What happened to ABQ’s transit security dashboard?

Albuquerque residents looking for ABQ RIDE real-time transit security data now find only a broken link where the city’s Metro Security dashboard used to be. The dashboard previously showed security call data that City Desk used to report on transit safety trends.

Officials said the agency isn’t cutting transparency. Instead, it’s preparing a full data overhaul designed to give security teams real-time, actionable information, they say. A new, more comprehensive public system is on the way.

The city removed the dashboard in early September because it gave an incomplete picture of transit safety and confused users, according to ABQ RIDE spokesperson Madeline Skrak. The site only showed Metro Security calls, leaving out data from Albuquerque Police Department transit officers and Albuquerque Community Safety (ASC) responders.

“It was causing confusion because it wasn’t all the data of our various safety partners,” Skrak said.

For now, the city is directing residents to its quarterly transit security reports that include data from several agencies. The latest report, covering July through September, will be posted Monday after City Council review.

City Desk previewed a copy of the report that was submitted to council as a 21-page .pdf document.

The Q1 report shows transit security agencies responded to 5,020 calls from July through September, with APD handling 4,769 — about 95% of the total. Most calls, 86%, were proactive patrols rather than responses to incidents.

Among reactive calls, the most common were suspicious persons or vehicles (151), disturbances (60) and vandalism (20). Serious crimes were rare, with 19 aggravated assaults, one stabbing and one shooting reported.

ACS mainly handled wellness checks and calls involving unsheltered individuals, responding to 104 calls, while Metro Security, which the city is phasing out, handled 147. Nearly all activity occurred at bus stops and transit facilities rather than on buses — APD reported zero on-bus calls, and Metro Security recorded just two.

Skrak said a new dashboard is expected early next year once the city implements a data collection system designed by Parametrix, the consultant hired for the city’s Long-Range Transit Security Plan. The dashboard will provide weekly updates instead of quarterly reports and track incidents by corridor.

“Instead of getting data figured out at the end of a quarter for how things are looking, on a weekly basis, ideally per this plan, we’ll be able to know what’s going on in the system,” Skrak said. “Crime moves and issues move a lot, and we need to be able to mobilize our safety teams.”

The shift comes as ABQ RIDE transitions from multiple security contractors to making APD Transit Safety Officers its main safety force. The department plans to expand the team to 87 positions.

“Our data has been an evolution,” Skrak said. “It’s about to get a lot better and more accurate.”

While a 2022 City Council ordinance requires quarterly security reports, it doesn’t mandate public dashboard access. ABQ RIDE shares the data voluntarily “in line with our values,” Skrak said. 

Councilors Klarissa Peña and Tammy Fiebelkorn, who sponsored the 2022 ordinance, did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

Residents can find the reports at cabq.gov/transit/about-abq-ride/reports and use the See Say app to report safety concerns in real time.