Six University of Idaho student volunteers will drink different amounts of beer and wine under Moscow Police Department officer supervision Wednesday as part of an event to help educate about the effects of alcohol.
The event, Drinking with the Cops, is put on by Vandal Health Education and the MPD.
The six volunteers, chosen before the event, will be begin drinking one to two hours before the event.
“They will be monitored,” said Lt. Dave Lehmitz. “We will have a drug regulation expert there to monitor how intoxicated they become.”
He said they worked with the Dean of Students office to select volunteers and that it wasn’t difficult to find them.
The volunteers will be videotaped prior to consuming alcohol and continue to be videotaped as they become intoxicated, Lehmitz said. Participants will complete a normal field sobriety test, including an eye test.
Lehmitz said the eye test is important to show.
“There is nothing you can do to stop (the reaction of eyes),” he said. “It’s an altogether indicator.”
They will also be asking questions, such as “Would you drive home?” to make people see how the minds of intoxicated people work, Lehmitz said.
“We want people to be aware of how much was consumed and show the actual progression (of intoxication),” he said. “Sometimes it is hard to keep track.”
Lehmitz said he hopes this event will make more people walk home or call a taxi instead of driving after drinking.
The videos will be shown to the audience and then the volunteers will be brought out.
Lehmitz said the purpose of this event is to show people the effects of intoxication and how judgement is impaired.
This will be the fourth Drinking with the Cops event the MPDF has put on — the other three were at the police department, UI Law School and the Idaho Public Defenders Association.
“I hope we get a good turnout,” Lehmitz said.
This is not just a time to party with cops, but to raise awareness, he said.
Allison Griffith can be reached at [email protected]