Albuquerque police tout traffic arrests, operations from 2024

The Albuquerque Police Department says fatal crashes decreased by nearly 8% last year as officers issued more than 72,000 traffic tickets to errant drivers — though around 5,000 fewer than in 2023.

APD spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said officers investigated 73 fatal crashes in 2024, down from 79 the year before. Of those 2024 crashes, 35 were pedestrian deaths.

Officers also issued 72,845 citations, she said, compared with 77,386 in 2023. The total was still much higher than in 2022, when officers wrote 54,391 tickets.

Another 140,000 citations were issued by speed cameras placed around the city, Atkins said.

Atkins gave year-end statistics for several metrics, such as how many stolen vehicles were recovered and how many DWI arrests were made, but did not give 2023 numbers for comparison.

Atkins said police issued more than 9,000 of the citations in 2024 along Central Avenue, a stretch of road police have identified as a priority to tackle fentanyl use and general crime.

Officers arrested 362 people for DWI, 55 of them at sobriety checkpoints, and 22 related to driving while impaired by drugs, she said. During operations targeting street racing, police issued 554 citations, including 58 for spectating, used a spike strip on 11 vehicles and made 10 DWI arrests.

The Traffic Unit investigated 563 hit-and-run crashes in 2024 and cleared 271 cases, while the rest were left unsolved, she said. Four drivers were arrested or charged with a felony in a hit-and-run, while 59 were charged with a misdemeanor.

Atkins said APD’s Road Rage Portal, where drivers can report incidents, had 335 videos uploaded and officers spoke with victims and offenders in 335 instances. It is unclear if any of those cases resulted in an arrest.

Meanwhile, police assigned to the Abandoned Vehicle Unit also recovered 70 stolen vehicles, towed 312 and red-tagged 1,787 vehicles, she said.