When you see an impaired driver swerving on the road, the right thing to do is to report it so that they are stopped before anything tragic happens. That’s what most of us believe and indeed is what we at DrinkingAndDriving.Org encourage. We even make fun of people who don’t report drunk drivers.
So we were surprised to read about THIS DWI CASE that the Supreme Court declined to hear. The gist of it is that cops pulled over a drunk driver based on a tip they received. They tested the guy and sure enough, he was drunk! The Virginia courts said the cops had no right to stop this person without personally observing erratic driving!
The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, in effect siding with the court in Virginia. I am trying to figure out how many crimes can only be investgated IF a cop is a witness to the crime. What does this say about anonymous tip hotlines? I am guessing that drunk driving is about the only potentially dangerous crime being treated this way.
It looks like Chief Justice John Roberts was the only one to speak out about this, pointing out that “The effect of the rule below will be to grant drunk drivers ‘one free swerve’ before they can legally be pulled over by police,” and “It will be difficult for an officer to explain to the family of a motorist killed by that swerve that the police had a tip that the driver of the other car was drunk, but that they were powerless to pull him over, even for a quick check.”
Another justice, Antonin Scalia felt this was an important case to look at. Scalia is in fact one of four Supreme Court Judges born before there were any laws against drunk driving. Changing attitudes towards drunk driving is fundamental to reducing it. The prevailing attitude of our Supreme Court appears to be that drunk driving is a crime which MUST be witnessed by a police officer before it can be investigated. We think it is an outdated attitude which needs to be changed!
SO the rule around here at DrinkingAndDriving.Org is still Make That Call. When you see an obviously impaired driver, call 911. Even if this case means that police might have to follow someone further before pulling them over, you can still feel justified in making that call because most likely one of two things will happen:
1. The cops will see evidence of drunk driving themselves and be able to pull them over.
2. The drunk driver will make it safely to their destination.
Either outcome is better than seeing drunk driving happening and just ignoring it. Taking 13,000 lives a year, drunk driving is still too dangerous a crime to go unreported.
first when you report the possible dui remember to give your name and address so if your wrong the poor person who was just accosted by police and made to do a sobriety test,breathalizer,answer questions from police man ,can file a false report on you .second dui should have to be witnessed by a police officer at least something indicative of impairment before pulling over the vehicle ….is it that hard to find a reason to pull a car over…espessially if they are drunk i think that would manifest itself pretty quickly….further it is hard to beleive a drunk is all over the road ,or whatever one minute and driving perfectly a few minutes later when police arrive.it is not worth giving up our fourth ammentment rights just so cops can be lazy and pull people over without seeing anything illegal….also this has the potetial to be a tool for revenge EXAMPLE:ex wants the kids on a day i want them ,just call her in dui.EXAMPLE:Dont want the boss around the office for awhile …call him in on his way out for lunch if he has a beer with his lunch then he will be out of the office the rest of the day getting ablood test at the police station ,EXAMPLE:police just want to check you out they can just call in the tip themselves (THIS HAS ALREADY HAPPENED IN ILLINOIS)get the point THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DEAL WITH THE FEAR OF DRUNK DRIVERS.
Truth be told, nothing short of people caring for anyone other than themselves will completely stop this horrific problem. We live in a very selfish world, where all that matters is me, me, me, and I want it now!!! If we would simply stop for just a moment and truly consider the possible and very probable effects of our choices (whatever they may be) our world would be a very different place. Unfortunately we can not legalize morality. So, this is the next best step. My husband and I have reported several very obviously drunk drivers to the police. And yes, tazsugs, we always give the police our name, phone number and address.
P.S. My five year old son was killed almost 20 years ago by a drunk driver. The person left the country and went back to Mexico. Mexico refuses to send him back to the U.S. as it took us too long to find exactly where he was. We know now, exactly where he is, but it is too late. Please tell me who I can call to file a report against the injustice done to my entire family… and for my son who’s life was cut way, way, too short????
now see, this type of stuff simply does not make sense
You must realize that we all have rights in this country. This particular case was an isolated incident, that is being used as an example to indicate that if you see something that you think is ‘wrong, illegal, etc’ that you must call and inform…
That reeks of police state tactics. A total disregard of an individual’s rights.
An officer must still observe the situation before getting involved.
Imagine this scenario: You are driving down the neighborhood street, and you swerve to avoid something in the road…A neighbor witnesses your actions, assumes that you’re drunk, and calls the police. Based on this phone call, an officer is dispatched to the area, sees your car, and pulls you over.
Now what? The officer has to waste his time to pull you over only to find out there was no cause for alarm…which was based only on the opinion of somebody else. You have to ask yourself, what is the intention of the caller? maybe they didn’t like this person, and decided to make trouble.
It’s a waste of time to think that you can prevent everything that other people do. If people would be more concerned with their own behavior, we wouldn’t be in the mess that we are in right now.
Drinking and driving affects everybody. Find the solution at http://www.alcoholservicesnetwork.com