Back in February of this year, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina and the department’s traffic unit said they were going to step up efforts on traffic operations and speed enforcement across the city.
Fast forward to December, and the department shared their results of these increased operations during a press conference Thursday afternoon.
The department saw an 82% increase in traffic citations issues and a 29% decrease in fatal crashes.
The traffic unit issued 675 freeway citations, 1,010 citations during Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety operations and 7,529 citations along the central corridor.
The traffic unit also launched a road rage portal, where members of the public could upload video or photographic evidence of a road rage or aggressive driving incident that can then be used to assist with investigations.
A total of 75 videos were uploaded to the portal and 75 contacts were made.
When it came to DWI enforcement, 697 arrests were made, which is up 14% from 607 arrests in 2021.
A total of 29 street racing operations were conducted and 751 citations were issued to drivers, 249 of which were for spectating violations.
The introduction of the Automated Speed Enforcement program also issued over 25,000 citations to speeding drivers.
Chief Medina said this drastic improvement would not have been possible without the efforts of those within the police department who took on this responsibility.
“I want to thank all of the leaders within the Albuquerque Police Department for how they stepped up to the plate last year. Traffic was one of those places where we needed leadership to step up, we needed leaders who would inspire and motivate and get our officers to do extraordinary things. We know we had reduced numbers and I want to thank the leadership that’s here today because you did, you accepted the challenge, you stepped up and you made a huge difference in the safety of people on our roadways within the city of Albuquerque and I can’t thank you enough and the citizens of Albuquerque can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done to dedicate yourself to make sure that our streets became safer.”
