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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- It's 11:35 p.m. on a Friday, and while many people have gone home for the night, a half-mile stretch along Pulaski Pike near Oakwood Avenue is buzzing.

About 16 police cars line the middle of Pulaski Pike in the turn lane along with a vehicle Huntsville Police affectionately refer to as the Bat Van. It's not what you would call your traditional roadblock to catch criminals on the loose, but in a sense the officers are looking for citizens who could become bad guys -- with the use of excess alcohol or drugs.

The officers are part of the Huntsville Police Department's seven-man Driving Under the Influence unit, a group that's achieved something not even Alabama's football team can claim -- a No. 1 ranking for 15 straight years in terms of DUI arrests.

It's not even close -- Huntsville led Alabama in the 2010 Drager rankings (named for the breath-analyzing equipment) with 989 arrests. Auburn police were second with 473 arrests. Huntsville roughly tripled the DUI arrest rates in Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery.

Huntsville's unit also has had the state's busiest DUI officer. Officer Mitch Chappell recorded more individual DUI arrests than any other officer in Alabama for five years in a row. Number two and three are also Huntsville officers. A Foley officer shows up as number four.

On this Friday night, most of the citizens who drive through the orange cones -- one of three DUI checkpoints for Memorial Day weekend -- are waved through after a quick swipe of the driver's license through a car-mounted laptop computer. There's a check of registration, check for proof of insurance and a "drive safely" comment from the men in blue.

But a small percentage of drivers raise a red flag, whether it's no driver's license, no proof of insurance, a missing headlight, or even worse, alcohol on their breath. Driving with a blood alcohol content higher than .08 is against state law.

And sometimes there's a hint of marijuana wafting from the car.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that that the state interest in guarding against the hazards of drunk driving outweighs the "slight" intrusion of a suspicionless stop at a sobriety checkpoint.

But the court said there should be guidelines. The National Highway Safety Transportation Authority issues guidelines in 1990 to make the checkpoints safe, visible, less intrusive and more effective as a deterrent. So Huntsville announces the possible locations for checkpoints ahead of time. The sites are picked based on past accidents, and details are approved by a local judge.

But, as long-time DUI officer Hank Perry says, "We don't have to go find them. They find us."

That was the case Friday night. In the first few minutes after the officers had set up, there was a loud crash at the intersection of Pulaski Pike and Oakwood Avenue. That led Sgt. Kevin O'Connell, in charge of the DUI unit, to speculate drugs were probably involved in the two-car crash.

"When they first see the checkpoints some of them spaz out and slam on the brakes," O'Connell said. "And there's probably a reason for that." O'Connell checked and indeed the driver did have drugs.

Many other drivers, probably 15 or 20, try another strategy. Upon seeing the checkpoints, they do a U-turn in the middle of road. But Huntsville officers lay in wait. They gun the accelerator and overtake drivers who attempt to flee.

'It's a special op (operations) group," O'Connell said. "It's more detailed than a regular uniform. These are highly motivated officers. When they come to work they want to work. They don't sit back. They enjoy getting the bad guys."

Perry, the veteran of the group with 26 years on the force and 23 years on the DUI unit, puts it this way: "It's all about the freedom. It's the freedom to run all over town and work traffic. People look at me and say you're crazy for staying on third shift. But I still have fun coming to work every day."

When this night is all over -- it started at 11:30 p.m. and ended about 2:30 a.m. -- there will be six DUI arrests, one arrest on a felony warrant and 146 citations, including 73 for lack of insurance, 17 for tag violations and 14 for license violations. Police will have impounded five vehicles.

The officers also work other days of the week on a solo basis around town, often utilizing the Bat Van. (It's actually used to measure blood alcohol content, but Bat Van sounds cooler than the BAC Van, O'Connell says.)

"We have a group that works primarily at night trained in DUI enforcement and they do an outstanding job," said Huntsville Police Chief Lewis Morris. "In fact, they've done such a wonderful job they've been the top unit the last 15 years. That equates to safer streets in the city."

Morris said the city receives state grants to help fund the checkpoints and pay the necessary overtime. "They know we have a very good program and a good program to reduce the crashes," Morris said.

O'Connell and others on the DUI force insist there's no arrest quota or "We've got to stay No. 1" speech given to make sure the unit continues it's DUI dynasty.

"The numbers come to you," O'Connell said. "I've never told my guys to go out and get 50 more arrest this year. We want quality arrests, and my guys know that. They're so good as recognizing signs and signals, it's second nature."

Phil Price, one of the leading DUI lawyers in the city who has written "The Alabama DUI Handbook," said DUI arrests are actually down. He said the use of video cameras on the dashboards of police cars has helped both sides in DUI enforcement.

"As a general rule, they're well trained and most of them have professional attitudes," Price said of the Huntsville DUI unit. "They give field sobriety tests as close to ... well, they're trained by the book and try to be pursuant to the book.

"If you're asking me why they're so many arrests in Huntsville, I think Huntsville is one of the few places where the DUI task force is dedicated to our DUI law."

Price says there's actually been a drop in DUI arrests in Huntsville and "those orders come from the top, orders from the mayor or the police chief to stop arresting so many people."

Huntsville's police chief scoffs at that notion. O'Connell admits DUI arrests did drop to an estimated 650 to 750 last year, but Morris cites the stiff penalties and expensive fines as reasons for the decrease.

For convicted first-offenders, it's a $2,100 fine, year in jail and loss of license for 90 days. And in a military/high tech community like Huntsville, employees can lose security clearance.

That works out to more than $2 million a year for the city in DUI fines, which all go to Huntsville's general fund, according to Lisa Shockley, title clerk of the courts. The city gets also gets $17 in court costs from each fine.

Price readily admits it's cutting into his pocket book when the arrests go down. "I may have to go into elder law if this keeps up," Price said. "Even though, there's nothing wrong with elder law."

Perry laughs when he hears Price bemoaning his loss in income. "We've helped put Phil's kids through college," Perry says. "So, we don't feel too sorry for him."

Who Perry does feel sorry for are the victims of the DUI-related crashes. And that's one of the reasons he's manned the graveyard shift for 23 years.

O'Connell says Huntsville's DUI unit is No. 1 in the state because they've seen the damage that drunk drivers can do.

As a member of the traffic homicide unit, Perry has seen the results of DUI wrecks. He recalls one when the driver smashed into another car, killing those inside, and emerging from his totaled car with just a scratch, wondering what was going on.

He remembers an accident involving a man and woman on a motorcycle who were hit from behind by a DUI driver. The man on the motorcycle was sent flying into the bed of a truck in front of him while the woman was thrown several feet down the road, dying when she hit the pavement head on.

"I had to carry him down to the station to get him tested," Perry said. "He said, "Why? What did I do? Why do I have to go down there?' They have no idea what they've done."

2010 Drager rankings

Top police departments and arrests

Huntsville 989

Auburn 473

Mobile 453

Decatur 421

Birmingham 327

Foley 305

Tuscaloosa 302

Montgomery 288

Anniston 247

Athens 237