A police agency's DUI arrest rate is a lot like the stock market - it can't
go up forever.
Or so Lombard Chief Leon Kutzke theorizes when asked why his officers
brought in considerably fewer DUI arrests in 1999 than the year before.
While his logic makes sense, towns such as Lombard repeatedly are near the
top of the pack of police departments with a reputation for making a lot of
DUI arrests. Others often lag behind.
The reasons for the disparity are many, those in the trenches say.
Be it a blessing or a curse, some towns simply have all the right
ingredients for DUI pinches:
Bars. Highways. Demographics. More patrol officers. And residents eager to
alert police when spotting an erratic driver.
But experts agree the most important factor that drives effective DUI
enforcement is a department's philosophy.
Take Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove.
Although Arlington Heights has nearly twice the population, police there
made 155 DUI arrests last year compared to Buffalo Grove's 911.
"For us, it's all philosophy. It starts with the police chief and works its
way down to the officer on the street," Buffalo Grove Sgt. Mark Bucalo said.
"We've convinced the group it's a good thing. On any normal night, they
bring in three DUI's."
He ought to know.
Buffalo Grove has, for the past two years, ranked No. 1 across Illinois in
DUI arrests, according to an annual survey by Schaumburg-based Alliance
Against Intoxicated Motorists.
In fact, police from the North, Northwest and West suburbs make up more than
half of the top 40 departments out of 402 towns across the state.
The top towns last year were: Buffalo Grove, with 911; Waukegan, with 736;
Naperville, with 623; Rockford, with 615; Elgin, with 563; Aurora, with 546;
Hoffman Estates, with 490; Peoria, with 444; and Palatine; with 385.
Lake Zurich had the highest rate of arrests per officer, with 15.6 arrests a
year for each sworn cop. The average is 2.8 arrests per officer.
Those departments topping the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists list
seek out grant money to pay for specialized training, portable testing
equipment and overtime costs for roadside tests or alcohol-awareness
programs in schools.
Many top towns even have officers whose only job is to look for drunken
drivers.
A town's crime rate and financial resources also affect enforcement.
Take Chicago.
Stephen Komie, a veteran Chicago DUI defense lawyer with a statewide
practice, said city police are so busy reacting to violent crime they tend
only to investigate DUI's if a serious crash occurs.
To prove his point, Komie notes he rarely comes across a blood-alcohol test
with results below .16, or twice the legal limit, in Chicago. But in the
Northwest suburbs and DuPage County, he said, clients frequently come in
with Breathalyzer results just above the .08 limit, indicating officers in
the suburbs are watching more closely for signs of DUI.
Whether their departments are at the top or bottom of the heap, many police
chiefs agree a low number of arrests doesn't necessarily mean they aren't
interested in getting drunken drivers off the road.
Instead, they say, it comes down to economics. Smaller police agencies with
limited resources are the first to feel the pinch when it comes to choosing
which areas of crime to fight.
"It has to do with priorities," said Wood Dale Chief Frank Williams. "If you
have a lot of burglaries, that's where your resources will go. We do it (DUI
enforcement) and we take it seriously. But, you have to allocate your
limited resources where they're most needed."
In Elmhurst, for example, police last year noted a 34-percent drop in
drunken-driving arrests. At the same time, police focused more on speeders
in reaction to an outcry from residents.
Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists Director Charlene Chapman agrees.
Most recently, she's heard from police officials who explain their agency's
sagging statistics on increased gang activity. Instead of sending officers
out looking for DUI drivers, some towns have formed officers into special
gang units to fight the problem.
Chapman offers another explanation for those departments with fewer arrests.
Such cases, she says, aren't as glamorous as catching a burglar and can be a
real hassle for the officer making the arrest.
It often takes more than two hours to complete one DUI arrest. Later, police
are often grilled in court by defense attorneys well schooled in finding the
slightest mistake in an attempt to help their client beat the charge.
And dealing with an intoxicated motorist isn't fun, she says.
"Drunks are belligerent," Chapman said. "They swear. They urinate on
themselves. Why would you want the abuse? Luckily, there are plenty of
dedicated police officers out there who have seen the body parts after a
crash. They know drunks kill people. They're committed to do something about
it."
