On drink drive patrol in an unmarked police car

As we creep into the quiet cul-de-sac in a sleepy Hampshire town, no one notices the unremarkable black BMW on surveillance duty.

Looking quite like every other 3 Series on the road, the unmarked police car raises little suspicion as it slips into the street where most of the houses are lit up with Christmas lights and their occupants are settling down for a Friday night in front of the TV.

This is no social visit, though. Traffic cop PC Rob Lewis is looking for someone specific – a known, repeat drink-driver who has been shopped to cops on the Crimestoppers hotline.

Tip offs

“The intelligence suggests this Jaguar driver downs a few pints every evening in a pub in the High Street and then drives home around 7pm,” explains PC Lewis, 44. “We are here to try and stop him.
“This information has mostly come from the Crimestoppers hotline,” he adds. “People call in with details and that is fed to us to investigate – and that’s exactly what we’re doing now.”

Christmas campaign

Operation Holly is a national drink-drive campaign that brings drink and drug driving into the spotlight – and this year police forces, like Hampshire Constabulary, are taking a more intelligence-led approach to catching offenders.

While the high profile, roadside operations that pull over drivers at random are still on-going, they’re taking somewhat of a backseat to stings like this one across the UK.

PC Lewis – a traffic cop for five years and a policeman for 18 – is clutching print outs of bulletins with pictures of offenders, car information, and details of their known patterns. And we’re out looking for them.

Sleeping it off

Unfortunately, the Jaguar driver is already home and the lights are off in his house – PC Lewis suspects he’s already had a skin-full and is now sleeping it off.

“We might not have got him tonight, but we’ll keep trying,” he says. “It took me five years to catch one repeat offender who was known to the force, but I eventually caught him. Taking people like that off the road is vital.”

Erratic Range Rover

The location is around 10 miles away from the busy housing estate we’re circulating, but with blue lights and siren fired up, it’s merely a few minutes away.

Man hunt

PC Lewis expertly carves his way through the traffic, cars slipping aside in the fast lane as we top three figures to get to the area she was last spotted.

We arrive and park up on the hard shoulder, just after a junction on the busy dual carriageway, and keep an eye out for her to pass. A few minutes later the control room updates us, she’s been seen in Emsworth, a seaside town further down the road. We sweep head there and sweep the town looking for her, but she’s nowhere in sight.

Back on patrol

PC Lewis is constantly on the look-out for the tell-tale signs of a drink driver. Weaving, speeding or even driving with the window down while its cold are all signs the driver may have had a drink.

While patrolling Portsmouth we get another call from the control room – a man is threatening to leap off “jumper’s bridge”, a nearby suicide hotspot, and they’d like us to assist.
“We’ll head to the bridge and see what we can see,” PC Lewis tells the control room. On the way, another call comes in – his van has just triggered an ANPR camera not far from our location.

Drink driver

We divert to see if we can find the van – but within minutes he’s collared by a marked police unit. The driver is clearly upset, but stinks of alcohol.

PC Chris Powling breathalyses him and he blows a reading of 81mg in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg. The driver is arrested, handcuffed and taken to the station in the back of a police van.

Banged up

At Portsmouth Central Police Station, the arresting officers need to get him booked in quickly. They need to test him on the Intoximeter as soon as possible – this is an official test and takes two readings, the lower of the two is then used as evidence.

It’s a set process, laid down in a document, and after he’s booked in by the custody sergeant, he’s taken straight into a special room for the test. After 15 minutes, the results are in – he’s blown 83mg per 100ml of breath twice and placed in a cell to sober up. Later the next day, he’ll be charged.

Sinking feeling

As the realisation of what is happening sinks in, the van driver starts to sob.

“Drink driving has huge consequences on people’s lives,” explains PC Lewis. “When they get to the station and realise they’ve been caught and that they’ll probably lose their jobs and freedom, then it starts to hit home. The advice is simple: Don’t drink and drive, it ruins lives.

“People might think we don’t take reports of drink-drivers seriously and may wonder if we ever do anything about it. As you’ve seen tonight, we take it very seriously indeed and will visit their homes or places where they drink to ensure they’re not breaking the law.
“I’d ask the public to continue reporting those breaking the law, because we will do all we can to catch drink-drivers not just at Christmas, but every single day of the year.”