Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

One officer’s quest to limit impaired driving in Las Vegas

Andrea Simon, DUI officer

Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Metro Police Officer Andrea Simon on patrol on Las Vegas Valley roads during her Friday, Dec. 29, 2017, graveyard shift.

Metro DUI Officer Andrea Simon

Metro Police Officer Andrea Simon on patrol on Las Vegas Valley roads during her Friday, Dec. 29, 2017, graveyard shift.
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Metro Police Officer Andrea Simon’s sight is trained on a man’s eyes as she meticulously moves her blue-rubber-glove-wrapped finger across his face after a suspicious behavior stop early Saturday in the west valley.

In her four years patrolling Las Vegas roads, Simon has been a witness to the impaired stupor of a variety of drivers.

Like the time a woman’s body was half hanging from her door, while the rest of it was bundled on the driver’s side floor. The officers were stunned at the physics.

Or the man with a blood alcohol level four times the legal limit who chose to get behind the wheel, and ended up on a ditch, stepping on the gas pedal as officers stood next to him. Investigators were perplexed when they couldn’t determine how the crash occurred.

On Friday night, Simon’s squad responded to a domestic dispute that led to “bumper cars” driving between the lovers who were in separate vehicles. The female half was suspected of drunk driving. Several innocent victims had their vehicles damaged.

“I wish they could see themselves,” Simon said.

Simon’s supervisors tout her as one of the agency’s valuable assets in combating drunk driving — a prolific spotter who has made more than 60 DUI arrests in her career. Other officers call her a “DUI magnet.”

Recently, she was certified as a Drug Recognition Expert, which required more than 100 hours of arduous training. The Hungarian native says she breezed through the courses.

It’s one of the only crimes that can affect “absolutely everyone,” said the 36-year-old about her passion for vehicle stops and impaired driving spotting. “The fact that they put your life in danger by making a decision of getting behind the wheel, I think it’s just so unfair, because you have no control of it.”

By making that decision, “It’s like they’re writing your destiny in that sense…how dare they? It’s not their right.”

Instances of impaired driving lead to an arrest, if the suspects are lucky. Metro has conducted close to 3,900 DUI arrests this year (compared to 4,197 in 2016).

But others have much dire consequences. Out of 136 people killed in Las Vegas roadways this year, 56 were due to drugs or alcohol (compared to 54 of 124 last year).

“People don’t think of the line of consequences that it causes, not just for them, but for victims,” Simon said.

When confronted by Simon during their imminent arrests, some drivers are scared, some cry, some apologize, others are in denial, and a few are feisty. The overwhelming majority are compliant, said Simon late Friday during one of her graveyard shifts.

Simon’s heard a range of excuses, from the typical, “I only had a couple of drinks,” to the absurd, “weed is legal” and they should say on TV that it’s illegal to drive while high.

She worries that the legalization of pot has increased the number of impaired drivers on valley roads. About half of her total DUI arrests in her four-year career have occurred this year.

“Do you know how many times I hear, “I’m okay, no, no, I’m not drunk,” Simon said. “I’m not asking you if you’re drunk, I’m telling you that you’re drunk. That’s my observation. I know what I see, I know what I smell.”

“They’re trying to believe themselves that they’re good to drive, but they’re not,” she said.

During arrests, Simon doesn’t experience anger or pass judgment on the drivers, and can even empathize with remorseful, first-time offenders. “I feel bad for them, that they’re not able to make the right decision,” Simon said, noting that above all, she’s most compassionate for the victims.

The repeat offenders, not so much, Simon said.

Simon moved from Hungary to the U.S. soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has been in Las Vegas for about a decade. Being an officer is a way of giving back.

“It’s such a strange idea — or concept — that something that you weren’t born into could be home, but this city has given me so much that I can just only be thankful.”