“They all do it,” says Steve Volden, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. “They need to get away.”

He was referring to Arizona governors who have sometimes ignored a policy against eluding their DPS executive protection detail and taking off somewhere in their personal automobiles.

The law does not forbid Arizona’s governors driving themselves around, but it’s not encouraged.

Mr. Volden says there has been a mutual understanding between DPS and governors that the agency is responsible for transporting the top executive within the state on both official and personal business.

The policy evolved from state law (ARS 41-1755), which reads: “The director of the department of public safety shall provide transportation, security and protection for the governor and security and protection for the governor’s family to the extent and in the manner the director of public safety and the governor deem appropriate and adequate.”

Mr. Volden said former Governor Fife Symington used to sneak out, and former Governor Rose Mofford said she would hop in her car and go shopping after the DPS had brought her home from work.

“I wasn’t afraid of anything,” Mrs. Mofford said.

They don’t all do it, however.

Governor Napolitano said she sold her car right after she was elected last November.

“I’ve not driven since then,” she said.

The DPS executive protection unit is with or near the governor at all times, in and out of the state, Mr. Volden said.

Governors are transported in unmarked vehicles, and when they are out of town or out of state, DPS makes ground transportation arrangements with other law enforcement agencies.

Acting governors are not afforded security protection, Mr. Volden said. —