The New Mexico Motor Patrol

by

Arthur Scott

  The New Mexico Motor Patrol, from 1933 to 1935, was the predecessor of the New Mexico State Police which was authorized in 1935.  From 1921 to 1933 New Mexico did not have any statewide law enforcement agency.  The 1933 legislature and governor created the Motor Patrol to serve this purpose.

   The June 3, 1933 New Mexican states in part:

"231 SEEKING PATROL JOBS

    The motor patrol has 231 aspirants who have filled out and returned the original questionnaires sent out by the board.

   Of these, however, a number are too short, some too heavy, others suffering from maladies which prevent their acceptance. and of the231, there probably will not be more than a third eligible for the next examination, board members said.

Dates will be fixed and places assigned and the applicants meeting other requirements will assemble for a "30-minute test" which is in the form of question and answer and contains several problems each to indicate the man's worth in his endeavor."

   The resulting force were the ten men shown above with my grandfather, Governor Arthur Seligman taken on the August 5, 1933 inauguration of the New Mexico Motor Patrol. This state photo was taken just about six weeks before he died suddenly on September 25, 1933.

   The Motor Patrol continued to do their job until 1935 when the New Mexico State Police were created by the state legislature. Examples of their work are described in the following article published in the August 10, 1933 New Mexican: Note Patrolman Lacy Shortridge got bucked off in Tijeras Canyon.