Albuquerque police to increase downtown presence this summer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Albuquerque Police Department is planning to increase its presence in the downtown area with its specialty units this summer.

According to APD, they plan to utilize the Horse-Mounted, Tactical and Traffic units and officers assigned to Targeted Enforcement Active Monitoring overtime during the summer.

TEAMS overtime officers will patrol the area and conduct more proactive monitoring. The specialty units will work with the 10 officers in the Downtown Unit to respond to calls in the area.

APD officers say they’ve seen an uptick in people downtown recently. Last weekend, they reportedly arrested people, confiscated weapons and broke up several fights. They also ran into people they describe as “aggressive bystanders” who tried interrupting what officers were doing.

“We want people to be able to come and enjoy downtown, but we want everyone to remain safe,” APD Chief Harold Medina said in a news release issued Friday. “Increasing the number of officers, and supplementing with specialty units will ensure we have enough resources in the area to address incidents. We want people to know there will be zero tolerance in the downtown area for those who want to come out and disturb others or create unsafe environments for residents and officers.” 

These operations will last throughout the summer.