One bourbon. One scotch. One beer. One Roaring Fork Valley law enforcement training session?
Yesterday afternoon, several municipal employees got snockered on the clock and failed drunk-driving tests before calling it a day. They had been given the hooch of their choice and then were used as boozy guinea pigs for peace officers in training.
The besotted workers drank varying amounts of alcohol and submitted to faux roadside tests in what the officers called a “wet lab” behind the Pitkin County Courthouse. Nine valley officers — from Aspen, Basalt, Snowmass and Pitkin County — then practiced their roadside maneuvers on the blotto volunteers. It was the culmination of a three-day drunk-driving training session.
Zach Ornitz/Aspen Daily NewsDesignated drinker Ashley Cook follows the finger of Aspen police officer Ben Dalessandri on Wednesday during an intoxication test training session for local law enforcement.
Among the toasted test subjects was Deputy District Attorney Matt Walker, who has prosecuted his share of DUIs. Yesterday, Walker stepped along a duct-tape line, raised his right leg, counted to 20, submitted to a vision test, then asked, “Did I pass?”
“No-no,” answered the officer. “Automatic arrest.”
Basalt Police Sgt. Stewart Curry, who oversaw the wet lab, said they kept some of the would-be drunk-drivers sober — well, relatively sober — to test the ability of the training officers to determine whether a person’s intoxication rises to the level of arrest.
A breathalyzer was on hand so that organizers could monitor how hammered the volunteers actually were, and how well the training officers were testing their maneuvers.
“It’s fun playing around with drunk people,” rookie Aspen cop Ben Dalessandri said between tests. “And when you get the ones who aren’t as drunk, that’s really good practice.”
andrew@aspendailynews.com
