It is almost a truism that New Mexico tends to be “high on all the bad lists and low on all the good ones.” On one major issue that is certainly not the case: policing for profit. Others know it as Civil Asset Forfeiture. The practice was banned in 2015 in New Mexico thanks to a bipartisan coalition that included the Rio Grande Foundation and the Institute for Justice (a national, libertarian, public interest law firm).
The group recently published its 3rd “Policing for Profit” report which ranks New Mexico as THE ONLY “A” rated state in the nation. Check out their video below which
And the reason NM passed the legislation during the Republican Martinez administration was because of an internet video posted by some unknown person from NM that created a firestorm. My recollection is that a Las Cruces prosecutor was speaking to a law enforcement seminar in Albuquerque. During a lecture he was giving, he made a statement to the effect that law enforcement lusted after civil seizure of valuable property (such as a Mercedes) to bolster its finances . An unknown local hero posted the video of that remark on the internet, and the video was picked up by the NY Times. The rest, as they say, is history. One of the few times that the Dem controlled state legislature was embarrassed into doing the right thing.
.