New Mexico
What New Mexico's records show, how much of the state the FBI's data covers, and where the state publishes its own.
How New Mexico handles a case
- Sets bail first
- Court designee for listed lower-level charges; otherwise a magistrate, Metropolitan Court, or district judge
- Who that is
- Judges and others
- Release on a schedule
- No
- Time to see a judge
- 72 hours
- Money bail
- Limited (2017)
- Risk assessment
- Public Safety Assessment (some counties)
- Prosecutor
- District attorney, one per judicial district, elected
- Public defense
- Statewide public defender
- Jails run by
- Mixed
- Who decides release first
Before a person sees a judge, a court designee named by the chief judge, often jail or pretrial services staff, must release people eligible under the court's rule for lower-level charges, and may call a judge in unusual cases. Everyone else waits for a magistrate, Metropolitan Court, or district judge to set conditions. Courts may not use money bail schedules.
Rule 5-401(N) NMRA (approved October 31, 2025)- Time to see a judge
A court must hold a hearing and set release conditions no later than three days after arrest for a person held in the local jail, or five days if held elsewhere. A person not released at that first hearing gets another within three more days, with a lawyer.
Rule 5-401(A) NMRA (approved October 31, 2025)- Money bail
New Mexico limits money bail. Since the 2016 constitutional amendment and 2017 court rules, a judge may require a secured bond only with written reasons, must set it at the lowest amount needed with regard to what the person can pay, and may not use a bond schedule. The prosecutor can instead ask a court to hold a felony defendant without bail by proving danger by clear and convincing evidence.
Rule 5-401(E) NMRA (approved October 31, 2025)
Crime and arrests
No figures yet
FBI data coverage
- Population covered
- 93%
- of New Mexico's people lived under an agency that reported to the FBI in 2025.
- Agencies on NIBRS
- 89%
- 121 of 135 agencies send incident detail. The rest send summary counts or nothing.
14 agencies not reporting through NIBRS
- Albuquerque Fire and RescueOther
- Cuba Police DepartmentCity
- Estancia Police DepartmentCity
- Grant County Sheriff's OfficeCounty
- Harding County Sheriff's OfficeCounty
- Lincoln County Sheriff's OfficeCounty
- Loving Police DepartmentCity
- Mountainair Police DepartmentCity
- New Mexico Highlands UniversityUniversity or College
- Pueblo of SandiaTribal
- Rio Arriba County Sheriff's OfficeCounty
- Rio Communities Police DepartmentCity
- Roosevelt County Sheriff's OfficeCounty
- Tatum Police DepartmentCity
Counties and agencies: no data yet
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, pulled 2026-09-26.
State crime reporting
- Program
- New Mexico Department of Public Safety, Law Enforcement Records Bureau (LERB)
- Incident reporting
- NM DPS NIBRS repository (DPS is the state NIBRS manager since 2021); no brand name found
- Annual report
- NM Uniform Crime Report Summary (New Mexico Summary Crime Data)Latest edition: 2020. Editions online 2008 to 2020.
- Online portal
- No state portal found.
- What changed
- No state report after data year 2020, when the FBI ended summary reporting. The state UCR system has run since January 1, 2008.
Links and years checked 2026-09-26.
New Mexico sources
- NM DPS Uniform Crime ReportsState · NM
New Mexico Department of Public Safety · Incidents, Arrests · pdf · annual
State NIBRS manager since 2021; agency-level UCR PDF reports, agency participation incomplete.
New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts · Courts · pdf · annual
District courts by judicial district, magistrate courts by location: pending, new, reopened, closed by type. FY2005, FY2008-FY2025.
Plus 83 national sources, from the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Census Bureau, the courts, and others.