Two officers with the Navajo Nation Police Department pose here with their 1956 Ford panel truck patrol vehicles in a photo that probably dates from about that same year. Note the two consecutive undated U.S. Official tags, a type of plate used extensively on Official vehicles in use by Native American reservations and Pueblos in the post-war period into the 1980s. Navajo Nation photo.

This photo was taken in 1980 during a combined NM State Police, NM Mounted Patrol and Lovington Police Department training exercise. The patrol car's plate is the special 1976 bicentennial NMSP tag issued in that year and used continually for several years thereafter. Courtesy David L. Minton.

1956 Chevrolet NMSP patrol car as seen in 1958. The person in the photo is unidentified. Note 1958 Chevy in driveway next door. Courtesy David L. Minton.

This New Mexico State Police plate is undated, but is circa 1938. It is the only known undated NMSP plate prior to about 1956, and may have been one of a kind as there are no survivors of this type known today.  Courtesy Sgt. Ron Taylor, NMSP Historian.

K.K. Miller circa 1938. Miller was the Harley-Davidson dealer in the Albuquerque who sold the first ten motorcycles to the New Mexico Motor Patrol when it was organized in 1933. He later joined the force himself after its name had changed to New Mexico State Police. Over the next two decades he advanced through the ranks, becoming Chief of the organization in the 1950s.  Courtesy Sgt. Ron Taylor, NMSP Historian.

NMSP Motorcycle Patrolman Herb Douglas circa 1938.  Courtesy Sgt. Ron Taylor, NMSP Historian.

NMSP Motorcycle Patrolman Archie White circa 1941.  Courtesy Sgt. Ron Taylor, NMSP Historian.

The State Police patrol car in the foreground is a 1957 Ford with a circa 1957 multi-year NMSP plate on it. Aside from the undated State Police motorcycle plates introduced in the 1930s, and one known example of an undated circa 1938 NMSP passenger car plate (see above), this example would be one of the earliest undated Official plates used by the state of New Mexico.  Courtesy David L. Minton.

This photo, taken on May 11, 1959, shows two sisters – Ruby Edwanna Yocham at left and Patsy Ann Yocham, right, both of Iola, Kansas – standing next to a Hobbs Police Department motorcycle during a trip that took them through Hobbs. The bike is a 1952 or 1953 Harley Davidson panhead equipped for police duty. Though the motorcycle’s license plate is only partially visible, and seen from the back side, careful scrutiny reveals that it is an undated exempt municipal (XM) plate of the 1959 style. An example of one of these plates can be seen here, third from left in the last row of plates on the page.  Courtesy David L. Minton.

NMSP crunched cruiser, 1963 Dodge 330.  Courtesy David L. Minton.

NMSP Officers Lynn Lanning and Roger Thompkins in Tularosa parade circa 1970-71.  Courtesy David L. Minton.

Captain Clarence Harris of the Lea County Sheriff’s Office, mid-1970s. The plate’s XC prefix signifies Exempt County.  Courtesy David L. Minton.

A new Ford F-150 pickup, circa 2002, assigned to field appraisers of the Lea County Assessor’s Office, with the then-recently introduced graphic Government plate.  Courtesy David L. Minton.

NMSP Sgt. Bob Wellborn with his Dodge St. Regis cruiser at Quemado, NM, March 26, 1992.

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