Christmas Comes Early in Santa Fe County.

Yesterday Christmas came early for Santa Fe County. Santa wore a Bolo Tie as Governor Bill Richardson's staff called me a couple of days ago and asked me if I would like $300,000 to hire 4 more deputies and assign them to work strictly on the D.W.I. problem in Santa Fe County. I was really excited as I said "absolutely"! This came just days after one of my deputies stopped another wrong way D.W.I. driver on a major highway. Our current D.W.I. unit consists of 2 deputies and one supervisor. The four additional deputies will more than double the D.W.I. unit.

We work very hard on the D.W.I. problem and are among the highest county in the state for number of arrests and convictions. I know we can even do better with more deputies devoted full time to the problem. Part of this money will also go to education and outreach. The deputies will be used for more checkpoints, saturation patrols and regular D.W.I. patrols. Rachael O' Conner the D.W.I. Czar called me herself with the news and I must say she is one of many people working very, very hard, and long hours on this problem. I know every police agency in the state could use extra officers and I feel especially honored to have been given this opportunity.