EDITORIAL: City is Broke! No Money for Officer Overtime Putting City in Peril

EDITORIAL –

The Albuquerque Police Department has long operated under the rule that shifts are supposed to be at a 70% minimum staffing level. Now, likely due to the loss of U.S. federal funding, there are essentially no overtime funds remaining. APD has for many years depended heavily on federal funds to supplement the city’s inflated budgets.

Supervisors are begging officers to come in on their days off via emails, asking for officers to come in to bring their staffing levels from 50% to 70%. We are hearing, however, that Area Commanders are denying the requests with blanket emails to lower APD supervisors without further discussion. This puts supervisors in the dilemma of completely ignoring the below-minimum staffing levels. Guess who will get blamed if the shit hits the fan? Pro tip, NOT the commanders.

One particular shift we heard about was supposed to have seven officers to be at minimum levels; instead, there were only five, for the entire area command. We have reported, over the years, many times that on average the area command you live in typically only has four to seven officers working at a time.

That number is for the thousands of residents in that area command. At certain points throughout the day, there can be up to six priority 2s holding. Priority 2 calls aren’t just the simply dogs bothering neighbor calls. Priority 3 calls are the lowest priority and can add up and hold even longer. These are usually dangerous situations that need to be handled quickly. However, with no officers available, the calls just stack up for several hours or days. We don’t bring up these issues to bash the department, but we know firsthand these are officer and citizen safety issues.

We are doing our part to let the public know about how few officers are really protecting them. These are daytime numbers we have pointed out. You probably don’t want to hear about the nighttime numbers.

APD will say help is on the way. The department just graduated a cadet class of brand-new officers this week, ready to hit the ground running. That was 18 new officers. These new officers will be placed with a training officer for the next few months and not supplementing staffing levels at all.

In the meantime, at least ten officers will retire in the next couple of months, and another ten will retire by the end of the year, cancelling out any new hires. This is the dirty little secret APD will never discuss. They are quick to show the academy graduations and revel in all the new officers in their shiny new uniforms and boots joining the ranks, but those retiring from APD get a kick in the ass out the door, and you are now banned from city property. No department parting gift or cake, just go away and good luck.

As of April 2026, Mayor Tim Keller’s administration had proposed a $1.47 billion Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget that addresses a $35 million budget shortfall. The shortfall is driven by inflation, rising service costs, and reduced federal aid coming from the Trump administration. We have also heard there is a hiring freeze in place. There is no help on the way for staffing levels. The budget for police cars also ran out long ago, and no new police cars have been purchased in months. The new officers hired may be riding around with training officers for a very long time since there is no money to buy them police cars.