SAN ANTONIO – Deputies training to hit the streets on patrol learn how to perform field sobriety tests by using volunteer drinkers.
In a recent training exercise, the volunteers were given four precisely measured alcoholic drinks to consume in two hours.
They could choose to remain below or surpass the legally drunk limit of 0.08 percent blood alcohol content.
For the drinkers, the training exercise was going down smoothly until deputies put things on ice by putting the volunteers to the test.
The deputies gave each drinker a series of tests including the pen test, which requires a subject to use their eyes to follow a pen side to side.
The drinkers also took a breathalyzer test, walked along an imaginary line and held one foot in the air while counting.
David Parker, one of the volunteer drinkers, knew he did not pass.
"If myself knew that I messed up, I know they saw it, too," said Parker. "So I knew definitely I would've probably been going to jail."
And he would have if the exercise had been real, said deputies.
Volunteer Samantha Centeno said she "felt fine" but still failed the tests, even though she chose to remain below the legal limit.
"I tipped over. I couldn't follow the pen," Centeno said. "I felt like I was paying attention but you get to ‘one, one thousand, two, one thousand' and I just got confused."
For Courtney Butler, the simulation proved to be emotional when she began crying during the testing.
"Knowing how people are when they're drunk and they drive, its not okay," Butler said. "I don't want to say it sobered me up, but it put the fear in me."
The exercise is a learning experience for both the drinkers and the deputies.
"It's like ‘oh wow,'" said BCSO training instructor, Deputy Bryan Higby. "Everything just comes together and now it makes sense."
BCSO made sure each volunteer drinker had a safe, sober ride home following the exercise.