I know I said in my last column that watching “drunk people struggle to say the alphabet backward while standing on one foot” was not my idea of a good time, but, I have to admit, last week’s citizens police academy class was extremely entertaining.
State trooper Mike Connor, a 22-year law enforcement veteran and a former technician and breath alcohol instructor, gave a presentation explaining how police officers are trained to determine if someone is under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they are pulled over.
As a police officer, specializing in and training other officers for DUI detection and field sobriety testing was a natural inclination for Connor, who grew up in Streator and has, pun intended, alcohol in his blood.
“I’m from Streator, home of the drunks and glass bottle capital of the world,” Connor said, adding that his grandpa used to take him to the bottle manufacturers’ facilities to see where beer bottles were made for the Miller Brewing Company, now MillerCoors.
Now it was time for Connor to shock our classroom of naive, law-abiding goody-two-shoes.
“About how many DUI arrests do you think are made every year in Illinois?” he asked.
Some people called out 2,000, some said 9,000. A guy in the back yelled out 25,000 and earned a “yeah-right” look from his buddy next to him.
When Connor looked right at me for a final answer, I hedged my bets and said 6,000 to 7,000.
Connor then read out a few surprising statistics:
Last year, there were about 52,000 DUI arrests in Illinois alone.
Forty percent of all vehicle collisions were alcohol-related.
Between midnight to 4 a.m. from Thursday to Sunday, one of 10 people is legally drunk and seven out of 10 have been drinking.
A person arrested for drunk driving has already driven drunk an average of 80 times before they are arrested.
The national BAC level average for all DUI arrests is .16.
With the statistics out of the way, the fun began.
My husband, Adam, first demonstrated how a sober person can easily complete the divided attention tasks of a field sobriety test.
He stood on one foot and counted for 30 seconds as instructed, while looking at his foot.
He took nine heal-to-toe steps, counting out loud, pivoted with small steps, and took another nine heal-to-toe steps, all with his hands by his side.
Enter Deb Baker, a dispatch operator for the Washington police who had spent three hours prior to our class being plied with alcohol under police supervision.
(And it was good alcohol, she informed us.)
Connor gave her the directions, she lifted her foot and started counting.
After all the tests, we counted all the signs indicating Baker was intoxicated.
Smell of alcohol? — check.
Involuntary jerky movement of the eyeballs (physiologic nystagmus)? — check.
Inability to follow directions or perform two tasks at once, e.g., keeping hands at sides while walking? — check.
Inappropriate and/or smart-aleck remarks? — check.
“I stopped saying 1,000 (when counting) because it was stupid,” Baker said.
But still, when asked how many of us would arrest her based on her performance of the field sobriety test, only about one third of the class raised their hands.
Baker blew a .072 on Connor’s breathalyzer, which measures grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
Next up was Baker’s daughter, 22-year-old Alex Casey, who could not seem to stop giggling and only made it up to nine trying to count to 30.
All hands shot up when Connor asked us if we would arrest her for driving under the influence.
Certain that she was significantly more intoxicated than her mother, we were all surprised when Casey blew .063.
“You see? That’s the problem. DUI arrests are very difficult,” Connor said.
In many cases, he said, young or more inexperienced police officers will err on the cautious side and not arrest people who can call someone and arrange a ride home.
We laughed a lot as Connor described the effects of alcohol and how it can make things sound like a good idea, for example, crossing the Illinois River in a canoe with a shovel for a paddle on Dec. 31, or spreading coffee grounds all over the interior of your car to prevent the dogs from smelling hidden drugs (no, that is not suspicious at all).
We also laughed when he told us this area is known for naked drunk drivers — female naked drunk drivers.
But not all of Connor’s stories were funny, and he had an overall sobering message.
He told us the story of a deputy who pulled over a man and failed to recognize that the man was intoxicated and let him drive away.
A few miles from where the officer had pulled him over, the man had a head-on collision with another car, killing the driver.
The family of the victim is now suing the deputy for $5 million.
He also told us he will be haunted by the things he has seen and has had to do.
“I have had to tell way too many parents that their son or daughter will never be coming home again.”
Connor said he wants people to understand that the .08 legal BAC level is misleading. As Casey and Baker demonstrated, most people are clearly impaired before they hit the .08 level.
Casey and Baker both said they would never get behind the wheel having drunk seven ounces (seven shots) of vodka in three hours.
“I have been fighting with IDOT to change their campaign that says ‘Over the limit. Under arrest.’ It makes people think they can’t be arrested if their BAC is less than .08. That’s just not true,” Connor said.
One more lesson learned from the Washington Citizens Police Academy: as civilians, it is in our best interests to have police officers well-trained in DUI detection.
