City of Albuquerque unveils newest anti-gang initiatives

March 24, 2011

albuquerque's mayor told an audience something that stunned them today. it was about gangs -- how many there are here -- and what he's doing about them. kayla anderson has more in our big story. "speaking at a luncheon today, when the mayor told his audience there are 113 gangs in our city-- there was a murmer across the room of total shock. then, he unveiled his plan to get that problem under control." mayor richard berry says he's tripled the size of apd's gang unit. "when i took office, we only had five officers involved in anti-gang activities. we're going to triple that amount of manpower on the gang force." the move is a surprise-- considering the bernalillo county sheriff recently cut the size of his gang unit. "these are tough budget times and i don't know why they cut back minute thumbnail 05:00 pm necessarily, i personally haven't had a conversation with him. but we team closely with the sheriff's department and this is just a way for us to make this a priority." as part of that priority-- the mayor also debuted this new, interactive website today. "look at everything from gang prevention, to gang enforcement, to the proactive and reactive things that we can do."