Police have declined to comment on Mr Benney's allegation that he was targeted near the end of his career.
"I had a few beers and a meal and I wasn't over the limit. I know the rules and if they had caught me over the limit that's fine."
On the night, two teammates had come across the checkpoint and called him.
Mr Benney opted to take an alternative route home and, while driving, says he heard on the police radio: "We've missed him."
In the book, he says the actions were the result of poor local leadership.
There have been management changes at the Whangarei station since Mr Benney left.
"No one had the guts to approach me and talk to me about it. It's not how I would have handled the situation," he said.
He acknowledged his relaxed attitude to police regulations over the years had occasionally got him in trouble with his superiors, but he did not drink and drive.
He said police attitudes to alcohol had changed over the years and, in the early days when no counselling was offered to police, letting off steam in a police bar was therapy for the officers, who frequently dealt with traumatic cases and deaths on the job.
Mr Benney was part of the police team that launched the biggest manhunt in Northland police history, with a 10-day hunt for Nathan Fenton after he bashed Mairina Dunn to death in Otangarei in August, 2006.
However, Mr Benney revealed in the book that weeks before Fenton murdered Ms Dunn he severely beat her and was on the run. Mr Benney tracked Fenton to a bay at Whananaki - nearly the same spot where he was found after the murder - and he was taken to court.
The next day Mr Benney spotted Fenton running up Bank St and learnt the offender with a violent history had been given bail.
"If he hadn't been given bail that woman could still be alive."
After three decades on the thin blue line, Mr Benney ended his career with a simple email to the human resources officer. It read: "I resign."
Mr Benney, now part-owner of central city pub The Judge and a fitness gym, said he left the police with no regrets and a lot of memories.
While police were better equipped than when he joined in 1983, they had missed the boat in a vital area, which was the community, he said.
"The closure of small stations, the decline in the number of young officers playing sport, the push to increase traffic tickets and other factors have created a gulf between the community and the frontline police that will probably never be closed.
Mr Benney said he hoped the book showed the human side of policing. "The police put young people into unreal situations and expect them to deal with it."
One of his concerns was the number of experienced senior staff who were leaving the Northland force.
He said there was a lack of experienced sergeants on the frontline for younger staff to learn from.
"Management ... let them go and it all comes down to finances but there has to be places for them in mentor-type roles."
-Read more about "Country Cop" in Saturday's Northern Advocate feature section.
