Administrator tells lawmakers options other than arrest are weighed

Houston Chronicle
April 18, 2006


AUSTIN - Amid accusations of unjust arrests, harassment and abuse of power, the administrator of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agreed at a legislative hearing Monday to "retool" a suspended program targeting public intoxication and make sure agents are more careful in implementing it.

TABC Administrator Alan Steen defended the program, begun in September to catch potential drunken drivers before they get behind the wheel. He said the agency suspended the program last week, not because agents did anything wrong, but in order to consider public criticisms and suggestions before making changes.

The only thing the agency may be guilty of, Steen told lawmakers, is trying to implement the program too fast.

"I think that's hurt us some in that we ought to slow down," said Steen.

He also said he would consider having agents work closer with bar management, spread out "saturated" stings over several days instead of several hours and weigh options other than arresting an intoxicated person, such as handing the person off to a designated driver or cab service.

Lawmakers in the joint committee chaired by Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview, voiced concern, skepticism and support for the program that captured national attention last month after arrests in the Dallas area.

Whitmire, who usually defends the TABC and helped get funding for the crackdown, complained that a lack of experience among agents and an apparent "cowboy" culture at the agency may be partly to blame for the controversy in recent weeks. Whitmire criticized the agency's lack of diversity and pointed to incidents where TABC officers dressed up in combat boots and SWAT team outfits to investigate bars.

"You've got some fine officers, but there seems to be a cultural problem and I refer to some of your guys as cowboys," Whitmire told James Smelser, the agency's chief enforcement officer. "I probably have been a little too nice with some of the incidents and stuff I heard back home with just cowboys showing up wanting to show everybody how tough they are and that has nothing to do with policy or the results. In fact, that hurts the efforts of fighting DWIs because they lose respect for what we're doing."

Smelser agreed that wearing SWAT uniforms wasn't appropriate and did not argue with the senator's other comments.

Steen has said that cities such as Dallas and Houston lagged in arrests because they had a "house full of rookies," compared with smaller communities like Victoria, where veteran officers rounded up drunks at bars.

Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, said he believes Texas' public intoxication law is "too subjective and leaves too much discretion" to the officers. He also complained that sobriety tests were not always offered before arrests in his district.

"If it's not always offered, I need to get it always offered," Steen replied, saying that TABC agents are taught to offer the tests "every single time."

Still, Steen said, even if a person fails a sobriety test, the agent should consider whether the person has a designated driver or arranged transportation before hauling the intoxicated person to jail.

But several bar patrons and others who testified before lawmakers and a packed audience said they were arrested even though they didn't intend to drive.

Tracie Detamore, 34, told lawmakers she was having a few drinks last month with a friend at a Dallas-area bar while on spring break from Oklahoma University when she was arrested for public intoxication, a charge she's fighting.

She said the TABC agent who approached her didn't identify himself until she asked him to and that an Irving police officer grabbed her phone and broke it when she tried to make a call.

She said she still has bruises from the handcuffs they used before locking her in jail for 11 hours. Detamore said she wasn't acting up in the bar, adding, "I've behaved a lot worse sober."

Gary Fant, landlord of Auntie Skinner's Riverboat Club in Jefferson, in the Marshall-Longview area, said TABC agents have harassed the private club's bartenders and have made the designated driver campaign a moot point.

"They're hiding behind this phony law," he said. "You can't defend yourself against this law. How can you prove to somebody that they're a danger to themselves and others? How can you prove they're not? The lawyers are going to have a field day with this."

"Why don't they go ahead and say you cannot celebrate with alcohol in Texas any longer?"


This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3800130.html