Drinking volunteers help cops learn how to do sobriety tests

The eyes swept from side to side in a jerking motion, much like rotary sprinkler heads whoosh across the lawn with a tch-tch-tch-tch-tch-tch.

This is one of the many indicators law enforcement officers use to determine probable cause to arrest someone for driving under the influence of alcohol. Along with dancing eyeballs, Toni Brazil also had trouble walking a straight line heel-to-toe and she couldn't stand on one leg for 30 seconds.

Officers would have arrested Brazil for DUI had she been driving rather than volunteering for the sobriety test training at the Peace Officers Safety and Training Academy.

Brazil and her two sisters, Sandy McCleary and Paula Tlachac, plus three other volunteers drank alcohol for two hours under the supervision of POST Academy staff. The volunteers then performed sobriety tests for six sets of academy students - all recently sworn officers with rural Nevada law enforcement agencies.

Brazil was astounded that the first set of officers would have arrested her. All six groups eventually came to the same conclusion using the field sobriety tests: Brazil's blood alcohol level impaired her driving skills and they all would have taken her into custody.

"You would, seriously?" a startled Brazil responded after the first DUI determination. "What did I screw up in?"

Scott Johnston, POST's training consultant, detailed her missteps, so to speak. Brazil's eyes did not follow an officer's finger in a smooth manner indicative of soberness. Plus she took numerous steps off the line in the walk-and-turn test and Brazil's foot touched the ground as early as the 13th second during a one-leg stand she was supposed to hold for 30-seconds.

"Balancing on one foot, I probably couldn't do that sober," Brazil insisted.

"Would you drive in this condition?" he asked.

"You know, I would," Brazil admitted. "I've been worse than this and I've been stopped by cops and they let me go."

"Every officer would take you in," Johnston said. "This is the problem: most people who are impaired think they're fine."

Brazil said those episodes were at least five or six years ago. Johnston said POST's sobriety test training has vastly improved since then to get borderline drivers off the road.

The average blood alcohol level in Nevada for people arrested for DUI is .16 but that's not the level that training at the POST Academy focuses on, said Jim Anderson, the academy commander.

Officers are trained to recognize the more subtle impairments caused by people whose drinking has given them blood alcohol levels ranging from .05 to .13.

Anderson said, ".16 and above is easy. They're falling down, more or less. The other ones are creating the problems. Our solution is to be better able to identify the more serious ones before they get into an accident."

Nevada law enforcement officers have made more than 11,000 DUI arrests in each of the past three years. Alcohol is involved in 38 percent of the fatal crashes in the state, where 114 alcohol related fatal accidents killed 129 people in 1999, Anderson said.

POST devotes 40 hours of the 620-hour academy curriculum to DUI enforcement. Officers also learn about administrative and court hearings, and receive intoxilyzer (breathalizer) certification.

After two hours of drinking, the three sisters took stock of their situation. Tlachac and McCleary had finished off six and eight margaritas, while Brazil put away the equivalent of 10 vodka-cranberry-and-grapefruit concoctions known as Sea Breezes.

Brazil faced her first cops with a blood alcohol level of .084 - legally drunk in California but short of the .10 legal line in Nevada. McCleary stopped drinking with a .059 reading and Tlachac's breathalizer test registered .043.

"I feel fine," Brazil said. "Yes, I would drive."

"I feel OK," Tlachac said. "I'm kind of dizzy but I would drive to get home."

"I feel like I'm done for the night," said McCleary, who admits she has the lowest tolerance among her sisters. "I would not want to drive home at this point. I think I'm going to be late to work tomorrow."

McCleary's testing improved as her blood alcohol level dropped during the hour-and-a-half of testing.

"I'm passing the eye test but I'm having a hard time with the feet," McCleary said after testing at two stations. "I'm not legally drunk, but all of them would arrest me."

The remaining four groups, however, all cleared McCleary and an instructor said the first two groups should not have arrested her either.

Instructors described Tlachac as a risk taker after drinking six margaritas. She was on the border between arrest and being driven home. None of the officers chose to arrest her.

"I felt a little wobbly, especially with the feet thing, and I kept blinking a lot with my eyes," Tlachac said. "I didn't think I should be arrested."

None of the sisters displayed the stereotype behavior of an obvious drunk. This precisely fit the POST Academy goal to teach officers to detect more subtle clues that impair a driver's abilities.

"The officers are trained to recognize impaired drivers that are missed by some people," Anderson said.

Once the sisters finished their sobriety testing, Toni Brazil still was not convinced she was impaired, despite failing six repetitions of the tests.

"I was good on the eye test but I was bad on balancing," Brazil said, countering officer opinions that her eyes vividly spelled out DUI. "I feel I can still drive. I'm not slurring my words."

"Do you feel impaired?" Sandy McCleary asked.

"Not that much, no I don't," Brazil insisted.

McCleary responded with shock.

"You shouldn't be driving," McCleary said. "I don't think you should even think you could."

Brazil's blood alcohol level had increased during the hour and a half of sobriety testing while McCleary and Tlachac each registered lower readings.

"Yes, I can drive now," McCleary said while her blood alcohol level was at .044, a level not considered impaired. "I feel much better than at the beginning. In fact, I might not be late for work."