Lt. Karl Woolridge, special operations commander, said a sergeant who told the Arizona Daily Star the department was about to launch an anti-drunken-driving program named Operation Would U Like Fries, or Operation WULF, was wrong.
"Quite frankly, the program never had the support," Woolridge said. "We had never drafted any policies or procedures for it. It was really in the concept stage, and it never went any further than that."
Woolridge was contacted by the Star about Operation WULF, to comment for a story, which ran on Sunday. But he directed Sgt. Doug Hanna, DUI unit supervisor, to respond to the newspaper.
Hanna told the Star several local franchise owners and managers had agreed to let undercover deputies work their drive-through windows so they could spot impaired drivers placing orders. He said they were just waiting for corporate approval before going ahead.
If the deputies noticed someone with the classic symptoms of impairment — slurred speech, red or watery eyes, beer breath, he said, they would radio a uniformed deputy stationed just outside.
The second deputy would pull the driver over and, if field tests confirmed what the officer at the drive-through suspected, arrest him or her on suspicion of driving under the influence.
He also said he had plans to approach the owners of local restaurants that have drive-through windows within the next two weeks to see if they would be interested in participating.
The sergeant explained the program would be funded by a $128,000 grant from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety that also funds sobriety checkpoints and other anti-drunken-driving programs.
The Star learned about Operation WULF from an internal Sheriff's Department memo from Hanna to Woolridge that it obtained.
Hanna told the Star last week that the program had been approved by his chain of command and the Pima County Attorney's Office.
But on Monday, Woolridge said the program "was never more than an idea, and the sheriff (Clarence Dupnik) would never have approved it."
Woolridge said Hanna must have been "just speculating" that the plan would have been approved once the details were worked out. Hanna did not return phone calls from the Star Monday.
David Berkman, Pima County's chief criminal deputy county attorney, said no one from within Barbara LaWall's criminal division was approached about the idea. It was discussed within the civil division, but Berkman had no details on those discussions, and no representative of the civil division was available Monday.
Sunday's story, which was distributed across the country by The Associated Press, generated a heavy response from online Star readers, most of it critical.
Reader criticism echoed that of local defense attorneys and at least two local restaurateurs quoted in the story.
"I have no love for drunk drivers, and I want them off the road, but this is too much like Big Brother," said Tom O'Connor, owner of Tucson's 21 Eegee's restaurants.
Mike Herndon, who owns seven local Burger King outlets, also was opposed to the idea.
Defense attorneys Joseph St. Louis, Michael Bloom and Brick Storts all questioned the allocation of resources in these economic times and the legality of such a program.
Bloom said he wasn't sure undercover deputies would have enough time to develop the "probable cause" needed to pull over drivers.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were the first ones to come up with the drive-through concept, Hanna said. He learned about their program, Operation WULF, while attending a MADD conference in Dallas.
