News release: RRPD officer named drug recognition expert of the year

Rio Rancho Police Officer Michael Hetes has been named the New Mexico Drug Recognition Expert of the Year. Courtesy photo.

A Rio Rancho Police officer has been named the New Mexico Drug Recognition Expert of the Year.
The New Mexico DRE Committee has selected Officer Michael Hetes for the honor for 2020.
“The New Mexico DRE Program proudly recognizes a New Mexico law enforcement officer who has gone above and beyond in holding drug-impaired drivers accountable in 2020,” said a press release from the program.
According to the release, Hetes’ enforcement evaluations accounted for more than 5 percent of the state’s total enforcement evaluations for 2020.
“Officer Hetes promptly enters his enforcement evaluations into a national tracking database to help ensure New Mexico and federal partners have an accurate representation of drug and drug-impaired driving trends in our state,” the release continued. “In 2020, Officer Hetes’ maintained a 100 percent accuracy rate in determining the specific drug category (or categories) a suspected drug-impaired driver was under the influence of, as corroborated by toxicology results.”
Hetes has served with RRPD for six years and has been assigned to the department’s DWI Unit since March 2016. He works as a standardized field sobriety testing/DWI instructor for RRPD and State of New Mexico, according to the release.
In 2020, Hetes volunteered his DWI expertise to help with NM DRE Program training.
He will be recognized at the New Mexico DRE Committee meeting in March and has been invited to attend the 27th annual Conference on Drugs, Alcohol and Impaired Driving in Orlando, Fla., in August, according to the release.