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LouAnne Padilla

Police Shootings: What


are the mortality rates
in New Mexico and what
can we do to reduce
them?
New Mexico Police Department
April 10, 2016
400 Roma NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Phone: (505) 768-2200
Web: https://www.cabq.gov/police

Police Shootings

LouAnne Padilla

Introduction
On March 24, 2016 a man in Leguna, New Mexico was shot and killed by a Leguna Police
Ofcer. The ofcer was investigating a stolen vechical outside of a local casino, the two
suspects shot at the police ofcer and he returned fire, fatally injuring the suspect. Police
shootings are a common occurrence in New Mexico. Throughout the past few years, New
Mexico Police Ofcers fatal shootings have been steadily rising and are an ever-pressing
issue. Police ofcers should be protected and armed to help civilians. However, the lethal
weapons that the ofcers are currently using are resulting in many fatalities. The
purpose of this report is to research the mortality rates that are caused by lethal
weapons from the Police Departments in the United States and specifically New Mexico.

Research Methodology
To fully understand the efects of lethal weapons, we fallowed a 3-step research plan:

Compare death by
lethal force caused by
New Mexico Police
Ofcers to other police
forces around the
United States.

Step 3:

Research the statics for


fatal/non-fatal
shootings caused by
New Mexico Police
Ofcers.

Analyze the efect of


lethal weapons in
death rates brought on
by New Mexico Police
Department ofcers

Step 1:

Step 2:

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Step 1: Research the statics for fatal/non-fatal shootings caused by New


Mexican Police Ofcers
First, we need to find out exactly how many fatal shootings there have taken place in
New Mexico by New Mexican Police Ofcers. Further, we need to compare these numbers
to the overall police shootings in New Mexico. We will search through google.com in
order to retrieve specific numbers of shooting fatalities, and general shootings that
occurred by New Mexico Police Ofcers in the year 2015. All sources will be evaluated for
their credibility and if found credible, their information will be displayed within the
research findings. Any source used will be displayed at the end of the report under the
Works Cited section.

Step 2: Analyze the efect of lethal weapons in death rates brought on by


New Mexico Police Department ofcers
This step evaluates the efect that lethal weapons have had on the overall death rates in
New Mexico. We will be researching: how many deaths in New Mexico are caused by
lethal weapons, what percentage of these deaths are caused by New Mexico Police
Ofcers and how many non-lethal weapon related deaths compare to deaths caused by
lethal weapons in New Mexico. We will be utilizing google.com to find numbers on New
Mexicos death rates. From there we will categorize these deaths by the subjects that are
listed above. Since there has been a lot of news coverage on New Mexico Police
Shootings, we will use an interview from a family member of a victim from a fatal Police

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shooting and another from a family member of a non-lethal related death. Both
interviews will be provided in full after the works cited page.

Step 3: Compare death by lethal force caused by New Mexico Police Ofcers
to other police forces around the United States
This step is to compare the New Mexico Police Department in regard to the firearm laws,
overall violence, death rates, police shootings and fatal police shootings to other states
in the United States. In order to correctly evaluate the efect of lethal weapons on the
death rates in the United States we are going to work on a case-to-case basis. Thus,
allowing us to compare and evaluate the numbers of deaths, amount of violence, and
police shootings versus fatal police shootings to see if death rates are majorly efected
by fatal police shootings. Again, we have utilized number and figures to compare and
continue to evaluate each sources credibility. All sources are provided on the works cited
section of this report.

Findings
In this section we will show all of the findings with numbers, graphs and figures listed by
the steps listed above.

Step 1: Research the statics for fatal/non-fatal shootings caused by New


Mexican Police Ofcers
We evaluated many areas to see how lethal weapons afect death rates.

Police Shootings

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4
Fatal Shootings in New Mexico
The Washington Post did a sizable report in 2015, on the amount of Police shootings in
New Mexico. The report contained both fatal and non-fatal shootings by New Mexico
Police Ofcers. The report contained several graphs indicating the amount of shootings
that occurred in each month of 2015 from January to December. The graph below
demonstrates the amount of fatalities caused by New Mexico Police Ofcers in 2015:

2015 New Mexico Police Fatal Shootings


4

Number of Deaths

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

The graph demonstrates that there was a total of 20 fatal New Mexico police shootings
that occurred in 2015. Based on this information, we have found that there was an
average of 1.6 or 2 fatal police shootings per month in the state of New Mexico. Although
this figure didnt apply to every month, we calculated our average by adding the total
amount of deaths (which was 20) and divided it by the number of months in the year
2015 (which was 12). By doing so, we can gather that an average of 1.6 or 2 (when
rounded) people who were fatally shot by New Mexico police ofcers in 2015.

