Naperville, Carol Stream cops near top in Illinois DUI arrests

Police in Naperville and Carol Stream again are among the state's leaders in DUI arrests based on an annual survey by the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists.

The organization has conducted its survey of Illinois police departments since 1990 to determine how many DUI arrests they make and to recognize the most prolific departments and officers.

AAIM asked nearly 700 police agencies for their 2013 DUI statistics and roughly 84 percent responded.

For the seventh consecutive year, the Rockford Police Department ranked first among municipal departments with 556 DUI arrests. Naperville was a close second with 553 arrests, followed by Decatur with 485, Springfield with 410 and Carol Stream with 392.

The Elmhurst and Aurora police departments also were in the top ten.

“Of all the people who died in Illinois motor vehicle crashes, 35 percent lost their lives in crashes involving a drunken driver,” AAIM Executive Director Rita Kreslin said. “That is more than 350 deaths each year.”

She said police departments that make the most DUI arrests and have effective DUI enforcement programs “are saving lives by preventing impaired-driving crashes and crash fatalities.”

Carol Stream topped the state with the highest DUI arrest rate among departments making at least 200 arrests, with 6.43 per sworn officer.

“We're very proud of (both) rankings because we train hard to get intoxicated drivers off our streets. It's a culture we have instilled in our police department,” Carol Stream Traffic Sgt, Brian Cooper said. “I don't think we really have the fifth most DUIs in the state, but our officers are aggressive in tracking down both the alcohol DUIs and the drugged-driver DUIs. A considerable amount of our arrests are actually drugged-driver DUIs.”

Champaign's 141 percent increase in DUI arrests was the largest increase between 2012 and 2013.

The sheriff's department reporting the most DUI arrests was Lake County, with 348. DuPage County ranked fifth with 245.