POLICEMEN HIT BOOZE FOR DRUNKENNESS TEST

It's not a sight you'll see everyday: Cape Girardeau police officers drinking on the job.

Under the supervision of Sgt. Randy Roddy, Patrolmen Kelly Kenser, Brian Ritter, Ike Hammonds and Ron Webb performed a series of field sobriety tests on fellow officers Tuesday afternoon. As part of an intense, three-week training course, the new officers were learning to recognize signals indicative of excessive intoxication.

Four officers were given drinks mixed with 80-proof liquor at designated intervals and to different monitored levels of intoxication.

The tipsy officers were then led into the training room, where it was up to the young patrolmen to administer field sobriety tests. The officers had to determine whether they suspected the officers' blood-alcohol levels were above the maximum .10 level, thereby mandating their "arrests."

The patrolmen performed a series of three tests on the participants. Reading from standardized procedures outlined on note cards, the patrolmen were to treat the drinking officers as motorists they had just pulled over for suspected drunken driving.

First, an eye test was administered in which the officer asked the "suspect" to stand about three feet away, feet together, and focus on the tip of an ink pen the officer held at eye level. The officer then slowly moved it from one side of the "suspect's" head to the other in a semi-arc motion.

The examining patrolmen looked for the eyes to twitch - an involuntary reaction caused by excessive intoxication.

"It's one of the most reliable tests because it involves an involuntary body function," Roddy explained. "You can't fake that one."

Second, the patrolmen asked the officers to walk in a straight line, moving heel to toe, counting off nine steps, turning, and doing the same back to the starting position.

Then the participants were asked to stand on one foot, holding the other foot suspended over the ground while counting off 30 seconds aloud.

These tested the drinking officers' comprehension of directions, balance and mobility - all of which can be substantially affected by alcohol consumption.

If the "suspects" slipped, stammered or otherwise performed poorly on the tests, points were scored against them. After an accumulation of a certain number of points, officers had probable cause for an arrest to be made.

"It's like golf," Roddy said. "You're shooting for the lowest score."

The officers admitted that none of the tests is foolproof.

"Some people just have naturally good balance," Roddy said. "That's why we do more than one test."

The sobriety tests are part of a three-phase procedure used by officers on patrol. It involves spotting a suspected car while in motion, the initial personal contact between the officer and the motorist and finally the sobriety test. All points of the encounter are crucial to the arrest and subsequent conviction of a drunk driver.

Once a suspect is arrested and taken to the police station, he or she is asked to submit to a breathalyzer test. Any person can refuse the test, but will still be charged with DWI and can expect repercussions from the decision in court.

Officers "don't want to have to rely on the breathalyzer," Roddy said. "We want our officers to be accurate in observing the suspects and getting it down in their reports."

The Cape Girardeau Police Department has a specialized DWI patrol on the streets every Friday and Saturday night. Officers are trained and retrained to objectively and effectively spot above-legal levels of intoxication.

The off-duty officers who acted as the guinea pigs in the training got a kick out of playing the bad guys for the afternoon.

One officer became "belligerent" when a patrolman began to outline the guidelines of the test, but was quickly subdued by Roddy's order.

"He was messing with us," Kenser said after testing one of the officers. "I know he was."