The Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office this weekend participated in a research study that involved stopping motorists at various sites and asking them to voluntarily submit to a D.U.I. Test.

Sgt. Bob Enney said deputies assisted the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in stopping motorists at five sites along Colorado 119 for surveys on any drug and alcohol use. Surveyors then asked the motorists to voluntarily submit to tests of their breath, blood and saliva. At least 200 drivers were tested,

These are not law-enforcement authorized stops at established D.U.I. checkpoints. Several of those stopped complained after the fact — about the length of the detentions and their feeling pressured to take the test.

Roberto Sequeira says he was traveling northbound on Hwy. 119 in Gilpin County with his family one night recently and was stopped at a traffic checkpoint by a research group saying they were attempting to collect data on drugs and alcohol and asked if they could breathylize him. Posing for a portrait in his car in Boulder on Monday, Sept. 17, 2007, Sequeira says he repeatedly asked if they were law enforcement officials and said he was not interested in participating in the study, but was not given clearance to leave.

Heads-Up: If you get stopped by one of these “research” groups, you have every right to say no and persist in your refusal. Ask if you are free to leave. Say you want to leave. Don’t get fooled into thinking you have to comply. Think of your response when a telemarketer calls you at dinnertime. This is the same thing.