The recent headline: Fall of
DUI Cases Continues after Liquor Sales Privatization is misleading. As is the case with most changes to public policy, it is
difficult to make a direct correlation between the change in alcohol policy
with a change in DUI cases within a year of the change taking place.
Are police staffing
issues related to a decrease in DUI arrests?
Most of
the article states that the privatization of liquor sales after the passage of
I-1183 has had no affect on arrests for driving under the influence
(DUI). However, when you reach the end of
the article it states:
A spokesman for
the state patrol urged caution about drawing correlations between DUI arrest
and collision rates and broader public behavior.
"The
biggest reason for arrest data to change is police staffing," said the
patrol's Bob Calkins.
Did the increase in
liquor prices affect consumption?
We know that the price of alcohol has an impact on how much
is consumed. Along with privatization,
liquor prices in our state increased. It may be that the increase in price
balanced with the increase in availability and prevented an increase in
consumption.
Do other new policies
decrease the amount of time police spend on the roads?
A decrease in DUI arrests could mean that police officers don’t have the time to
arrest more drunk/high drivers because of the time it takes for them to process each case. From the time a person is pulled over for a possible DUI violation, it takes about four hours to process the DUI.
Why does it take so long? Watch this video to find out:
- Recent legislation requires officers to impound
vehicles, increasing the officer’s time on the DUI case because he/she has to
wait for a tow truck.
- With marijuana related cases and breath test
refusals, officers are encouraged to obtain blood tests. This means that officers need to take DUI
suspects to hospitals for blood draws.
- A recent court decision mandates that officers obtain
warrants for each blood draw. Contacting
a judge, especially at night, adds a lot of time to the process.
Extra time spent processing a DUI means less time out on the
road finding DUIs.
Will final numbers
tell a different story?
DUI data for 2012 are still preliminary. For example, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) from the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, which tracks fatality collisions, is still
receiving crash reports for 2012 and their data won’t be finalized until
January 1, 2014. Other data sources are
the same – reporting and data analysis lag behind DUI incidents.
