Santa Fe Crime

Covering crime is like covering sports.

So wrote Geoff Grammer, former "justice" reporter for the Santa Fe New Mexican.

He's now a sports writer for the Albuquerque Journal.

That's him.

While he covered "justice" for Santa Fe's daily, he kept a blog entitled, appropriately, Santa Fe Crime.  It provided the most extensive, intensive and entertaining coverage of the City Different's rogues, scoundrels, and thugs. 

I wish someone had kept the blog going.

Mr. Grammer discontinued the blog when he went he returned to sports writing.  Since then coverage of Santa Fe crime has been spotty and incomplete.  None of Santa Fe's media outlets regularly report on that city's crime the way Albuquerque's dark side gets attention.  Not that Santa Fe lacks for raw material for a robust police blotter.  Just look at Grammer's blog.

Santa Fe has its gangs, its shootings, its burglaries, its robberies, everything other cities have.  In light of its relatively small size, Santa Fe may have an even higher incidence of crime per capita or square mile.  The website Neighborhood Scout rates Santa Fe at level 8 on a scale of 100, 100 being the safest rating.  That means Santa Fe is only safer than 8% of the rest of America.

Ouch. 

Not the stuff the tourist bureau and real estate companies selling the mansions in the hills want broadcast.

The same website reports that a Santa Fe resident has a three times higher risk of being a victim of property crime than an Albuquerque resident.  As for violent crime, Santa Fe is a bit safer than the rest of New Mexico.  But that's not saying much.  The Land of Enchantment is also the land of high rates of violent crime just about everywhere in the state. 

New Mexico may be at the bottom in many indices, but it exceeds the national average when it comes to crime.

Back to Santa Fe.

I think there are many untold stories behind the charm and style.  The contrast between the east and west sides is almost Dickensian.  It was the best of small cities (check the money and retirement mags), it was the worst of small cities (see above-cited stats).  That tension can be the stuff of great stories.

So I'll pick up where Geoff Grammer left off, writing about the twisted characters and nefarious schemes in the Santa Fe you won't read about anywhere else.