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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — You may be sick of hearing it, but 2017 wasn't New Mexico's brightest year as far as crime is concerned.

In fact, the FBI says the state ranked worst in the nation in a new category: burglary.

According to the agency's Uniform Crime Reports for 2017, New Mexico totaled 17,917 burglaries and a per capita rate of 858 per 100,000. New Mexico was followed by Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma, respectively.

And New Mexico's dubious ranking is garnering national attention with SafeHome.org highlighting it in one of its reports earlier this week.

Albuquerque accounted for almost 7,000 of the break-ins in 2017, a per capita rate of 1,253 per 100,000. The numbers add up to a 3.6 percent increase in burglaries from 2016 when the state had the highest property crime in America.

The statistics reiterate more bad news coming out of 2017 for the state and its largest city.

New Mexico was rated worst in the nation for property crime and second worst in violent crime in 2016 as Albuquerque held the top spot in auto thefts for 2016 and 2017.

The city also tallied its highest homicide numbers in 2017 after seeing a steady rise over the past few years.

However, Albuquerque appeared to buck those trends in 2018 when almost all crime numbers – including burglaries – dropped significantly.

According to statistics released by the Albuquerque police department, 2018 saw around a 17 percent decrease in commercial burglary and residential burglary, with a 29 percent decrease in auto burglary. The only crime that increased was non-fatal shootings, which rose 4 percent.

It is unclear if the FBI's statistics will mirror that drop as closely since the UCRs for 2018 have yet to be released and APD's numbers were slightly preliminary, being given out a week before the new year had begun.

As the mayor's office and APD have lauded the efforts to decrease crime, local experts have expressed caution when mapping a one-year decrease and say crime trends should be observed over longer periods before making any assumptions.

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