BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – Nearly four months into its effort to slow down speeding drivers with new cameras, Bernalillo County said it’s already written tens of thousands of tickets. The county installed six cameras in August, mainly focused around the South Valley.
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While it’s still early, the county has some indication of how it’s working. “So, we’ve seen a slight increase in citations. Of totals, we’ve had about 28,000 citations in the first four months of operation,” said Antonio Jaramillo, Dir of Operations & Maintenance for Bernalillo County.
The county said the most citations issued have been along Golf Course Rd. and Paradise Blvd. Other cameras are set up near Isleta Blvd., Bridge Blvd., and Arenal Rd. along with a mobile camera that can be moved all over the county. Despite the warning signs, we still caught some drivers going well over the 40mph speed limit near Bridge Blvd.
While lots of citations are now in the mail, the county said it’s still too early to tell if the speed cameras are changing driver behavior and slowing people down. They add the cameras aren’t always perfect and on average two out of ten citations end up getting rejected. “Some of the issues that the police officer sees, sometimes the camera doesn’t get the actual license plate or the image quality is a little bit off. Those citations do not end up going to the individual because it can’t be verified,” said Jaramillo.
Bernalillo County said, so far, they’ve had a 60% compliance rate when it comes to people paying their tickets. “The point is not to issue a citation, it’s more to make sure that people are complying with the speed limit,” said Jaramillo.