Sheriff commissions drunk driver patrol
Specially designed units to raise visibility

The McKinley County Sheriff's Department's new DWI units ae shown at Red Rock Park. Federal grants helped to pay for the cars and two extra officers whose main purpose is to look for drunken drivers. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

By Leslie Wood
Staff Writer

GALLUP — As Sheriff's Deputy Tom Mumford drove along Maloney Avenue on Wednesday, passers-by turned and stared.

Mumford said the glances are a typical occurrence since he started to patrol the streets of McKinley County in one of the Sheriff's departments new DWI units.

The pair of Chevy Impalas were designed to garner the attention of drivers and to create high visibility for the officers throughout the community as part of the department's effort to reduce the number of alcohol-related accidents in the area.

"I've commissioned two of my most experienced officers to deter traffic accidents caused by drunk drivers," Sheriff Felix Begay, said.

Mumford, with the assistance of Gallup's Hinkley Signs, planned the units' paint and graphics design. The vehicles also feature the state of New Mexico's anti-DWI symbol, a bat, as unveiled by Gov. Bill Richardson in Albuquerque.

Mumford said donations from local individuals, who wish to remain anonymous, funded the project and that Hinkley's employees donated their labor to the effort.

"We didn't want the county to pick up the tab because it can be expensive," Mumford said.

Mumford and Deputy James Moriano are devoted full-time to ridding the county's roadways of drunken drivers. The Sheriff's department was awarded a federal grant earlier this year to fund the officers' employment. The grants were dispersed to counties, such as McKinley, with historically high numbers of alcohol-related accidents.

The pair of deputies patrol the area Wednesday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m. Mumford said he and Moriano focus on areas where locals party, but rarely roam further than 20 miles from one another.

"We don't want to interfere with regular patrol," he said. "We back one another up."

While he could not quote exact numbers, Begay said the department's experienced an influx in the number of DWI arrests.

"If you see them pull up behind you, they're probably looking at you," Begay said of the deputies.