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In a screenshot of dashcam video, Waukesha Police Department Officer Bryan Spakowicz speaks to the driver, Jacob Burow, during a traffic stop.(Photo: Waukesha Police Department)
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WAUKESHA - As two Waukesha police
officers returned to their squad cars to perform a driver’s license
check on a 22-year-old man who was pulled over, they wondered if they
were dealing with an off-duty cop.
One
of them showed the license to the other. He mouthed the words “law
enforcement officer,” so the nearby dashcam couldn’t pick up what he was
asking.
They texted a New Berlin officer and
confirmed their suspicions: the driver, named Zachary Burow, who told
the Waukesha officers he drank “two beers” earlier that night, was a new
cop in New Berlin, still on probationary status.
Officer
Bryan Spakowicz, who conducted the traffic stop, later told New Berlin
command staff during their investigation into the incident that,
normally, he would run an ordinary citizen through standardized field
sobriety tests if they indicated to him they drank “two beers” sometime
before being pulled over.
Spakowicz also recognized Burow had glassy eyes and knew he was coming from a bar.
But
before Spakowicz approached the suspect vehicle a second time, he
turned off the audio for his dashcam. He later told New Berlin command
staff what he said when he returned to the driver’s window:
“I
don’t think you are impaired, but why don’t you pull over and I will
give you a PBT (preliminary breath test). I am not going to arrest you.
If you had too much, then we will get you a ride home.”
Burow blew a 0.083 blood-alcohol concentration, just over the legal limit. The Waukesha officers did not arrest or cite him.
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