Grants Pass, Ore — With fewer officers on the road, police need to be extra aware of the warning signs of impaired drivers.
Tuesday, with a handful of tipsy test subjects officers got the chance to test first hand how much is too much to drink.
“Two shots of bourbon and a little bit of sprite in there,” said Michael Robbins holding a mixed drink at the Grant Pass Department of Public Safety.
Vodka, whiskey and beer, it’s a spread fit for a frat party but this Patron was provided by police.
A group of volunteers are getting wasted under the watchful eye of local law enforcement.
“Whether it’s alcohol or some other types of drug, what it does is hinders your ability to participate in divided attention tasks, so if you’re impaired and you’re driving you’d be slower to hit the break than if you were 100%,” said Detective Archie Lidey.
Volunteers like Robbins were asked to drink alcohol over the course of several hours
“I thought it would be a good opportunity for me, to have a better understanding of when i got out on the weekends, what my actual limit is,” said Robbins.
Then police perform a standardized field sobriety test.
“What these tests do a fantastic job of doing is demonstrating divided attention, a persons ability or inability to perform those tests,” said Det. Lidey.
The practice is simple, even a little fun for the volunteers. For police, it’s serious education in sobriety that could one day save a life.
“If you sit in a classroom all day you may not get that realistic aspect of what it’s really really like, what are you actually seeing, but you will if you actually have the person drinking alcohol, this is a safe way to do that,” said Det. Lidey.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.