Rio Rancho to add speed-detection vans

Eight units will be deployed across city

The red-light cameras are gone, but Rio Rancho plans to double the number of speeddetection vans it uses to monitor traffic.

The city’s Safe Traffic Operations Program, or STOP, resumed Monday after city councilors agreed last week to renew their contract with the Redflex Traffic System.

Councilors voted 5-1 in favor of a new contract continuing the city’s relationship with Redflex during the regular governing body meeting on Feb. 8. District 5 councilor Jennifer Flor was the lone vote against the contract.

The new contract eliminates STOP’s previous red-light camera program and will increase the number of speed-detection vans from four to eight. Four speed-detection vehicles began monitoring traffic on Monday and will issue warnings, not citations, during the program’s first 30 days. After the 30-day warning period, citations will be issued.

According to city spokeswoman Annemarie García, the additional four speed-detection vans will be ordered, outfitted and placed throughout the city in the next few months.

According to the contract, Redflex will receive $40 for each citation for the first 100 vehicles per month; $35 for vehicles 101 to 150; and $25 for vehicles 151 and more. The state and the city will split the remaining revenue, with 100 percent of the city’s revenue directed to a fund to acquire new police vehicles.

The deal includes a four-year agreement with the city and Redflex, with the option to renew the contract for an additional four years. According to García, the contract is worth more than $500,000 in projected revenue over the next four years.

Before the governing body meeting, a small group carried signs and protested against the Redflex contract outside City Hall. Christopher Muldrow, who spoke during the protest and the city council meeting, said traffic citations should be issued by police officers and not from a stationed speed-monitoring vehicle.

“Let’s get some human beings a job; let’s hire more police officers. There’s a right way to do it and this isn’t the right way,” he said.

Muldrow questioned how effective the Redflex program will be.

“You see it time and time again, the majority of people do not pay these programs, it’s not deterring people,” Muldrow said. “When you get pulled over by an officer, when you pull back on the road, you stop speeding. When people get hit with this, a lot of the time they don’t even know it; they keep speeding down the road.”

Councilor Cheryl Everett, who vocally supported the contract, said she didn’t understand complaints that drivers couldn’t appeal the citation.

“The issue of being able to face your accuser is raised,” Everett said. “It’s funny, I didn’t hear that raised when a video camera caught the two Boston Marathon bombers and the police were able to track them down. I didn’t hear of any violations of anybody’s rights in that instance.”

Rio Rancho’s red-light cameras — which were operated at two intersections on Unser Boulevard — and unmanned speed detection vans were shut off at the start of the year after the governing body voted late last year not to extend the city’s existing contract with Redflex. The new contract was subsequently worked out.