Police 'BAT' vans assist DUI calls

Mike Howard pulls up and parks just north of Second and Mosley streets in Old Town on New Year's Eve.

A service officer for the Wichita Police Department, Howard will spend the next several hours assisting police officers with DUI calls. Howard operates one of the department's "BAT" vans. He administers breath alcohol tests for drivers suspected of driving under the influence, a job he's had going on 14 years.

Friday night he's situated next to the Courtyard Wichita at Old Town. Women in short skirts and high heels ready to ring in the new year run in the cold to get in line at Doc Howard's Lounge or join the growing crowd at the Pumphouse.

Earlier, Howard helped the Kansas Highway Patrol with an accident involving a woman suspected of drinking and driving. Although Howard primarily serves the Police Department's South Patrol substation, he responds to calls across the city and sometimes, such as this night, helps other agencies. The woman crashed her car on I-135, taking out her oil pan along the way.

Howard sees a bit of everything in his job, often not the best side of people.

He said he tries not to engage with people who've grown belligerent with each beer or drink. Arguing with them doesn't do any good, he said.

"They try to get under my skin, and I just ignore it," he said. When people tell him they've ruined their life, he responds, "How did I ruin your life? I didn't make you drink. I didn't make you drive."

The best part of his job, he said, is helping keep streets safer.

"Putting people in jail who've been drinking and driving," he said. "I don't like drunk drivers."

Such a driver killed his grandfather, he said, hitting him broadside. Howard said he doesn't have anything against drinking, just drinking and driving.

He's had people throw up in his van. He's listened to them cry. He's heard them yell.

Only about 10 percent of the people he tests act like jerks, he said. The rest are "normal people who've made a mistake."

Sgt. Roger Runft said a BAT van is assigned to each of the department's four substations on third and fourth shifts. Sometimes vacations and maintenance cause a van to be out of service. On this night, the south-, north- and west-side vans are out working. The east-side service officer who administers breath alcohol tests is on the streets, but his van is out for service, Howard said.

Howard's job is to assist commissioned officers on calls. After they have stopped a driver suspected of driving under the influence and have administered field sobriety tests, they call Howard or one of his colleagues for further testing.

The van is outfitted with breath alcohol testing equipment and a small holding cell in the back separated by glass. Howard calls it the "lumber wagon" because of the way it rattles. After testing drivers, he takes them to jail for booking. If a case requires a blood alcohol test, Howard takes the driver to a hospital. It would be too much liability to do blood testing in the van, he said.

Howard doesn't get any calls while visited by an Eagle reporter for a couple hours Friday night. Although it's clear from the activity in Old Town that people are drinking, calls likely won't ramp up until after the bars close, Howard said.

During down periods like this, he sometimes writes parking tickets while waiting for calls. Vehicles that park in zones reserved for buses, limos and taxis particularly irk him, as do limos that stop in the street to let out passengers, tying up traffic in Old Town.

Howard started his career in law enforcement as a reserve officer, working for the Haysville Police Department and Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office. He worked in other fields for a while to support his family and five children but returned to the streets about 14 years ago. When he hired on with the Wichita Police Department, there was only one BAT van for the whole city.

He works 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

"Some nights it's just boring as heck," he said. "And there are times I can't keep up. I'd just as soon they put me out of work. Everyone would benefit from that. We've had too many deaths."

This story was originally published January 2, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Police 'BAT' vans assist DUI calls."