Last month’s controversial drug sweep at Taos Ski Valley was the result of U.S. Forest Service officers trying to make an annual quota for citations, contends a federal worker advocacy group that released two memos from the Forest Service on Monday.
In one memo, issued last November, a U.S. Forest Service
official says the national leader of the agency’s law enforcement
operation expected each officer to issue at least 100 citations a year –
and that less than a third in the Southwest region had met that goal.
Then three days after the Journal reported
that Forest Service agents conducted the drug sweep on Feb. 22, which
resulted in tickets for a number of minor violations including marijuana
possession and traffic infractions, another memo came out.
This one, from the Forest Service’s deputy director for law
enforcement and investigations and dated March 4, said supervisors
should make sure “no quotas are being developed” and that while
officers’ performance measurements should be “meaningful,” they
shouldn’t include ticket quotas or ” ‘expectations’ that can be
construed as quotas.”
The memos were released by Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility, a Washington, D.C.-based whistle-blower
protection group for federal workers.
...Aban Lucero, regional patrol commander for Forest Service
law enforcement in Albuquerque, sent the November memo that seemed to
set a 100-ticket annual quota to Forest Service patrol captains.
Lucero wrote that David Farrell, the Forest Service’s
national director of law enforcement and investigations, “has clearly
indicated his expectations of LEOs (law enforcement officers) issuing a
minimum number of 100 VNs (violation notices) per year.” Lucero added,
“As you can see we have approximately 70 percent (of officers) who fall
below that number.”
“Please take a look at the numbers and share with your LEOs.
You know better than I do if there is reason for concern,” Lucero’s
memo said. He did not return a call for comment.
The Journal’s article on the Taos Ski
Valley drug sweep was published on March 1. On March 4, Tracy S. Perry,
the Forest Service’s national deputy director for law enforcement,
issued a memo about implementing performance plans and measures for
officers.
“To ensure there is no confusion,” Perry wrote, supervisors
should ensure no quotas are developed and that “we should all be
consistent in our messaging” that ticket quotas are not appropriate.
...A Rio Arriba County citizens group also has complained recently about Forest Service police actions.
The El Rito Citizens Caucus sent a letter Jan. 22 to U.S.
Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who oversees the Forest
Service, complaining about “Gestapo intimidation tactics” by the Forest
Service against the people who live on land grants and in other parts
of northern (New) Mexico, citing arrests for violations such as DWI, lack of
car insurance or registration and similar violations.
The letter said Forest Service agents can’t legally enforce
state law without a commission from a sheriff. Rio Arriba Sheriff Tommy
Rodella has declined to commission the federal agents.
Mark Chavez, a Forest Service spokesman in Albuquerque, said
in a prepared statement that Forest Service agents can in fact issue
federal violation notices to enforce state law on Forest Service lands
and roads, but also said the Forest Service “does not issue citations
for violations of state law unless its law enforcement officers are
deputized to do so.”
“The violation notices recently issued by the Forest Service
at the Taos Ski Valley for alleged motor vehicle violations were all
federal violation notices,” Chavez added.
I commented on the original Albq. Journal article here. I'd be curious to see which federal statute makes a "cracked windshield" a violation of federal law.
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