Forfeited Cars Make Good Buys

Car buyers have a new market opening up in Santa Fe, courtesy of drivers without enough sense to refrain from driving when they’ve been drinking.

On Saturday, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office auctioned off some 20 vehicles, seized in 2009 as part of the DWI forfeiture program, according to spokesman Peter Olson. Individuals arrested for DWI after two prior convictions are the ones who risk losing their rides to the county.

At the same time, the city of Santa Fe, which has a similar vehicle forfeiture program for repeat drunk drivers, has 13 vehicles awarded to it by judgments from state District Court, Police Chief Ray Rael recently told the city Finance Committee.

A city prosecutor is seeking forfeiture on 110 more vehicles.

The city is building a new lot to keep up with an overflow of vehicles that were seized-but not necessarily forfeited-from drivers in drunk driving cases.

The city has 255 seized vehicles in its primary lot, which should hold up to 200 cars, according to Rael’s report. A second lot, which will hold up to 150 more cars, is being built off Agua Fria near Siler Road and should be finished next week.

Rael said the new lot will cost about $11,500, most of it for a secure fence.

“It signifies, for me, that the program is working,” Rael said. “It looks like our officers have definitely stepped up enforcement. We’re getting a lot of vehicles in.”

When a driver is arrested for DWI in the city or has a revoked license due to DWI convictions, that driver’s vehicle can be seized, according to the report. It can be released if the owner is different from the driver, or if the driver gets an interlock device installed or “boots” the vehicle.

About 355 vehicles have been seized so far this year, compared to 485 vehicles seized in 2011 and 492 in 2010. Since the program began, the city seized 1,499 such vehicles.

A vehicle can be forfeited to the city if it has been seized three or more times; if the driver has a revoked license due to a DWI conviction; or if the driver has one or more convictions for DWI.

Such vehicles go through a forfeiture hearing and then to state District Court, where a judge can decide whether to award the vehicle to the city.

The city auctioned 35 vehicles in July, and a total of 92 since 2009, according to Rael’s report.

Earlier this summer, Assistant City Attorney R. Alfred Walker said that since 2010 the city has auctioned about 60 vehicles, for revenues of $35,000. The city has also seized more than 1,200 vehicles, netting $207,000 from impound fees, plus an additional $73,000 from interlock and other fees, he said.

Sheriff’s Department Maj. Ken Johnson said earlier this summer that the county since 2009 has seized 232 vehicles, booted 113 and put more than 60 up for auction.

Olson said the county hopes to run its next auction of about 40 vehicles in January or February, then do an auction about every six months.

Rael said the city could eventually use online auctions for its forfeited vehicles.