‘‘Good, there you go,” Burge said before he called over their next subject.
The 45 men and women of Session No. 52 training to become police officers, down one recruit since April, spent a week preparing for one of the most common situations they will face on the street – drinking. Whether it’s drunken drivers or an underage drinking party, alcohol abuse presents a host of dangers.
‘‘Alcohol can do different things to different people,” said Officer Bill Morrison, who founded county police’s Alcohol Initiatives Unit along with Capt. Thomas Didone, commander of Germantown’s 5th District.
Alcohol-related issues account for about 80 percent of the calls an officer will respond to on a typical Friday night, Morrison said.
‘‘You’re far more likely to handle a DUI than a first-degree murder,” he said.
The recruits began the lessons with the effects of drinking and drugs as well as medical conditions that can make a person seem intoxicated, such as insulin shock. Next came field sobriety tests, which consist of the walk-and-turn, the one-leg stand and the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, in which the officer checks the eyes for involuntary jerking. The officer then uses his or her observations to reach a decision.
‘‘Everybody’s been around drunk people or been there themselves, but it’s hard to spot,” Holland said.
Since the determination is fairly subjective, the recruits follow standardized protocol, such as conducting the test on a flat surface with the subject facing away from oncoming headlights. A breathalyzer can only be performed at the station by a certified tester.
The recruits begin by practicing on each other while sober and then move on to three days of testing people who have reached different levels of intoxication. The 60 volunteers, mostly friends and family of sworn officers, drink different kinds of alcohol, supplied by county police’s alcohol unit, in a controlled environment at the Public Safety Training Academy. Volunteers are picked up from home and dropped off by the officers assisting with the training.
‘‘It’s a lot more technical than I realized,” Knuth said. ‘‘...I like the fact that we’re not going out to try to put people in jail, we’re trying to keep them off the roads.”
The recruits also learn how to handle the consequences of drunken driving, such as injury or illness.
The drugs and alcohol unit is followed by a week of first-responder training, where candidates are taught basic life-saving techniques. Police officers are often the first on the scene when someone is hurt and must determine what kind of assistance is needed without putting themselves or others in danger.
‘‘Everything comes down to officer safety,” Sgt. Jon Hamburg, an EMT, said while the students paired up to practice assessing an unconscious victim. ‘‘When we’re called to the scene, we don’t know who the person is who has been injured. ... They have to keep their police skills in mind even though they’re using their medical skills.”
It’s a skill set that lies at the heart of policing – protecting lives.
‘‘They take care of each other, themselves and the citizens,” Hamburg said.
about this series
This is the fourth in a seven-part series about Montgomery County’s police recruit training program.
June 4: The recruits learn about bonding with communities and with each other.
