Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
QCS Senior Writer
Tucumcari and Quay County are contributing less than their share to recent rankings that place New Mexico second in the nation in violent crime.
“I don’t think we are a violent city, we do have our share of those type of crimes but its not a prevalent problem for Tucumcari,” said Tucumcari Police Chief Jason Braziel. His department, however, works to resolve and prevent violent crime.
He said the main crimes Tucumcari police have been combating are drug-related, including burglary, property crimes, and drug possession, distribution and sometimes manufacturing.
Quay County Sheriff Russell Shafer said that in the county’s unincorporated areas, more property crimes than violent crimes are committed.
While Quay County has had its share of violent crimes in the past, Shafer said, violent crime is not a prominent problem in the county.
Larger cities like Albuquerque, he said, contribute more to violent crime problems. Their per-capita crime rates, he said, are higher.
Statewide, there’s good news and bad news on violent crime, according to crime statistics compiled by 24/7 Wall Street, which used data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The good news: The number of violent crimes in the nation dropped by 4.4 percent from 2012 to 2013, and the overall number is down 15 percent from a decade ago.
The bad news? Even with a national decline, some states are seeing lower-than-average decreases and even increases in violent crime. And according to 24/7 Wall Street’s data, New Mexico is second in the nation in violent crime.
To compile the rankings, reviews were made of the FBI’s 2013 Uniform Crime Report. Violent crime included murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
States were ranked by violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2013. New Mexico had 596.7 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, placing it between Alaska (602.6) and Nevada (591.2).
While the nation overall had a violent crime drop, New Mexico’s violent rate had the highest rise in the nation — 6.6 percent — between 2012 and 2013.
Much of the New Mexico spike is rooted in Albuquerque. The city of about 556,500 residents, about 26 percent of the state’s population, had a crime rate of 775 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. That’s roughly 35 percent of the state’s violent crime.
The study also noted New Mexico’s ranks in poverty (21.9 percent, second among states), adults with high school diplomas (84.3 percent, sixth lowest) and 2013 murders (125, 21st lowest).