Police utilize new tool to battle drunk drivers
Processing center unveiled
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:36 PM PDT
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| A 2007 36-foot Winnebago Voyage motor home has been revamped with breath-alcohol testing equipment, work stations and two temporary holding cells. The motor home will be on display from noon until 3 p.m. Saturday at Ontario’s The Home Depot parking lot before being utilized to check for drunk drivers over the weekend. |
Ontario — Area law enforcement agencies work to keep events such as the Nyssa Nite Rodeo and National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest and Festival in Weiser safe this week have a new tool to help with their effort: the Mobile DUII Processing Center.
The center, a 2007 36-foot Winnebago Voyage motor home, was retrofitted to include breath-alcohol testing equipment, work stations, temporary holding cells and radio communications equipment. The Oregon State Police purchased the motor home last year with a $171,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Transportation Safety Division.
The OSP plan to work with the Malheur County Sheriff's Office, Ontario Police Department and Nyssa Police Department to step up their search for impaired drivers this weekend.
OSP Sgt. Mark Duncan said the Ontario OSP office previously utilized the vehicle on May 16, May 17 and May 18 in Jordan Valley, where police agencies also performed what he called a saturation patrol.
In such a patrol, officers give a suspected drunk driver a field-sobriety test. If the driver is found to be over the legal limit, which is .08 percent blood alcohol content, they are taken to the Mobile DUII Processing Center, which will be situated in the back parking lot of the Ontario police station. There, drivers who failed the field-sobriety test will again be tested, then cited and released or arrested.
“The DUI bus will not be mobile,” Duncan said.
OPD Capt. Mark Alexander said the DUII processing center is a good idea.
“It’s a good thing,” he said. “Agencies here work well together.”
Promoting safety is another key element to the DUII processing center.
“Our goal is to reduce crashes, while at the same time increasing awareness,” Duncan said. In Malheur County, 212 people were convicted for driving under the influence for the first time, according to 2006 statistics by the Oregon Department of Human Services.
