SANTA FE — State officials say it would be a “wake-up call” to send warning letters to the owners of automobiles that were reported to the state’s drunken-driving hotline but whose drivers were never arrested. The American Civil Liberties Union has another term: “vigilantism.”
George Bach, staff attorney for the ACLU of New Mexico, said sending letters to the owners of autos reported to the DrunkBuster hotline could lead to government scrutiny of innocent people, the Albuquerque Journal reported last week in a copyright story.
“This is basically state-sponsored vigilantism,” he said.
About 16,000 calls were made to the hotline last year to report possible drunken drivers.
Almost 890 motorists were stopped by police and about 200 arrests were made for drunken driving because of the calls.
State officials announced last week that they would start sending letters to people whose vehicles were reported to the anti-drunken-driving hotline, saying the vehicles allegedly were being driven erratically or unsafely, and giving them the time, date and location.
“It’s a courtesy letter — maybe a wake-up call for some of those drivers,” Faron Segotta, chief of the State Police, said Tuesday when the program was announced.
State Police spokesman Peter Olson said state law enforcement officials won’t keep the letters on record and won’t share them with insurance companies or other outside entities.
“We have no intention of giving them to anyone except who they’re addressed to,” he said.
Bach said he’s not opposed to the goal of getting more drunken drivers off New Mexico’s roads but argued that the letters set a dangerous precedent.
“It’s government collecting data on citizens from an unreliable source,” he said.
“I feel it’s ineffective and subject to abuse.”
