STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
A9
Bend-area DUII busts on the rise
More enforcement
equals more arrests,
according to police
By GARRETT ANDREWS
and ZACK DEMARS
The Bulletin
BEND — Zach Childers
gets a sense about driv-
ers within a few seconds of
talking to them. That was the
case Wednesday night when
Childers, a Bend Police
DUII enforcement officer,
patrolled Bend’s streets for
intoxicated drivers as part
of the department’s renewed
effort to target them. The
effort includes an emphasis
on intoxicating substances
other than alcohol.
The first four driv-
ers Childers stopped that
night were released after he
checked their names for war-
rants. He’s after impaired
driving and will only cite
traffic offenses if they’re
egregious, meaning if you’re
driving sober in Bend, you
want Childers, 34, to pull
you over more than any other
officer.
Not a fan of waiting in
“hidey holes,” Childers pre-
fers to be proactive and out
on the road before there’s a
crash.
“I don’t do well sitting in
one spot, waiting for that one
person to drive past me,” he
said. “And I’ve found if I’m
sitting in one place for more
than five minutes, I’m losing
my mind from boredom.”
The time of day isn’t a big
factor, and Childers likes to
search for impaired drivers
on highly traveled roads.
He watches for the sort
of traffic violations he says
are indicative of impairment
from either drugs or alcohol:
driving way too fast or way
too slow, fluctuating speed,
weaving back and forth, roll-
ing through stop signs and
red lights.
Childers is a highly visible
part of Bend Police’s DUII
enforcement strategy after a
major drop in DUII arrests
in the early part of the pan-
demic. DUII arrests in Cen-
tral Oregon are rising since
a low point in 2020, and an
increasing share of arrests
are for controlled-substance
DUIIs or a combination of
drugs and alcohol.
At one point Wednes-
day night, one driver tested
Childers’ ability to identify
impairment.
With slurred speech and
glassy eyes, the man said his
unusual eye movements were
the symptom of a traumatic
brain injury, not alcohol or
drugs. With more observa-
tion, Childers determined he
was telling the truth.
During another stop
that night, impairment was
clearer. Childers was called
Graphic by ALAN KENAGA for The Bulletin/Bend Bulletin
Garrett Andrews/The Bulletin
Bend officer Zach Childers enters information into an Intoxilyzer breath test machine at the Bend
police station. Assigned to catch intoxicated drivers, Childers said he’s seeing an increasing num-
ber of DUIIs involving drugs other than alcohol.
to a crash on NE 8th Ave-
nue, where community ser-
vice officers believed one of
the drivers could be impaired.
Despite displaying “every
possible” sign of impairment,
the man maintained he’d had
nothing to drink. He was
arrested and taken to the sta-
tion, where he refused to take
a breath test for alcohol, mean-
ing he’ll automatically lose his
license for a year.
Still, Childers said that
arrest was just a drop in the
bucket.
“I won’t even try to guess
how many people are out there
driving impaired,” Childers
said. “I will say that we miss
significantly more than we
catch.”
Some defense attorneys
say the department’s increased
enforcement has meant more
questionable DUII cases —
some with a blood alcohol
content of 0.00% — and more
clients feeling pressured to
settle cases they could win at
trial.
While a 0.08% blood alco-
hol content is the legal limit
to drive in Oregon, it’s a com-
mon misconception that it’s
the only way to get a DUII.
The ultimate question, in court
or on the roadside, is whether
a person’s ability to drive was
adversely affected by intoxi-
cation, and showing a blood
alcohol level of 0.08% is just
one way to do this.
Bend defense attorney
Bryan Donahue said law
enforcement uses the law’s
vagueness and complexity
to threaten innocent people
into taking pleas or entering
diversion programs.
“We have very aggressive
enforcement
mechanisms
designed to create crimi-
nals,” Donahue said. “Many
people who aren’t guilty will
do diversion to mitigate.
Countless clients enter it out
of fear.”
Dedicated position
In March, officer Kyle
Chaquico was named Bend
Police Department’s first
dedicated DUII enforcement
officer, tasked with looking
for impaired drivers during
his shifts, and nothing else.
Three months later, Childers
joined him on the newly
formed DUII and Aggressive
Driving Enforcement Team.
