NEW MEXICO (KRQE) –The New Mexico Attorney General's proposal to toughen penalties for school shooting threats comes as more than a dozen schools statewide have faced disruptive threats this year alone.  Story continues below Trending: Woman accused of driving drunk and hitting Albuquerque firefighter with vehicle Podcast: Meteorologists Tackle Weather Misinformation News: Another locally-owned supermarket coming to International District Community: ‘He protected her’: New Mexico dog burned while shielding other dog in fire Attorney General Raúl Torrez called it a bipartisan effort. The proposal would upgrade shooting threats from a misdemeanor to a fourth-degree felony. "Address a growing problem that we have in our community," said AG Torrez.  Attorney General Torrez has teamed up with school leaders and lawmakers for a possible legislative fix. "Unfortunately, in the state of New Mexico, we currently treat threats against our schools as misdemeanors and I don't think that is in alignment in where we are as a community," said Torrez.   The new proposal would treat mass shooting threats aimed at large public venues or schools as a felony instead of a misdemeanor. "Not everybody realizes the number of these types of reports that we get, whether they come in social media wise, whether they come in phone call, or in person, but the impact that that has is chaos, it causes chaos," said Chief Stewart Steele with the Rio Rancho Police department.   In September, the Albuquerque Police Department said they investigated 28 shooting threats in Albuquerque schools alone. Around a dozen other threats have happened in schools outside of Albuquerque.  Raising the crime to a felony would allow police to more easily conduct search warrants and better track the crimes on a juvenile's record compared to misdemeanors. "This is about us getting consequences for those impacting all of the community,” APD Chief Harold Medina. The proposal would not change the sentence a juvenile could receive for the crime but lawmakers hope it's a first step in holding people accountable for making threats in a state that's seen the consequences of school violence before. "Two precious students who were the victims of gun violence in their school by someone who had made previous threats," said Rep. Joy Garratt (D-Albuquerque). Rep. Garratt said she plans to introduce the bill in the upcoming 60-day legislative session starting in January. If lawmakers pass the bill, it could go into effect in July.  Raising the penalty for making shooting threats would require a different set of changes in the New Mexico Children's Code. Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman also suggested several changes to that code including ideas around how judges can sentence juveniles.