Fred Alvarez, citing the abundance of parties this time of year.
The federal government funds the checkpoints and San Bernardino’s grant, Cervantes said, requires them to hold at least one enforcement operation during the holiday season.
Sometimes DUI suspects will stop past the limit line at an intersection or run a red light. Back on the road, Bradley pulls over to grab a burrito from Taqueria El Grullense on Sacramento Street, then pulls into a quiet lot on Lockeford Street to watch traffic and eat dinner. His final tally for the night was five cars pulled over, two DUI suspects arrested and two arrests made for outstanding warrants.
When the average citizen gets behind the wheel, the focus is all about the destination -- getting from Point A to Point B.
The only thing separating a misdemeanor DUI and a felony offense is that the misdemeanor cases don't hurt anyone else, he said.
That makes for a long and unforgiving workday. San Bernardino tends to have eight to 10 officers working the patrols, costing roughly $7,400 in grant money per operation, according to Cervantes.
Now he's a patrol officer, a member of the auxiliary bike team and a public information officer.
Ontario and San Bernardino hosted checkpoints Friday but the majority of the 58 enforcement details are saturation patrols, reflecting a larger trend of departments choosing patrols over checkpoints, which require more manpower and space.
A few minutes after 6:30 p.m., Bradley was seatbelted into his cruiser and scanning the treeline in Lawrence Park with a car-mounted flashlight. Their 58 details are part of 338 checkpoint and saturation patrols that will occur this holiday season in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and Ventura counties.
For example, San Bernardino hosted 18 or 20 checkpoints in 2013 and 12 in 2014, according to Cervantes.
While on that Saturday night patrol, Bradley noticed groups of people walking home from Downtown, and climbing into cabs outside of bars and tasting rooms.
Saturation patrols, in contrast, send the officers out to streets, allowing them to concentrate just on the drivers who show signs of intoxication.
"I enjoy doing (DUI patrols) because I think when cops arrest a DUI suspect, they are preventing a felony from occurring," Bradley said.
“We’re going to do our best to keep the people safe this holiday season,” said Vicki Cervantes, a San Bernardino police traffic sergeant, who was also working a checkpoint Friday night.. If drivers passed the brief test, they were waved through. For DUIs, that's the major thoroughfares of Lodi.
During the patrols, officers drive around town, usually in high-trafficked areas or near nightlife, and search for driver’s showing signs of impairment.
At a brightly lit intersection, an officer asked to see a driver’s license, gave a subtle sniff of the motorist’s breath and looked for any obvious signs of intoxication. He was promoted to corporal in February. Let's see what we get," Bradley said.
Bradley is happy to keep pulling dangerous drivers off the road, no matter what monetary costs they might have to pay. Loud music blares through the speakers from the FM 98.5 Rock radio station.
That's the organization that funds dozens of DUI checkpoints every year, where police officers set up shop in the middle of the road to check licenses and talk to drivers face-to-face.
While on patrol, Bradley searches for intoxicated drivers using a kind of hybrid technique.
They're driving badly. "That makes me feel like we as police officers are doing our jobs and getting the right messages out."
AN ARREST IN THE FIELD
The shift ran over time by two hours, keeping Bradley away from home and a warm bed until after 4:30 a.m. Saturday to 2:30 a.m. The driver was instructed more to walk heel to toe for nine steps, turn around and walk back. Her foot hit the ground several times, and she didn't estimate the time passing properly.
"It is one of my favorite activities that I really hope one day I don't have to do anymore," Bradley said.
This doesn't account for other potential expenses, including lost work time, any bail fees, or the costs of injury or damage a driver convicted of a DUI might have caused.
If any other officers on the shift pulled over a drunken driving suspect, they were instructed to call Bradley and get read more him on the case.
The woman's result was well over the legal limit of 0.08 blood-alcohol content, even after several tests. Then Bradley slowly moved his finger toward her nose and watched as the woman tried to keep her eyes focused on it. But with the help of one of the woman's friends standing nearby, Bradley administered the test.
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Those answers are never clear ahead of time, but this is actually an ideal shift for Bradley.
"I can only assume people are walking because they want to be safe, and (don't want) to risk their lives or other people's lives by driving," he said. It could potentially save lives, he said.
