Patrolling the roads

Deepa Bharath

Talking to a drunk driver is almost like taking candy away from a

3-year-old.

Costa Mesa Police officers Stephanie Mattiaccia and Joyce LaPointe

endure that situation every night as part of the city’s DUI team.

Together, they have successfully gotten several drunk drivers or even

impaired drivers off the street. The dynamic duo broke most prior records

by arresting 122 drunk drivers since Oct. 24, when they started.

In the last four weeks alone, they made 100 arrests and that is

definitely a record at the Costa Mesa Police Department, their

supervisors say.

The officers insist it is team work. Different officers take turns to

be on the DUI team for periods of three months. Both Mattiaccia, 30, and

LaPointe, 33, have been with Costa Mesa Police for about five years.

“We couldn’t do it all by ourselves,” said Mattiaccia. “We rely on the

officers on patrol to make stops. That really helps us a lot.”

But what really keeps them motivated is the passion to prevent

accidents and save lives. And that doesn’t mean only arresting drivers

who are driving over sidewalks and swerving off the streets.

“We’re not just dealing with falling down drunk drivers,” LaPointe

explained. “Someone can have a blood alcohol level of .05 or .06 that is

still below the legal limit [of .08] and be severely impaired.”

Mattiaccia and LaPointe share the distinction of being the

department’s first all-woman DUI team.

The officers say they have never been in physical fights over DUIs or

been treated differently because of their gender.

But they do get into verbal arguments all the time, Mattiaccia said.

“A lot of them just don’t want to accept they’re doing something

wrong,” she said. “They’re like your toddler -- they cry and kick and

scream. They don’t want to go to jail or get arrested. They want to go

home.”

Recently, they stopped a man who had a blood alcohol level of .19 --

more than twice the legal limit -- who just would not admit it,

Mattiaccia said.

“And he was on his way to pick up his 2-year-old son,” she said. “He

just could not see what he had done wrong.”

How do they deal with all the denial and defensiveness? Infinite

patience, LaPointe says.

“You just let it roll off your back,” she said. “A lot of times,

silence helps. You let them rant and wait till they’re done. And

sometimes, we have even had the occasional arrestees thank us for being

nice and helpful to them.”

Their job is mostly about educating the public, Mattiaccia said.

“We stopped this man the other day who had a .06 but was clearly

impaired,” she said.

“He had three others in the car with him and one woman was sober and

could drive. So we not only made them switch but were able to educate a

car full of people about how dangerous it could be to drive even when

you’re impaired.”

While it is possible for anybody to spot a visibly drunk driver, it

takes a trained eye to catch the less obvious “impaired driver,” the

officers say.

“A lot of times we stop people who are well below the legal limit,”

Mattiaccia said. “But we’re OK with that because it serves as a warning

for those people and possibly prevents them from getting into DUI

accidents.”

They do not usually arrest the impaired drivers except when they get

involved in traffic accidents, LaPointe said.

Costa Mesa ranks among the top 10 cities in the county for DUI-related

accidents. A majority of them involve injuries, officials say.

“The arrests are going up now because of the holiday season and our

main goal now is to make the holidays fatal-free,” LaPointe said.

Added Mattiaccia: “Our only request to drivers is when you drink think

about the next day, not just about the night that lies ahead of you.”

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .