Airmen sharpen skills to deter driving under the influence

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Dillon White
  • 341st Space Wing Public Affairs Office
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Members of the 341st Security Forces Group and fellow police officers, sheriff deputies, and national park rangers from across Montana attended a field sobriety training class sponsored by an Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws grant at the Great Falls Civic Center April 29. 

Airmen from Malmstrom also volunteered their time to be test subjects or designated drivers to support the class of 50 law enforcement professionals. 

"We give the volunteers just enough alcohol in relation to their body weight to put them over the legal limit," said Officer Kelly Mantooth, standardized field sobriety testing class instructor. "Anyone can tell when someone is at .182 blood alcohol content level, and falling-down drunk. We want the officers to make fine discriminations with reliable people." 

The test battery is designed to give police officers reasonable assurance an individual has a BAC of .10, said Sergeant Lawrence Irwin, Montana Highway Patrol fleet and supply section supervisor and field sobriety test class instructor. 

Drivers multi-task by responding to road signs, other vehicles and circumstances with motor skills, such as brake application and steering, Sergeant Irwin said. 

"The test battery is designed to duplicate the divided attention required during driving in a safe environment," Sergeant Irwin said. "These tests were developed in the mid-70s to provide a standardized and effective way to determine who is impaired and who should not be operating a motor vehicle." 

The tests have been tested and verified for more than 30 years in laboratory studies and in the field by law enforcement professionals, he said. 

"We want the public to know we are training intensely and we diligently apply intellect and skill to the task at hand because people's futures are at stake," Sergeant Irwin said. "The largest statistical group of fatal crashes is due to one cause." 

According to the 2007 Montana Highway Patrol's annual report, nearly 28 percent of all fatal car crashes were alcohol-related. 

"I know the security forces personnel who received this training will be more attentive and observant of the small details when it comes to impaired drivers," said 1st Lt. Alisha Mason, 341st Security Forces Squadron flight commander. "The new tools we have will help keep the streets of Malmstrom safer, especially when it is our friends and families driving on the same roads as potentially impaired individuals." 

The lieutenant had never administered a SFST before the class and learned to look for certain clues that an individual is impaired while driving, such as slowed reactions and poor coordination. Once the decision is made to stop the individual, the officer continues to look for clues that the driver can not divide his or her attention between simple tasks. The officer then may ask the person to get out of the vehicle and perform several standardized exercises including a horizontal gaze nystagmus, which tests the movement of a person's eyes. 

"Nystagmus is the involuntary jerking of the eye which becomes more prominent when alcohol or drugs are consumed," Lieutenant Mason said. "Checking an individual's nystagmus is an excellent tool because no matter how hard a person tries, they can not control it." 

If a person exhibits four out of six clues police officers look for in the HGN, 77 percent of the time they have a BAC of more than .10, she said. 

If the officer feels the individual is impaired after performing the SFST, they can request the individual to give a breath sample using a preliminary breath test, the lieutenant said.
"What made a lasting impression is that I would not have considered some of the volunteers to have consumed alcohol just by observing their actions, however when we were able to perform the HGN test on them, they could not control the jerking of their eyes." Lieutenant Mason said. "We then had them give a breath sample in the Intoxilyzer 8000, , and the majority of the test results were readings of more than .10."