Albuquerque posts its police calls for service to a public record anyone can read. Each call has the kind of call, the time and the block.
What the record isn’t is live.
- It fills in batches. When the Ledger checked at 10:36 p.m. on Oct. 2, the newest call in it came in at 5:59 p.m. on Oct. 1, about 29 hours earlier.
- So it can’t tell you why police are on your street tonight. It can tell you later.
A call is what someone reported, or a stop an officer started. It doesn’t say what police found.
This is a Ledger campaign, and here we take a side: the Ledger thinks the city can publish its calls as they happen, by block, leaving out calls that privacy law keeps private. Its letter asks for that.
How to ask your councilor
The Ledger’s letter tool does most of the work.
- Put in your address. It finds your council district and your councilor from the city’s own maps.
- Pick the letter. It asks your councilor to have the city publish the calls APD officers are working as they happen. You can write your own instead.
- Change anything you like. Councilors hear most from people who say how an issue touches them, so add a line of your own.
- Send it from your own email. The Ledger never sees your address or your letter.
What you can use today
The Ledger’s calls map puts six months of the city’s record on one screen.
- Filter it by date, time of day and kind of call.
- Look up your block and see what police were called to near you.
Updated Oct. 3 to take out a comparison with Dallas and to add pictures of each step of the letter tool.
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