All police departments in New Mexico could publish monthly statistics on gun violence, according to government proposal • Source: New Mexico

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham wants New Mexico police departments to provide regular statewide updates on gun violence.

A two-page bill discussed with lawmakers last week would require all police departments in New Mexico to submit monthly reports on criminal activity and ballistics information to the Department of Public Safety.

The proposal is one of five that Lujan Grisham plans to present to lawmakers in the special session that begins July 18.

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The law already requires police departments to submit monthly reports on crime in their jurisdiction to the Ministry of Public Security, but the draft law proposes expanding the information contained in the reports to include “ballistic information.”

The bill would require the agency to “provide standards and procedures and appropriate training” to state and local police departments as needed so they can submit monthly reports.

This information would be used “to formulate responses and create informed accounts of the current situation,” Benjamin Baker, Lujan Grisham’s senior security adviser, told lawmakers.

“I think these are statistical data that help us to understand what is good policy, what is good legislation, what is good advice for bodies like this,” Baker told the Committee on Courts, Corrections and Judiciary on June 26.

Rep. Alan Martinez (R-Rio Rancho) asked if crime reporting wasn’t already happening.

“No, it’s not done in a way that can be enforced by anyone,” Baker replied. “We’ve been working toward that.”

Baker said the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System is a “functional, great way to categorize crimes in a targeted way, but its use is voluntary.”

“It’s very difficult to gather relevant and timely data that paints a national picture,” Baker said.

Baker said Bernalillo County began reporting data to the state eight months ago, but there are 193 “public safety agencies” across New Mexico. Only 95 agencies in New Mexico reported their data to the national system in 2022. after to FBI data.

“From our perspective, it is crucial that they share the data and collaborate on it,” he said.

Rep. Jared Hembree (R-Roswell) has already pointed to New Mexico’s law requires a “uniform crime reporting system,” and each police department “must” submit crime reports to the DPS each month.

“So this doesn’t seem to be voluntary and seems very similar to this bill here,” Hembree said.

Baker said the government believes the law needs to be revised to include ballistic data because there are new technologies related to ballistic information that have not been taken into account in previous legislation.

“The technology has changed, the reporting repository has changed, and I think we need a new way to deliver this information so we can leverage it at our level,” Baker said.

He said the goals of the legislation would be to make it easier for local departments to connect to the FBI’s reporting system and to obtain more accurate information about “what we would call an epidemic of violent firearms crimes that is unfolding in our state.”

Martinez asked what would happen if the police did not follow the law.

“What do we do if police officers don’t do what we tell them to do?” Baker asked. “I think there are a number of things that, when this House passes legislation, particularly in relation to government departments that receive funding, they have an appropriate mechanism to hold people to account who don’t comply with the legislation passed by this House.”