Las Cruces Proposes Tighter Restrictions on Public Records Access

A debate over transparency is heating up in New Mexico, with Las Cruces at the heart of the discussion. Local governments across the state, including counties and cities, are pushing for tighter restrictions on public records. Their goal is to address a significant increase in requests under the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), but transparency advocates are strongly opposing these efforts.

Though no official legislative proposals have been filed yet, several ideas have emerged, particularly focused on restricting access to police records and body camera footage—issues that have been raised in recent legislative sessions.

In a Nov. 12 meeting, Las Cruces City Clerk Christine Rivera proposed several changes she wants the state legislature to consider. These include creating a fee schedule for electronic records requests, requiring more specificity in requests for public employees’ emails, and allowing the redaction of certain sensitive information—such as the identities of children or victims of crime—even after cases have been resolved.

Las Cruces City Council supported these proposed changes during a Dec. 2 meeting, as did the New Mexico Municipal League, a group representing the state’s cities.

However, the New Mexico Association of Counties (NMAC) has gone even further, proposing sweeping reforms that include preventing access to jail security footage, eliminating the requirement for a three-day notice for records requests, and removing access to certain personal information from fishing and hunting licenses, among others.

Christine Rivera explained that the increase in records requests has placed a heavy burden on the Las Cruces City Clerk’s Office. Between January and October of this year, the office processed over 2,500 requests, with nearly three-quarters related to police records. The most time-consuming of these are police body camera footages, which require hours of review and redaction before they can be released.

“It’s a lot of man hours,” Rivera said, adding that the emotional toll of handling sensitive and graphic footage, particularly involving children, has been a challenge for her staff.

However, transparency advocates in New Mexico argue that this is part of the job, not a reason for restrictions. Clara Garcia, president of the New Mexico Press Association, emphasized that public records are essential for journalism and good governance. “Everybody talks about being transparent, and this is the exact opposite of being transparent,” Garcia said.

Melanie Majors, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG), also voiced concerns over the proposed changes. She stated that the foundation’s goal is to ensure that exceptions to the IPRA are as narrow as possible, adding that a fee schedule for electronic records would place an unnecessary burden on taxpayers. “We’ve already paid for those records,” Majors said.

The state has already implemented changes to the law that allow police to redact certain visuals of bodies or severe harm unless the injury is suspected to have been caused by law enforcement. While these changes were framed as public protection, transparency groups see them as a step back.

“The public needs access to information to make informed decisions. Without it, accountability suffers,” Majors said.

In addition to journalists, other groups—such as attorneys, tech companies like LexisNexis, and even social media outlets—are driving the surge in IPRA requests. For instance, Instagram accounts like lascruces.shi post dramatic police footage from body cameras, contributing to the volume of requests.

Rivera highlighted that some individuals, like those using body camera footage for online content, are exploiting the system. “It’s not so much the everyday person asking for records; it’s the ones using it for other purposes,” she explained, adding that a fee schedule could help address this issue.

Despite these differences, there is some common ground between the city clerk and transparency advocates. Rivera has expressed the need for additional staff to help process the growing number of public records requests. “My goal has been to get full-time records custodians at the police department because their staff is kind of doing a little bit of everything,” Rivera said.

Majors believes that instead of changing the law, the solution may lie in improving the efficiency of records processing and increasing online availability of public documents. She also pointed out that when the state legislature mandated body cameras for police officers in 2020, it failed to provide funding for the additional records processing that would be required.

“The unfunded mandate for body cameras fell on law enforcement and local government, and they’re now asking for relief from it,” Majors said.

The proposed legislative changes will likely be introduced between January 2 and 17, 2025. Transparency advocates are prepared to fight any measures that could restrict access to public records, vowing to stand firm in defense of the public’s right to know.

“We will fight to the very end,” Clara Garcia said. “We will fight at this legislative session to make sure that this does not happen. We are fighting for journalism and the public’s right to know.”

Disclosure: The Las Cruces Bulletin is a member of the New Mexico Press Association, and its publisher, Belinda Mills, serves as a vice president of the organization. She did not participate in the pitching, reporting, or editing of this article.

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