Sobriety Points from An Officer's Perspective

It's probably a Friday or Saturday night, a cold night somewhere in Los Angeles when most police officers would rather be somewhere else -- somewhere else warm, said Los Angeles police Sgt. Egon Keil of the Central Traffic Division.

But if one life can be saved through the eight to nine hours they spend standing on yet another cold Los Angeles street, Keil said, it is truly worth it.

Welcome to a typical Driver's License/DUI Checkpoint from the perspective of a Los Angeles police officer.

"Basically, at the checkpoint, the officer would set up the checkpoint with traffic cones that he uses to block the roadway, funneling traffic into one lane,'' said Los Angeles police Sgt. Robert Kim of the West Traffic Division. ``The officer would talk to the driver, ask him to present a driver's license, check the vehicle for any open containers and check the driver's breath.''

Keil said officers also check for slurred speech and if their suspicions are sufficiently aroused the driver must take a Standard Field Sobriety Test, which consists of three tests the driver takes to determine if he's impaired. Those three tests include the Walk-and-Turn, the one-leg stand and the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN), where a motorist's eyes are asked to smoothly follow a moving object placed into front of them. 

When a driver is impaired by the effects of alcohol, the eye movement is exaggerated. Moreover, if a driver is drunk, they will have greater difficulty tracking a moving object.

"Hopefully, the driver passes the test," he said. ``If the person is not impaired, then they're freed to go." 

Keil said every four to fifth vehicle that passes through the checkpoint is evaluated.

"The checks are designed to find drunk drivers, to keep the city safe, of course," he said. ``So the officers have a certain protocol we abide by. We can't stop everybody on the street. The cars are going to pile up." 

Keil said most of the drivers stopped are not drunk.

``They're (drivers) just good people going about doing their business, normal life stuff," he said. ``Every DUI driver we take off the streets, we're saving a life because this driver is not going to take down an innocent family. And all it takes is one driver. Our main reason out there is protect the citizens of Los Angeles and the people who visit."

"You (officers) don't like being out in cold, but that's part of our job," Keil said. "Hey, whatever it takes."