Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office “Wet Lab” for DWI testing

(Jefferson County) The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office held a “wet lab” last week in which members of the DWI Enforcement unit trained other deputies in how to conduct field sobriety tests.

Deputy Nick Gamm is a DWI Instructor with the sheriff’s office. He says while the concept of the “wet lab” might not be new, it’s great that the sheriff’s office is spreading the word on how deputies train and conduct their DWI investigations.

Part of the “wet lab” the sheriff’s office had select members of the community drink alcohol, in a controlled environment, and would be tested by a deputy after a certain amount of time allocated to drinking.

KJFF’s Korey Johnson was one of the participants in the sheriff’s office web lab. He explains how he felt going through the field sobriety tests.

Each participant was given two hours to drink, during that time Johnson had 12 beers and blew a .130 blood alcohol level, with the legal limit being a .08. He failed all sobriety tests given to him by deputies.

According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office there has been a steady increase in DWI arrests by the county DWI unit.

In 2020 there were 358 arrests, 402 in 2021 and 555 DWI arrests in 2022.