Sean Biagini has a knack for spotting drunk drivers. Their extrawide turns, the way they often weave in and out of lanes and their long stops at stop signs are all red flags.

His observation skills have been honed over 15 years in law enforcement, including the past seven as an officer with the Baldwin Borough Police Department. In addition, he's been trained to detect the difference between tired drivers and those even just slightly impaired by alcohol or drugs.

Last month, three local officers were recognized with the Pennsylvania DUI Association's Top Gun award for their dedication to nabbing DUI offenders. Officers Biagini and Timothy Kreger from the Baldwin Borough Police Department and Officer Jim Falconio from the Pleasant Hills Police Department were among the 42 honorees this year.

Officers Biagini and Kreger each secured more than 100 arrests for driving under the influence, or DUI, in 2008. Officer Falconio received the award for arresting more than 60 impaired drivers.

Mr. Biagini, 40, was surprised by the honor. "I don't do anything different than anyone else," he said. But he said his personal mission was to get drug offenders off the streets.

The Pennsylvania DUI Association is a nonprofit founded in 1979 that provides training, technical assistance and support to those professionals who work on alcohol and highway safety issues.

The association began presenting the Top Gun award 10 years ago. Candidates are nominated by their chiefs.

"We wanted to take the opportunity to reward officers for making our roads safer," said C. Stephen Erni, executive director of state association.

The association tracks the number of alcohol-related deaths in a number of ways. While the number of alcohol-related crashes decreased slightly last year, the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths remained constant at 534, the group said.

Mr. Erni believes that increased training and access to field tools, such as portable breath testers, have helped local officers keep up with the problem.

The breath testers are used at the scene to quickly determine blood alcohol levels of suspected offenders. Though the results are not admissible in court, they are useful in helping officers in the field.

Last month, each Top Gun recipient received a tester along with a commemorative plaque at a reception at The Nittany Lion Inn in State College.

Most police departments don't have enough breath testers for every officer.

Mr. Erni warned that impaired drivers remained a big concern for Pennsylvanians, requiring many different interventions.

"We recognize that we can't arrest our way out of this," he said, noting that societal factors and attitudes can be difficult to change.

"For those directly affected by it, the solution can't come soon enough," Mr. Erni said. He believes significant progress has been made in reducing alcohol-related accidents over the past 20 years.

"A lot of the residents of Pennsylvania may not be aware of the work being done on this problem in high schools," he said.

Association prevention and outreach efforts include Students Against Drunken Driving and Pennsylvanians Against Underage Drinking.

The south suburbs have two DUI task forces.

The South Hills force is a cooperative unit, headquartered in Baldwin Borough. It includes officers from Baldwin, Bethel Park, Elizabeth Township, Jefferson Hills, Homestead, Munhall, Pleasant Hills, South Park, West Homestead, West Mifflin and Whitehall.

Officer Ralph Miller, 51, the coordinator, said increased emphasis on training was helping.

Specifically, he says the three-day Standardized Field Sobriety Test courses help patrol officers detect borderline cases of impaired drivers. Sometimes referred to as "buzz" drivers, offenders still have a blood alcohol above the state maximum of 0.08.

The three-day course gives officers more ways to detect impairment. Using live subjects, officers are able to learn detection techniques. One involves looking for involuntary eye movements, often indicating alcohol consumption.

The Mt. Lebanon Area DUI Task force is headquartered in Mt. Lebanon and includes Mt. Lebanon, Baldwin Township, Bridgeville, Castle Shannon, Dormont, Green Tree, Heidelberg, Scott and South Fayette.

Lt. Mike McMurtrie, 39, the coordinator, said the average drunk driver has driven that way many times before the first arrest.

With grants from PennDOT, each task force is able to conduct several stationary checkpoints with 18 to 24 officers and an on-site blood analyst.

Both task forces report a change in traffic patterns at recent checks, where every car passing along the designated road is stopped for a sobriety check of the driver and to look for underage drinkers.

"We saw a tremendous decrease in traffic," Lt. McMurtrie said. "My theory is that Twitter and texting are responsible."

He says the portable technology and social networking sites allow drivers to alert friends to avoid sobriety checkpoints. At a recent checkpoint along a heavily traveled section of Route 19, the decline was striking.

"There were 20 minutes with not a single car passing by," Lt. McMurtrie said.

Still, he speculates even drivers who avoid the checkpoint are better educated about the problem and may think twice next time about driving under the influence.

Lt. McMurtrie also noted an encouraging increase in taxicabs and designated drivers with drunken passengers at recent checkpoints. He says both are good signs the public is getting the message about the dangers of driving under the influence.

The Mt. Lebanon Task Force made 25 DUI arrests with six checkpoints conducted from October 2008 to October of this year. The South Hills force held two checkpoints during the same time, with 41 arrests.

Grant funds also help support numerous roving patrols for each force. Officers volunteer for four-hour shifts to target impaired drivers.

"It's like hunting for drunk drivers," Officer Miller said. Officers do not answer routine calls during their "roving DUI" shifts. The Mt. Lebanon station also hires a phlebotomist to draw blood at the station during those patrols.

Blood tests are admissible in court and can detect the specific blood alcohol level of offenders.

Local DUI arrest records have increased in recent years. Most police officers attribute the rise to better detection. But there is a concern regarding the increase in underage drunkem drivers, which represents a growing segment of arrests.

"That's a scary thing when you take being impaired combined with limited driving experience," Officer Miller said.

Officer Miller will conduct checkpoints and roving DUI patrols during the Thanksgiving holiday. According to the state DUI association, Thanksgiving is the holiday with the highest number of alcohol-related crashes.

Mr. Erni hopes the number of DUI crashes in Pennsylvania continues to decline with more education and police enforcement.

"Drinking is an adult activity, and driving is an adult activity," he said. "But the two should never be combined."

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.