Walking The Line: Citizens Academy Gets Firsthand Lesson In Police Sobriety Drills

BOURNE- Mary M. Willet had a question for her fellow students in the Bourne Citizens Police Academy when she entered the classroom at the Bourne Veterans Memorial Community Building on Main Street.
“I just want to ask everyone in the class right now … Can you smell us?” she asked.
It was a fair question.
Ms. Willet and two of her classmates, Robert F. Pike and Jeremy Cain, had been drinking.
They had just returned from the Trowbridge Tavern where, under the supervision of Patrolman Brandon Esip, they had each ingested enough alcohol to believe that loudly inquiring about their smell was appropriate.
Ms. Willet, a slender female, drank four mixed vodka-and-juice drinks.
Mr. Pike, a medium-sized male, had had the same amount, though Officer Esip said that the bartender at the Trowbridge Tavern might have been a little more generous in pouring Mr. Pike’s drinks.

Jeremy Cain, a student in the Bourne Citizens Police Academy, attempts to walk in a straight line on Monday night. Mr. Cain had volunteered to have a few drinks before class and then participate in a field sobriety test. Officer Brandon Esip, (center) who supervised Mr. Cain’s drinking and drove him to class, and classmate George Derby look on. DAVID A. FONSECA/ENTERPRISE

Mr. Cain, who stands taller than six feet and weighs more than 220 pounds, had just finished off five 20-ounce bottles of Bass Ale.
Unlike his two fellow volunteers, Mr. Cain had also had some food, chicken wings.
Married, with an 11-month-old child, Mr. Cain said that ordinarily he no longer has the time or money to drink.
It showed.
For one thing, he referred to Officer Esip as “Officer Eisen” for the remainder of the evening.
Nobody corrected him.
Why were Mr. Cain, Mr. Pike, and Ms. Willet drunk?
Because Monday night at the Bourne Citizens Police Academy, the students learned how field sobriety and breathalyzer tests are conducted, and this trio of volunteers were the test subjects.
The atmosphere in the class was light, but the subject matter was serious.
During the first half of the class, while the volunteers were drinking at the Trowbridge Tavern, the rest of the class was listening to a lecture conducted by Sergeant Martha McGonagle.
Sergeant McGonagle is the Bourne Police Department’s keeper of records for OUI arrests and breath test recertification officer.
She told the class that there were 186 drunk driving deaths in Massachusetts and 17,590 across the United States in 2005.
She added that prosecuting drunk drivers is a process full of hurdles. Savvy defense lawyers get OUI cases dismissed on technicalities if an officer was not meticulous in attention to detail when conducting an arrest of a drunk driver.
“It’s just not that easy,” she said.
After the three drinkers were escorted back to the community building by Officer Esip, the class was given a short break.
Michelle M. Isabelle of Williston Road said she took the course because she wanted to learn more about what police officers do.
“I really didn’t know that much,” she said. “I just wanted to learn things like: what are they doing when they’re sitting in their cruisers?”
With the entire class at the community building, Lieutenant Richard E. Tavares announced that the class would move to the police station, where field sobriety and breathalyzer tests would be administered.
After the short drive to the station, the 10 students gathered in the police station garage, where the test began.
Each of the three volunteers struggled with the field sobriety test. 
Mr. Cain, who blew .116 on a portable breath test right after he finished drinking, was the first to volunteer.
He breezed through the first portion of the test, reciting the alphabet easily. However, Officer Esip said Mr. Cain’s glassy eyes and flushed face were more telling than his quick recital.
The tests gradually became more difficult.
When asked to count backward from 75 to 25, Mr. Cain recited the numbers deliberately before he excluded 60 from the number system.
Standing on one foot proved an equally difficult task for Mr. Cain, as he could only balance himself for about 15 seconds before he needed to put his other foot down. 
Mr. Pike, who seemed eager to take the test, appeared on his way to acing the counting portion of the test before he abruptly, and inexplicably, stopped at 29.
The class erupted in laughter, turning the look of satisfaction on Mr. Pike’s face to one of confusion.
Ms. Willet seemed to struggle the most on the field sobriety test. Though she handled the counting and balancing portions of the test better than her male counterparts, walking in a straight line proved nearly impossible.
With her arms parallel to the ground, she slowly paced across the floor, wobbling to the left and to the right after every few paces.
After the field tests, the class moved upstairs to observe the three volunteers take actual breathalyzer tests.
The breathalyzer works by analyzing the air blown into a tube by a subject. After the subject blows into the tube, the machine tests its own accuracy by analyzing a liquid solution that is stored in the machine.
If the solution does not read between .114 and .116, then the subject must be re-tested.
Two hours had passed since their portable breath tests, and all three slowly sobered up. Mr. Cain’s blood alcohol content went down about .02, from .116  to .114, since his portable test.
“You’re still way over the limit,” Sergeant McGonagle told him.
“Yeah, you still can’t go home,” Lieutenant Tavares quipped from the doorway of the small room, where the breath test was conducted.
Mr. Pike, who appeared to be sobering up the quickest of all three test subjects, was actually under the legal limit when tested.
His blood alcohol content went from .10 to .059. He still felt too drunk to drive, though, he said.
Ms. Willet’s blood alcohol content went down from .102 to .096. She would be under arrest as well, Sergeant McGonagle said.
Monday night’s class concluded in the same room where the breath tests were conducted. Though the students did a lot of laughing during the class, there was a somber overtone to the lesson.
The three tests subjects all had difficulty either walking in a straight line or counting backward, yet Sergeant McGonagle told the class that there are people who are just as drunk, or even drunker, who are caught driving every week.
“I’ve pulled over people who have blown a .35,” she said.
“There’s no way I could have driven home tonight,” Mr. Cain said.
Mr. Pike, who was steadily becoming more sober and chatting with Lieutenant Tavares after the class wound down, said that the citizens police academy had been an invaluable experience for him.
“I highly recommend it,” he said. “Anybody who wants to learn what these guys who protect this town do every day should take this class.”