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County's DUI arrest totals jump in 2001
By RYAN DAVIS As drunken driver hunting goes, Thursday wasn't much of a night in Pasco County. About 9 p.m., a woman drove through a ditch while being tailed by a phone-toting driver, who alerted the Sheriff's Office. But the woman pulled into her New Port Richey house less than a minute before Deputy Timothy Harris could intercept her. Because he didn't catch her behind the wheel, he couldn't arrest her. Shortly after midnight, a man driving from a U.S. 19 bar failed field sobriety tests and was cuffed and taken to jail. But he was released after breath tests showed that his blood-alcohol level was less than one-third the level at which the state presumes a driver is impaired. About 1 a.m. a 911 caller spotted a swerving brown Cadillac on U.S. 19. Before deputies could catch up to it, however, the driver turned onto New Port Richey side roads, never to be found. "It's like a cat trying to catch a mouse," said Maj. Maurice Radford of the Sheriff's Office. Still, at the end of a slow night, three men were jailed by deputies and faced charges of driving under the influence. After a decline in Pasco sheriff's DUI arrests for five of the past six years, the trend has reversed itself this year in a big way. In 1994, sheriff's deputies made 1,348 DUI arrests. That number gradually fell to 787 in 2000. Already the Sheriff's Office has well surpassed last year's totals. Through October, deputies had made 999 arrests. That's a 57 percent increase over the same time period last year. Drunken drivers can wreak deadly havoc on Pasco roads. Nearly half of last year's Pasco traffic fatalities were alcohol-related. "It's a serious public safety issue," Radford said. "We tried to raise the awareness across the agency about DUIs." Sgt. Erik Anthes, head of the sheriff's DUI specialist unit, attributes the increase to several factors: more staffers in his unit, more citizen assistance, extra deputy training and even the economy. The economy explanation is simple, he said. Bad times have driven some people to drink. But it's not just that there are more drunks on the road; there also are more traffic specialist deputies. Thursday night, Anthes' 11-deputy Selective Traffic Enforcement Program had seven deputies on the road in west Pasco and one in east Pasco. In recent years, it was rare to have that many STEP deputies on the road, Anthes said. At times, half the positions in the unit were vacant. Officially, he has the same number of deputy positions, but those jobs are filled now, he said. Citizen assistance has increased with the proliferation of cellular phones, Anthes said. And more deputies know how to spot those drivers than before, Anthes said. For the past year and a half nearly all new deputies rode for at least one training shift with a STEP unit. Now those deputies can pull over drivers and arrest them or call in a STEP unit. More than four out of five DUI arrests in Pasco are made by the Anthes' STEP unit. Deputies in the unit focus on traffic violators. The deputies drive cars with no lights on top, some have car-mounted video cameras for taping sobriety tests and most have well-rehearsed routines for testing drivers. Patrol Deputy David Berge Jr., who was hired last year and rode with STEP duties during his training, stopped an erratic driver Thursday on U.S. 19 just north of Little Road. He called for STEP Deputy Matt Denney. Denney tested the man, checking his eye movement, one-leg balance and ability to walk a line. Then he cuffed him. The man pleaded to be let go. "I'm a member of the DUI unit," Denney told him. "All I do is DUI enforcement." Though the man was released with a legal blood-alcohol level after being taken to jail, his urine sample will be examined for drugs, Anthes said. Even with the increase in DUI arrests, Pasco is experiencing a record year for traffic fatalities. Last year, 81 people died in Pasco accidents. This year 96 have died. It could be worse, Radford said. Wednesday night, a driver spotted a Mitsubishi swerving across Little Road. The sheriff's No. 2 man, Col. Al Nienhuis, happened to be in the area, pulled over the sport utility vehicle and called for a STEP unit. Harris arrested the driver, who tested with a blood-alcohol level nearly five times the the level at which the state presumes a driver is impaired. The man had an 11-year-old boy in the car with him. "That was multiple fatalities waiting to happen," Radford said. - Times staff writer Ryan Davis is the police reporter in Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is rdavis@sptimes.com. DUI arrestsAnnual DUI arrests by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office since 1994: 1994 -- 1,348 1995 -- 1,115 1996 -- 1,059 1997 -- 1,053 1998 -- 1,055 1999 -- 918 2000 -- 787 2001 -- 1,199* *projected -- Source: Sheriff's Office
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