Ruidoso, New Mexico Police Chief Wants Officers to Take Cars Home

Allowing two Ruidoso Downs police officers to take police vehicles back and forth between their Capitan-area homes and work received an initial cool response from a couple of city councilors.

Police Chief Doug Babcock asked councilors last week to adjust the city's vehicle take home policy so the two could respond quickly from home in the event of an emergency, such as a wildfire or flooding.

"We ran into this with the fire last week," Babcock said. "With the roadblocks between here and Capitan it made it impossible for vehicles other than patrol vehicles to pass through. The first day that we had to call them in on an emergency basis they had to come in in their personal vehicles all the way around Fort Stanton to the airport and then into town."

Babcock said for a time it was even a longer trip when Airport Road was closed and travel by way of Hondo was required. He asked that the current policy that requires those with take-home vehicles to live within a 15-minute response time to the city be expanded to 25 miles.

"(The) officer would already be deployed in the patrol vehicle and could react immediately without having to go to the police station and transition from his personal vehicle to the patrol vehicle," Babcock said. "Response to the emergency would take less time because the officer could utilize emergency lighting and siren to respond quicker than in the personal vehicle."

The annual cost of gasoline for the two officers to take vehicles home would be about $6,240, based on $4 a gallon gasoline, Babcock figured.

"Do we have enough money in the budget for us to pay this to Capitan?" asked Councilor Tommy Hood.

A memorandum supplied by Babcock noted the upcoming fiscal year budget would have to be increased.

Councilor Judy Miller questioned if the policy change would open a can of worms.

"Chief, my problem is the ones we just hired from Tularosa. They're going to say, 'Oh, you let them go 25 miles to Capitan, why not 35 miles to Tularosa?' Then we're going to have a problem because what you do for one, the others are going to want you to do it for them."

Miller added that 15 minutes and 25 miles are two different things.

Councilor Dale Perry noted the city's animal control officer is under the direction of the police department.

"The man that we hired for animal control lives in Loma Grande," Perry said. "So that would put him where he could ask if he could be able to take his vehicle home."

Councilor Dean Holman said if any employees are given some slack, it should be the city's police officers.

But turning to legal counsel H. John Underwood, Holman said the vehicle take-home policy change would be like a pay raise for the two officers.

"If we don't do this for other officers and we don't do this for the water department/public works, are we legally treating a couple of employees different than the rest?"

Underwood called the issue "a slippery slope." He said the vehicle take-home policy probably should apply to all city employees, not just the police department.

Some city employees live in Alamogordo and into the Hondo Valley, noted Holman.

Miller said there was another matter that bothered her.

"We just approved (police) vehicles to buy that have 100,000 miles on them already. Our town is very small and we could use those for some time. But if we have to go 50 miles a day back and forth, that's going to add a lot of miles on our already high-mileage vehicles."

Holman wondered if a police officer in a personal vehicle could simply show his police identification at a road block and be allowed to proceed.

City Clerk Carol Virden said the personnel policy for the police department requires officers to live in Ruidoso Downs, Ruidoso or within 15 minutes of the city to be sanctioned to take home a vehicle.

"The previous council, when this came into play, was very strong about those sections of the personnel policy," Virden said.

While the issue presented by Babcock was for discussion and possible action, the council did not consider the request at last week's meeting.