Ontario generally staffs between four and 13 officers for a saturation patrol. That means they might take a very wide or a very tight turn, sometimes sideswiping another vehicle.
Friday night’s checkpoint in Ontario was one of 58 DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols police in San Bernardino County have scheduled for December as part of an aggressive “Winter Holiday DUI Campaign.”
Next, a balance test. Bradley approached her and began a round of simple tests.
But when Lodi police Cpl. Depending on a court's decision, the woman could face between four days and six months in county jail, $1,800 to $4,000 in fines and penalties, three to five years of probation and a required class of three, six or nine months.
Then there's sit-and-wait, where Bradley parks in a quiet lot on a busy street and closely watches cars passing by.
While heading south on Cherokee Lane from Turner Road at around 8 p.m., Bradley spotted a car that showed at least three signs the driver could be under the influence.
HITTING THE STREETS
"It's a full moon out tonight behind those clouds. The grants pay officers read more overtime to work the enforcement operations.
On a recent Saturday night, Bradley took on an extra shift to conduct a DUI saturation patrol. He pulled the yellow box containing the testing kit out of the back of his Explorer.
A Lodi man is currently awaiting trial for an October 2013 collision that took the lives of six members of the Miranda family: the father, the mother, her unborn child and three young children. These are the kinds of cases Bradley hopes DUI patrols can prevent. Like anyone else out hunting, officers have to look where the highest concentration of targets is likely to be. A report had come in of an intoxicated man walking near the park, but there was no one around who matched the description.
Both the checkpoints and patrols do not decrease the amount of officers on regular patrol. His time was paid for by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.
"If I don't locate a DUI, it makes me wonder how many I missed," he said.
Finally, a walking test. Eric Bradley climbs into the front seat of his department-issued Ford Explorer, he has a different mission in mind: to locate potentially dangerous drivers and get them off the road.
Bradley has lived in Lodi for 10 years, but has been a member of the Lodi Police Department for 14 years. Or they'll do the opposite: Stop at a green light, or lingering too long at a stop sign as though they are waiting for the light to change.
From 6:30 p.m. During his time on the police force, he has served on patrol, worked gang enforcement and spent more than six years as a member of various investigative units.
Thanks to these patrols and the ever-watchful eyes of officers on patrol, Lodi police arrested 282 people on DUI charges in 2013.
First, the eye test. Sunday, Bradley's entire focus was on watching for erratically moving cars and assessing potentially intoxicated drivers.
To Bradley, that's a job well read more done.
Or maybe it means the police department is doing well in educating the public.
There's free patrol, where he drives up and down Ham Lane, Kettleman Lane, Cherokee Lane and Lower Sacramento Road, as well as a few of the busier side streets and through Downtown.
There, she was booked into the jail for a few hours. The woman stood on one leg while facing upward with her eyes closed and counting out read more 30 seconds. Or tried to. Bradley held up a finger and the driver followed it with her eyes. Ryan Morales will be arraigned on counts of second-degree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence.
Oh, and one meth pipe thrown out the window of a car just before Bradley pulled it over.
When the driver pulled a fast left turn into the Franco's Pizza parking lot, failing to yield to oncoming traffic and forcing other drivers to slam on their brakes, Bradley flipped on his lights and followed.
Between moments of adrenaline-fueled activity, this is the shift: staying calm and watching closely.
“The holidays read more are kind of the high peak,” said Ontario Cprl. Sunday. If not, police escorted them across the street for further questioning.
“There’s generally more arrests on patrols,” she said.
Bradley knew it was time for a Breathalyzer test. She made it about seven steps, then clumsily lost count and turned too soon.
But what is he looking for? What are these drivers doing that indicate to Bradley that they may have had one too many drinks to be out on the road?
Due to a language barrier and the woman's inebriated state, it was difficult to explain the test. Drunken drivers tend to be incapable of maintaining a steady speed, and have a hard time judging distances. Would these long hours lead to any arrests? And what other kinds of criminal activity might Bradley run into while pulling over suspicious vehicles?
A woman in a black jacket and jeans stepped out of the driver's seat, unaware that a police officer had pulled up behind her. It didn't work.
San Bernardino County’s operations are part of a larger crackdown on impaired drivers. Bradley arrested her, called in backup to deal with her car, and took the woman to the police station on Elm Street.
He compared being on patrol to a kind of urban hunting trip
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