Stagger, You’re on a Patrol Car’s Video Camera : Crime: Starting tonight, San Diego police and sheriff’s deputies will tape suspected drunk drivers as a means of capturing evidence.

Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, the San Diego Police and Sheriff’s departments Thursday introduced their latest weapon in the fight against drunk driving: 38 video cameras that will capture evidence on film, from the sobriety test to the arrest.

“We can do what we couldn’t do before,” Bill Kolender, president of the San Diego Crime Commission and former chief of police, said at a news conference. “We can record the actions.”

The 38 cameras, donated to the departments by Aetna Life & Casualty, are being billed as a deterrent to driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Furthermore, the program, known as “Eye on DUI,” is expected to decrease the number of court trials involving drunk driving, increase the number of guilty pleas and lower insurance costs.

“Everyone in San Diego pays a high price for drunk drivers,” said Bill Gregory, general manager of Aetna Health Plans. “That price is human tragedy, crashes and higher insurance costs.”

The cameras, which will be in use tonight, have been mounted in the front seats of 18 sheriff’s cars and 20 police cars. They will be used in patrol cars throughout the city of San Diego and San Diego County. The cameras can also be removed from the car to film outside.

Police officers and sheriff’s deputies will be able to activate the camera by pushing a button. Sounds will be picked up through a microphone attached to the officer’s or deputy’s shirt.

Sheriff Jim Roache said officers will begin videotaping each time they stop a driver. Although the videotape is aimed at convicting drunk drivers, it could act as a valuable piece of evidence in other crimes, he said.

In one incident in Texas, a patrol car camera captured the stabbing death of a constable, said Robert Carruthers, a spokesman for Aetna.

Cameras have proved successful as deterrents in other states, Carruthers said.

After a year of the cameras’ use in Columbus, Ohio, 89% of the Sheriff Department’s taped arrests resulted in convictions, compared to a 77% conviction rate previously. The Columbus Police Department’s conviction rate increased from 79% to 86% with taped arrests, Carruthers said.

Although some have voiced concern that the process is an invasion of privacy and violates a person’s civil liberties, Aetna and law enforcement officials say the process is perfectly legal. A spokeswoman with the American Civil Liberties Union was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Still, the cameras, which cost $1,285 each and are used in 25 states, are praised by many.

“We certainly feel that this will be a boon to the prosecution of drunk-driving offenders,” said Natalie Greetzman, president of the San Diego County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “We are very glad they’ve been provided to law enforcement agencies in San Diego. Anything that contributes to a speedy conviction will act in the long run as a deterrent to other would-be drunk drivers.”

Greetzman’s daughter was killed by a drunk driver six years ago.

To date, one drunk-driving arrest has been made in San Diego County with the use of a camera.

Deputy Jack Smith videotaped and arrested a woman in Santee on Wednesday night.

“The camera is a good tool used by traffic investigators to arrest the drunk driver and to limit the amount of time we’ll spend in court,” Smith said. “I really do think it’s going to drastically cut down the time an officer has to spend in court, giving us more time on the street to get drunk drivers off the road.”

Capturing evidence on film has become popular among law enforcement agencies here. The National City Police Department recently announced a program to photograph people speeding and then send them a ticket by mail.

This Memorial Day weekend, San Diego police will videotape public drunks at local beaches.

In another effort to deter drunk driving this weekend, the California Highway Patrol will beef up its presence countywide beginning today and hold sobriety checkpoints in Oceanside and National City on Saturday night, the agency said.

The CHP will deploy 70% of its available staff from 6 p.m. today until 6 a.m. Tuesday, said John Marinez, an agency spokesman. The location and hours of the sobriety checkpoints will not be announced until two hours before they open, Marinez said.

There were 207 drunk-driving arrests and four drunk-driving-related fatalities during last year’s Memorial Day weekend, Marinez said. In 1989, there were 224 arrests and three fatalities during the same holiday period, he said.