🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 28 Jun 1998 06:46:54 GMT, DataRat <datarat@home.com> wrote:

>
>
>The Police Rodent is a patrol officer,
>so he doesn't do high-volume DUI.
>But he has been doing it for over ten
>years and -unlike Mr. Smith- The DataRat
>knows what he's talking about from first-hand
>experience !
>
>Most DUI arrests he makes are off of
>mundane traffic violations like running a
>stop sign or failure to signal a lane change.
>Would never know they were impaired
>were it not that DataRat routinely asks:  "How
>much have you had to drink tonight ?"   Most
>DUI drivers DON'T have slurred speech or
>smell like a brewery.
>
>All they have to say is "a couple beers", and
>the Police Rodent orders them out of their
>vehicle for a FST (Field Sobriety Test).

Can you enforce the FST in your state?  Here in Colorado, it's
voluntary and they don't have to do them.  You either have to have PC
to arrest when you stop or chance losing the collar if they refuse the
roadsides.

>
>The supposed "universal" indicators of
>drunk driving ...weaving and too-fast/too-slow...
>happen but are NOT the norm.   Even
>when an impaired driver is weaving, it's
>rarely weaving between lanes like people
>suppose.   If they weave, it's usually weaving
>within a lane -rather than between lanes.

Well, Rat, I don't know where you got your DUI training, but mine told
me that the NHSTA chart I used for DUI enforcement said that driving
more than 15 mph below the posted limit was a "50%er", which means
that according to statistics, 50% of the people doing so are DUI.
Weaving out of a lane is an 80%er, and weaving within a lane is
another 50%er.  In each case, the single act involved establishes
probable cause for a stop, though I usually tried to get at least
three 50%er before making a stop.

>
>After you stop a lot of people for DUI, give
>them a FST, then validate your findings with
>an Intoxilizer machine, an officer gets a pretty
>good idea of what kind of BAC (blood alcohol
>content) a subject he encounters may have.

Yup, and Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus helps too.

We used to bet coffee on the Intoxilizer results..

>
>At 0.1 to almost 0.2, they'll NOT weave or go
>much above or below the posted speed limit.
>You won't be able to tell they're DUI until you've
>given them a FST.

I disagree.  With sufficient observation, I could detect bad driving
behavior clear down to .08 or so.  There are so many indicators
besides just speeding and weaving that with 4 or 5 minutes of
following the vehicle, nailing a legally impaired driver is child's
play.  But then it does take some extra training and experience.

That's because here in Colorado we have to get the evidence before the
stop, as the FST are optional.

>   At 0.2 thru 0.25, they might
>weave within a lane, go too fast or two slow,
>but mainly they'll make unsafe lane changes and
>other errors in judgment.   Not until above 0.25
>do they do the classic stuff like weave between
>lanes, drive noticeably too fast or two slow, have
>markedly slurred speech, etc.

I can detect a 0.2 BAC within about 15 seconds.  I can *still* do it,
even though I haven't done DUI enforcement for more than 10 years.

>
>Most people The DataRat pops for DUI are
>right around 0.2 (usually just under).   The second
>largest group of such offenders he arrests are
>just over 0.1 BAC.   The guys above 0.25 you
>usually don't stop, but encounter instead at the
>scenes of accidents.

You need to get some specialized DUI training, that way you can be
nailing the *really* dangerous drivers....those between 0.08 and 0.15.

In this range the abilities are impaired just enough that many people
don't *think* they are DUI, so they drive anyway.   Most DUI's over
0.20 are habitual offenders or alcoholics, but the 0.08 to 0.15 is the
range the average joe falls into when they go to dinner and have some
wine, or a "couple of beers," and they don't *feel* "too drunk" and
fail to recognize the effect on their driving abilities.   

I always tried hard to catch the marginal ones, because when they do
have an accident, it's usually a bad one, because they tend to drive
faster and they tend to be involved in multicar collisions.    Really
bad drunks, like 0.25 and above usually are so obvious that people
avoid them and they usually crash before they can get too
far.....unless they turn the wrong way down the interstate, and they
tend to be involved in single-car accidents.

Regards,

Scott Weiser

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