Last month, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that mandatory drug and alcohol testing for Chicago Police lieutenants and captains would be conducted whenever they discharge their weapons. Moreover, the supervisors face random alcohol testing, according to a new policy recently ratified at a joint City Council committee meeting. If their breathalyzer tests range from .02 to .04 they will be relieved of duty on that watch. The following day they will be re-tested, and thereafter, randomly tested over the next six months. If after that probationary period they have not had any further incidents, their record will be expunged.

Some fear this tactic is over-reaching, perhaps even draconian in its approach, since Chicago police officers are not arrested for DUI violations at any higher rate than the general driving public. What may have been the catalyst for the new policy are recent incidents involving officers who have had too much to drink. The most notorious episode in that city occurred in 2006, when an off-duty officer was captured by a surveillance camera inside a local bar. In a video tape seen across the nation, the officer was recorded beating a female bartender; he was arrested for the incident, convicted, sentenced to probation, and fired for his behavior. Consequences.

Incidents such as the one described above are not unique to big-city cops, they occur everywhere. What makes them fodder for the news is that cops are involved. We rarely see news about someone who may have had too much to drink, and who works as an accountant, tree surgeon, or perhaps a store clerk. Think about it... when was the last time you were watching the news and saw a report such as, "A carpenter was arrested for DUI last night as he was driving down Main Street?" Incidents like that rarely make headlines, and when they do, the offender's occupation is irrelevant.

Cops are a different story; the public has higher expectations of us. They expect us to be one notch above everyone else. Our behavior and character are assumed to be above reproach. If you think about the responsibility entrusted in each of us, those high expectations seem warranted. The problem is we are a products of society; we mirror our fellow citizens, which means we have the same problems and foibles as do our neighbors. Problems with alcohol affect us, just as they do every other occupation.