=*=
Monday, January 26, 1987AThe Battalion/Page 3
=s -
State and Local
i-CS task force takes to streets
searching for drunken drivers
By Robert Morris
Staff Writer
Although few arrests have been
nade so far, the new state-funded
Bring While Intoxicated Task
r orc:e is in full operation, with local
wlice combing the streets of Bryan-
Sollege Station one weekend each
nonth.
For four hours this Friday and
iaturday — 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. — the
earch for drunken drivers contin-
ied, but only a handful of incidents
Htrred and the city appeared rela-
ivelv sedate.
^■he task force, now only a few
^ftths old, employs off-duty police
iffu ers on an overtime basis.
Hoi. Brad D. Smith, a nine-year
'etei an of the College Station Police
^^■t., was one officer who volun-
Hy spent those two nights on pa-
r°l.
^Bmith, who has participated in
thrt previous task force outings,
■■■MSaid ihat although the number oi ar-
BHs hasn’t been great, the visibility
_ jk^af the force has made a difference.
IClH brief description of Smith’s Fi i-
n! WWypigbt patrol follows.
lit p.m.: Smith, along with three
■ task force officers, begins the
JIT# . ,
V I I Smiths patrol follows no partic-
■PfH pattern.
“Mainly what I do is comb the
:ity, Smith said. “I go up and down
n y 8°' he main thoroughfares, such as
l ibe to i Texas Avenue, then a few side
lev’ll (n trefets.”
Drunks will often take side roads
to stay away from the main traffic, or
there might be a party in a resi
dential area, he said.
10:30 p.m.: Smith has covered the
south side of the city thoroughly, us
ing radar to check for speeders, and
watching for what he said were pos
sible signs of drunken drivers —
headlights not turned on, use of
bright lights inside the city limits,
weaving in and out of lanes, or rapid
fluctuations in speed.
So far there has been no visible
contact with possible offenders.
and returns several times later in the
night.
12:05 a.m.: Smith has yet to stop a
suspect, but traffic flow begins to
pick up.
12:15 a.m.: After two hours of
driving, Smith spots a suspect. A ve
hicle west-bound on University
Drive is noticeably weaving in its
lane and fluctuating in speed. Smith
pulls the vehicle over and ap
proaches the driver. After a brief
conversation with the male driver
and female passenger, Smith quickly
determines the vehicle operator is
“If they’re out there we will probably find them. Any
one 1 miss is likely to be caught by another patrol. ”
Col. Brad D. Smith, a nine-year veteran
of the College Station Police Dept.
Man behind blow-dart incident sentenced
By Curtis L. Culberson
Staff Writer
ibscript! 1
r. If tlu
ou to su:
ion to t:
;. Once
per, therl
“■i he man charged with the Oct. 27 aggravated
b er - 1 assault of two Texas A&M students with a blow
like the dan gun was sentenced Thursday to a $1,000
e whot fin< and deferred adjudication.
^wlichael C. Garner, 18, of Route 5 in Bryan
pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated as-
. sault.
lalesman I
I startediH uc te ment was delayed on the case by District
hese guv®
ever app
y of mys
•mester,:
them
11:00 p.m.: It is becoming obvious
the majority of the night’s work
won’t begin until after the bars close
at 1:00 a.m.
By this time, Smith has covered
the major thoroughfares in College
Station and begins to criss-cross
through smaller streets. Over the ra
dio, another task force officer can be
heard calling in the name and driv
ers’ license number of a suspect he
has stopped, which later became an
arrest.
Smith turns down Holleman
Drive and notices a large number of
cars parked along the side of the
street. He concludes there is a party
not drunk, but rather “occupied,” by
the sexual actions of his female com
panion.
12:45 a.m.: Smith pulls a speeder
over. Again, he determines the
driver is not drunk and issues a
warning.
Smith said he uses several meth
ods to determine whether a suspect
is drunk. They include the suspect’s
ability to carry on a normal conver
sation — the method he has used in
both cases so far — and the suspect’s
motor skills control.
“If I pull a female suspect over
and she f umbles over her license two
or three times when I can clearly see
it from outside the car, then I’m rea
sonably sure she is drunk,” Smith
said.
1:00 a.m.: “All hell will break
loose after one o’clock,” Smith had
said quite prophetically earlier in the
evening. Indeed, College Station be
comes a different city after its nu
merous bars close.
Traffic increases and the calls
over the radio come in rapid-fire
succession.
But Smith’s patrol finds no sus
pects.
1:30 a.m.: Still no DWI arrests,
and the streets are beginning to slow
down again.
Smith’s patrol for drunken driv
ers is interrupted by a call for assis
tance. The night unexpectedly ends
with Smith assisting an off-duty offi
cer in an arrest for possession of a
controlled substance.
2:15 a.m.: The patrol for drunken
drivers ends unsuccessfully in the
sense that Smith has made no ar
rests.
Yet, as Smith had pointed out ear
lier in the evening, the visiblity of the
patrol cars — which became increas
ingly apparent throughout the night
— is the real heart of the program.
Repeatedly during the evening,
Smith said he would run into a fel
low officer every time he turned a
corner.
“It’s like a dragnet,” Smith said.
“If they’re out there we will probably
find them. Anyone I miss is likely to
be caught by another patrol.”
Court Judge Carolyn Ruffino for an 8-year pro
bationary period, Assistant District Attorney
Hubbard Kennady III said.
Under the terms of deferred adjudication, if
Garner is not charged with any new offenses for
8 years, the judge will not find him guilty and the
offense will not become part of Garner’s record,
Kennady said.
In the Oct. 27 shootings, one student was shot
in the hand by the the SVh-inch needle-like dart
and the other was struck in the chest.
