ROCHESTER, Minn. -
Officer Terry Pretzloff is behind the wheel a few days before New Year's. In his 6 years on the beat, he has watched Rochester grow exponentially. But more growth could mean more drunk drivers.
"I don't think there's a lot of entertainment for people sometimes so it's easy to say, 'let's go down to the bar and pretty soon 1 drink turns to 10 drinks," Pretzloff said.
Weekends are prime time for the officers who have seen their workload grow with the city.
"We do have anywhere between 4-6 extra officers assigned to downtown on the weekends to combat those problems, and that's been going on for 3 years now," Pretzloff said.
He has seen some devastating consequences of drunk driving.
"An intoxicated collided with another vehicle and it happened to have a mother and her children in the vehicle," Pretzloff said. "Both were transported to the hospital and one of the children died in the crash."
He is watching out for any impaired drivers -- and immediately knows the signs of what to look out for.
"You'll notice they might have slurred speech, watery eyes, strong odor of alcoholic beverage," Pretzloff said.
The police, state troopers and deputies will be out in the field for the New Year and Pretzloff has some no-nonsense advice on staying safe.
"It's important that you have a safe, sober ride to get back to where you are gonna go at the end of the night," Pretzloff said.
