By Justin Garcia
Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Albuquerque City Council approved a pilot program to give police officers gas procurement cards — a move they hope could improve emergency response times for residents west of the Rio Grande.
The program aims to lessen the burden on officers crossing the river and facing traffic and potentially responding slowly to calls because they were getting gas at city fueling stations that are few and far between. Councilor Louie Sanchez , a former police officer, sponsored the resolution.
He said the West Side, which includes his district, lacks facilities for police officers to fill up at city fueling stations.
“What (police officers) told me is that if they have a person that’s in custody in their car and they’re running low on fuel, now what?” said Sanchez, who’s also running for mayor. “Now they have to deal with it.”
According to data provided alongside the city’s 2026 proposed budget, Albuquerque Police Department officers have taken about 9 minutes and 10 seconds on average to respond to the most serious calls over the last year. For lower-priority calls, the response times average between 14 and 21 minutes.
“They’re not answering calls while they’re fueling up,” said Councilor Dan Lewis, who represents the northwest corner of the city. “And if they did answer a call, or did get a call, it’d be at least a 15-20 minute drive to get back over to their area.”
Information presented alongside the resolution shows that there are five fueling stations in the city: one near the Big I, one just north of Downtown, one by the Eastside Animal Shelter , one at the Albuquerque International Sunport and one at the Double Eagle II Airport .
The Northwest Area Command Police Substation at 10401 Cibola Loop NW is several miles from all five locations.
The resolution passed with unanimous support on Monday, but only received partial support and some pushback from the APD Chief Harold Medina . Medina worried that gas cards could be misused and asked the council to limit the scope of the pilot program so that few officers would have access to the gas cards.
“Our biggest concern is we don’t have a system that tracks the card,” Medina said.
Medina also added that the city had a similar program in the 1990s but had discontinued it at the turn of the century. He said it was canceled because officers put high-grade fuel in their cars, raising costs.
An APD spokesperson also told the Journal that Medina would’ve preferred to have time to work out vehicle and fuel accountability issues before the resolution passed, but said the department will make it work. The council was unmoved by Medina’s critique.
“There’s no doubt that it keeps our officers closer within the district responding to calls,” Lewis said. “If all the chief could come up with is that there’s risk involved — I don’t even want to entertain that argument.”
The program will last for 12 months and is set to begin in late May or June. During that timeframe, gas cards for private stations would be given out to officers in the southwest and northwest command areas, which cover everything west of the Rio Grande.
An APD spokesperson said the department did not yet have data about how many officers would be eligible for the pilot program.
The resolution also calls on APD to provide the council with quarterly reports on the plan’s efficacy and a full evaluation at the end of the pilot period. APD and the city’s Finance Department are responsible for establishing guidelines and monitoring the program.
The council also amended the resolution, calling on the administration to draft a report analyzing the costs and benefits of a fueling station in the northwest corner of Albuquerque.
One question the reports may answer is if the program raises the city’s fuel purchasing costs. A city spokesperson said that, with hundreds of police cars, buses and fleet vehicles, the city can negotiate a lower price for fuel than the average consumer. But a policy analysis for Sanchez downplayed the possibility of that, saying the cards were likely to be used in rare situations on an as-needed basis.
“We all fuel in our neighborhoods,” Sanchez said. “Why can’t the officers fuel in their neighborhoods?”
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