They tend to work the
swing shift. Childers likes to
start by taking a few “laps”
downtown, so patio diners
get a good look at “DUII
ENFORCEMENT” embla-
zoned on the side of his Ford
Explorer. Chaquico — son of
Jefferson Starship guitarist
Craig Chaquico — wants to
experiment with the success
of patrolling in an unmarked
car.
While Childers has other
duties that sometimes keep
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him off the road, Chaquico,
with no such distractions,
averages around one DUII
arrest per shift. He has more
than 120 in 2021.
Chaquico and Childers
have received advanced
training in identifying signs
of impairment. Childers,
who’s gone through Drug
Recognition Expert train-
ing at the state police acad-
emy, is trained to spot the
impairing effects of different
substances.
Childers said Wednes-
day that seven of his previ-
ous 10 DUII arrests involved
a controlled substance. Some
of those won’t be reflected in
statistics as controlled-sub-
stance DUIIs because the
drivers also had blood alco-
hol levels above 0.08% and
he based the citations on the
blood alcohol level and not
the drugs, which are harder
to prove.
Despite these challenges,
controlled-substance DUIIs
are rising, after Deschutes
County experienced the
third-largest drop in DUII
arrests in Oregon during the
pandemic.
It could be due to more
controlled-substance
use
by the public in response to
decriminalization and the
lifting of a taboo, accord-
ing to Andrew Doyle, a pros-
ecutor with the Deschutes
County District Attorney’s
office specializing in traffic
crime.
“One thing for sure is
cops and lawyers are get-
ting better at controlled-sub-
stance DUIIs,” Doyle said.
Younger members of both
professions now receive bet-
ter training based on a scien-
tific understanding of what
substances do to the body.
“Before, attorneys would
see a DUII come in with a
0.00% BAC and no-file it.
Now, more attorneys are
willing to do it,” Doyle said.
‘No line in the sand’
In Oregon, someone
with a blood alcohol level
over the legal limit is pre-
sumed to be impaired under
the law. But with controlled
substances, like meth or
marijuana, there’s no figure
associated with impairment.
“I can’t go into court
and say, ‘This person had
12 nanograms of THC in
his body and the law says
if he’s over 5 nanograms,
he’s impaired,’” Doyle
said. “There’s no line in
the sand with controlled
substances.”
Another wrinkle with
proving a controlled-sub-
stance DUII is testing.
Urine tests, used instead
of blood tests in many
cases, only show the pres-
ence of drugs in a person’s
body, not the amount or
when they were taken.
“The reason that these
cases are so challenging
and that people have such
strong opinions on them is
that, yeah, it comes down a
subjective judgment call,”
Doyle said. “With alcohol,
you can just point to the
number, even if they were
driving fine.”
Doyle expects the spread
of body cameras will help
prove more controlled-sub-
stance DUIIs.
“Some DUIIs on paper
don’t look too bad. Then
you watch the body cam
footage and it clicks: the
person is impaired,” he
said. “It can show people
literally falling asleep.”
New attorneys often
work traffic cases, so do a
lot of the best trial lawyers.
That’s because DUIIs are
complex, highly specialized
and often go to trial, where
juries can go either way.
“For many people in
the U.S., driving after hav-
ing a few too many drinks
is something they’ve done.
But maybe they haven’t
sold a pound of meth,”
Doyle said. “There are lots
of cases at the trial level
where you really have a
chance to convince the
jury. A lot of your panel
has engaged in, if not in the
same conduct, something
similar.”
But a skilled trial attor-
ney is expensive — and
it’s one of many expenses
associated with a DUII,
including a yearlong driver
license suspension. Traffic
crimes remain one of the
only convictions that aren’t
expungable.
Because of those costs,
many clients prefer to divert
their cases instead of stand-
ing trial, meaning officers
are more likely to make
questionable arrests they
know won’t be challenged,
defense attorneys say.
Deschutes County Dis-
trict Attorney John Hum-
mel said what law enforce-
ment decides to police is
a reflection of values. He
thinks arrests and prosecu-
tions can act as a deterrent
but also that there are many
more impaired drivers than
ever get arrested.
“Look, the biggest driver
in DUII arrests is enforce-
ment,” he said. “If we say
so, there could be zero DUII
arrests tomorrow. Also if we
say so, there could be 200
DUII arrests tomorrow.”
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