Police, tipsters and the media have helped put the cuffs on more than 100 of the city’s top property crime offenders.
Police, tipsters and the media have helped put the cuffs on more than 100 of the city’s top property crime offenders.
Mayor Richard J. Berry announced Monday that 110 of the city’s top property crime offenders featured in the Albuquerque Journal have been captured. So far, 238 offenders have been profiled in the eight monthly advertisements.
“This is huge victory for the city, the community and the police department,” Mayor Berry said. “More than 100 thieves have learned that Albuquerque is a bad place to be a criminal.”
The Journal ad features 30 of the city’s most wanted property crime offenders. The city began running the ad in December as a part of Mayor Berry’s initiative to combat property crime. It appears in the Journal every third Friday. The city also publishes offenders on 10 electronic billboards.
In addition to the 110 arrests, the ads have helped clear 51 other warrants. The majority of these warrants were cleared when jails outside of Bernalillo County saw the ad and realized they had one of the offenders in custody. Due to the warrant, the jails placed a hold on the offender preventing them from bonding out. So far, 67 percent of the fugitives featured in the ads have been brought to justice. Thus far Crime Stoppers has paid out more than $20,000 to tipsters who turned in fugitives after seeing their photo in the advertisements. The ads cost $4,000 a piece and they are paid for using DWI seizure money
In January, Mayor Berry unveiled a 15-part plan to reduce property crime in Albuquerque. Since January 1, burglaries and auto theft have dropped 13 percent, according to preliminary crime statistics.
Reyanon Duncan was the 100th offender arrested. Duncan had more than three dozen prior arrests when she was captured earlier this month.
