ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s been nearly a year since the Albuquerque City Council signed off on a pilot program to crack down on loud exhausts using noise cameras but the city has never installed them. It turns out that the technology is not ready yet.
The program was supposed to allow the Albuquerque Police Department to issue citations based on camera data similar to the way speed cams work. But as Deputy Chief Michael Smathers explained to city councilors this week, there’s a problem with the technology being tested in other United States cities. “It will go off if the noise reaches that level, and it might take a picture of two cars, or three cars, and they cannot ascertain which car was the source of the noise,” said Deputy Chief Smathers.
He said the department is continuing to monitor the redeveloping technology but decided there would not be any point in purchasing it now. In the meantime, he said officers will continue to write citations.
