A senior Forest Service law enforcement official
will visit Taos Ski Valley this week to meet with local leaders as the
agency conducts an internal review of a controversial operation in the resort community Feb. 22 that prompted complaints from tourists and residents alike.
Capt. Cheri Bowen, from Coronado National Forest, and a "review team" will address concerns about the operation with the officers involved as well as executives, municipal officials and former Gov. Gary Johnson, who is a resident of the community.
Capt. Cheri Bowen, from Coronado National Forest, and a "review team" will address concerns about the operation with the officers involved as well as executives, municipal officials and former Gov. Gary Johnson, who is a resident of the community.
The visit, scheduled April 2-5, comes as
Forest Service officials backpedaled on the incident and resort
executives advised staff swept up in the saturation patrol to await the
agency's internal review before paying any citations.
"The intent of the visit is to determine
what happened, what worked well, what didn’t work well, and what can be
done better next time," Forest Service spokesperson Larry Chambers told
The Taos News.
The review was prompted by a slew of
complaints and questions surrounding a saturation patrol at the resort
during which four Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations
personnel accompanied by a drug-sniffing dog issued 13 violation notices
including five for possession of marijuana and one for illegal
possession of prescription drugs. Three notices were also issued for
expired motor vehicle registrations, two for speeding, one for driving
without insurance and one for passing in a no passing zone.
The officers also issued four verbal warnings.
The sight of federal agents leading a
drug-sniffing dog around vehicles in the ski area's parking lot and the
unusually heavy traffic enforcement along State Road 150 rankled local
residents as well as the visitors upon whom the area's economy depends.
"People felt threatened, bullied, and
because of this intimidation, felt violated and that they had no choice
but to comply...," Taos Ski Valley Mayor Neal King wrote in a March 4
letter to a Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations official.
The village did not dispute the right of
federal authorities to patrol Forest Service land within the
municipality, he added, nor did he dispute the constitutionality of the
officers' actions Feb. 22.
But King expressed frustration with the
method in which the operation was conducted, writing that officers were
"not personable and/or polite, but overbearing and aloof."
Local leaders also felt caught off guard
by federal law enforcement with the mayor adding officials "had no
information for the reasoning behind the operation and [were] unable to
give any positive responses to the many inquiries we received during and
after this event."
The ordeal left Taos Ski Valley, Inc. CEO Gordon Briner with one big question.
"The thing we keep asking is who ordered this. Who thought this was a great idea?" he told The Taos News Monday (March 31), remarking that he had not seen anything like the Feb. 22 operation in his 16 years at the resort.
2 comments:
I read an interesting phrase by an attorney once that said such actions amount to "oppression under color of office" and that is considered a crime in most states.
Note that the Forest Service boss named Chambers is using the complaints of citizens to devise how he is going to conduct the next raid! There should not have been first time and certainly should not be another incident like this anywhere; but the Forest Service already announced there will be more.
FLPMA provides a remedy for federal agencies such as the BLM and USFS if they, in fact, need law enforcement assistance. Sec. 303 ©(1) of the Act in the Session Laws states in pertinent part: “When the Secretary determines that assistance is necessary in enforcing Federal laws and regulation relating to the public lands or their resources, he shall offer a contract to appropriate local officials having law enforcement authority within their respective jurisdictions with the view of achieving maximum feasible reliance upon local law enforcement officials in enforcing such laws and regulations….”
If the federal agency sees a need for law enforcement Congress told them to pay the local Sheriff
You are correct when it comes to Congressional intent and contracting with local law enforcement. However, that section only applies to Interior, not to USDA or the Forest Service. See the definition of Secretary.
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