At a meeting at the Family Advocacy Center in Albuquerque Tuesday, Mayor Tim Keller and Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina highlighted both the seriousness of domestic violence and efforts to combat the problem.
Medina said that this year alone there have been five homicides related to domestic violence, making up 10% of the homicides in the city.
"And every one of those is one too many," he said, "because many times in some of the cases we look at this year, there was that history in the past that we were just unable to help that victim escape that lifestyle and how they're being victimized by an individual."
To address the issue, Deputy Commander Kyle Hartsock is overseeing an impact team, which assigns a detective to every case of felony domestic violence.
And Deputy Chief Cecily Barker highlighted a need for more staff on a Domestic Abuse Response team specially trained to handle domestic violence situations on scene.
"We currently have 13 officers who are part of this team, and we have positions open for seven additional," she said.
Last year, the Keller administration formalized the creation of a Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Commission.
The body is made up of representatives of groups that support survivors of domestic violence including Enlace Comunitario, a non-profit organization that focuses on Latinx and immigrant communities.
Bonnie Escobar, the executive director, said that police have been having training around addressing domestic violence.
"Domestic violence is a complicated, layered issue," she said. It is, "about power and control, and maintaining both through repeated acts of violence that can be physical, sexual, verbal, psychological and financial."
She said that it is often difficult to leave unsafe situations, and encouraged members of the public to tell anyone they thought might be suffering domestic violence to contact an organization that can help.
Resources available include:
Domestic Violence Resource Center
New Mexico Family Advocacy Center
New Mexico Asian Family Center
