APD: 90 homicide cases solved, 117 suspects arrested

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The city’s homicide number stands at 119 as of Wednesday, Dec. 28. It’s a record number for Albuquerque police homicide investigations.

But, on Wednesday, the Albuquerque Police Department shared some good news.

“119 homicide victims and 112 homicide cases,” said Gilbert Gallegos, a public information officer with APD. 

A total of 90 cases were solved in 2022 and 117 suspects arrested, charged, or who have died. A majority of those cases come from homicides that happened this year.

“68 cases from this year out of 112 total cases, and then that’s 119 victims,” said Gallegos.

Most of the cases solved this year had a similar weapon of choice too – guns.

APD credits their success of solving cases to different resources they had this year, like having more eyes on cases across the board.

“For 2022 is we hired temps who are previous police officers that had investigative experience, to look at some of these previous cases that we do have coming through,” said an APD officer. 

The last time APD saw a similar success rate was in 2013, when they had a 100% clearance rate — but it was a year with a lot less homicides.

“In 2013 there were 35 homicides, you know that number has increased over 14,15,16,” said APD Chief Harold Medina. 

APD says a majority of homicide suspects arrested this year also had criminal history. They say 50% of the suspects had a violent crime past.

Now, police say they are focusing on making sure justice is served, and making sure state lawmakers provide the means to improve the criminal justice system.

“So we’ve called on the Legislature to really invest their resources into the entire criminal justice system. We don’t want to see these cases, pled out or fall through the cracks because there’s not sufficient resources to try them,” said Gallegos. 

Looking into next year, APD wants to see an investment into young adult courts and processes within the city, as well as tackling arrest warrants.