A sting was conducted by Colorado law enforcement authorities over Halloween, and this resulted in 72 arrests for DUI in the Denver area and over 500 arrests statewide. The Colorado authorities have reported that there were more arrests this year than occurred around Halloween in 2011. Another crackdown is in the works over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.
We may want to ask whether pulling more people over will actually reduce the amount of drunk driving that is on the roads. Many drivers are pulled over during campaigns that have had nothing to drink at all.
Under such circumstances, a perfectly sober driver may be unable to pass specific field sobriety tests out of nervousness. Being pulled over for a DUI often leads to the presumption that the driver was impaired while behind the wheel, and that’s why attorneys experienced in DUI defense will provide advice and counsel to such individuals.
Often the public supports these crackdowns without looking at the individual circumstances of each case. It remains up to the prosecution to prove up a case as every defendant has the right to defend themselves. The rule of law rather than public pressure is what must be maintained under such circumstances, and this is why every defendant should be provided the right to have an attorney to represent them.
Nobody wants to see an increase in the amount of people killed on the roads due to drunken driving. However, we do need to make certain that police are not randomly pulling drivers over in hopes that, by the sheer number of drivers that are pulled over, they will then be able to arrest more individuals considered under the influence.
Source: Denver Post, “Halloween ‘Heat Is On’ leads to 564 DUI arrests in Colorado,” Nov. 14, 2012
- The consequences of a DUI or DWAI can be quite severe. Please visit our site to discover what rights you may have if you are facing a conviction for one of these offenses.