BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto police arrested a man and towed his car for drunk driving because the officer mistakenly read his alcohol screening test by a factor of 10, according to a new report by the city’s independent police auditor.
The officer hadn’t been trained on sobriety tests, yet he pulled over the man for driving erratically, police auditor Mike Gennaco said in a report for Palo Alto City Council.
In the field, the man had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.1% and 0.09% — over the legal limit of 0.08%, Gennaco said.
But when officers arrived at the station and had the man breathe into a more sophisticated device, the reading kept coming back as zero, Gennaco said.
So officers decided not to pursue charges. They released the man and advised him to take an Uber or Lyft to the tow yard to recover his car, Gennaco said. Later that morning, the department’s expert on DUIs reviewed the first testing device and discovered the man’s actual blood alcohol content was 0.01% and 0.009%, Gennaco said.
The man complained that he was wrongfully arrested, and that officers had lied and misled him based on their personal biases, Gennaco said.
Lack of training
The arrest largely stemmed from a lack of officer training, and not any bias, Gennaco said.
The officer was doing his first DUI investigation and hadn’t done a training on field sobriety tests. He didn’t explain the tests, have a working knowledge of DUI laws or know how to use the screening device, Gennaco said.
The officer also didn’t review video footage before writing the arrest report and used another officer’s report to “cut and paste” sections of the narrative, Gennaco said.
Gennaco recommends having new officers train to do DUI arrests and to have a supervisor on hand before they’re authorized to do drunk driving investigations in the field.
Chief’s response
In a memo, Chief Andrew Binder said he agrees with the recommendation, and the department “has reinforced its existing training protocols to ensure proficiency.”
The department apologized to the man and eventually reimbursed him for the tow and storage fee, Gennaco said.
The name of the officer and the date of the incident weren’t included in Gennaco’s report, which is standard practice. The report covers incidents from the end of 2024.
Council will meet with Gennaco on April 21.
See, its not that hard to say we screwed up and we’re sorry and will make changes to not do this next time. Definite improvement over the prior Police Chief.