They Keep the Cheer in Check

Torrey Rodgers rang in the new year doing the thing he loves best: arresting a suspected drunk driver.

“I enjoy it,” said Rodgers, 31, who’s been a California Highway Patrol officer in Orange County for 2 1/2 years. “My goal is to protect the public by getting [impaired drivers] off the road before they can do any damage.”

He had a very enjoyable shift on New Year’s Eve: Not only did Rodgers and partner Scott Laverty arrest someone at precisely the stroke of midnight, but they also got to make another arrest for drunkenness and assault.

“I like working graveyard more than any other shift due to arresting drunk drivers,” Rodgers said.

The New Year’s shift began like any other, with an 8:45 p.m. briefing at the patrol’s Santa Ana headquarters.

“Watch yourselves tonight,” Sgt. Ron Brame told the 15 assembled officers. “Have fun and be safe. And, oh, yes: Stay in your cars around midnight -- [people] are notorious for shooting guns in the air. It will be raining metal.”

Then the hunt began. With Rodgers at the wheel, the pair’s patrol car nosed into the labyrinth of Orange County freeways. On a typical weekend night, the partners say, they arrest two or three suspected drunk drivers. New Year’s Eve is “more like a busy Saturday night,” Sgt. Mark Webster later says, “because there are so many [anti-drinking] programs now.”

The partners’ first stop occurs about 9:30 p.m. A car is doing 90 mph on the Santa Ana Freeway in Tustin. Using a loudspeaker, the officers instruct the driver to exit on Newport Avenue before pulling him over. Laverty asks him for proof of insurance, then holds a finger in front of his eyes.

“Follow my finger,” he says, moving it slowly back and forth. The man’s eyes are steady, an indication that he’s sober. Laverty cites him for speeding and sends him away.

The next stop is a broken-down van on the Costa Mesa Freeway. Rodgers and Laverty pull up behind it to question the driver. His pupils are slow to react when a flashlight is shone in his face. He has difficulty standing on one leg and can barely walk a straight line.

“We’re at the point now where I feel something’s going on,” Laverty tells him.

But the man passes a Breathalyzer test with flying colors. He must be very tired or on some sort of medication, the officers conclude; nothing to do but let him be and move on.

They get their big break at 11:50 p.m. A brand new silver Toyota Camry is doing 95 mph on the northbound Orange Freeway in Fullerton. The officers instruct the driver to exit on Imperial Highway -- then, because it’s so close to midnight and they fear bullets raining from the sky, they have her pull into a gas station and park under the safety of its overhang.

“Did you have anything to drink?” Laverty asks the driver, a 21-year-old woman from Ontario. She answers yes, then fails every test. She has trouble walking. Her eyes twitch back and forth. And when she finally takes the field breath test, according to Laverty, she blows 0.11% -- significantly above the 0.08% blood-alcohol level that’s legal.

“She didn’t tell me that she’d been drinking before,” says the woman’s friend, explaining that they had been at a party. “If she had, I wouldn’t have let her drive. We wanted to get home before midnight to hug our parents -- it’s our tradition.”

Now, as the skies light up with fireworks marking the new year’s arrival, the officers put the driver in handcuffs.

“This is the first time she’s been arrested,” the friend says. “I’m bummed. This is a bad way to start out the year.”

Laverty and Rodgers drive the arrestee to headquarters, while the friend follows in her car. There, handcuffed to a table, she is fingerprinted and has her blood drawn. Finally, her license is confiscated, and the friend drives her home.

“We may have saved her life,” Rodgers says.

It’s still early; the partners’ shift doesn’t end until 6:15 a.m. They don’t know it yet, but there’s more excitement to come: a high-speed chase involving five units and a car whose driver will escape on foot; another traffic stop or two; and the adrenaline-pumping arrest -- with guns drawn -- of a passenger who allegedly tried to choke a driver and his girlfriend from the back seat of their car.

The officers are prepared for anything as they refasten their seat belts and head for the road.

“I’m ready to go back out,” Rodgers declares when asked how he feels. “The night is still young.”