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WEST LINN West Linn police officer leads state in DUII arrests He's a former CEO who switched careers Comment By Everton Bailey Jr. The Oregonian MailTribune.com By Everton Bailey Jr. The Oregonian Posted May. 12, 2015 at 3:40 PM By Everton Bailey Jr. The Oregonian Posted May. 12, 2015 at 3:40 PM » Social News WEST LINN — After circling the restaurants and bars along West Linn's Willamette Falls Drive four times, Officer Jim Abeles spots a young guy driving away from a sports pub. He notes the gray Toyota Yaris is going 33 mph in a 20-mph zone and follows the car for a mile until he flashes his patrol car's lights and they both pull into a parking lot at Fields Bridge Park. It's dusk on a Friday. The driver, a 25-year-old man from Wilsonville, tells Abeles that he hasn't had anything to drink. He later claims he had just one drink. The officer — bald with a mustache and both arms covered in colorful tattoos — is a long way from his days as a software entrepreneur. Three years ago, Abeles left his job as CEO of Portland-based Pre1 at age 47 to pursue a near 30-year dream of becoming a cop. Now 50, Abeles said he's glad he no longer has to ask himself "what if." He was just named the state's top intoxicated driving enforcement officer. He made 65 arrests of impaired drivers in 2014, one more than all the other two-dozen officers in West Linn's patrol division combined. "It might sound corny, but it's really about making a difference for me," he said. "Life is just so short, and I really felt like doing something to try and have a positive impact. I was doing a little bit of that in my white-collar job, but I got so much more of that now and it's so satisfying." Back at Fields Bridge Park, the driver steps out of the car to take field sobriety tests, leaving a friend inside. The smell of alcohol is pungent from at least 6 feet away. Abeles tests how well the 25-year-old can follow a penlight with his eyes, walk in a straight line while making sure his toe and heel touch and balance on one leg. The driver fails the first test, but appears to do well on the other two. "I think you've had more than one beer to drink, and I think you know it, too," Abeles tells the man, asking him to come clean. The passenger in the Toyota lets Abeles know that the driver had three tall glasses of beer. Abeles and another officer arrest the driver and bring him to the police department. While an art major at Portland's Lewis & Clark College in the mid-1980s, Abeles went on a ride-along with a Portland police officer for a sociology class. From the back seat of a patrol car for eight hours straight, he observed how officers responded to calls in North Portland. Seeing cops interact with people in a different way than what he saw on TV made an impression, Abeles said. He thought it could be a great way for him to help people himself. But by the time he graduated in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in art, he had other ambitions. "It was the '80s," he said. "I thought I wanted to be rich." He also wanted to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who worked for most of his life in the newspaper industry in Chicago, where Abeles grew up. For the next 11 years, Abeles worked as a manager in marketing, advertising and classifieds departments at the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Bay Guardian and Willamette Week. In 1999, he founded Pre1, a company that designs software to manage newspaper and magazine content. The business grew to about 15 employees and Abeles felt great satisfaction in creating a product and being his own boss. But every once in a while, Abeles said, he thought back to his college ride-along and wondered if it was too late to become a cop. Then Abeles bid on a ride-along with Portland police at an auction and won, said Kat Topaz, Abeles' wife of 15 years. He ended up joining Mike Stradley, a Portland gang enforcement officer now a West Linn lieutenant, on his rounds about five years ago. The experience was just as exhilarating as it was more than two decades ago. Abeles looked for a police job for about a year and was hired by the West Linn Police Department in March 2012 after completing physical and written tests and other evaluations. It would be another nine months of training, including four months spent at the Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem, before he would go on patrol on his own. Abeles was the oldest recruit in his graduating class at the academy. The average age of the 40 students was 28. Abeles had a roommate who was the same age as his oldest child. Starting from the bottom again — and taking a pay cut from six figures as a CEO mostly working part time to nearly $50,000 as a police officer working full time — took an adjustment, he said. He started as a patrol officer and recently became a traffic enforcement officer. He works a 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift from Thursday to Sunday. Abeles gravitated to catching drunken drivers after seeing what a common problem they are. He also saw an opportunity to develop an expertise in an area that fascinated him. At first, he could spot only the more obvious intoxicated drivers. But people who swerve all over the road are rare in West Linn, he said. Over time, he started looking for more subtle clues and patterns, such as speed or if a car touches the centerline. When he stops a car and approaches a driver, Abeles makes note if the person is chewing gum or smoking a cigarette as well as how they respond to his directions and questions. The most common reply drunken drivers give him after he pulls them over: "I'm almost home." He estimates the average drunken driver he's arrested has a blood alcohol level around .11 percent. His oldest DUII arrest was a 72-year-old retired anesthesiologist who had too much to drink at a restaurant after watching a Trail Blazers' game. Abeles said he sees himself continuing as a police officer until he's at least 60 or until his supervisors tell him he can't do the job anymore. By Everton Bailey Jr. The Oregonian MailTribune.com By Everton Bailey Jr. The Oregonian Posted May. 12, 2015 at 3:40 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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