DUNCANSVILLE — Sixteen Blair County municipal police officers Thursday received refresher training on conducting field sobriety testing and dealing with drivers mandated to use ignition interlocks — followed by a roving enforcement detail.

The “Red, White and Sober” enforcement detail is to take place at various times and locations throughout the holiday weekend in the county, according to Duncansville Police Chief Rod Estep, co-coordinator of the Blair County DUI Task Force, which hosted the event, along with PennDOT and the Pennsylvania DUI Association.

Refresher instruction for field sobriety testing occurs periodically for officers, but it’s usually conducted out of the area, while coupling it with an enforcement detail is unique here, according to Estep.

After the instruction by association trainers, the local officers were slated to conduct the enforcement in pairs, using eight cruisers, Estep said.

With standardized field sobriety testing, officers instruct individuals they stop for suspected impairment due to erratic driving, and may further detain perhaps due to red, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, in a series of actions whose mental and physical requirements are similar to the demands of driving, according to Estep.

Drivers subjected to such testing may be instructed to walk heel-to-toe for nine steps in a straight line, then back again, then to stand on one leg while counting by one thousands to 30, hands to their sides — while also being inspected for “horizontal gaze nystagmus” — involuntary sideways movements of the eyes caused by alcohol, inhalants and dissociative anesthetics like ketamine.

Passing the field sobriety test requires multi-tasking, as does driving, with its demands for accelerating, braking, using the back-view and side-view mirrors, being aware of vehicles in front, to the side and in the rear, while negotiating curves and stopping for red lights and avoiding pedestrians, according to Estep.

Impaired individuals tend to be slow in refocusing attention from one thing to another, Estep said.

Officers aren’t only looking for the effects of alcohol, but also of drugs, including medications, and medical conditions — and of the impediments that come from age, according to Estep.

Officers who need extra expertise to judge issues that arise during stops can summon an advanced roadside impaired detection enforcement officer or a drug recognition expert, which are available around the clock.

While the national news in the last several years has highlighted various traffic stops that have gone fatally wrong, and while Estep has experienced some “hairy” traffic stops himself, the overwhelming majority of such stops in his 23 years as an officer have been trouble-free, he said, at a rate of about 2,500 to one.

Still, officers are trained to be vigilant at all times while on duty, and especially when those duties require them to come in contact with strangers, he said.

They’re trained to never go into a situation assuming it will be safe, Estep said, but they’re also trained not to approach encounters on the assumption they’ll need to fight.

The best way to avoid problems is to treat subjects with respect, he said.

“Typically, it’s reciprocated,” he said. “Mutual human respect.”

That helps ensure a friendly conversation that doesn’t escalate, he said.

Still, officers are trained to take protective measures at traffic stops, directing drivers when possible into parking lots, away from fast-moving traffic, and stationing themselves behind the middle posts of stopped vehicles, so those can function as a shield, he said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.