How do you train state police cadets to identify a drunk driver during a field sobriety test? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall: practice. The Colorado State Patrol has a novel solution to this problem. It hosts a “wet lab” where volunteers enjoy free drinks, then try to pass a field sobriety test administered by a state police cadet.

This isn’t a boozy brunch with bottomless drinks. Trooper Hunter Mathews specifies, “It’s not an open bar. This is a very controlled environment where we measure every single drop that goes into these beverages.”

“How tall they are, how much they weigh, whether they’re male or female. That all goes into account for what they’re going to be drinking.” Then each volunteer takes a breathalyzer test before they face a cadet.

Training cadets with real drunks

Part of the purpose of the wet lab is to help cadets calibrate their observation techniques. To this end, some of the volunteers drink until they’re just over the legal BAC. Others drink to excess. When Channel 9 News went to observe the wet bar, it reported one volunteer had 14 drinks in just under three hours.

The “wet lab” isn’t an all-out party; it’s a controlled training exercise. That said, the Colorado State Patrol has a variety of drinks on hand, and even freshly cut limes and lemons for its volunteers to enjoy. The volunteers aren’t actually being tested. The cadets are. “At the end of the day, they are going to have to be put on the spot to decide, would you arrest this person?”

You can see the Channel 9 News coverage in the video below: