang’s arrest, APD data showed a 12% drop in crime incidents across the entire Foothills Area Command. Data showed a 21% drop in incidents in the specific “police beat” Lang lived in. Data also showed a staggering 57% drop in incidents in the exact location where they arrested Lang.

According to APD, they saw a 30% reduction in overall crime in the neighborhood after his arrest.

“It was well known that he is an individual who is committing crime within our city and specifically that area,” Barker said.

This is not the first time a single arrest resulted in a noticeable drop in crime in Albuquerque.

In March, APD officers took a closer look at a neighborhood near Wisconsin and Chico in the International District after noticing a high number of ShotSpotter activations.

“We started saying, ‘Okay, who lives in the area? Investigations, what do you know about who’s in that area and who’s committing crime?’ And we recognize that there was an individual with a warrant in the area,” Barker said.

After officers arrested that person, APD data showed a 47% drop in ShotSpotter activations in the area.

Similarly, officers arrested an 11-year-old connected to a smash-and-grab at a northeast Albuquerque gas station in June. In the week following the child’s arrest, data showed the total number of crime incidents in nearby neighborhoods dropped from 17 to just three.

According to APD, they are currently conducting a warrant operation focused on repeat offenders.

“This current warrant operation that we’re focusing on is looking at individuals who, one, have warrants, but newer-issued warrants,” Barker said. “We’re not looking for people who have 5-10 year old warrants. That would be different. We are specifically looking for individuals of warrants who are actively driving crime within the city.”

Barker said they’re reminding community members if they “see something, say something.”

“We’re doing what we can to address that small percentage of individuals who continue to commit crime throughout our community,” Barker said.