Drawing the DWI battle lines

Jeff Schroepfer was an hour into the "dog watch," the overnight shift for Minnesota State Patrol troopers, and not a lot had happened yet on the driving-under-the-influence front.

The trooper, however, had a deep reservoir of stories to draw from, and as he came out of the Lowry Hill Tunnel on Saturday night, he recalled a crash there two nights earlier during which a woman ricocheted off a curb, over-corrected and then smashed nearly head-on into the median.

She had a gash above her right knee as big as his fist, he said. But being high on alcohol and Ecstasy, "she wasn't feeling the pain," Schroepfer said.

For law-enforcement officers and impaired drivers, December is DWI crackdown month in Minnesota. The patrol presence will be heavy this weekend, a two-day stretch that historically ranks second only to the St. Patrick's Day party period in DWI arrests, a state public safety spokesman said.

As part of its safe-driving message, the Department of Public Safety staged the delivery of a truckload of officers to a news event earlier this month, and it has churned out statistics showing December being exceeded only by August in the percentage of DWIs issued per month during the past three years.

On Tuesday, the department announced it was teaming with beer and licensed-beverage associations to offer "Designated Driver Gift Cards," which says the giver will be a designated driver on a given date. They can be found at liquor stores, bars and other retailers, or sent electronically at www. minnesotasafeandsober.org.

"Give the gift of a safe lift," the blurb said.

The DWI enforcement campaign is being coordinated by the Department of Public Safety, which uses grant money to pay overtime costs that put extra officers on state roadways.

Saturday night, Schroepfer patrolled the west metro district in his "beat car," responding to calls as part of a regular shift -- and not the DWI detail. But the trooper was on the lookout for impaired-driving cues, too, he said, like the cigarette flicked out a window, or the vehicles drifting right.

"I kind of pride myself on it," Schroepfer, 30, said of his dedication to pulling impaired drivers off the road. For him, the issue is not just professional, he said, but personal, too.

On the road

About six years ago, when Schroepfer was a Meeker County sheriff's deputy, a cousin who was then a high school junior died in a crash less than a mile from his home. He had been drinking. So, too, Schroepfer said, had been another cousin who would spend four years in prison for killing a 6-year-old when he was drunk.

Being an officer of the law, Schroepfer was asked to speak at the high school student's funeral.

"That one was pretty tough," he said last week.

Schroepfer now offers instruction in conducting field-sobriety tests and recognizing drug use. At the crash scene outside the Lowry Hill Tunnel, he said, the giveaway had been the woman's pupils, which were dilated.

"There's something more here than alcohol," Schroepfer recalled telling the 21-year-old -- to which she replied, "Yeah, I took an Ecstasy," he said.

He related the story following a drive along Hwy. 62, during which the sight of a motorist crossing a white line prompted him to turn on his squad-car camera, and to begin filming the vehicle's movements. Within a minute or so, however, the motorist had "straightened up," the trooper said, and there was no further need for surveillance.

Personally, Schroepfer said, he's seen a few trends in his five years as a trooper, one being the growing number of female offenders. (The percentages have shown a steady rise statewide since 1991, according to public safety spokesman Nathan Bowie, with women representing 23 percent of the 38,635 arrests in 2007, compared with 17 percent of 32,466 arrests in 1991.)

Schroepfer said his experience has been that most women don't drink beer, and women are more likely than men to argue their point.

"I only had two," they often say. "I can't be drunk."

As he exited Hwy. 100 in Golden Valley, the squad-car radio, which had been quiet for much of the past hour, reported someone was seen weaving on Hwy. 62.

"That figures," said the trooper, anxious for action. "We were just down there."

Anthony Lonetree • 651-298-1545