Touring the city of Santa Fe's DWI seizure lot, a visitor can't help but imagine what was going on in the lives of the drivers whose cars and trucks ended up on this forlorn piece of dirt surrounded by a fence topped with razor wire off N.M. 14.

There's a Volkswagen with leather seats, a St. John's College parking sticker and a plastic bag of dry cleaning still hanging on a hook.

A black 2004 Hummer with leather seats and Texas plates is spotless inside.

There's a sweet 1998 Jaguar XJ8, a 2001 Lexus with fancy rims and a white Ford truck, its crunched fender hanging by a bit of plastic.

Officer Anthony Tapia, a member of the Police Department's traffic team, looked longingly at a red, four-door Chevy 2500 Duramax, its deflated airbag resting limply on the dashboard. Beer cans and bottles, Negra Modelo mostly, are scattered in the bed.

Most of the trucks in the two-acre lot, in fact, contain beer cans and empty alcoholic-beverage bottles.

"When you walk up to a pickup truck, you always look into the bed," Tapia said. "If there's a bunch of soccer balls, it obviously belongs to a soccer coach. If there's a bunch of beer cans, you've probably got a drinker."

Tapia pointed out at least three cars that have ignition interlocks, which, in theory, prevent DWI offenders from driving if they've consumed alcohol.

"Obviously people are cheating the interlock and still driving drunk," he observed.

Tapia, who investigates fatal accidents, looked closely at a shattered windshield bearing the unmistakable impressions of the heads of the two front-seat passengers. Bits of their hair were hanging from the broken glass. "That was thanks to drinking and driving," Tapia said.

He stopped and looked into the rear of an old van that was littered with many of the owner's personal possessions.

"Whoever owned this, it looks like they were living in the back," Tapia said.

The cars and trucks run the gamut, from top-of-the-line to junkers. There's even an SUV with a car-dealership sales sticker still attached to the front window. Tapia speculates that the dealership had loaned it to a customer who might have stopped at the bar on his way home from work.

"This shows people's habits," he said. They're diverse. But they all have one thing in common. "Obviously they've been drinking, more than the one time they got caught," he said.

The city of Santa Fe began seizing the vehicles of drunken drivers and people driving on licenses revoked for DWI on Sept. 4 after completing construction of the lot. Capt. Anthony Robbin, director the DWI Seizure Program for the city police, said it cost about $150,000 for fencing, a small portable building, security cameras and solar lighting.

Since then, nearly 100 cars have been seized, including 13 during the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Based on the experience of prior years, Robbin said he had anticipated that the city would seize about 40 vehicles a month, but he said the numbers now are higher than that, closer to 50 per month.

Robbin said he wasn't sure why. Maybe the economy. Maybe more aggressive enforcement. He knows that police officers are enthusiastic about the program. "They know something is happening," he said. "They get tired of arresting people and then arresting them again the next day."

Tapia said he likes the new law because, "If I can take a car from a drunken driver, it's one less weapon they have. It's like taking a gun from a violent offender."

Robbin disputes the perception that DWI enforcement is picking up people who go to a dinner party, have a couple of glasses of wine and drive home.

"Most people (charged with DWI) have a lot of drinks and they drive. They don't have a couple. They have many."

The cars and trucks in the lot mostly end up there because their owners have two or more prior DWI convictions or they're driving on a license revoked for drunken driving. Their vehicles are subject to forfeiture if they are convicted. People with fewer DWIs on their record can choose instead to have their car immobilized with a wheel boot at their house — so long as it is in the city — while their case is pending, or install an ignition interlock device. Many of these people choose the interlock, Robbin said.

Two-time offenders are entitled to a hearing to contest the validity of the impoundment. If the hearing officer sides with police, an assistant city attorney files a petition in District Court seeking custody of the car. Since the program began, the city has filed more than 15 of these petitions, but the process takes some time. So far the city hasn't obtained title to any seized vehicle, and none has been auctioned off.

But that is coming.

Robbin believes the new seizure law will have even more of an impact as people become fully aware of what they're risking. Referring to the statewide anti-DWI campaign, he said, "You drink, you drive, you lose. And now you lose your car, too." For many people that's much worse than a weekend in jail.

"Before it was catch and release," he added. And now, "a lot of people are shocked."

Contact Anne Constable at 986-3022 or aconstable@sfnewmexican.com.