TROOPERS TURN UP PRESSURE

Sgt. Ryan Bauer patrols a small stretch of Interstate 15 near Beaver
looking for cracked windshields, dark window tint and broken taillights.
Such minor traffic stops rarely end in a ticket, but they have helped the
trooper confiscate more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana in the past year.

Bauer is a member of the Utah Highway Patrol's elite Criminal Interdiction
Team, a group of six officers who hunt for illegal drugs on the
interstates. The team formed Oct. 9, 2001, and in its first year has made
more major busts than the 350 other troopers combined.

The team has seized more than 2,100 pounds of marijuana, 24 pounds of
methamphetamine and 115 pounds of cocaine in 41 busts. The other troopers
have found more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, 25 pounds of meth and 9
pounds of cocaine in 28 busts, according to Highway Patrol statistics.

After noticing a dip in the number of drug seizures in recent years,
administrators handpicked experienced troopers with an aptitude for
spotting criminal activity to form the team. The six troopers and three
investigators are not expected to respond to accidents or stranded
motorists. Instead, they focus on making traffic stops in known drug corridors.

"We can't seem to get the demand down, so the only thing we can do is lower
the supply," said Col. Scott Duncan, Highway Patrol superintendent.

Most shipments originate in Mexico and enter Utah on I-15 in St. George,
said Lt. Fred Swain, who oversees the team. About half go east on I-70 and
the rest go east on I-80. Smaller shipments enter the state through Nevada.
The troopers patrol the interstates near Beaver, Tooele, Green River,
Nephi, Park City and Santaquin. After stopping a motorist, they look for
odd body language, strange smells and unusual nervousness.

Troopers must build what is called "articulate suspicion" to legally search
a vehicle. Utah courts heavily scrutinized search-and-seizure law in the
1990s, carefully parsing out what indicators police need before they can
peek into a trunk. A strong smell, such as a pungent air freshener, is not
enough. A nervous driver is not enough. But in combination, such clues
slowly build into probable cause.

The troopers are required to become students of the law, said Kirk
Torgensen, chief deputy in the Attorney General's Office. Torgensen trains
police officers on search-and-seizure statutes and says the troopers have
only two appropriate means of starting a search. If a trooper lacks
suspicion that he can spell out, he must conclude the traffic stop, tell
the driver he or she is free to go and then ask for permission to search
the vehicle. If a trooper improperly starts a search, a judge can exclude
evidence.

Odds Favor Traffickers: With these rules in mind, the troopers play the
odds game, making well more than 1,000 traffic stops in a year in hopes
that a handful will involve drug traffickers. In this game, the traffickers
have good odds of going undetected.

"Obviously, they have to make a mistake to get stopped, and they have to
make a mistake to get searched," said Sgt. Jeff Chugg, who patrols I-80
near Tooele. He says troopers are finding only a fraction of the drugs
moved on Utah's highways.

The team tries to even the odds by pairing troopers with dogs trained at
smelling drugs and by sharing information with law enforcement in nearby
states on everything from how a trooper found a secret compartment to a new
court ruling that affects search-and-seizure law. This newly created
network allows the troopers to keep on top of new tactics to stop drug
smugglers.

Bauer approaches each car with his hand on his gun and a smile on his face.
"I get a lot farther with people when I am not trying to be the big bad
cop," he said.

Keeping It Casual: During a recent traffic stop, Bauer asked passengers how
they were doing, adding, "I appreciate you wearing your seat belt today."
While the driver retrieved her license and registration, Bauer poked his
head through the passenger side window and took a whiff.

After running the license to see whether the driver had any outstanding
warrants, Bauer returned to the car and asked where they were coming from,
where they were going and what they did along the way. It is during
conversations like this that the troopers catch most of the drug smugglers.

"A normal person getting a citation doesn't shake or sweat profusely," said
Sgt. Ken Purdy, who works I-80 near Park City.

Trooper Steve Salas, who patrols Green River, said he looks at people's
eyes and monitors their breathing for irregularity, but he said their
answers to simple questions are the most telling.

"Somebody transporting contraband has to make up a story," he said. "It
kind of comes together when you start investigating it."

One trooper pulled over a car Jan. 24 for having dark window tint and
became suspicious when the driver could not name one person she visited on
her trip. He asked whether the woman had drugs in the car and she
volunteered a small bag of marijuana. The trooper searched the car and
found that the battery terminals were uncharacteristically loose. The
trooper found two packages of meth and a small amount of cocaine strapped
next to a motorcycle battery inside the hollowed-out car battery.

When such cases go before a judge, a common defense is that the trooper
illegally searched the vehicle or profiled the passengers based on race.

An illegal search-and-seizure claim is a defense attorney's most successful
means of getting a case overturned, said Beaver County prosecutor Von
Christiansen, who has tried many drug cases.

"That is where defense attorneys focus their energies," he said. "That is
where they really have a shot at helping their clients."

Judges have suppressed evidence in only two of the Criminal Interdiction
Team's 41 major drug cases for unconstitutional search and seizure.

Still, some officers have a reputation among defense attorneys as mavericks
out to make the big bust at the expense of constitutional rights.

'No Stop Is Routine': "There are officers out there who think this is a big
game," said Andrew McCullough, defense attorney for the American Civil
Liberties Union. "Their job is to find the drugs and convince the court
that they did it legally, even if they kind of shade the truth."

No defense attorney has successfully used the racial-profiling argument in
a Criminal Interdiction Team case, although the troopers say they hear
accusations regularly.

All of the troopers have equipment that records both audio and video of
every traffic stop. This equipment helps protect the officers from false
complaints, Bauer said. Some say the recordings stop troopers from
overstepping the law.

For Bauer, the emphasis is on finding the next drug trafficker coming down
I-15 and on improving this year's numbers.

"We just need to remember that no traffic stop is routine."