APD splits Albuquerque into 94 beats. The Ledger now ranks them by police calls and draws each one on the map.

The Albuquerque Police Department cuts the city into 94 beats, each inside one of its seven area commands. When it can, the dispatcher sends the officer whose beat the reported incident occurred in. The Ledger’s police call rankings now count calls by beat, and the police calls map draws the beat lines. Both read the city’s beat layer every time the site is built.

1. Tap 94 APD beats to rank the beats

• Tap 94 APD beats under Areas. Most calls lists the 15 beats with the most calls, and Fewest calls lists the 15 with the fewest.
• Each beat is named by its number and its area command, such as Beat 134, Southwest.
• Per square mile ranks the beats by calls for each square mile they cover. Small beats sit low on a plain count, so check both.
• The dates and Kind of call change every count. The last column compares each beat with the days just before, and its heading says how many.
• The line under the chips counts the calls that fall outside every beat. The beat lines leave small gaps, and a call placed in one is counted in no beat.

2. Pick one beat to chart its calls

• Over time has a picker that lists every beat. Pick one and the chart shows its calls a day for the dates you chose.
• What they call about then lists the most common kinds of call in that beat.

3. Click a beat’s name to see it on the map

• Every beat name in the tables is a link. It opens the police calls map zoomed to that beat, outlined, with the rest of the map shaded.
• The beats around it are outlined too, with their names.
• The map keeps the dates and the kind of call you picked.
• The panel reads “Outlined:” and the beat’s name. Clear takes the outline off.
• Copy the address to share the view. The link names the beat, so it still finds it after the site is rebuilt.

4. Turn on beat outlines in the map’s Show list

• Open Show near the bottom of the map’s panel and pick 94 APD beats under Outlines. The map draws one set of outlines at a time, and starts on APD commands.
• Area names labels the beats that fit the view. Zoom in and the names follow the beats you are looking at. Untick it to hide them.

On a phone, a beat link opens the map on that beat

What the pages can’t tell you

• What happened. A call is a report to police and does not say what officers found. The pages count calls, not crimes or arrests.
• The exact spot. The city’s record places each call at a block, not an address, and the call counts in the beat that block’s point falls inside.
• Who patrols a beat or how fast they arrive. The city’s call record carries no officer, unit or response time.
• Whether APD has redrawn a beat. The city’s beat layer carries no date, so the pages apply today’s lines to every call, including the older ones.

Know what’s behind the calls in your beat? Send a tip.