01:16 AM CDT on Saturday, April 8, 2006

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV

TABC

A TABC video shows a woman, left, being examined for signs of intoxication.

It's the weekend, and bars in North Texas are filled with people—some of them drinking too much.

But how do officers tell if someone is intoxicated without giving a breathalyzer test?

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is launching an internal affairs investigation over a public intoxication bust late last month in Irving. The probe results from complaints against TABC officers in raids on bars, and News 8 has obtained videotapes of some of those raids.

One man was pulled from an Irving restaurant on March 10 after an undercover agent watched him and suspected him of public intoxication, or PI. Now he's a suspect.

"We give them a field sobriety test. There are three field sobriety tests," said TABC officer Lt. Sonja Pendergast.

The test is critical, because not all TABC officers have breathalyzers to measure blood alcohol. So this is the test that puts people in jail.

One part is the "walk and turn," where the subject has to walk toe-to-heel and turn.

Another is the "one-leg stand," in which a person must stand with arms at his sides, raise one leg 6 inches off the ground, and hold that position while counting.

Back behind the bar, bartenders say it's not that easy to tell when someone is publicly intoxicated. They go through training similar to TABC officers, but have to judge a customer simply on appearance.

Yet if somebody is found to be publicly intoxicated in their establishment, they pay a price.

"We have been threatened. We have all been threatened. If we arrest someone in your bar for PI, we will arrest you for over serving," said bar server Verna Humphrey.

The third component of a field sobriety exam is the "horizontal gaze test." A suspect is told to watch an officer's moving finger. The officer watches her gaze for rapid involuntary movement of the eyes.

In the March raids, some suspects were unaware why they were being taken from the bar.

Bartenders who watched the process are skeptical.

The TABC admits charging public intoxication without measuring blood alcohol is based on judgment. But the public intoxication law, as it is now written, does not require measuring blood alcohol.

"It's against the law to be intoxicated in a public place. Not everyone likes it, not everyone agrees with it. A bar is a public place, It is against the law to be intoxicated there," said Pendergast.

So outside the bar, the tests will go on, with results many will question.

E-mail bharris@wfaa.com