Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Bernalillo County sheriff's Deputy Kyle Hartsock administers a field sobriety test to Alma V. Ruiz early today. She was one of many people booked on suspicion of DWI during a New Year's Eve saturation patrol in the South Valley.

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Alma Ruiz cries as she waits for results from a breath-alcohol test taken by Bernalillo County sheriff's Deputy Kyle Hartsock in the county's mobile command center early this morning. The Sheriff's Department flooded the South Valley with patrol cars and deputies during a saturation patrol New Year's Eve.

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At the stroke of midnight while Albuquerque echoed with the sound of guns being fired into the air, the Bernalillo County mobile command unit was filled with the sound of happy drunks.

"We ain't going nowhere. We might as well do something," one bellowed.

" I ain't dancing. I don't dance. Sorry," said another.

"Hey officer, I'll be good," said a third. "I swear . . . ."

On New Year's Eve, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department decided to forgo the checkpoint strategy to keep an eye out for drunken drivers. Instead, officers picked a spot in the South Valley, parked a mobile command unit and saturated the area with their presence.

A checkpoint means stopping all traffic on one street. Saturation means flooding one area, in this case Isleta and Rio Bravo - one of three areas under their jurisdiction that warranted special attention on New Year's Eve, they said.

Last year 15 people were arrested for driving while intoxicated on the last night of the year. This year, by 11 p.m. deputies had arrested eight people and the holding pen was at standing-room-only.

Two of the seven men in the mobile command unit had been arrested after they got into a fight at a gas station, then were found to be illegal immigrants. One had a fraudulent Social Security card, deputies said.

Another of the men was suspected of car theft - for the seventh or eighth time, one of the deputies said.

There was even a grandmother waiting outside the holding pen to be processed for suspected drunken driving.

The Chevron gas station at 7630 Isleta Blvd. S.W. has frequently been used as a base of operations for the Sheriff's Department.

Detective Bill Webb said he preferred the location.

"We've been using this address for several years," he said. "They actually enjoy our presence here. The clerks and the management are nice. They let us get coffee and stuff."

Webb said the unit's previous location at a gas station on Alameda Boulevard Northwest was problematic.

"They asked us not to do it any more because it really killed their liquor sales," he said.

Between July 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department conducted 10 DWI checkpoints and sent out five saturation patrols. The efforts netted 203 DWI arrests and 1,705 citations, according to the county.

Deputy Kyle Hartsock said he spent the last five New Year's Eves arresting drunken drivers, and has some harrowing tales to tell.

"Two years ago on New Year's Eve me and another deputy were driving on Rio Bravo," he said. "I could see two cars ahead of me. One car was continuously flashing the car in front of it so it caught my attention. So I look at the first car and this person was completely outside of the car, hanging onto the passenger door."

Hartsock said he had watched many episodes of "Jackass" so he initially thought it was just another New Year's Eve stunt.

"But I was wrong," he said. "What it was, was a 15-year-old addicted to crack cocaine and a botched drug deal."

On Monday night, Hartsock found himself pulled off the saturation patrol and into a standoff with the two men eventually found to be illegal immigrants. Witnesses said the men had wielded one or more weapons during a fight at a gas station. Hartsock responded by himself and held the two at gunpoint until backup arrived.

He also cited a woman for driving without her license, driving with a suspended license, driving without insurance, driving with her lights off and letting two small children ride in the rear seat without restraints.

"The regular deputies are so busy," he said. "They're having to pull us off our saturation to help out."

Bernalillo County deputies had their hands full, too, responding to an assault and a suicide.

At midnight, Hartsock and the other officers were ordered to find cover. Gunshots were heard throughout the South Valley, ringing in the new year.

In prior years, a toddler and a woman had been hurt by bullets returning to earth.

Webb said he couldn't understand the dangerous method of celebration.

"In most other places, they just use fireworks," he said. "But out here in the wild wild West, people shoot at the sky instead."