City of Rio Rancho responds to resident’s questions about the speed vans.

  • There are eight speed vans. This STOP program began in 2010/2011.
  • The actual financial breakdown is: Redflex receives 50% of the paid citation revenue; the City and the State split the remaining 50%. The amount received varies and is not indicative of the number of citations given. For example, a citation given in August doesn’t mean that the person will pay the fine in September, but could potentially pay it months later. Another example: In 2020, Redflex received around $360,000; the City received around $265,000; and the State received around $250,000.
  • The number of citations issued varies from year to year and can range from 13,054-16,869.
  • Since 2017, the City has not utilized red light cameras.
  • Having automated mobile traffic units supplement the Police Department’s resources and increases traffic safety and enforcement efforts. For example, having these resources allows the Police Department to be more responsive to citizen concerns and reports of speeding. A unit can be placed for an extended period of time in a specific location, whereas a police officer cannot be.
  • Currently we do not have any official studies to show the effectiveness of the program. We do know that the vans produce a reduction of speed in the areas they are deployed. Often these deployments are in areas where speed is a factor for crashes.

FAQ on Rio Rancho’s web site, click here

Here is the original question:

I’ve been seeing a lot of criticism on social media about the speed vans posted around the city. There are many skeptics who claim they are not only ineffective in discouraging speeders, but that the tickets generated are not enforceable.

Critics claim a speed violation does not get recorded on your license or affect insurance. They claim fines cannot be legally enforced because the tickets are generated by a machine and not a human witness, i.e. a police officer. They say the speeding ticket cannot become part of your driving record.

They complain that the majority of revenue generated goes to the out-of-state company that supplies the vehicles and technology, not to the city.

A couple have also alleged that speed vans can cause accidents when a paranoid driver suddenly slows after seeing one of the vans.

A couple critics I’ve engaged with say they would prefer to have police officers posted beside roads who would then race into traffic to chase an offender and try to stop them along a busy road that has little or no shoulder.

I’ve never seen anyone from the city respond to or comment on these allegations.

Jim Brown