By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Rio Rancho drivers are getting caught speeding at a record pace, and the city may soon have more camera-generated cash than it knows what to do with.
The city’s newer speed camera network — 10 mobile towers citywide plus three red towers installed on Highway 528 in June — has issued more than 45,000 citations so far this year, more than double the total speed vans caught in all of 2024. The 528 cameras alone have generated more than 7,000 citations since June.
“I dare to say it, lightning’s probably going to strike me. We may have too much money for police car replacement, and so we probably are going to need to come to the governing body and talk to you about how to use that money within the other police department needs, because state law requires that money be used within the traffic safety world,” Deputy City Manager Peter Wells told councilors during an Aug. 18 work session.
City officials said a little more than half of drivers pay their citations. Of that revenue, the state takes half and the vendor takes roughly a third of what’s left, leaving a smaller — but still growing — pot for the city. Officials haven’t yet calculated this year’s total take.
The city is also weighing a roughly $16,000 project to re-wrap all of its speed cameras in red to match the 528 units, which officials say drivers notice more.