Drinking alcohol and operating a motor vehicle of any type is not allowed on Fort Riley. The Fort Riley Police Department and military police enforce Kansas state statues for drunk driving, said Chief Will Paskow, deputy director, Directorate of Emergency Services. Conviction of a DUI can result in loss of driving privileges for one year, a dishonorable discharge from the military and up to 18-months confinement with loss of pay.
"Generally speaking, that means you have a breath or blood alcohol content, more commonly known as a BAC, of .08," Paskow said. "That makes you ineffective to drive safely. However, what a lot of people don't understand is, you don't have to be at that .08 threshold to be able to not operate your vehicle safely."
If a Soldier chooses to go out to a bar, go to a house party or whatever, there are ways to get back on post or home safely, Paskow said.
"There are certainly methods to get yourself back to post and get back in the gate without resorting to the fact that I should need to drive myself," he said. "You can call a taxi to come get you and get you on post. You can call a friend or have a designated driver."
The problem, Paskow said, is alcohol affects the ability to conduct divided attention tasks -- driving -- and it affects your decision-making ability.
"What you might not think is normally a good idea might seem acceptable after two or a dozen drinks," he said.
One thing is certain, if you chose to drive drunk on Fort Riley, especially late at night, there is better than average chance of getting caught. The sheer lack of numbers of people out at late hours of the day, make the odds of getting pulled over higher, Paskow said.
"If you're driving around late at night, just the sheer small amount of numbers make it much more likely that you are going to be stopped by a police officer, if that is on post or off post," he said. "Second thing, on post we have even less traffic volume when it gets to be late at night. Whether we are running a check lane or you are coming in the gate, there is an opportunity for you to get stopped."
Paskow said the fear of being arrested should not be the only reason for not driving drunk.
"You shouldn't drive drunk because it's against the law primarily and you could kill somebody," he said. "The bottom line is that you are making a conscious decision to put somebody else in harm's way or put yourself in harm's way. It's just not worth it."
Police officers use what Paskow referred to as three phases of the DUI stop when determining of a suspected driver is under the influence.
Phase-one: vehicle in motion
As a police vehicle drives on patrol, the officer notices a vehicle driving toward them with headlights off after dark. Or, the officer is trailing a vehicle that is struggling to stay within the lane, they might fail to indicate turns or brake erratically, Paskow said.
"Those are all indicators that would be exhibited in phase one of a DUI, which is vehicle in motion," he said.
This would result in the officer pulling the suspected vehicle over for further investigation, moving to phase-two.
Phase-two: personal contact
"Once I see someone exhibit those, that gives me reasonable suspicion to make a stop," Paskow said. "Then, when I make contact with an operator of a vehicle, that's my phase two, which is my personal contact."
Here, officers look for physical indicators of impairment; slurred speech, blood-shot eyes, confusion when handling objects.
"When I ask for his driver's license does he instead hand me his Master Card or his debit card," he said. "When he goes to get his registration and possibly his insurance out of the glove box, does he fumble around and drop those. Those are all things that would give me more indicators that possibly that person was intoxicated."
Based on factors from the previous phases, officers will make a determination if they move to the third phase, pre-arrest screening.
Phase-three: pre-arrest screening
Here, officers do a series of standardized field sobriety tests, Paskow said. They have the individual exit their vehicle to assess their ability to operate it.
"We run them through a horizontal gaze nystagmus, which checks the functions of the eye and tells us if they consumed alcohol," he said. "We check for clues and indicators. We have them do the walk and turn and the one-leg stand. I assess all those, I look at all the indicators … I look at what I observed in the personal contact, what I observed in the vehicle in motion and I make a decision -- is this person safe to operate a vehicle."
According to duijusticelink.aaa.com/issues/detection/standard-field-sobriety-test-sfst-and-admissibility, horizontal gaze nystagmus is an involuntary jerking of the eyeball. Under normal circumstances, nystagmus occurs when eyes are rotated at high peripheral angles. When a person is impaired by alcohol, nystagmus is exaggerated and may occur at lesser angles. An alcohol impaired person will also often have difficulty smoothly tracking a moving object.
The website also breaks down the reasoning behind the tests.
"At that point, they may or may not have a preliminary breath test where they blow in a tube and a decision is made to arrest them," Paskow said. "We bring them back here and they do a Breathalyzer test where it gets their breath-alcohol content."
Paskow said people have tried to refuse to take the Breathalyzer test.
"You have that right, but what that right brings you, under Kansas law you have what is called implied consent," he said. "Agreeing to take a driver's license from the state you are also consenting you will provide either a breath or a blood sample and if you do not, then your license is suspended for a period of a year."
This implied consent is applicable to every state.
After arrest
Once a Soldier is arrested on DUI, they are brought to the military police station for finger printing, a DNA sample and documentation is started before the Soldier is released to their chain of command.
"When you are turned over to your chain of command, you are immediately given a suspension of your post driving privileges," Paskow said. "The garrison commander signed memos that restrict your ability to operate your vehicle on post. That is one of the most significant factors between getting a DUI on or off post."
If a Soldier is arrested off post, they are given a temporary driver's license that allows them to operate a vehicle while legal proceedings are ongoing, Paskow said.
"On post, not the same thing, your on-post privileges are immediately restricted," he said.
Fort Riley is a large installation and there are people who think they can do things without getting caught. Paskow mentioned an incident at a recent check lane where a Soldier drove their vehicle while on-post privileges were suspended.
"That's now an arrestable offense, Article 92 violation (failure to obey the lawful order of one not a superior)," Paskow said. "Soldier is detained, brought down here, a case is generated because they violated Article 92, failure to follow a lawful order. Not only are you subject to UCMJ for the original DUI; but you are subject to UCMJ for violating the order."
The loss of post driving privileges is for one calendar year, Paskow said, though that is a small part of the inconvenience.
"Let's say you have kids," he said. "How do you get them to day care? How do you pick them up from soccer? How do you get them to appointments?
"Now you are a single Soldier and you don't have those factors," he said. "How do you get to get yourself a haircut? You have to get somebody to drive you. You need to go to appointments, now your battle buddy or your team leader somebody is forced to drive you across post. Certainly there is not going to be a whole lot of sympathy for you or a whole lot of appreciation. By putting yourself in this situation, you impacted the rest of the formation and the rest of your peer group to try to support you."
Above of all of this, there are consequences to operating a vehicle while drunk, Paskow said.
"… You are putting yourself in a situation where you could kill yourself, hurt somebody else and now you have to live with those repercussions of what happens," he said. "Lets say even if it's the best-case scenario and you get stopped for a DUI. You don't hurt anybody, you don't wreck your car, you don't hurt yourself -- so your post (driving) privileges are denied for a year.
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The DUI arrest stays on your record, Paskow said. Any time a background check or history check is conducted, that choice to drive home from the bar will show up.
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