Freddie Sedillo is still in contact with gang members who are involved in stabbings, shootings and drugs — but now it’s to convince them to step away from the chaos. The 52-year-old said his background, which includes decades in prison and almost six years in solitary confinement, makes his plea more powerful to those who live dangerous lives on the edge.

Sedillo is one of four peer support workers in the city’s Violence Intervention Program, an initiative that began in 2020 under the Albuquerque Police Department but which is now an Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) program. Mayor Tim Keller said last week he wishes he had the funds to hire more workers and expand the program.

“I’d like to see it in every school in Albuquerque; that is a question of funding,” he said. “If we can do this on a larger scale, we continue to make our city safer and help every family in the city.”

The program offers support to those who are caught in a revolving door of violence, incarceration and drug addiction — often as part of gang life. 

“The cause is often social. It’s a family situation, it’s poverty, addiction; in many ways it’s your friend group, your peer group,” Keller said. “That’s a big part of it because they’re your family. They become your family for all sorts of reasons.”

The program has provided outreach at West Mesa High School — where Keller said there’s been a “huge drop” in the reoccurrence of criminal activity — but it isn’t only limited to schools. Sedillo and an ACS team visit patients bedside at the University of New Mexico Hospital three days a week to interact with those involved in violence who are recovering from injuries. 

“Somebody that got shot, somebody that got stabbed,” Sedillo said. “The case managers at UNMH will give us a referral list and they’ll say, ‘Can you go talk to these people?’” 

He also knocks on doors and approaches people on the street. When approached by someone with lived experience like Sedillo, data shows the message is absorbed more effectively than if it comes from a probation officer or APD officer.

‘There Was No Hope’

Sedillo was born in Albuquerque and raised in Alamogordo by his grandparents. He said he comes from generations of family working across the border.

“Doing all the drug stuff,” he said. “There were certain people in my family that were connected to organized crime. At a young age a lot of us were almost kind of being groomed for that.”

Sedillo said even though he was an athletic type in school, things started to devolve after his family was “targeted” in a violent incident which resulted in retaliation. (He declined to provide details.)

“I found myself getting tried as an adult, and I got to the penitentiary system at 17,” Sedillo said. “I didn’t think that I would ever get out of prison. There was no hope.”

Decades later he separated himself from a gang affiliation and has stayed out of prison since 2023. His probation officer referred him to the Violence Intervention Program. 

ACS spokesperson Jorge Hernandez said the program’s numbers have been encouraging since it began. Teams have interacted with about 1,300 high-risk people and delivered 895 custom notifications. About 92% of those who receive a notification “have not engaged in further violent crime in the past two years,” according to Hernandez.

A custom notification means there’s been an in-person meeting between an individual and a peer support worker like Sedillo. The peer is typically accompanied by an APD officer, but takes a lead in the interaction.

Keller said he’s conducted about 80 custom notifications himself.

“That’s where it starts,” Keller said. “You actually say, ‘Hey, we have this program and you’re important to our city. We don’t want you to go back into a path of violence. We want to try and help you instead.’ You get kind of one opportunity to take advantage.” 

“We give our message of: You don’t have to do this anymore. And I can tell you that because I’ve been there,” Sedillo added.

Other resources include mental health services, food boxes, housing and employment options and education opportunities. There’s rehab and detox services for those with drug and alcohol addiction issues, as well.

“Addiction and violence are kind of joined at the hip,” Sedillo said.

For options to contact ACS, see the information on the City of Albuquerque website (cabq.gov/acs/contact-acs).