For the June 6 New Mexico primary elections, SFR will call up candidates in the CONTESTED races to test their knowledge. The rules for Pop Quiz are as follows: No research allowed and if they call back later with the right answer, too bad. To see who answered correctly (or came closest), check out our answer key below.
Questions:
1. Who is the governor's DWI CZAR and what are his or her responsibilities?
2. What does HIDTA stand for and what impact does it have on Santa Fe County?
3. Give three reasons experts list as contributing to New Mexico's DWI problem?
4. What country can the concept of a sheriff be traced back to, and where does the word come from?
5. How can smaller, rural departments implement the philosophy of community-oriented policing,
given the ever increasing burdens and demands already affecting service?
Answers:
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Greg Solano, 42, is the Santa Fe County sheriff.
1. Oh, I can't remember her name. I believe it's Linda Atkinson. The DWI Czar…Her responsibility is to promote DWI programs and awareness throughout the state and to assist local entities in DWI enforcement.
2. HIDTA stands for High Intensity Drug Traffic Area. The federal government designates which areas are HIDTA zones and directs government funds to battle drugs in those areas. Santa Fe is one of them. Northern Santa Fe County and Rio Arriba Counties are designated as HIDTA zones.
3. This will be a guess: One would be, I'm trying to figure out how to word this, the public's feeling that drinking and driving is socially acceptable. The second would be the penalties are not that harsh. The third would be the long, ingrained habit of thinking it's OK to drink and drive.
4. It goes back to England. The Shire-reeve was a tax collector in England. When the colonists first got here, they didn't like the position because it involved tax collecting. Eventually, the position became sheriff.
5. In community-oriented policing in cities, it involves the officer on the beat type thing. In my mind, you take that and transport it to the 2,000 square miles that we police, and it has to do with being more responsive to the community, doing more preventative patrolling, having the same deputies attend community meetings and patrol the same areas so people will know them.
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Linda Ortiz, 38, is currently on leave from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department to run for office.
1. Who is the governor's DWI CZAR? I don't know.
2. You're asking me questions I don't know the answer to!
3. Um, first of all, we have judges that are lenient towards the problem. They need to abide by the law and what the law dictates in terms of sentencing. Also, there's a need for more counseling for the offenders. And we need to have more DWI testing to get the offenders off the streets.
4. I don't know.
5. For community policing, we have to start speaking to our neighbors in the rural areas in a respectful manner. And show, through community policing, that we do care.
SFR Key
1. Rachel O'Connor is New Mexico's DWI Czar. O'Connor is responsible for overseeing and managing New Mexico's anti-DWI efforts.
2. HIDTA stands for High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Each year, Santa Fe County receives federal HIDTA funding to participate in an interagency drug task force, dedicated to interrupting drug distribution.
3. Among other reasons, experts have long cited a lack of law enforcement manpower, court jurisdictional issues and socioeconomic variables as contributing to the state's high DWI rate.
4. The word "sheriff" derives from Anglo-Saxon English society, when local officials called "reeves" were charged with keeping the peace in their respective "shires" or counties. "Shire-reeves" eventually became known as sheriffs.
