ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has been trying to get a handle on theft at the Coronado Center and Uptown for a couple of years now.

The department even opened a substation at Coronado Mall to help with operations in the summer of 2022.

“Keeping our substation there and keeping that as an option for deputies to use for our special operations and things like that is a great asset to us,” said Capt. Paul Watkins with BCSO’s Criminal Investigations Division.

BCSO’s new Organized Retrail Crime Unit – with its own sergeant and four full-time detectives – does at least two operations per month. One of them is usually in Uptown.

“We may do one operation where, you know, we get a few arrests or something like that, but stemming from that and the investigations that come off that, that’s really the spiderweb that those guys really do a lot of backend work on,” Watkins said. “If they’re stealing things from Uptown or Coronado or Cottonwood, where are they taking those items and what are they trading it for? What are they selling it for? And who is the organizer behind that?”

Beyond potential thieves, there are potential shooters to keep eyes on too.

There’s been two shootings at the mall involving teens since the end of alst year – one on Black Friday and another this past weekend.

“This instills fear in the community, now people are going to wondering like, can I go here safely? Can I let my kids go hang out with their friends at Coronado safely?” Watkins said.

According to Watkins, incidents like these start new conversations about how to make high-traffic areas safer.

“There’s just multiple things and multipple facets to that question and we just don’t have the ability to staff that 100% of the time right now,” Watkins said. “Everybody has access to those, so there’s always the chance that somebody’s there.”

Coronado Mall is technically under APD’s command, so Albuquerque police officers are dispatched first during an emergency. However, BCSO leadership says nothing is off the table when it comes to new technology and partnerships.