Investigating

1.) Description- It was a cold, dark night in October.  Penn State had just come off a huge win against Ohio State and Happy Valley had been partying all day.  But now it was quiet, too quiet.  The corner of Curtin Rd. and University Dr., usually full of tailgaters, was now empty.  As Officer Weston was doing his rounds of the campus, he could not figure out if this silence was good or bad.  He was hoping it was a good sign, but knew that since Penn State was such a largely populated school that something must be going on.  He figured that kids had gone down to Frat Row, and since it was only 11 o'clock he would have a little bit of free time before he had to start doing his rounds through campus.  As he pulled up to the light on Curtin, he slowly came to a stop at the red light.  While waiting at the light he began to look around the campus.  He looked at Beaver Stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center.  Both of these buildings had their lights still on.  He thought to himself that other than his kids he had never seen anything more beautiful.  Especially, with the mountains in the background.  Then in an instant the scene changed.  As the light changed to green Officer Weston slowly took his foot off the break and onto the gas.  As the car began to accelerate Weston saw a bright light.  He turned to his right and a Ford Bronco was charging right at him with no sign of slowing down.  He quickly slammed on his breaks, allowing the car to go through the light.  Then he backed up, turned around and changed directions to follow the car up University Dr.  He turned his sirens on and after following the car for a good five minutes the car finally stopped. 
      He got out of his car and walked up to the driver door of the Bronco.  When he saw who the driver was he was not shocked.  It was a boy in his young twenties.  Weston's immediate thought was that the boy was drunk since he drove through a red light and had been heading from Frat Row.  Officer Weston took out his flashlight, or that is what the boy thought.  Really, Officer Weston was testing his BAC.  He was using new technology called the passive alcohol sensor.  It is a new device that can be seen as helpful to police officers, but invasive to the general public so it is a current topic of debate.

2.) Interviews-
- name: Paul Hehn
age: 18
year: Freshman
Quote: "I think it is a very good idea.  It seems to be a safe nonintrusive way for officers to figure out whether a person has been drinking or not."
- name: Shannon Gethard
age: 18
year: Freshman
Quote: "I think that while it is going to be very beneficial in helping to decrease drunk driving because people are not going to want to risk it, but when it comes to student privacy she does not really agree with the process.  It's annoying, but it's beneficial."
- name: Drew Renn
age: 21
year: Junior
Quote: "I think it is a good thing.  I think you should never mix drinking and driving.  I am very against drunk driving. I am 21, the other day I had one beer and I waited. When you mix consuming alcohol and drinking you are not thinking."

3.) Facts:
Newspaper Article: Project Zero Tolerance (September 22, 2011)
     Facts: Several Studies conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety concluded that passive alcohol sensors increase detection of alcohol by nearly 50 percent.
              - State College area police are actively promoting this new enforcement initiative to remind young drivers that DUI enforcement is focusing on them.  The "Have you Seen the Light?" advertising campaign is aimed at persuading would-be drinking drivers that they should change their behavior or risk arrest.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8460734
     Facts:  Measurements could be taken much more easily and quickly with the passive sensor, whose readings correlated very strongly (r = .87) with the evidentiary device. Moreover, for criterion blood alcohol concentration levels ranging from 100 mg/dL to 20 mg/dL, a large proportion of motorists could be accurately identified as being above or below the criterion, with relatively few false-negative or false-positive identification
              - The use of passive alcohol sensors at sobriety checkpoints should allow motorists to be processed very quickly with minimal inconvenience.

4.) Two Areas:
         1.) Drunk Driving- I want to figure out more of the facts and risks so I can have better details and support in my paper
         2.) Other Devices- Compare the Passive Alcohol Test to other techniques that police officers use.