'It's just about saturation': 40+ agencies launch OWI task force patrols

 

GREENFIELD, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Police officers from departments across Milwaukee and Waukesha counties launched a coordinated effort Wednesday night to crack down on impaired driving over Thanksgiving weekend.

The Southeast Wisconsin Impaired Driving Task Force includes more than 40 agencies. Officers from at least a dozen of those departments gathered in the parking lot at the Fleet Farm in Oconomowoc.

The officers held a roll call, as the cars and motorcycles flashed their red and blue nights and Greenfield Police Capt. Matthew Borchardt addressed the assembled officers.

Borchardt told reporters there wouldn't be any checkpoints as part of the task force's activities. Instead, the roll call was meant to send a message: officers all over the region would be patrolling roads with an eye out for signs of drunk drivers.

"It's just about saturation," Borchardt said. "Just making sure that there is a large number of officers out there doing the same type of enforcement, to have that collective effort."

Following the roll call, which only lasted about five minutes, officers rolled out to head back into their communities.

CBS 58 rode along with one of those officers, Rey Mseitif of Greenfield. Mseitif, who's been on the force for more than 11 years, described an encounter he had earlier this year with a suspected drunk driver.

Mseitif said he was handling a traffic stop when another driver pulled up and told Mseitif they'd just been passed by another driver who seemed to be dangerously intoxicated.

Mseitif said he caught up to the car based on the witness' description and suspected the driver was indeed under the influence.

"Driving all over the roadway," Mseitif recalled. "Almost crashed into several vehicles, was hitting curbs."

Mseitif said once he stopped the driver, he was relieved the outcome wasn't far worse.

"Their speech was slurred, they made no sense," Mseitif said. "They could barely communicate with us, they had urinated all over themselves. Just an overall very scary situation, to know this person was out on our roadways."

Borchardt said those types of drivers were the reason for task force. The Greenfield police captain said 21 total officers from across the region participated in the task force's efforts during Thanksgiving weekend last year. They made a total of 88 stops, which led to 57 citations and two arrests.

For the entire 2022 holiday season, spanning from Thanksgiving weekend through New Year's Day, 65 officers made 293 stops, which led to 268 citations and 19 arrests.

During Thanksgiving weekend in 2021, 18 officers participated, making 88 stops; those led to 67 citations and one arrest.

Over the span of a 30-minute ride along Wednesday, Mseitif did not spot any suspected impaired drivers. However, he did stop one driver for going 45 miles per hour on a stretch of S. 35th St. where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour.

The driver also got a ticket for having an unrestrained three-year-old in the backseat. The driver told Mseitif he was rushing home to help his grandma. Mseitif told the driver he could walk to the house, which was a couple blocks away, to retrieve a car seat from there.