Las Cruces city leaders are once again considering speed and red-light cameras to crack down on dangerous driving, but the conversation comes loaded with baggage from a program the city shut down more than a decade ago that struggled to prove it actually made streets safer. During a work session earlier this week, the Las Cruces City Council discussed a potential new automated traffic enforcement program, though no votes were taken and no formal proposal has been approved.
Any revived effort would look different from the city's first attempt. According to KFOX14/CBS4, Las Cruces created its Safe Traffic Operations Program, known as STOP, in 2008 and installed speed and red-light cameras at four intersections, contracting with Redflex to run the system. At its peak, the cameras issued about 4,300 citations in a single month when all four units were operating, targeting both speeding and red-light violations, the station reports.
That first run of cameras didn't last. State law forced some STOP cameras offline in 2010, restricting photo enforcement on state roadways, per the same KFOX14/CBS4 account. As detailed in a report from Organ Mountain News, the New Mexico State Transportation Commission voted unanimously in March 2010 to prohibit red-light and speed cameras on state and federal highways, citing conflicting safety data and concerns that cities were prioritizing revenue over traffic management.
A Program That Struggled to Prove Itself
The original STOP cameras operated at four major corridors: Lohman Avenue and Walnut Street, Lohman Avenue and Telshor Boulevard, Main Street and Solano Drive, and Valley Drive and Avenida de Mesilla, according to Organ Mountain News. City staff cautioned that citation numbers alone do not prove STOP's effectiveness, and officials reported that interpreting the program's results was difficult because the cameras went online and offline at different times, per the KFOX14/CBS4 report.
Those difficulties weren't just a local impression. A 2012 New Mexico State University evaluation of the original STOP program found no overall safety improvement, with crash rates statistically increasing at three camera-monitored intersections while decreasing at only one, at Lohman Avenue and Telshor Boulevard, Organ Mountain News reports, citing the university research. The program also ran into legal trouble: the Court of Appeals of New Mexico reversed a Redflex speeding ticket in the 2014 case City of Las Cruces v. Rodriguez, ruling that the city's administrative hearing proceedings had violated statutory requirements by failing to adhere to standard rules of evidence, per the outlet's reporting.
What Went Wrong, According to the Police Chief
Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story told KFOX14/CBS4 that the earlier program was not implemented well, and said Redflex did not administer its part of the program well either. He said increased competition in the automated enforcement industry has since improved the options available to cities, and that technology has advanced since the previous STOP program was running. Story said any new program should use crash and speed data to select camera locations, rather than repeating the earlier approach.
District 5 representative Becky Corran said a renewed enforcement effort would need a more careful approach than the one the city took the first time, according to the station's report. She said the city should resolve compliance issues before repeating the previous situation, and that future automated enforcement efforts will be shaped by the history of STOP. The council has not approved a new automated enforcement program, and key specifics remain unresolved.
A New Legal Framework, If It Moves Forward
Under a proposed program framework presented to the council in August, any new camera citations would be civil infractions carrying a $100 fine, issued to vehicle owners rather than reported to the Motor Vehicle Division, with non-payment not subject to arrest, per Organ Mountain News. That structure differs sharply from criminal moving violations, which carry license points and are reported to the state. Las Cruces Mayor Eric Enriquez advocated moving forward with a formal camera proposal or pilot program during the work session, though camera locations, speed citation thresholds, and image retention limits all remain undecided, the outlet notes.
Las Cruces wouldn't be alone in taking this civil-fine route. Albuquerque has re-established automated speed enforcement using municipal Home Rule authority, issuing $100 civil citations to registered vehicle owners after law enforcement review, without reporting violations to state driver records, according to the City of Albuquerque. Rio Rancho added mobile speed units on State Road N.M. 528 following state approval in June, and Ruidoso launched its own program after recording nearly 10,000 speeding vehicles over two days, per the City of Rio Rancho. Separately, New Mexico lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 241 in the 2025 legislative session, which would let the state Department of Transportation and State Police deploy automated speed cameras in highway construction zones.
The Case for Cameras: Local Speeding Data
Even without cameras, Las Cruces police have found plenty of violations through manual enforcement. The department issued 64 citations in a single hour during an operation on East Lohman Avenue in October, and 56 citations during a single school-zone operation in March, according to the City of Las Cruces. Those targeted operations came in response to resident complaints about aggressive driving, illustrating the kind of violation volume officials say automated enforcement could help address.
For now, Las Cruces leaders are weighing automated traffic enforcement as one tool to address speeding, but the city council has taken no formal action. Whether the program returns as a full rollout or a smaller pilot, and where any cameras would go, remains an open question the council has yet to answer.
