Officers say patrols in smaller groups like these are going a long way to keeping down crime

Police say a new strategy in patrolling Albuquerque's Downtown is paying off and making it safer for the nightlife.

Officers say crime along Central Avenue has dropped because they are spreading out officers throughout the area between First and Ninth Street.

APD says the change in tactics came in response to complaints from merchants that too many officers were concentrated into too small an area. As a result, police officers are fanning out and say crime is thinning.

"We were finding that we were having crime pushed from the Central corridor to the side streets, so we moved our patrols to match that to the criminal element," APD's John Walsh said.

Walsh said officers in groups of two are now walking throughout Downtown, not just Central, looking for crime.

A Downtown patron says previously, it was common to see as many as seven police cars all bunched up in one area. There were also complaints that officers were acting like a group of bullies.

Bar owner Casey Saiz says that out-of-towners seem more comfortable with the new, spread-out officer patrols.

"It actually helped a lot—it doesn't look quite like we are under a raid all the time," he said.

Saiz also said the sight of police officers keeps trouble at minimum at his establishment.

"They are welcome to come in," he said. "I mean, they walk through the bar every once in a while and that's fine--it keeps people behaving themselves, but it doesn't look so forceful."

Police say their next goal is making sure that the younger crowd that comes Downtown at night is safe.