UNM Continuing Education's DWI Education program has been working to improve security after a breach in 2007.
The program - designed to educate first-time licensees in New Mexico about DWI laws and prevention - operates in conjunction with the New Mexico Department of Transportation.
On November 12, 2007, a report was filed with UNMPD saying a UNM employee who worked in the DWI program "issued certificates from the program without taking in the necessary fee for issuance of the certificate."
S.U. Mahesh, director of public information for the New Mexico Department of Transportation, said that the incident was caught, isolated and dealt with by UNM.
"In 2007 there was a UNM employee in the department who was taking certificates and passing them out to whoever she wanted to," Mahesh said. "So, there was that aspect, and UNM assured us that they had taken appropriate personnel action against this employee, and this employee is no longer associated with the program, so we were satisfied with the actions they took."
David Harwell, spokesman for the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division, said that there was only one reported incident in which someone attempted to use a falsified certificate from the UNM DWI Education program to establish a New Mexico driver's license.
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"The only report we've ever had was in . 2007," Harwell said. "Someone attempted to use fraudulent documents to get a driver's license in Raton. Our MVD staff - who are trained on these matters - called the state police, and that individual was arrested."
Rita Martinez-Purson, dean of Continuing Education, said she immediately called for a thorough investigation when she heard the program's security had been breached.
Soon afterward, UNM Continuing Education instituted additional security measures to protect the personal information of its clientele, she said.
"We try to be very vigilant," Martinez-Purson said. "We have systems in place now where we do have security on several different levels where we verify the documents and the information."
Martinez-Purson said the department has increased the cost of the program by $5 so that security measures could be increased. The program now costs $20 and serves about 30,000 clients a year, she said.
Joe Miera, associate dean of Continuing Education, said the fee increase has given leeway to modernize the program's materials. Course materials once distributed in a VHS format are now distributed as a DVD, and the department is currently testing an online program.
Also, the certificate the program issues to participants has been updated with a watermark that prevents it from being photocopied. It also has a number of issuance printed on the top right corner and a holographic emblem of UNM on the top left corner, he said.
Miera said the program is available in both English and Spanish. However, he said, UNM isn't responsible for verifying the legal background of the clientele who pay for it.
"Our goal in the program and our responsibility is to educate the student," Miera said. "Beyond that, responsibility for residence verification and for identity verification rests with MVD.. They allow the use of certain foreign ID as documents such as the matricula card issued by the consulate office in Albuquerque will qualify."
Harwell said the MVD rigorously validates personal information provided by licensee applicants and that there hasn't been an incident since 2007.
Mahesh said that the DOT has been working in conjunction with the MVD on finding ways to prevent the program from being subject to abuse or identity theft.
"Another option we're looking at is to have MVD administer the test so that way we're not - we eliminate the layer of bureaucracy there and . the room for abuse there," Mahesh said. "So, we're looking at several options to address this issue and we're still in discussion, so we may have some sort of announcement soon."
