DWI witness was misled by police

David R. Pennel |

7/20/2008 - 7/20/08

The July 6 My view, "Concerned citizen: DWI reporting system flawed" by Morgan Smith is incorrectly titled.

The DWI reporting system is not flawed; The 911 emergency-call service is not flawed; and the statewide number #394 report-a-drunken driver call-in system is not flawed.

The Santa Fe Police Department is flawed.

Judging by the way Mr. Smith described what he observed, the digital photos he took, the stops that the violator's vehicle made, the area that the violator and Mr. Smith covered during the 911 calls, I assume that minutes upon minutes must have ticked by while Mr. Smith was waiting for a Santa Fe police officer to show up and take action.

Why did it take so long for the police officers to arrive, and why in a group of three? It gives the reader the impression that they had to form a posse before patrolling to the area of the violation. An officer should have been on the scene within minutes.

According to Mr. Smith's description of his conversation with the Santa Fe police officer, the officer told him that, "... no DWI charges were filed against either party because state law requires that an officer either has to see the person driving, or seated in the car behind the steering wheel."

Mr. Smith said he was referred to the New Mexico State Patrol (for an explanation of why a citizen's testimony concerning the suspects' driving was insufficient for a prosecution). Is he confusing the New Mexico State Police with the Colorado State Patrol." The NMSP is a full-service law enforcement agency. The Colorado State Patrol primarily performs traffic enforcement activities and crash investigation.

The New Mexican erred in accompanying Smith's My View with a file photo of a State Police officer giving a field sobriety test to a suspected drunken driver. Why are you including the State Police in an opinion piece that describes the inadequacies of the Santa Fe Police Department?

Mr. Smith was obviously midlead. Herein lies the mystery: Why did the officer mislead him?

Was he a personal friend of the suspected drunken driver? Was he too lazy to take the appropriate action and arrest the driver for DWI based on his complaint? Was there a non-commissioned officer on scene to direct the investigation? Is it standard Santa Fe Police Department practice to mislead the public?

David R. Pennel is a retired New York Police trooper who lives in Santa Fe.