Author: admin (325 Articles)
Do a Google serach for “DUI” in the news and you will see that the results are dominated by news of DUI task-forces from nearly every major jurisdiction you can imagine.
This is an election year, and no task-force holiday is closer to voting day than Halloween. Therefore, I predict record numbers of arrests, and record numbers of headlines. Expect this to be highly concentrated in jurisdictions where the local county attorneys and sheriffs are up for re-election. Nothing satisfies the average voter more than oodles of drunk driving arrests, and those who make the arrests are seen as noble heros by the average voter.
But the zeal to arrest must be tempered by law enforcement discretion. It is possible to make a taskforce event look very successful by arresting many people for DUI who shouldn’t have been arrested. Their cases won’t come up for review until after the elections, and then each wrongful arrest should go silently away with no politial fallout. Just as drunk driving is wrong, arresting innocent people for DUI is also wrong.
This Halloween holiday, the only way to make sure you are absolutely safe from a false DUI arrest is to not drive at all if you have had anything to drink. Any alcohol in your system, and the police may pull the trick of your lifetime on you by arresting you. Your late treat should be dismissal of the bogus DWI charge, but by then your Halloween will already have been ruined.
Have a fun and safe holiday.
Tags: dui taskforce, halloween
