Albuquerque auto thefts fell to 3,317 in 2025, APD reports
Albuquerque recorded 3,317 vehicle thefts in 2025, a 43% decline from the 5,866 stolen vehicles reported in 2024, according to preliminary year-end crime statistics reported by the Albuquerque Police Department.
APD reported the year-end comparison on Feb. 26, 2026. The decrease represents 2,549 fewer reported vehicle thefts than the previous year and marks a significant change in one of Albuquerque’s most consequential property-crime categories.
Local reporting on the department’s year-end statistics characterized auto theft as the city’s largest property-crime decline in 2025. The numbers describe reported incidents; they do not, by themselves, show how many stolen vehicles were recovered or whether every resident experienced the improvement in the same way.
How the numbers changed
The 2025 total was about one-third of the level APD cited for 2016, when Albuquerque experienced approximately 10,000 stolen cars in a year. The comparison places the latest annual figure in a much different position than the level the department used as a benchmark for the city’s long-running auto-theft problem.
APD’s year-end figures also showed violent crime falling 13% from 2024 and 26% over eight years, according to local reporting. Auto theft, however, was the most pronounced property-crime change identified in the 2025 statistics.
The figures are preliminary, meaning the reported total may be revised as crime data is updated. The 3,317 figure is the department’s current year-end count for 2025 and the 5,866 figure is the comparison count for 2024.
What APD says contributed
APD attributed the reduction to work by its Auto Theft Unit and a combination of enforcement tools and technology. The department cited license-plate readers, bait cars, drones and Grappler devices, which are used in vehicle interventions.
APD also said 12 collateral officers supported the Auto Theft Unit. In an earlier announcement about the trend, the department reported that auto theft was down 42% year to date compared with 2024. The later year-end comparison put the full-year decline at 43%.
Those details identify the resources and tactics APD says it used, but they do not establish that any single tool caused the decline. Year-to-year totals can also be affected by changes in enforcement, reporting practices and other conditions. The available figures show the size of the change, not the precise contribution of each factor.
Why the decline matters
Vehicle theft can interrupt work, school, medical appointments and household finances. A lower number of reported thefts means fewer recorded incidents in a crime category that has posed a major public-safety challenge for Albuquerque.
The result also gives city residents a concrete measure for tracking whether the improvement continues. A single annual comparison cannot determine whether the decline will hold, but the gap between 5,866 thefts in 2024 and 3,317 in 2025 is large enough to define the department’s current assessment of progress.
The next known step is continued reporting and any later update to APD’s crime data. Until those updates are issued, the 2025 total remains a preliminary year-end figure rather than a final, immutable count.
Sources
- APD Turns the Tide on Auto Theft, Albuquerque Police Department
- APD reports 2025 year-end crime stats with strong decrease in crime, KKOB
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