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New Mexico law enforcement agencies’ seizures of vehicles and other property received national attention recently. At a September conference in Santa Fe about law enforcement seizures, Las Cruces City Attorney Harry S. Connelly talked about police officers targeting a suspected drunken driver specifically because he was driving an expensive Mercedes-Benz. Connelly was later placed on administrative leave.

But law enforcement officials for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and Albuquerque police said they don’t target expensive vehicles or specific property and that the practice serves as an additional deterrent to crime.

The federal seizures also save taxpayer money because a large percentage of the revenue goes back to undercover police work so investigators can purchase drugs and make cases, Chavez said. Most of the money the county received from federal seizures in recent years went to the purchase of drugs, specialty equipment and vehicles, according to county documents.

In 2010, the county used $14,600 of forfeiture funds on the Sheriff and Police Athletic League and another $800 went to athletics in 2013, according to records. Chavez said he believes the money that went to the athletic league was used on community events for children.

“There absolutely is a need for this practice,” he said.

But seizures have been controversial. Critics of the practice, which include Albuquerque attorneys and officials with the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the seizures are a way for law enforcement agencies to pad their budgets.

Bernalillo County in 2011 was ordered to pay $3 million in damages after a judge found deputies violated state law by confiscating money during traffic stops. The money went back to the county after federal forfeiture proceedings.

After that ruling, the amount of money the county received from federal forfeitures dropped for about three years, but last fiscal year it returned to more than $500,000 for the first time since the 2010 fiscal year, according to county documents.

The county started seizing vehicles used by repeat drunken drivers in late 2012, said Sgt. Etan LeCompte, a supervisor in the DWI unit. In the initial year, the county received about $33,000 from the seizures and in the 2014 fiscal year the county got about $144,000.

The sheriff’s office will seize a vehicle if the driver has a prior DWI conviction or is driving with a license suspended because of a DWI arrest.

LeCompte said about 90 percent of the vehicles seized are returned to the owner after they agree to fines and to put a boot on the vehicle for a few months. If the owner can’t come to an agreement with the county, there will be a forfeiture hearing that could result in the county taking ownership of the vehicle and selling it.

“What we’re trying to prevent is the repeat offenders,” he said.

Though the county hasn’t been seizing vehicles used in DWI cases for long, LeCompte said it appears to be working. There have been just a handful of times when deputies seized a vehicle more than once, he said.

“Once word spreads that these are the repercussions, hopefully people might think a little bit more and be responsible,” LeCompte said.