COSTA MESA : Top Drunk-Nabbers Honored by MADD

Officers Karl Schuler and Mike Cohen remember nights when the back seat of their patrol car was full of folks--all drunk-driving suspects.

In all, Cohen and Schuler arrested 430 people on suspicion of drunk driving while working as partners on a three-month assignment to Costa Mesa’s Drunk Driving Enforcement Team, a record for law enforcement teams in Orange County.

“Think about it,” said Schuler, a 14-year veteran on the force. “We’re just two guys in one patrol car. And when you make that many arrests, you spend a lot of time in the station booking people.

“There must be an uncountable number who get away. There were nights when we would be on our way back to the station with more than one drunk driver in the back seat of the patrol car and we would see another one. One time we had as many as four in the car at once,” Schuler said. “We arrested one guy twice: once during the beginning of our watch in April and again near the end of our assignment in June. He remembered us.”

Cohen said that several drivers they arrested were apprehended again by the next team of Costa Mesa police officers assigned to the special patrol.

“People aren’t getting the message somehow. We could go right out there again and arrest just as many, probably more. But still I’m glad to have brought in as many as we did. It saved lives,” he said.

The pair were honored along with other Orange County law enforcement officers Friday night at an awards banquet in Irvine sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Awards were given to officers nominated by their departments for their efforts to curb drunk driving.

Costa Mesa has the highest drunk-driving apprehension rate in the county this year.

Six other officers from the department were honored at the banquet, including partners Marty Carver and Scott May, who have made more than 1,000 drunk-driving arrests in the past two years.

Schuler said the special teams have helped the department fine-tune the arrest procedure. Fellow officers on regular patrol also stop drunk-driving suspects and then call in the enforcement team to handle the sobriety test and booking procedure.

“It was a total team effort with everybody’s time utilized effectively. Even the clerical staff helps out by typing reports we dictate instead of writing them up ourselves.”

Schuler credits the streamlined paper work system designed by Police Chief David Snowden for helping make the arrests stick.

“The drunk-driving arrest form is so simple that even a layman could fill it out right the first time. It keeps us from making paper work errors or neglecting to take down important evidence.” The department has a 95% conviction rate, Schuler said.

“I have only had to appear in court twice so far, and both defendants were convicted,” he said.