TO: Chief Adele Frese and Assistant Chief Manuel Martinez

FROM: Officer Seth Morten

DATE: March 11, 2019

TOPIC: Driving Under the Influence Training and Enforcement

Chief Frese and Assistant Chief Martinez,

The Salinas Police Department has drastically increased its staffing levels thanks to

aggressive recruitment tactics, fast tracking applicants and dedicating personnel full-time to the

hiring process. The department staffing has swung back from thirty-three vacancies out of one

hundred and eighty sworn positions in 2012 to now having five vacancies with recruits in various

police academies in 2019 (City of Salinas, 2019).

This large hiring push has brought in brand new officers to fill the sworn officer ranks,

many who have just completed their one year probationary period. The newly hired officers lack

proper DUI training to recognize impairment with alcohol and drugs, administer the

scientifically validated Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST), document the specific clues

within each test and their observations in a police report and then testify to how the SFSTs

correlate to impaired driving.

The problem may not appear to be a pressing issue; especially when our community is

faced with gang violence, shootings and stabbings on a regular basis. But who will be available

and who has the proper training to investigate a DUI homicide? Our department would not rely

on an inexperienced officer to investigate a shooting homicide, interview the suspect and

document evidence but our department has replied on inexperienced officers to investigate a
vehicle homicide or major injury collision. We must begin to treat DUI major injury traffic

collisions and DUI fatalities as we would as a shooting investigation.

Some statistics from our department illustrates just how frequent DUI/DUI-Ds are and

the impact it has on our community. According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, the

City of Salinas had eighty-seven victims killed or injured in alcohol-DUIs in 2016 with over

two-hundred and fifty DUI arrests (State of California, 2019); or roughly five DUI arrests per

week. Those numbers would earn a lot of focus from the community, media and our department

if those statistics were related to shootings. The 2016 statistics are not an anomaly, in December

of 2017, Salinas Police Officers arrested seven drivers for DUI within ten days during our

Christmas Maximum Enforcement Campaign (Larson, 2017).

Unfortunately, our department lacks the resources and training to properly investigate,

document and prosecute those responsible for DUI. Our department should begin to identify

officers who are interested in DUI enforcement and investigations and allow them to complete

SFST training so they can learn the proper tests to administer, the required verbiage for the

instructions, how to document their observations and how to testify in court about their results.

This will benefit the department and DUI collisions resulting in major injury or death and help

hold drivers responsible. Officers who have received SFST training can make a trained decision

if drivers are impaired, correctly write reports and develop a solid foundation if drugs may be

involved and request the assistance of a Drug Recognition Expert (DRE).

Officers who have excelled in DUI enforcement and wish to enhance their skills should

be encouraged to attend an Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) or Drug

Abuse Recognition (DAR) course. These two classes provide introductory training into DUI-
drugs, tests to administer, impairment signs and proper documentation in a police report. They

are also prerequisites to the DRE course where officers become experts in the field of DUI-

drugs. DUI-drugs has been on the rise in California due to Proposition 64 allowing for the sale

and use of recreational marijuana, prescription drug abuse being at an all time high in addition to

illicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.

If Salinas Police Officers do not have the training to recognize drug impairment and

administer the correct tests then our department has failed the families of those affected by DUI

drivers. Our department should begin to push for advanced DUI-drug training. According to

California DMV’s 2012 statistics, DUI-alcohol conviction rate was about 74% compared to the

DUI-drug conviction rate of only 8%; whereas, alcohol-involved fatalities accounted for 39% of

all fatalities and drug-involved fatalities accounted for 27% during the same year. Alcohol

crashes and drug crashes accounted for 66% of all collision fatalities on California roadways but

our justice system was only able to convict 8% of drugged drivers compared to 74% of drivers

impaired by alcohol (DMV, 2013).

We must do a better job at holding impaired drivers accountable for their actions and

securing justice for the victims and the victim’s families. No one deserves to be broadsided in

the middle of an intersection by an impaired driver who was careless with their actions. The

Salinas Police Department should begin to take the necessary steps to properly train officers in

DUI enforcement to help stop impaired drivers before they crash, and when they do the trained

officers can respond appropriately and help secure a guilty conviction. I look forward to further

discussing this important topic with the both of you.

Thank you,

Officer Seth Morten

 Reference

California Office of Traffic Safety. State of California. Salinas 2016. Retrieved from: https://
www.ots.ca.gov/rankings/salinas-2016/

City of Salinas. Salinas Police Department. 20 Year History - Major Crimes. Retrieved
from:https://www.salinaspd.com/sites/default/files/crime_stats_history_1993-2012.pdf

Larson, A. (December 27, 2017). KSBW. 7 DUI Drivers Arrested in Salinas, Police Say.
Retrieved from: https://www.ksbw.com/article/7-dui-drivers-arrested-in-salinas-police-
say/14506069

State of California. Department of Motor Vehicles. California DUI Fact Sheet: 2003-2013.
Retrieved from: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/wcm/connect/a299397a-aad1-4022-a3b2-
cedc548339d9/DUI_Fact_Sheet_2003-2013.pdf?MOD=AJPERES