July 21, 2006 -- Governor Bill Richardson presented awards to the New Mexico Sheriff's, the State Police and even the Sunland Park Chief of Police Friday for their efforts to stop drinking and driving.

But, the Dona Ana court system said they still need help to deal with DWI cases.

In Las Cruces Friday, Governor Richardson acknowledged Dona Ana county for having the biggest drop in DWI deaths throughout the state.

"When I took office in 2003 I said I'm going to throw the kitchen sink at DWI. We are going to do everything at all costs," said Governor Bill Richardson, NM.

Over the past year Richardson launched a program focusing on the county's with the biggest DWI problems Including Dona Ana County. He also put more enforcement on the streets with two more officers that only focus on DWI's. And Richardson credits this focused effort to the significant drop.

"The number of alcohol related fatalities plummeted between 2004 and 2005 it went down 74%," Richardson said.

Yet, with all of these efforts of patrolling the streets for DWI offenders, the courts are still having a tough time keeping up.

"One of the problems we are having is we have gone in 10 years from 300 D.W.I. a year to almost 14 hundred last year so, it's exploding and we don't have the personnel," said Susanna Martinez, Dona Ana County District Attorney.

The courts are also losing out with a recent court of appeals decision that said an expert witness must testify to figure out exactly how drunk the person was when driving.

"There are no experts available for the tens of thousands of cases in this state and so those cases are being dismissed," Martinez said.

Something Richardson told Dona Ana County residents he will work on in the future.

"Work with the D-A's and the D.A. here to deal with that court of appeals decision, we are going to try and deal with it legally first, but then legislatively if we possibly can," Richardson said.

Drinking and driving also went down statewide by 11 percent.

Richardson believes the reason why Dona Ana County did so well is because they had a strong collaborative effort with the police and D.A.'s office.

The D.A's office in Dona Ana prosecutes at a 98% conviction rate and they don't allow plea bargains for DWI offenses.