Pubdate: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 Source: Plain Dealer, The (OH) Copyright: 2000 The Plain Dealer Contact: 1801 Superior Ave., Cleveland, OH 44114 Website: http://www.cleveland.com/news/ Forum: http://forums.cleveland.com/index.html Author: Bill Sloat FOR TRAINING, POLICE MAY DRINK LIQUOR STATE SEIZED The state has brewed up a plan to teach police officers about public drunkenness: Let them drink confiscated alcohol, then study the effects. In some classes, officers will be expected to get smashed in the line of duty. Starting next month, police will be able to tap into the state liquor agency's cabinet of beer, wine and whiskey seized from smugglers, after-hours cheat spots and bootleggers. Police can drive to Columbus and pick up free booze for "law enforcement training." Under rules developed for the giveaway, local training should mean things like practicing field sobriety tests or using machines like Breathalyzers to measure blood alcohol. "They'll have a member of the class consume some beverages, maybe they'll videotape it," said Ed Duvall Jr., deputy director of the state Department of Public Safety's investigative unit. "It's supposed to be for training purposes so they can identify an intoxicated individual. Any legitimate police organization can come to us with a request and get it." Tom Doyle, assistant police chief in Eastlake, said the program made him queasy. He never heard of training police by getting them impaired. "I can't imagine a situation where we'd avail ourselves of that opportunity," said Doyle, a 28-year law enforcement veteran. "I could see where it would be open to abuse. What happens to the alcohol that's not used up in training? It's supposed to be destroyed. How will it be destroyed, by passing through someone's kidneys?" But state officials hope that scenes of actual drunks in a class setting could benefit both the police and the public. For example, officers can be taught how to recognize the difference between a diabetic coma and an alcoholic stupor. Vern Chenevey, director of the Ohio Police Officers Training Academy in Columbus, said all new police officers must take a 32-hour course about alcohol abuse. "But the idea is not to test one another," he said. "You try to get volunteers. And you've got to be careful you take them home and be safe. There are liability issues." Duvall, a retired Akron detective, said he didn't know exactly how much alcohol is confiscated by state liquor agents each year, but most of it is destroyed. Bottles with unbroken seals are resold to liquor stores. What's left will be free to any law enforcement agency that files a written request. "They are more than welcome to it if they want it," Duvall said. State Rep. Robert L. Schuler, a Blue Ash Republican who sponsored the giveaway measure, said he was trying to find a use for confiscated liquor. "Now they just throw it away," Schuler said. 'I thought maybe they could use it to test the accuracy of the machines. They had to buy liquor for those tests and this was supposed to save money for the taxpayers." - --- MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson