Mayor Keller resets goal of adding 1,200 officers

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In 2020, Mayor Tim Keller talked about the need for more police officers to reach his vision of what it would take to keep Albuquerque safe.

But adding police officers has not been the problem, keeping them is proving more difficult. Keller is now changing the goal posts, in a way.

In a recent sit down with the mayor, he revealed why is old goal of having 1,200 officers at APD is not realistic.

“You know, we’ve done a couple of things. First off, I would say the APD, we really restructured our department in a way that makes it we’ve stabilized a department that had all sorts of problems,” said Keller.

According to numbers from APD, when Keller took office there were 828 APD officers. 

Keller said he wanted to add 100 officers every year, and after four years it was his goal to have 1,200 officers. He was successful growing cadet classes, and bringing in lateral hires.

After 2022, Keller added 470 officers to APD and would have met his goal had it not been for more officers leaving the department.  

Watch the video above for the full interview with Mayor Keller.

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