Albuquerque police shootings stay high amid federal oversight rollback push
Albuquerque logged 116 police-involved fatalities since 2013 even as homicides fell 19% from 2022 to 2023.
Albuquerque recorded 116 police-involved fatalities since 2013, even as homicides fell 19% from 2022 to 2023.
The U.S. Department of Justice concluded in an April 10, 2014 findings letter that it had reasonable cause to believe APD engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force, including deadly force. The letter cited structural and systemic failures in oversight, training and policy. A federal consent decree followed in 2015, and on May 9, 2025, the Justice Department and the City of Albuquerque filed a joint motion seeking to terminate it, asserting APD had maintained full compliance.
The department’s 2023 Annual Use of Force Report recorded force in 517 incidents and 549 force interactions, a 12% decline from 2022. The 2024 report, prepared by the Data Analytics Division and dated July 21, 2025, recorded force in 677 cases and 739 interactions, a 35% increase from 2023. The city’s 2023 crime release recorded a 49% increase in crimes against society, largely because of proactive enforcement in drug possession and shootings.
Albuquerque recorded fatal APD shootings on Jan. 10, Feb. 3, May 26 and May 29 of 2026, along with non-fatal shootings on May 24 and June 2. Those cases keep the department under a spotlight that has followed it for years, from the 2014 killing of James Boyd in the Sandia foothills to the failed prosecutions of former APD officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez, who were charged with second-degree murder in that case before it ended in a mistrial.
Searchlight New Mexico logged 18 shootings in 2022 and killed 10 people that year, and police in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County shot 131 people between 2013 and 2022. Tracking began only in 2017, so the figure undercounted.
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