When Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina took on the role of acting chief two years ago, his appointment was clouded in controversy. Over the course of his career, Medina was responsible for the shooting death of a teenager, involved in yet another shooting that led to a multi-million dollar settlement, and was one of the decision-makers who did little during a protest that turned violent in 2020. Medina came in at a fraught time for the APD, as the agency had been under a consent decree for quite some time. None of this explains Medina’s latest shady actions following the midterms, though.
The day after election day, Medina took to Twitter to “clear up the claims about Albuquerque’s crime stats.”
“Over five years, overall, property and violent crime are down,” Medina tweeted. It was seemingly the first time the police chief bucked conservative talking points claiming violent crime was on the rise. In fact, crime was such a hot-button issue that New Mexico’s gubernatorial debate on Sept. 30th began with a question on just that, and GOP candidate Mark Ronchetti released a controversial ad about his opponent’s handling of crime. Medina and his department had plenty of opportunities to clear the air, but instead chose to withhold statistics that would better inform the public they claim to serve and stayed silent until they could pat themselves on the back.
In truth, “the officers, detectives, and professionals throughout APD” probably did little to impact property and violent crime stats.
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Extraneous factors unrelated to how many officers serve a community are one of the most reliable ways to tell why certain areas may be experiencing spikes or drops in crime. According to analysis from the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), those factors include “social and economic instability and heightened inequalities.” Recent studies have found that increased police funding is an ineffective solution to addressing crime, and that other “tough-on-crime” policies, like offering few or no alternatives to incarceration, only make crime worse.
Clearly, Medina and the APD aren’t helping matters. This should only serve as yet another reminder that defunding the police is crucial. If cities like Albuquerque want to truly put a stop to crime, then they should instead allocate funds toward community solutions that empower residents. One Los Angeles candidate used the city’s own bloated police budget to snag a win and be elected city controller, illustrating just how much further the government could go in addressing inequalities that frequently lead to upticks in crime. Redirecting those funds to allow marginalized folks to thrive could ideally make the issue of crime itself obsolete.
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