olena
<font color=green>Emerald Angel<br><font color=mag
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SANTA FE, N.M. - First cops served beers, screwdrivers, tequila shooters and vodka Jell-O shots to people, then turned around and gave them sobriety tests for driving while intoxicated.
Those liquored up by police had volunteered Monday to help 40-plus law enforcement cadets learn how to spot drunken drivers and get them off the roads.
One volunteer drinker, Johnny Mares from Melrose, is a Curry County sheriff's deputy who gives field sobriety tests himself.
"Would I take myself to jail?" Mares asked after stumbling through a few tests. "Yes. But it's important for these guys to go through the tests and find out for themselves."
Before the field-sobriety tests, officials checked the volunteers who drank for more than three hours for blood-alcohol content. Their levels ranged from 0.07 to 0.18 percent. New Mexico's legal limit for DWI is 0.08.
Some cadets' estimates of the volunteers' drunkenness showed the importance of the training.
One cadet said he likely would have let a 21-year-old Santa Fe woman go after she apparently passed the field sobriety tests.
The woman, who asked her name not be published, registered a 0.18 blood-alcohol level.
"I had one screwdriver, four Bacardi and Cokes, and three, no wait, it was four of those Jell-O shots," she said. "I should be arrested for sure, but luckily, I don't drink and drive."
Every certified law enforcement officer in the state from local police officers to Game and Fish wardens must complete the training.
"We can teach them what to look for, and they can go through all the classes, but they all need to get some real experience of actually going through the tests with real people," said state Law Enforcement Academy agent and instructor Gabe Beardsley.
Those liquored up by police had volunteered Monday to help 40-plus law enforcement cadets learn how to spot drunken drivers and get them off the roads.
One volunteer drinker, Johnny Mares from Melrose, is a Curry County sheriff's deputy who gives field sobriety tests himself.
"Would I take myself to jail?" Mares asked after stumbling through a few tests. "Yes. But it's important for these guys to go through the tests and find out for themselves."
Before the field-sobriety tests, officials checked the volunteers who drank for more than three hours for blood-alcohol content. Their levels ranged from 0.07 to 0.18 percent. New Mexico's legal limit for DWI is 0.08.
Some cadets' estimates of the volunteers' drunkenness showed the importance of the training.
One cadet said he likely would have let a 21-year-old Santa Fe woman go after she apparently passed the field sobriety tests.
The woman, who asked her name not be published, registered a 0.18 blood-alcohol level.
"I had one screwdriver, four Bacardi and Cokes, and three, no wait, it was four of those Jell-O shots," she said. "I should be arrested for sure, but luckily, I don't drink and drive."
Every certified law enforcement officer in the state from local police officers to Game and Fish wardens must complete the training.
"We can teach them what to look for, and they can go through all the classes, but they all need to get some real experience of actually going through the tests with real people," said state Law Enforcement Academy agent and instructor Gabe Beardsley.
