LFC report: Improving New Mexico's criminal justice system could lie in better data sharing

SANTA FE  — The key to driving down stubbornly high crime rates and improving judicial efficiency in New Mexico may lie in revised data collection and tracking by local law enforcement in conjunction with the state, an analysis presented to the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee found last week.

“Despite large investments by you, the Legislature, violent crime rates remain high and accountability has not become more swift or certain," Stephanie Joyce, LFC program evaluator, said at the opening of the presentation to the nonpartisan committee last Thursday.

Joyce presented the 64-page report, titled "Policy Spotlight: Felony Arrests and Outcomes," along with fellow analysts John Valdez and Garrett Moseley.

The analysts found that roughly half of law enforcement agencies in the state were not current in their reporting of crime or clearance rates to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety as of September, a requirement under state law. DPS reports data it receives from police agencies in New Mexico to the FBI, a system of information sharing in place in the state since 2008.

But in 2018 the FBI switched the way it would compile crime data going forward, from the previous Summary Reporting System (SRS) to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Since the switch, many law enforcement agencies in New Mexico, and elsewhere in the country, have not kept up with annual reporting of crime data.

According to the report, the data that is available from 2024 showed the highest number of crimes were reported in Albuquerque — the state's most populous city by far — but the smaller municipalities of Gallup, Taos and Belen had higher overall crime rates, meaning reported offenses per 100,000 people.

A footnote in the data table reads: "Not all jurisdictions report data to NIBRS."

The LFC report found that despite more than $380 million in one-time funding awarded by the Legislature to improve staffing and information-sharing across the criminal justice system since fiscal year 2021, there were significant gaps in crime data gathering across the state.

"Several large agencies have recently cautioned they have been reporting inaccurately for years," the report states. "Court filings for felony crimes have not shifted substantially, suggesting arrest rates are probably roughly the same as in FY18."

The findings cast doubt on the state's current body of criminal justice data, which has noted precipitous declines in both violent and property crimes.

The analysts recommended an incentive — tying grant funding for local law enforcement agencies to how well they report crimes.

“The central theme is to get better information to people at all levels of the system to help them make better decisions," Joyce said.

That extends to local law enforcement agencies themselves, half of which responded to a survey commissioned by the committee that they don't use real-time crime data to determine where officers should be deployed and when.

The committee also recommended shifting responsibility for its crime data-sharing network from the New Mexico Sentencing Commission to the Administrative Office of the Courts, the state judicial system's central support agency.

Despite recent reforms, felony cases also continue to crawl through New Mexico's state district court system, with courts resolving only about 79% of felony cases within 365 days on average, well below national rates. The number of hearings and continuances, or delays, in a court system was the greatest predictor of case efficiency.

The New Mexico Supreme Court in recent years has enacted new rules to speed up case processing in state courts. In the 1st Judicial District in July, for example, the high court issued a new rule requiring criminal cases to be resolved within seven to 10 months, except for those of "unusually high complexity."

During last week's presentation, the committee recommended the Administrative Office of the Courts standardize performance tracking and guidance on best practices to further improve case processing speeds.

Analysts also suggested assigning universal case numbers that would apply to all court events tied to the same crime, creating an automated notification system to alert parties to activities in cases they're tracking, a "functioning" victim notification system and ensuring more consistent fingerprinting of people arrested for misdemeanor or felony crimes, which Joyce said remains the gold standard when tracking defendants whose other identifiers might change over time.

 John Miller is the northern New Mexico correspondent for the Journal. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.