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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In response to another year in which the increase in crimes in Albuquerque outpaced population growth, city and police officials announced Wednesday that Albuquerque police substations will become “safe zones” for Internet transactions.

Officials at a news conference addressing crime in Albuquerque stressed the importance of educating people on steps they can take to prevent themselves from becoming victims. Mayor Richard Berry said the safe zones may stop encounters that originated over the Internet from becoming violent. He also said simple things like not running a car to warm it up in the winter can prevent crimes.

According to crime stats compiled by the FBI and released this week, there were 35,371 crimes in Albuquerque in 2014. That was a 1.5 percent increase from the year before. The number of crimes in the Duke City has gone up every year since 2010.

There were more crimes here than in similar-size cities, such as Denver, Oklahoma City and El Paso, according to the FBI crime stats.

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Berry pointed out that rapes and murders were down in 2014 from the year before. Last year in Albuquerque, there were only 30 murders, the lowest mark in 25 years.

There were increases in aggravated assaults, robberies and auto theft.

“We had some bright spots, and we had some areas we want to work on,” Berry said.

The first substation to become a safe zone will be the Northwest Substation, 10400 Cibola Loop NW. Several parking spaces will be painted green and designated for online transactions, and cameras will be placed in the parking lot. The idea is that by having the transactions take place on camera and at a police station, they will be less likely to turn violent.

Police said educating the public on crime prevention techniques will be more successful than making changes to how police allocate their resources.

Police Chief Gorden Eden said that, especially in terms of murders or sexual assaults, there is a random nature to crime, which means making changes to where police deploy resources won’t necessarily drive down the number of crimes. He said teaching people how to stay safe – by using substations to complete online transactions, for example – can be effective.

“These are crimes that are very difficult to predict. They are very difficult to make a tactical decision about the deployment of assets for prevention,” Eden said.

“There’s a combination of efforts we want to roll out … to make people more aware of how to avoid situations (so) they don’t become victims of crime.”