Albuquerque police report 2% drop in shoplifting offenses from year ago

Shoplifting has dropped in the city for the first time in “at least three years,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said during a news conference inside Cottonwood Mall on Tuesday.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said the number of reported shoplifting offenses decreased from 6,326 this time in 2023 to 6,205 as of Tuesday.

Gallegos noted the data was raw numbers and didn’t reflect all shoplifting reports, which continue to be added.

In an attempt to further combat shoplifting, Police Chief Harold Medina said during the news conference that APD will have plain-clothes officers and undercover detectives at the malls beginning Black Friday and through the holiday season.

Keller said the city still has a “long ways to go” in tackling crime in general but attributed the decrease in shoplifting to business owners installing cameras and putting up fencing alongside the effectiveness of a new law targeting repeat shoplifters.

Rep. Marian Matthews, D-Albuquerque, said she co-sponsored a bill during the 2023 Legislature that gives prosecutors the ability to aggregate the retail market value of multiple shoplifting cases and charge a suspect with a more serious, second-degree felony if the total value of merchandise is more than $20,000.

“The key word used was ‘aggregate,’” Matthews said. “We basically said if you shoplift over a period of time, we’re going to add up all the times you had shoplifted whether or not it was in the same store, as long as it was within a certain time period.”

Since the law went into effect in July 2023, there have been 61 felony arrests related to shoplifting, Medina said. Many of those charged under the statute have been struggling with substance abuse and stealing to feed their habit, he acknowledged.

The faster that they can get help, the faster that the property crime rates could go down, Medina said.

Shara Brown, who went to Cottonwood Mall while visiting family Tuesday, told the Journal she no longer lives in the Albuquerque area, in part because of the high property crime.

Coworkers told stories of “people walking into retail places and literally grabbing a handful of stuff and walking out with security watching them and that just gives an overwhelming sense that even the security can’t handle things,” Brown said.

“Criminals are more likely to do things if they don’t feel there’s a risk,” she said. “Right now, there’s a feeling that it’s not taken seriously. It’s a ‘victimless crime.’ It adds to a feeling of lawlessness.”