Police from all over Allegheny County gathered last week at the Shaler Township municipal building for training in how to administer standardized field sobriety tests.

The training is part of a three-day class, that teaches and updates police in the region on how to properly administer the tests and what to look for when testing a possibly drunk driver.

"We hold them as frequently as we can get them put together," said Cathy Tress about the training sessions.

Tress is the Western Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Director for the Pennsylvania DUI Association.

The training is paid for through grant money from the association. The money goes to PennDOT, which then gives it out to the various DUI task forces that conduct sobriety checkpoints. Allegheny County has six of the task forces out of the 23 in Western Pennsylvania.

Some of the task forces represented last week were from the North Hills, West Hills and Mt. Lebanon.

The training isn't used so much just to identify drivers who are hammered, but to help spot the drivers who are even a little buzzed. Those are the drivers Tress considers the most dangerous.

"The buzzed drivers are the most dangerous on the road," she said. "They're the risk takers."

The sobriety test is done in three different parts.

First, the officers have drivers follow a pen with their eyes. During this test, officers are watching the eyes of the drivers for involuntary jerking of the eyes that becomes visible on impaired people.

After that, drivers are asked to walk in a straight line, heel to toe. Then they're asked to turn around and walk back.

Lastly, drivers are asked to stand on one foot and maintain their balance.

These sobriety tests have been the national standard for the last 20 years since members of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did large group studies to find out the best method possible for determining impairment.

The best way to train for the sobriety tests is by using real people. So for these sessions, volunteers are asked to come in and drink so that police can administer the tests. The volunteers are required to have chaperones and must have their blood alcohol content below .04 before they can leave. The reason for this is that even though .08 is the legal limit, someone who gets in an accident with a BAC between .05 and .08 can still be given a DUI citation.

Most of the volunteers at last week's session were La Roche College students. Justin Kruszewski, 22, heard about the need for volunteers from his girlfriend, whose uncle is a Shaler police officer. He told a bunch of his friends.

Kruszewski said it "feels pretty good" to know he's helping out the community by volunteering, and he isn't worried about any future involvement with the police.

"I'm not really planning on ever being stopped by the cops for drinking and driving," he said.

Hamdi Bata, 25, is originally from Jordan, but now goes to La Roche. He said he's curious to know the results of his BAC as he is monitored for drinking.

"It's fun to have a cop as a bartender," he added.

La Roche student Mike Killmeyer, 22, said he even called off work to participate.

"I called off work because it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said.

Frank Starko, a Moon Township officer, was helping hand out drinks and monitor the progress.

"We try to get them in different variations so it gives the students an understanding of the intoxication levels," Starko said. "It will help them get those ones that are at the lower limits."

Mark Samangy, a Carnegie officer, agreed with Starko.

"It's a lot easier to tell the ones with the lampshade on their heads," Samangy said.

Samangy stressed the importance of having real people in order to give the police officers a genuine environment for training.

"This is very important," he said. "Without this, they wouldn't be able to test before they get out on the streets."