APD boosts summer enforcement on Montgomery Boulevard street racing

Montgomery Boulevard is becoming APD’s summer enforcement corridor as officers focus on speeding and street racing between I-25 and Tramway, with the heaviest presence expected on Friday and Saturday nights. For Hodgin Neighborhood Association residents, the problem is not abstract: Vanessa Smokov said people hear cars speeding every night and have heard crashes near Carlisle and Comanche.

Lt. Lawrence Monte said police are treating the stretch as a recurring problem, not a one-time sweep. He identified San Mateo and Montgomery as a known hot spot for racing and said Montgomery has long had a history of cruising and street racing. APD’s effort is expected to continue through August, giving residents, commuters, and businesses along the corridor a sustained enforcement presence during the peak summer months.

The crackdown lands in a part of Albuquerque where traffic safety has already shown up in APD’s own records. The department’s 2025 traffic statistics list 24 illegal street-racing operations and 706 citations. Its 2026 fatal-crash list already includes a May 12 crash at 4321 Montgomery NE, underscoring how quickly reckless driving on the corridor can turn deadly.

APD has already run similar enforcement sweeps this year. In February, the department said a weekend street-racing operation across the Valley and Northeast Area Commands produced 42 citations, including two for racing and 29 for spectating. Officers also made one felony arrest and served one felony warrant.

The new Montgomery push also comes against the backdrop of other local efforts to slow drivers down. Bernalillo County announced an automated speed enforcement program in August 2024, and 24/7 camera enforcement began after a 30-day warning period that ended Sept. 25, 2024. The county program issues either a $100 citation or a $25 fine plus four hours of community service for speeding violations.

Montgomery has drawn police attention before. A 2013 KOAT report said APD was already cracking down on racing hot spots along the corridor, then usually between San Pedro and Eubank, after officers had issued 41 tickets in an earlier crackdown. The report also cited a resident in the Candelaria and Louisiana area who said motorcycles racing were loud enough to wake people up, and it noted a fatal crash on Louisiana that killed three people.

This summer’s operation suggests the same corridor remains a pressure point for the city. APD is pairing traffic enforcement with broader work around Montgomery-area apartments and the unhoused population, but the real test will be whether the added patrols make the street safer for the people who live, shop, and drive there every day, or only push the problem to the next block.