ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina, APD leaders, and Mayor Tim Keller held a news conference on Tuesday, March 23 to provide updates on a citywide initiative and enforcement to tackle speeding and drag racing.

According to APD, speeding and racing have become among the most common complaints that come into the City and many of the well-known areas for speeding and drag racing have become familiar for fatal and serious injury crashes.

APD reports that since the weekend operations started in December, citywide the department has given out citations for the following:

  • Speeding: 5,017
  • Racing: 73
  • Exhaust: 145
  • Misc. 10,323
  • Careless driving: 260
  • Reckless: 59
  • DWI: 80

Working with the Mayor’s Office and Albuquerque City Councilors, APD says that it has developed a Speeding and Racing Enforcement Plan and that several areas across the city have been identified as locations where speeding and racing are common. The targeted areas include the Montgomery corridor or Carlisle to Tramway, Coors Blvd. from NM 528 to Central, Paseo Del Norte from I-25 to Tramway, Eubank Blvd. from Montgomery to Lomas, and Unser from Gibson to Paseo Del Norte.

Authorities say enforcement in these areas has increased police presence and officers have been and will continue to conduct high visibility traffic stops with an emphasis on speeding, racing, and aggressive driving. In addition, APD Police Service Aides have handed out nearly 250 letters to businesses across Albuquerque to educate them of City Ordinance 8-6-13 and illegal after-market modifications to vehicles that increase noise or exhaust.

The ordinance states the following:

(A)   Operating Muffler.  It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a motor vehicle if such vehicle is not equipped with a properly attached, operating muffler in good working order of construction sufficient to prevent excessive or unusual noise of the motor or to muffle or deaden the sound from the motor.

(B)   Muffler Changes or Modification.  No person shall modify or change the exhaust muffler, intake muffler or any other noise abatement device of a motor vehicle in a manner such that the noise emitted by the motor vehicle is increased above that emitted by the motor vehicle as originally manufactured.  Such prohibited changes or modifications shall include but not be limited to the use of cut-outs, by-passes, illegal mufflers defined in division (C) below, or other similar devices.

(C)   Dealers and the like.  No person shall sell, offer for sale, install or offer to install any illegal muffler, exhaust cut-out, by-pass, or other device which increases or tends to increase the exhaust noise of a motor vehicle.  For the purposes of this section, an illegal muffler is defined as any straight-through muffler which does not contain baffles, including but not limited to glass packs, steel packs, and straight pipes.

To report speeding concerns, residents can call 242-COPS or use the OneABQ app.