NHP ‘ghost’ SUVs out in force to intercept DUI drivers

The Nevada Highway Patrol’s “ghost” vehicles are out on roads this holiday season, and troopers hope the hard-to-spot SUVs will help them intercept intoxicated drivers.

The Las Vegas DUI Strike Team, which consists of seven Metro traffic officers and three Nevada Highway Patrol troopers, will be out in force over the holidays, increasing their already-daily presence to catch DUI drivers.

Trooper Travis Smaka explained that the Ford Explorers are marked with subdued decals so they are harder to see unless light shines directly on them. Instead of a light bar across the roof, the SUVs have modified lighting embedded in the roof near the windshield, he said.

“Usually you can identify the silhouette of a police car from like a quarter-mile away and adapt your driving to avoid being caught,” Smaka said. “These are more subtle, so by the time you notice it’s a police car it’s probably too late.”

The agency has about a dozen of the “ghost” vehicles on the roads year-round. Smaka said they’re issued to troopers on the DUI task force, which works 24/7 to catch intoxicated drivers.

The Highway Patrol works with the Metropolitan Police Department to conduct routine DUI blitzes throughout the year, with the most recent one taking place this past Saturday. According to an NHP tweet, that blitz resulted in 161 traffic stops, 42 citations, 20 DUI arrests, two non-DUI arrests and two recovered firearms. Another tweet showed that officers found an open bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey and a loaded AR-15 rifle.

Metro Traffic Lt. Bret Ficklin said the 10-unit Strike Team is patrolling the roads every night, but groups of 30 to 40 officers focus their efforts on two area commands for each DUI blitz. They perform blitzes once a month from January to September, he said, increasing to two a month in October, November and December.

Ficklin said the team tries to coordinate its 10-hour blitzes for Saturday nights around holidays or events where people are more likely to be out drinking. The next one will be the day after Christmas.

“We went away from DUI checkpoints and moved toward blitzes because they’re just more effective,” Ficklin said. “The checkpoints are like just casting a net in a small area while fishing, while the blitzes allow us to send officers out on the road where they can catch other violations as well.”

Ficklin said it’s frustrating to see how many DUI arrests are made each night that the Strike Team goes out. He said there have been 98 traffic-related deaths in Metro’s jurisdiction this year, and they all could have been prevented by safer driving. By Thursday, there had been 100 fatal crashes.

“We’re already taking these extraordinary steps to save lives during this pandemic, but people are still so reckless on the roads,” he said. “It’s really frustrating to us when rideshares are so readily available and reasonably priced that people still choose to get behind the wheel when they’ve been drinking.”

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.