A Santa Fe officer was running traffic enforcement late Thursday night when a car shot past at 75 mph. That was an issue, as the speed limit was 35. Dazed by what just happened, the officer pulled the driver over, walked up, and found a 15-year-old behind the wheel. A teen had been whizzing by him.
Police took the teen into custody, asserting he was involved with reckless driving and racing on streets. They said that the the extreme speed made him a serious danger to everyone else on the road. His car was towed and impounded. The officer drove him to police headquarters.
At headquarters, the officer called the Juvenile Probation Office and asked that the teen be held there. The JPO turned the request down. According to the organization, conduct didn’t meet the requirements for detention. Instead, the JPO told police to release him to his father instead. His dad came and got him, and the teen went home.
The Santa Fe Police Department discussed this in a public post, including the part where its officer asked to have the teen detained. The request went nowhere because of two reasons. One is what reckless driving and racing actually mean under New Mexico law. The other is how the state decides when a juvenile gets held and when he goes home.
What Reckless Driving and Racing Mean in New Mexico
Both charges are misdemeanors, and both can carry jail time for an adult. Under state law, reckless driving means driving with a willful or wanton disregard for everyone else’s safety. A first conviction can mean up to 90 days in jail, a fine, or both. Driving 40 over the posted limit fits that definition.
The racing charge might look strange for one teenager alone in a car, but it actually isn’t. New Mexico’s racing law extends to over two drivers lined up at a stoplight. It also applies to a single driver putting on an “exhibition of speed or acceleration”, with no second car involved, which was determined back in a 2019 ruling. That means a 15-year-old doing 75 in a 35 can pick up the charge on his own.
Why the Teen Went Home Instead of to a Cell
When police take a kid into custody in New Mexico, the options are limited. They can cite and release, hand the child to a parent, or take him to a juvenile detention center. But it seems handing out detention sentences is pretty rare. As New Mexico’s juvenile process describes, it’s mostly held back for serious or violent cases, or for a kid who’s a clear flight or safety risk.
A traffic misdemeanor, even a serious one, usually doesn’t clear that line. The teen had no violent offense and, as far as the post shows, nothing in his history pushing toward detention. So the Juvenile Probation Office did what it does in most cases, which was releasing the teen to his father.
Going home doesn’t necessarily close the matter, though, since the juvenile system can still take on the case if it chooses to – so there’s still a danger of more permanent consequences in the end. Do you think the teen should have gone home with his father or to a juvenile detention center?