NCJ Number
123868
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 38 Issue: 5 Dated: (May 1990) Pages: 56-59
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Police agencies should treat drunk-driving (DWI) suspects in the same manner they would a felony case, given that drunk drivers kill more people every year than any other type of criminal, such that greater care is given to interview techniques and report writing.
Abstract
Prosecutors complain that police officers' evidence collection in DWI cases is insufficient to gain a conviction in many cases. An improved method of obtaining evidence of a suspect's drunkenness at the time of an arrest would be through the use of hand-held tape recorders. This would enable officers to tape the drunk from the time of the stop through booking and breath testing. Some agencies use video cameras to record arrestees' behavior from the outside parking lot to all booking areas. Police officers complain, on the other hand, that prosecutors and defense attorneys inevitably plea bargain charges to a lesser offense than DWI. There is justification for this complaint, as some judges and prosecutors acknowledge that crowded court calendars and jails make it impossible to go to trial on significant numbers of DWI cases with a view toward sentencing offenders to jail time.