Police Shootings

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5
Non-fatal Shootings in New Mexico
In regards to the total non-fatal New Mexico Police shootings, many New Mexico
residences reorganize the taxing environment that New Mexico Police Ofcers have to
endure on a daily basis. Albuquerque resident Janet Mitchell stated in an interview with
KOAT News that APD ofcers are highly trained professionals who do a great jobthey
don't get the luxury of second guessing everything they do like the public does." Beyond
the support or lack there of from New Mexico residences, The Washington Post also
reported the amount of shootings that occurred by New Mexico Police Ofcers that were
not fatal. Previously, we looked at the fatal shootings in 2015, in the graph below all of
the non-fatal Police shootings in 2015 are demonstrated:

2015 New Mexico Non-Fatal Police Shootings


120
100
80
Police Shootings

60
40
20
0

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

Through this chart we can see that there was a total of 909 non-fatal police shootings in
2015. Further, we can see that in 2015, there are 65 or more shootings that occur in New
Mexico every month. When we compare this to the 20 police shootings in 2015, we can
see that 98% of all police shootings in New Mexico are non-fatal, leaving 2% of all

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shootings to be fatal. The graph below compares all fatal shootings to non-fatal
shootings:

2015 New Mexico Police Shootings


Fatal Shootings

Non-Fatal Shootings

2%

98%

Step 2: Analyze the efect of lethal weapons in death rates brought on by


New Mexico Police Department ofcers
The efects of deaths brought on from lethal weapons in New Mexico Police shootings
efects all New Mexico residence. Although some people are afected more then others,
the families of the victims and the Police Department are afected most. According to
KOAT News, on April 2011, Christopher Torres, who sufered from schizophrenia, became
a fatal victim of the APD. Christopher refused to come out of his house and was said to
have attacked ofcers, in response he was shot in the back 3 times. The fatal shooting
afected the Torres family by taking their son. However, it also afected the APD by the

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law suite that fallowed, costing the department $6 million, which was then rewarded to
the Torres family on the stance that there was no credible evidence of Christopher
attacking the ofcers and was therefore unjustly killed. The amount of shootings by
Police Ofcers has increased from 2011, and although not all fatal shootings are fallowed
by a costly lawsuit, they negatively afect families and cast a negative light on the New
Mexico Police Department.

Step 3: Compare death by lethal force caused by New Mexico Police Ofcers
to other police forces around the United States
At the end of 2015, New Mexico had 20 fatal police shootings. Although there may be
more police shootings in other states, New Mexico has a smaller population. This makes
the percentage of shootings in New Mexico much higher then most other states when
looking at the deaths per millions of people. In 2015, Centers of Disease and Prevention
came out with a study that provided every state in the U.S. with a number between 0
and 4.4 by comparing their population to the amounts of fatal police shootings within the
state. The graph below displays the results:

2015 Police Shooting Deaths Per Millions of People

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Out of the 50 states, there are 8 states that have the highest death rates compared to
their population and New Mexico is the 4th highest rating overall. Although New Mexico
doesnt have the highest police shooting death rate, it dose contain one of the most
significant figures of fatalities in comparison to its population. Further, The New Mexico
Department of Health completed a report on all of the deaths in New Mexico in 2014.
The report indicates the top 10 leading causes of death in New Mexico. It reveals the
precise causes of death and amount of people in New Mexico died as a result of it. This
graph demonstrate the 10 leading causes of death within New Mexico in comparison to
the rest of the United States:

Top 10 Causes of Death in New Mexico versus the U.S.

