Violent juvenile crime up in Albuquerque area, law enforcement officials tell legislative committee

Violent crime perpetrated by juveniles age 14 to 17 is at its highest rate in four years in Albuquerque, according to a presentation to a state legislative committee on Thursday.

With a rash of violent assaults and homicides involving juveniles in Bernalillo County making headlines, the year-to-date data underscores a troubling trend, prosecutors and law enforcement officials told members of the Legislative Finance Committee.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said that so far this year, 530 juvenile criminal cases have been referred for prosecution, compared with 568 for all of 2022. Of those cases presented this year, 16 involved homicides and 83 involved firearms, he told committee members.

“We have our challenges,” Bregman said. “It’s the biggest thing that keeps me up at night.”

Typically, the more serious cases involving juvenile crime are presented to the DA’s office, with the state juvenile probation office handling more minor cases of juvenile delinquency.

An LFC review of the criminal justice system released Thursday found that after a record 120 homicides in Albuquerque in 2022, this year is on track for fewer homicides overall. But there have been more than 50 deaths in which nearly half of the suspects connected to those deaths were under the age of 26. The data shows that 43% of those suspects were between the ages of 18 and 25.

Juveniles between 14 and 17 years old are being charged with violent offenses at the highest rate in four years, according to the LFC review, which was based on court data. There’s an especially notable spike among those 16 to 17 years old, but charges for people 18 to 20 years old appear to be declining since peaking in 2021 and 2022.

However, some crimes have been reported this year in which the alleged offenders were even younger. For instance, a 12-year-old was arrested, along with another teen, in the March beating of a 13-year-old girl in an Albuquerque park. On July 31, a 13-year-old was arrested in the fatal shooting of a woman who had tracked down her stolen car.

Meanwhile, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said his deputies are seeing the potentially deadly drug fentanyl circulating among juveniles, including fourth-graders.

Bregman said for the past four months his office has enforced a “zero tolerance” policy for guns at school. He said every student caught with a gun will be arrested, but Allen said he’s looking into reports that some teachers are telling their students caught with firearms to merely “go put them back into their vehicles.”

He and other presenters, who included public defenders, said early intervention and education are the keys to combating the trends.

Bregman said beginning next month, prosecutors and law enforcement officers will launch a program making anti-crime presentations in the schools. The program will initially involve four Albuquerque high schools.