The Washington Post
January 8, 2003 Wednesday
Final Edition
Police Raid Bars for Sobriety Checks
BYLINE: Carol Morello, Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B08
LENGTH: 876 words
As the designated driver in her dinner party, Pat Habib was
careful to consume no more than one alcoholic drink and follow it up with two
sodas.
So she was shocked when a police officer singled her out of
the crowd at Jimmy's Old Town Tavern in Herndon and asked her to step outside
to prove her sobriety. After she ran through the alphabet without pause, the
Fairfax County police officer let her go and explained police had received a
complaint about an unruly blond woman matching her description. Then she
watched as police tested other women looking nothing like her.
"I could see it if they wanted to prevent you from
getting into a car, but they didn't even ask me if I was driving," Habib
said.
Habib was among restaurant and bar patrons swept up last
month in a joint operation of the Fairfax County police and the Virginia
Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. During the holiday period, undercover
agents went to 20 bars in Reston and Herndon looking for examples of bartenders
"overserving" customers. Police ultimately raided three bars and
arrested nine patrons who failed sobriety tests. They were charged with public
drunkenness and spent the night in jail.
Police consider the operation a success and said they would
consider doing it again. Lt. Tor Bennett, assistant commander of the Reston
District station, described it as a "low-key" operation designed to
stop drunks before they got behind the wheel.
"We're not talking about someone who was enjoying a
cocktail or two and enjoying a nice evening out," Bennett said, noting
that the nine men arrested had blood-alcohol levels ranging from 0.14 to 0.22.
"They drew attention to themselves by their actions."
But civil libertarians, restaurateurs and many of their
customers who were either questioned or arrested have decried the police
tactic. They said many people who were drinking responsibly and causing no
commotion now have the Class 4 misdemeanor of public intoxication on their
record, and many more potential customers were scared away for good out of fear
that a drink or two could get them arrested.
"It does smack of a pending police state if law
enforcement is going into establishments to monitor behavior," said Lynne
Breaux, executive director of the Metropolitan Washington Restaurant
Association. "At the same time, we strongly oppose any combination of
drinking and driving."
Under Virginia law, a restaurant or bar is a public place,
and public intoxication is a low-level misdemeanor punishable by a night in
jail and up to a $ 250 fine.
Kent Willis of the Virginia branch of the American Civil
Liberties Union said the law does not specify what level of blood alcohol
constitutes public drunkenness. The level for drunken driving is 0.08.
Police said the holiday raids, first reported in the Reston
Times, were born of a community policing goal of discouraging crime before it
occurs. Bennett said police had been called repeatedly to the three bars in
response to fights and disorderly conduct. Undercover agents found no problems
in 17 other bars they visited before Christmas, he said. And four of the men
arrested were on their way to their cars when police stopped them, he said.
"We're not talking about overzealousness here,"
Bennett said, adding that uniformed police officers who made the arrests were
accompanied by members of the police bicycle patrol clad in nylon pants and
polo shirts.
But bartenders and patrons saw it differently.
At Ned DeVine's restaurant in Reston, owner Graham Davies
said seven or eight police officers "came bursting into the place."
"If they decided you had too much to drink, you were targeted,"
Davies said, acknowledging that he believed the three customers who were
arrested at his tavern probably had too much to drink.
"The police are within their rights. I can't disagree
with what they want to do, which is save lives. But I disagree with the way
they did it."
At Champps in Reston, general manager Kevin O'Hare described
police as "antagonistic." He said they "pulled" people from
their chairs who were making no commotion. "They're always welcome to come
in anytime," he said of police. "It's not an issue when they talk to
our guests. But when they actually pull people out of their seats, it is an
issue. When it's borderline harassment, it's an issue."
One man who was arrested during one of the police raids
acknowledged having several drinks during the course of the afternoon, but said
he was not driving or acting unruly as he sat at a table with several work
colleagues. He had just finished singing "Jingle Bell Rock" on the
karaoke machine when an officer asked him to step outside. He failed a breath
test and was taken in a van to jail.
"I've lived my life with tremendous respect for the
rule of law," said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he
is contesting the charges.
Now his respect is tarnished.
"You could be anybody, anywhere, and they can take you
out and throw you in jail," he said. ". . .I didn't do anything other
than to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Katherine K. Hanley (D), chairman of the Fairfax County
Board of Supervisors, said the operation was a tool to reduce drunken driving
and would be evaluated before it is repeated.