SAN MARCOS -- It's 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. Deputy Tammy Bennetts is on the hunt for "deuces," cop talk for drunken drivers. They're so named because nearly all DUI offenders say they've had just "a couple" drinks when pulled over.

Bennetts, a 22-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department, has heard the line hundreds of times.

From inside her patrol car, the deputy trains her light blue eyes on the rivers of cars crisscrossing the city. She scans for those weaving in and out of lanes, for bar patrons stumbling to their cars.

Much of the night is quiet.

Bennetts, a drug recognition expert, drives down thoroughfares and small streets. Scenarios of what she'll do at a traffic stop run through her mind.

A call comes in from a fellow deputy. He's pulled over a suspected "deuce."

In a moment, Bennetts is at the scene.

She conducts the field sobriety test; only a few deputies are trained to do so.

The 64-year-old suspect wobbles when he stands. His eyes jerk involuntarily as he tries to follow Bennetts' pen side-to-side, a sign he's under the influence of alcohol.

The man declines a breath test at the scene, as is his right. (He later registers a 0.23 blood alcohol content at the San Marcos Sheriff's Station, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08).

He nearly falls over -- several times -- as he tries to walk a white line.

That's the last straw.

He's read his rights, handcuffed and placed in the back of Bennett's cruiser.

"Well, that's one," the deputy says quietly, and shuts the door.

One of many

The Sheriff's Department made 1,600 DUI arrests in its jurisdiction last year. That includes San Marcos, Vista, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar, Poway, Santee, Lemon Grove and Imperial Beach -- though not unincorporated areas or the city of San Diego.

Many drunken drivers, of course, weren't caught.

From 2002 through 2006, there were more than 500 alcohol-related fatal crashes in San Diego County, according to state traffic data. In that time, there were more than 10,000 alcohol-related injury crashes.

Armed with a new $530,000 DUI enforcement grant from the state, the department hopes to stem some of the carnage. Grant money will be spread across the department's jurisdiction.

The grant started in October and runs through September 2009.

It's up from a similar $175,000 grant last year and will allow more deputies to work overtime DUI enforcement shifts, said Sheriff's Lt. Michael Cea, who is coordinating the grant for the department.

It's already making a difference.

Three deputies were conducting DUI enforcement in San Marcos on the recent Tuesday. Without the grant, just one would have.

Bennetts, who takes pride in removing drunks from the road, has signed up to work four overtime enforcement shifts during the next month.

More than just smelling alcohol

DUI arrests, or "hooking deuces," as Bennetts calls them, aren't simple.

You put yourself in harm's way. You're sometimes dealing with belligerent drunks. Who knows if a driver is a wanted felon? If they're armed or just robbed a bank?

Personal safety is Bennetts' top priority.

The blond deputy is 5 feet 2 inches tall. It's her experience and cool confidence that make hers a commanding presence.

"You use your words, because you know you don't have your strength or size to tackle these guys," said Bennetts, 44, working an overtime shift on her normal day off. "You talk them into the handcuffs."

She follows an ingrained set of actions at a traffic stop.

Approaching the car, she keeps one hand on her gun.

She shines her flashlight on the back of the car first, then the back seat and finally the front.

She'll remove her gun from its holster and hold it down by her leg if something seems "hinky," or strange.

Using a pleasant but professional tone, she patiently runs through a series of questions.

"Did you have anything to drink tonight?"

"What did you have for dinner?"

"Are you taking any medication?"

She needs to tell the difference between a drunk and a diabetic whose blood sugar is crashing. The two share similar behaviors, including slow, slurred speech, Bennetts said.

To detect drug users, the eyes are the key.

She must watch for rebound dilation characteristic of cocaine or meth users. In that case, pupils respond to light shrinking, pulsating and then growing larger. For heroin users, the flashlight test results in the pupils steady bouncing or pulsating, Bennetts said.

Once an arrest is made, the work is just beginning.

She spends about three to five hours processing each arrest. She must log each inmate's belongings and administer a breath test at the station if the subject declined one in the field. Then there's Department of Motor Vehicles forms, driving the subject to the Vista jail to be booked, followed by a detailed arrest report and supplemental DUI report.

Each step is critical. Errors or omissions allow defense attorneys to wipe away valid arrests, Bennetts said.

"A lot of people watch TV and think our job is fun and exciting," she said. "They forget that essentially 80 percent of our job is paperwork."

Satisfaction and pain

Deputy Agustin Rosas nabbed 85 "deuces" last year -- the most at the San Marcos Sheriff's Station.

He hooked 100 the year before when he worked in Imperial Beach.

He and Bennetts said they chose to work the night shift because of the satisfaction they gain from DUI arrests, the vast majority of which come at night.

"I'd rather get them off the road before they get injured and hurt somebody," said Rosas, a 12-year-veteran of the department.

The San Marcos averages 25 DUI arrests a month.

A large color map posted inside the station shows where the arrests are made. Purple dots cluster along major roadways such as San Marcos Boulevard.

The deputies' filing cabinets store tragic information.

Bennetts keeps five years' worth of files on major injury and fatal car wrecks she has handled. As an accident investigator for the department, she sometimes is called upon to testify about the collisions.

A fatal crash from August stays with her. In that case, a 35-year-old DUI driver went through a stop light, hit a car and then wrapped his car around a light pole, killing his cousin and a dog inside.

The driver recently agreed to a plea deal and faces more than 12 years in prison for vehicular manslaughter and felony DUI, Bennetts said.

Cases like that come to mind when suspected drunken drivers ask Bennetts for leniency.

She doesn't allow any.

"As many dead bodies that I scrape up off the road because of DUI drivers, it's not worth it (to let them go)," she said.

Contact staff writer Chris Nichols at (760) 740-5426 or cnichols@nctimes.com.

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530,000: Dollar amount for new state DUI enforcement grant awarded to Sheriff's Department

10,332: Number of alcohol-related injury car wrecks in San Diego County from 2002 through 2006

1,600: Number of DUI arrests by Sheriff's Department in 2007

522: Number of alcohol-related fatal car wrecks in San Diego County from 2002 through 2006

Sources: Sheriff's Department Lt. Michael Cea, California Office of Traffic Safety