Police Learn Sobriety Testing
by Nicole Wyatt
CBS 42 News
2008-06-27 08:36:08.0
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It’s something you don’t see very often, a uniformed policeman serving drinks to those they normally work to protect. It’s all part of training to become a certified police officer. After learning about administering field sobriety tests in a classroom, trainees get a chance to apply their lessons on community volunteers.
“It’s one thing to tell somebody theory, but it’s another thing to put that theory into practice,” said Captain Clayton Gibbs.
Members of the Tuscaloosa Police Department serve up the drinks getting volunteers to various levels above and below the legal blood alcohol content level of .08.
“You do not have to be what a lot of people consider to be drunk to be a danger behind the wheel,” said Gibbs.
The officer trainees are taught to look for various signs that these potential drivers should be calling a cab instead of driving themselves.
Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Cedric Bell said, “The way certain people’s eyes move, the way they walk talk, slurred speech.”
Captain Gibbs says oftentimes the trainees aren't the only ones walking away from this lesson having learned something, the drinkers themselves can learn a little too.
“Our volunteer drinkers are sometimes surprised they think they've had one amount but we keep up with it and we know exactly how much they've had, so sometimes it’s a surprise to them that the amount of alcohol they've had has the effect on them it does,” said Gibbs.
These trainees will find out how well they evaluate the drinkers and have to try again another night, to make sure they know exactly what to look for.
The Alabama Police Officers Standard Training Commission Academy in Tuscaloosa holds these kinds of training sessions three times a year.
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