Garner’s sentence was the result of a plea-bar-
gaining agreement between defense attorney Ro
land Searcy and Kennady.Because of the ruling
on the first charge of aggravated assault the sec
ond was dismissed.
But Kennady said his office was satisfied with
Garner’s sentence.
“It was a reckless act,” Kennady said. “He’s a
young man who made a mistake. For the next 8
years he will have a chance to prove he can live
within the law.”
Board committee
discusses funding
of biotech institute
By Frank Smith
Senior Staff Writer
The Planning and Building
Committee of the Texas A&M
Board of Regents on Sunday dis
cussed appropriating $550,000
for the preliminary design of the
Institute of Biosciences and
Technology, which will be based
at the Texas Medical Center in
Houston.
The appropriation for that de
sign was one of several agenda
items addressed by Board com
mittees Sunday afternoon. All
items approved in committee
await the formal approval of the
full Board, which convenes today
at 3 p.m. Committee meetings re
sumed this morning.
In a written project justifica
tion, Dr. Eugene Sander, deputy
chancellor for biotechnology de
velopment, said the proposed $24
million Institute of Biosciences
and Technology “will be a center
of excellence for basic biological
and biomedical sciences at the
molecular level.”
“It will provide an important
interface between similar re
search at Texas A&M University
and the various parts of the
Texas Medical Center; scientific
leadership and support for both
new and established Texas indus
tries in biotechnology; and sup
port for outreach programs to
Texas citizens in areas such as the
relationship between nutrition
and health,” Sander said.
The planning committee also
moved to recommend:
• A $165,000 appropriation
for the preliminary design of the
proposed $9.4 million Doherty
Petroleum Engineering Building
addition on campus. According
to a written project justification,
the addition “will provide the
space needed to accommodate re
search programs necessary to
strengthen the petroleum and pe
trochemical industry for both
Texas and the nation.”
Regent Joe Richardson told
committee members the project is
“for the future of Texas.”
“This (the petroleum industry)
is one thing that’s going to come
back someday,” he said.
• Awarding an $869,464 con
tract to Bandas Industries Inc. of
Temple for the construction of
an aircraft parking apron and
taxiway for the proposed north
terminal at Easterwood Airport.
• A project to prepare an as
phalt overlay for Kyle Field, re
place its artificial turf and apply
an asphalt overlay to the stadi
um’s track.
Wesley Peel, vice chancellor for
facilities planning and construc
tion, said the Athletic Depart
ment has said the project must be
completed by the start of August.
• Awarding a $2.39 million
construction contract to Lebco
Constructors Inc. of Houston for
the renovation of the Physics
Building. As soon as the renova
tions are complete, Peel said, the
building will be occupied by the
psychology department.
In another meeting, the Com
mittee for Academic Campuses
moved to recommend adoption
of a resolution on the “mission
and structure” of Texas A&M at
Galveston. The resolution aims to
re-affirm the Board’s commit
ment to research and instructio
nal programs at that campus.
It authorizes Chancellor Perry
Adkisson to “proceed with plan
ning for a major research insti
tute of marine sciences at Galves
ton, possibly in collaboration with
the University of Texas.”
“We feel there are some econ
omies that can be made by com
bining some of our facilities,” Ad
kisson said. “We also feel we
could compete for federal monies
better with a combined effort.”
newspi
i your d*
. Just pfl
esn’t ntf
ipartmem
ply ignofj
urging ce|
they’ll hi'
a newsp 1
jy a vicioL-
itograph
Cambridge
Buskers —
What do they know
about music?
ed anth
i passion
t your nt'J
1 slamthM
ttie harsh
his one.
link youj
ict sure
[NO.
uess l’® 1 '
he door
nrr yo> ::
that nef
much he
iewspap e '
away
roomn 121 '
esalesm; 1
)h I th" 1 *
son tfiiO’
) nr mate 11
it by
. every
tiiJi
se sugf
e than/'
alesnran.
nrodif* 2
■bat.fr
, km* 1
and »
ngio*
arjoi#
,rThe
"The music is irresistible, the playing first class."—
RECORD WORLD
The MSC Opera and Performing Arts Society (MSC OPAS) presents the irresist
ible Cambridge Buskers Thursday, January 29 in Rudder Auditorium at 8 p.m.
Michael Copley and Dag Ingram were Cambridge University students who
began their career as street musicians (buskers) playing classical music to
earn train fare. Since busking is illegal in London, they were arrested. Since
then they have played the concert halls of the world in order to live outside
the confines of jail.
Hear them for yourself! Dag Ingram plays solo on the piano accordion and
Michael Copley, flutist, comprises the rest of the orchestra (33 other wind
instruments) — sometimes with more than one instrument in his mouth at
a time! The San Francisco Examiner calls them astonishing musicians!”
This delightful performance will surely sell out. Reserve your seats today!
Tickets are on sale at the MSC Box Office, 845-1234. VISA and MasterCard
accepted.
.'ll
MSC Opera and Performing Arts Society
Memorial Student Center • Texas A&M University • Box J l • College Station TX 77844-9081
YAMAHA
NAKAMICHI
SONY
the
We've got
deal to shift you
Yamaha.
up to
Close your eyes and listen. Are you at home or in
your car?
If your car is equipped with a Yamaha YCR 350 re
ceiver, you may not be able to tell the difference. The
same technology that goes into our finest home audio re
ceivers is also featured in our car audio receivers. Auto
reverse, Dolby B, music search, key off eject, variable
loudness, control bass and treble contol, and 18 watts per
channel for BIG, BIG sound.
Match this with a pair of Yamaha Speakers for an
uncomparable sound for only.
B
&
O
$349
00
B
o
s
T
o
N
AUDIOWD®
HAFLER
707 Texas Ave.
696-5719
CARVER
KLIPSCH