| | Published July 4th, 2012
| Officers on the Look-Out for Drivers Under the Influence
| | By Sophie Braccini | | |
I was driving normally along Moraga Road around 11 p.m. last Friday night when suddenly appeared in my rear-view mirror a monster-like figure, huge in the glow of blinking red and blue lights, with a blinding white eye on the side. It took only a fraction of a second to identify the beast: it's a police car and I've been busted. But why? I was not speeding, my lights work, and I was not talking on the phone or driving erratically. Immediately feeling defensive, I waited long seconds for the Moraga police officer to appear in my window.
She was young, friendly, and not threatening in any way. Even as she shined her light right in my eyes, my blood pressure came down a notch. My infraction? I had my fog lights on - it was my husband's car, so a little unfamiliar. But it reminded me of a comment that Moraga Police Chief Bob Priebe made a few weeks ago about the highly motivated and passionate personnel who the Department recently hired.
The officer who stopped me, Krista Koppinger, is one of the new officers who have been assigned to the night shift since May 20, along with rookie Tom Smith, Moraga's newest officer who is still in field training, and veteran officer Russ Douthit.
According to Priebe, between May 20 and June 5 the department made 12 DUI arrests. "I attribute this to a combination of new employees with a passion for their new profession and veteran officers being inspired by the rookies," he said. "Of particular note, one of our consistent leaders in DUI enforcement, Russ Douthit, made a DUI arrest on a Sunday morning (2:17 a.m.) after a pickup was speeding 94 m.p.h. on Moraga Way near Camino Ricardo. The pickup skidded to a stop at the dead end of Moraga Way, coming to rest a few feet from the guardrail. The driver was also unlicensed," explained Priebe.
Koppinger puts her heart into her work. "I stop of lot of people; anything that catches my eye," she explained. She wants to be pro-active and keep the community safe, especially from drunk drivers. "It's good to get people who are under the influence off the street," she said. "A lot of people don't know their own limits. Arrests reduce drunken driving fatalities."
She believes that education and prevention are parts of her role. "On Thursday night I was surveying the park and saw someone who was clearly intoxicated," Koppinger recalled. "I recommended he take a taxi rather than risking a DUI."
Koppinger likes working at night, although she acknowledges that it takes some time for the metabolism to adjust. "I never get scared," she said. "I have been trained for all kinds of situations and if I judge that an individual might be dangerous, I call for reinforcement from Orinda or Lafayette," Koppinger said, adding that officers watch each others' backs.
Slow down Lamorinda-motivated officers are on the look-out.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA