Vera Institute praises Albuquerque’s community‑based safety work in council presentation

Jody Esquivel of the Albuquerque Community Safety Department introduced a visiting team from the Vera Institute of Justice on Wednesday and asked them to share findings from a week‑long site visit.

Megan Asione, associate director of Vera’s Redefining Public Safety initiative, described the Institute’s technical assistance to ACS since 2023 and noted the national trend toward civilian‑led alternative response teams for nonviolent calls. She said Vera views ACS’s combined department structure as a national example and highlighted two core strategies — alternative response and violence prevention/intervention — as drivers of measurable improvements such as calls answered and crises prevented.

Vera also provided an impact figure for ACS’s violence‑intervention services — a success rate reported by Vera of 92.3% in keeping participants from further involvement in violent crime — and described ongoing work to strengthen ACS internal systems, documentation and communications so programs can scale.

Councilors thanked the presenters and invited follow‑up briefings; the council did not take any formal action on the presentation but accepted the update and moved on to the next agenda item.