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Out
of
the
top
10

causes of death, unintentional injuries ranked as the 3rd highest cause of death.
Unintentional injuries entail any sort of accident including, but not limited to: car
accidence, drug overdose, falls or shootings. Based on New Mexicos population and
death rates, in 2015 New Mexico rated higher then the U.S. average in death caused by
unintentional injuries. ThinkProgress constructed the next graph; it proves the amount of
fatal police shootings in each state (not based on population) that occurred throughout
the United States in 2015:

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This graph shows that New Mexico doesnt have the most overall fatal police shootings
throughout the United States. Further, it provides a good outlook on the total amount of
deaths from police shootings in each individual state regardless of the states population.

Discussion of Findings
Based on the research and statistics I can draw 3 conclusions:
1.

Many Police shootings in New Mexico dont result in fatalities.


Through the many charts and graphs showing the police shootings that occurred in
New Mexico in 2015, we see that, although there are a lot of shootings, many of
them are not fatal. There were at lease 65 police shootings each month in 2015.
However, only 2% of the total shootings resulted in a civilians death.

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2.

Fatal police shootings affect New Mexico residence and the New Mexico Police
Departments.
New Mexico has an average of 1.6 or 2 deaths each month from police shootings.
These deaths dont just efect the victim but, the people around them being
friends, family, etc. The Police Department itself is efects by casting a bad image
on their capabilities and is occasionally sued for these fatal shooting cases. Police
shootings efect the entire New Mexico community from a social level to a legal
standpoint.

3.

There are many police shootings that occur in the United States and New Mexico
has one of the highest death rates.
The United States has a high amount of police shootings. Many statistics and
graphs measured the amount of fatalities caused from police shootings and
compared it the population of each state. New Mexico ranked as the 4th highest
deaths per millions of people in the country.

Conclusion and Recommendations


In conclusion, this report sheds light on a pressing issue that has been a popular topic in
the press and common area of debate/protest amongst New Mexico residences. Reason
being, the amount of fatal police shootings compared to New Mexicos low population,
makes New Mexico have one of the highest death rates in the country. Although there
are many more non-fatal police shootings then there are fatal, the community is always

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afected by these fatal shootings in some way. In order to keep the community happy,
death rates down, while keeping our New Mexico Police Ofcers safe my suggestions are
as fallows:
1. Keep the public informed on criminal violence, police shootings and good work
that New Mexico Police Officers do to protect the public.
We do this in order to openly share and inform the public of what exactly is going
on with the police department and how they are protecting and serving New
Mexicans. The public should be well versed on the non-fatal and fatal police
shootings that occur. This will help the public to recognize that not all New Mexico
police shootings are fatal. Being honest and open with the public will help to start
and build a trusting relationship with civilians.
2. Make non-lethal weapons more accessible to Police Officers.
As seen throughout the report, in the United States there are hundreds upon
hundreds of deaths that are caused by police shootings. We would advise the
Police Department, in order to decrease their mortality rates, they should make
non-lethal weapons more accessible. This would include more training with nonlethal weapons. Further, these weapons must insure that the Police Ofcers can
efectively do their job, serve and protect civilians and themselves. By utilizing
non-lethal weapons New Mexico Police Ofcers will decrease police shooting
mortality rates and keep New Mexican residence happy.

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Works Cited
Complete Health Indicator Report of Death Rates from Leading Causes of Death." NMIBIS.
New Mexico Department of Health, Dec. 2015. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
<https://ibis.health.state.nm.us/indicator/complete_profile/DthRateLdgCause.html
>.
Da, Royale. "Support Albuquerque Police Rally Draws Hundreds." KOAT. 7 Apr. 2014.
Web. 8 Apr. 2016. <http://www.koat.com/news/support-albuquerque-police-rallydraws-hundreds/25353592>.
Goldsmith, Alex, and Tina Jensen. "Judge Orders City to Pay $6M in APD Fatal Shooting
Case." KRQE News 13. 10 June 2014. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.
<http://krqe.com/2014/06/10/city-to-pay-6m-in-apd-fatal-shooting-case/>.
"Ofenses Reported to Law Enforcement." FBI. FBI, Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
<https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2015>.
"Investigation: People Shot and Killed by Police This Year." Washington Post. The
Washington Post. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/>.
Petrohilos, Dylan. "Heres How Many People Police Killed In 2015." ThinkProgress RSS. 28
Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/12/28/3735190/killed-by-police-2015/>.

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