Folsom officer targets drunk drivers

By Steffi Broski
CNS Staff Writer

Folsom Police Officer Paul Rice has amassed such a record for arresting drivers under the influence that some wonder if he patrols the streets 24 hours a day.

Rice has been awarded by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for his 52 DUI arrests in 2007 and 92 in 2008. Last year, he arrested more than 20 percent of all DUIs in Folsom. So far, his record for this year includes more than 40 DUI arrests.

“That guy is a machine,” said Rice’s colleague and traffic officer Robert Challoner.

Rice grew up in El Dorado County, where he still lives, and he started working for the Folsom Police Department in 2007. Today, he works graveyard from 9:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. He spends most of his 10-hour shifts cruising near Folsom’s bars and restaurants.

“We have that big cluster of bars down the street,” he said, pointing to Sutter Street. “Only one in six people going to the bars actually are from Folsom. Most are from Sacramento or Rancho Cordova.”

Since Folsom does not have an “enormous drug problem or gang problem,” much of his job consists of DUI arrests. And he has seen it all, from the people so drunk that they fall out of their cars when pulled over to the ones who pass out in their vehicles.

“That’s one of the things I don’t get,” he said. “If you pass out behind the wheel with 1.25, you are ridiculously intoxicated. You would have to spend 8 to 9 hours in the car until you are even close to the legal limit. But are you really going to wait until 9 in the morning?”

Rice has perfected the art of distanced, no-games-please policing. When he talks to a drunk driver, he is respectful and calm. Challoner admires his colleague’s style.

“You have to detach yourself,” said Challoner. “My personal way of coping is that I think of me as a zookeeper taking care of animals. I don’t mean that in a degrading way, but I look at it scientifically. The way they behave is because of certain reasons.”

When the officers pull over intoxicated drivers, the excuses are plenty. I was only going a couple of blocks. I only had a couple of drinks. My driving wasn’t bad.

“You’d be surprised how many people ask me to just follow them home,” said Rice.

Don Koupal, Rice’s father-in-law and fellow traffic officer, said though every situation is different, the typical response from an intoxicated driver is that he or she only had two beers; unfortunately “it’s usually more than that,” he said.

Officers are only allowed to pull over a vehicle if the driver breaks the law. Officers are not allowed to stop drivers just because they left a bar, but they can pull over those who do not use the turn signal, have a broken headlight or show signs of erratic driving.

“The first thing to go with alcohol is judgment. It’s not that they weren’t sober enough to drive a car in a straight line, but when they wanted to make a turn, they thought it was earlier or later. Or it’s a yellow (light), and they think they can still make it,” Rice said.

That light often changes to red quicker than anticipated, Rice said. Sometimes, drivers see his police car behind them and immediately pull into a parking lot. If they have nothing to hide, he wonders, why did they do that?

Challoner said though most vehicle stops are not dangerous, some people are grouchy or belligerent.

Rice said any car he pulls over could be dangerous “but you just do your job and be wary.”

In his off-duty hours, said Rice, he doesn’t think too much about the possibility of sharing the road with a driver under the influence.

But when Rice drives around on his own time, he looks at people in other cars. It’s kind of a habit, he said.

“It just comes with the job,” he said.