Booze Bus

The results of “Operation Unite” in Perth surpassed all expectations. In the course of this operation, the Australian police had set up control points all over the country on the night of December 12, 2009 in order to get drunken drivers off the road. In Perth on the western coast of Australia, the police took up their positions at 1 a.m. on the southward lane of the Kwinana Freeway. Before long, they had intercepted almost more drunken drivers than they could handle. By 7 a.m., a fourth of the 744 drivers they tested had been drinking. Thirty-nine of them were arrested. “Through their thoughtless actions, these drivers are endangering not only their own lives but also those of other people,” said the officer in charge, Sergeant Graham Clifford, with disgust. Colin Barnett, Premier of the state of Western Australia, declared that this “antisocial behavior” was not acceptable. “What we’re saying to these yobbos is change your ways,” he said.¹

In Australia the police can stop drivers at any time without specific grounds and subject them to a breath alcohol test. However, the handheld devices they carry with them are not sufficient to initiate criminal proceedings. If the alcohol content exceeds the permitted blood alcohol content of 0.05%, criminal proceedings can be initiated only if the suspect is taken to the nearest police station and tested a second time with a breath alcohol measuring instrument whose results can be used as evidence in court. Because police stations may be few and far between, the Australian police have developed special “booze buses” in which all of the necessary tests can be carried out. In the Perth operation, so many drunken drivers were caught that the police team had to call for a second special bus in the middle of the night.

In addition to state-of-the-art testing equipment, the buses offer everything the police teams need for a long night shift, from an independent power source to a small kitchen. Meanwhile, the buses’ striking appearance is meant to have a deterrent effect. The message the buses convey is that in the struggle against alcohol, the Australian police mean business.

Each bus normally operates with a staff of 11: a team leader and two officials who guide traffic at the control points; five police officers who test the drivers that have been told to pull over to the side of the road; one police officer who conducts the evidential measurement inside the bus; and finally, two team members who go into action if a driver tries to flee from the control point in order to avoid being tested.

The concept behind these buses was first implemented in the Australian state of Victoria in the early 1990s, and it was subsequently extended to cover all of Australia. There was initial skepticism about the program, partly due to fears that civil liberties were being infringed upon. However, according to those responsible for the program, the skepticism has yielded to general public acceptance. One major reason for that is the significant decrease in the number of traffic accidents caused by drunken drivers, thanks to the strong presence of the police buses.² As a result, in most Australian states the “booze buses” have been upgraded to become “drug buses.” Drivers under suspicion can now also be tested there for drugs such as cannabis, methamphetamine, and ecstasy.