@grigorirasputin5020

1 month ago

Back in the late 1980's, I was working as campus police at a state facility. An older female employee who I exchanged occasional greetings or like pleasantries with in passing, worked there. Her supervisor, called us to escort her out of the building and off the grounds. The supervisor noted that the lady had a very strong odor of alcoholic beverage about her breath. I walked the lady out to her car. I noted that despite the strong odor of alcohol, she was very steady on her feet and articulate in her speech with no slurred speech, things we typically look for in determining if someone is intoxicated. The lady went to get in her car and I asked her to stop. I asked if there were someone I could call to come pick her up, as I did not want her involved in a wreck or getting a DUI if the alcohol permeated her system more thoroughly as time passed. She said she would be fine. I pleaded with her to please let me call a friend or family member for her as I did not want to see her incur unnecessary trouble. I even offered to pay for a taxi for her but she was adamant that she would be fine. Noting no signs of intoxication, I let her go and hoped she made it home without causing a wreck or incurring legal difficulties. I wrote the required report of the incident, detailing the above info and more and submitted it to my Sergeant with no problem. A day or so later, I was called into my Chief's office for an "a - - chewing". He asked why I did not arrest her. I asked "on what grounds?" He said, "she was drunk". I countered that if he read my report, he would understand that she indeed was not drunk by any normal measure, as she had clear, articulate, speech and was very much steady on her feet. He said that she obviously been drinking. I said that yes she apparently had, and while it was a violation of facility policy to be at work with alcohol in your system, that was a matter between her and her supervisor. There was no law against her having alcohol in her system, therefore no grounds for me to arrest her. Had she been belligerent, and combative, I might have had such, but she was cooperative and pleasant towards me, perhaps due to the rapport I had with her in passing. He berated me for letting her drive off. I countered that I attempted every legal means to convince her not to drive but she was adamant that she would be fine. He said, it is against the law to drink and drive". I countered that it is not. He looked at me like I had three heads. I told him that it is against the law to drink over a certain amount and drive, but that I had zero probable cause at the time of the incident to believe she had met that amount. My Chief continued that I should have told her that if she got behind the wheel and drove, that I would stop her and put her through field sobriety tests. I again countered that I had no probable cause for which to stop her and that people in our city legally drove home from bars and restaurants every night with alcohol on their breath and in their system. Again, my Chief countered that I should have put her through a field sobriety test before letting her drive off. I told him that many of those tests were so ridiculous that I could not satisfactorily pass them right then, and it had been weeks since I had had anything to drink. He said, "that is the point of the field sobriety tests, to get them on the breathalyzer". At that moment it clicked. I just then realized that the field sobriety tests were more bogus than I had imagined, and intentionally so. Today, old and in bad health, not super steady on my feet (not because of drink or drug), there is no way I would submit to a field sobriety test. I would fail them all, likely. I would take the datamaster or a blood test, but not the field sobriety. I also have astigmatism, which last I heard, will cause your eyes to jump during a "Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus" test, part of the field sobriety battery of "tests".

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