Bob Stofan and Bruce Anderson stand plotting in the driveway of a Sacramento home, their black shirts, black cargo pants, and black Kevlar vests soaking up the blazing summer heat.
It's the third street the Sacramento County District Attorney investigators had been to in the hunt for a woman wanted on a drunken driving warrant. She, like the others the team pursues daily, has multiple DUI arrests.
And like the others, finding her is the name of the game.
Each day, the investigators knock on dozens of doors and talk to countless neighbors.
They manage a most wanted page on the district attorney's Web site and have a MySpace page - albeit no MySpace friends.
Their unique mix of basic detective work and new technology has succeeded: Since the program's inception in February 2007, the Recidivist DUI (RED) Team has had closed 342 of its 759 cases.
That success also has led to significant grant funding and the program being heralded as one for other counties to emulate.
The program received $327,000 last year and received $500,000 this year in grant funding from the state Office of Traffic Safety. Getting OTS grant funding two years running for the same program is unusual, officials said.
"This program is kind of the exception to the rule because of its success," said OTS Director Christopher Murphy. "It was an opportunity we saw to implement a program we believe works."
The team typically gets about 10 to 15 new cases each week. Mornings are spent in the DA's office, figuring out where the offenders work, live and are likely to be found.
Afternoons are spent pursuing leads and making contact with neighbors or relatives of offenders. One or two arrests make for a good day, Stofan said.
Many offenders try to elude arrest, jumping out of second-story windows, taking off barefoot in 105 degree heat, hiding in closets.
Some simply flee the courthouse.
"I had a defendant today that was upgraded to a felony - he had three prior DUIs," said Deputy District Attorney Kelly Clark, who is part of the RED Team, during a June interview. "He said he had to use the bathroom and left the courthouse."
Others, such as Sean Duff, give up quietly.
Earlier this month, Stofan and Anderson arrested Duff, 41, as he was walking his 7-year-old son home from school.
They allowed Duff to hug his son goodbye, tell him "I love you" and get out of earshot and sight with the boy's mother before patting Duff down and handcuffing him.
Duff, who was arrested in August for alleged drunken driving and has a prior drunk driving conviction, had missed a scheduled court date.
He blamed it on bad timing. His son is autistic and was having a hard time going to school that week.
"Everything else got put on the back burner," Duff said.
As he waited to see a nurse in the downtown jail's intake area, Duff said he plans to set things right this time.
"It should work out if I do the right thing, and it's all about doing the right thing," he said.
That sentiment seems to be common among offenders the team seeks.
"Most times, people will find out we're looking for them and turn themselves in," Anderson said.
Steve McKinney, chief investigator for the district attorney's office, said the public's disgust with drunk driving is one of the team's biggest assets. Investigators hit the streets, pass out business cards and receive plenty of information.
"It seems like no one likes a drunk driver, and they're all willing to help us," McKinney said.
The team's efforts also aid local law enforcement agencies, which are inundated with various warrants and have insufficient time and resources to go after DUI suspects, he said.
"So these guys beat the system because local law enforcement didn't have the manpower to go out and serve these warrants," McKinney said.
Stofan and Anderson will travel throughout Northern and Central California to catch repeat DUI offenders. They've arrested people in Stockton, Tracy, Antioch and Modesto. Earlier this month, they went looking in San Jose.
"Just because you leave the area doesn't mean you get a pass," McKinney said. "If you have a recidivist warrant in Sacramento, we will go after you."
A portion of the hefty grant funding the program received this year will be used to develop a prototype program and manual to help develop similar programs throughout the state.
It isn't hard to see why others would want to mimic the programs success, officials said.
"The primary purpose of the team and what we absolutely accomplished is we've reduced the number of impaired people on the street," McKinney said. "This team and this effort impacts everyone."
Call The Bee's Niesha Lofing, (916) 321-1270.
Call The Bee's Niesha Lofing, (916) 321-1270.
