Thread: HPD may make fewer DWI arrests

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/ ... 08365.html
HPD may make fewer DWI arrests

07:15 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 19, 2006

By Dan Lauck / 11 News
KHOU-TV

There are concerns that Houston police may soon make fewer DWI arrests on purpose.

HPD officers may not be making as many DWI arrests.
It stems from a confidential HPD memo obtained only by 11 News. It’s a memo some say means officers will be forced off the streets to take care of paperwork they’ve been handing off to others.

Some fear the new policy may put you in danger on the road.

Patrol officers rarely go looking for drunk drivers. They don’t need to. The drunks invariably identify themselves.

There’s no question that the carnage left by driving drunk, while once a disgrace, is still much too high.

Patrol cops know that, they just don’t want to make the arrest.

“The process could take three hours,” said Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers Union.

The paperwork can take longer on a DWI than on a murder case.

So Tuesday, as Marticiuc was reading the department’s new policy, which requires the patrol officers to carry the case almost to the cell door, some patrol officers were telling 11 News they’d write fewer DWIs in the future.

“I can’t imagine any of our officers not pulling over a drunk driver that’s in front of them,” he said.

“It’s an unfortunate event for patrol officers …,” said Bob Walsh, U of H professor and ex-police officer.

Walsh would have loved to hand off his DWI cases, like HPD.

“There are very few departments that have the resources so patrol officers could turn over their cases for processing,” he said.

That now includes the Houston police department, which is short nearly 1,000 officers.

“It all goes back to staffing,” said Marticiuc.

Tuesday afternoon 11 News went off in search of patrol officers in their cars, working city streets. We just wanted pictures for our story.

We ended up driving 34 miles, much of it down Westheimer, and saw just one police officer.

Unfortunately not enough police staffing is a problem in many cities in the United States. People don't want to be paying a lot more in taxes not to mention the increase in other operating costs. In some areas in Dade County the police department routinely has 10 to 15 calls holding. Many of these calls are what we call nuisance calls such as loud music at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. There are also prank 911 calls that waste time. You have to respond to them even though you know they are a prank call. A common example would ones that come from a shopping malls payphones. Then you have calls for lost cellphones or wallets where reports can be done over the phone but people refuse to do that and an officer that is on the road has to respond to their house. The biggest problem is that you have to be DUI or DWI certified to do those stops or if another officer finds a driver that appears to be drunk. Not all officers are certified to do that and many times a district only has one or two officers per shift who are. To do a checkpoint you get into hours of ovetime as you have to take off duty officers to do it. This costs a lot of money. If city or county stats show that there is not much of a problem then they will stop doing them as they are not cost effective.

This doesn't seem like a good time to take on huge population growth consisting of persons with little or no respect for law. This situation sounds extremely dangerous for police officers. Why are they remaining so quiet in the face of this? 1000 employees short is just unbelievable. Seems like they could get some help at lower cost for those duties that don't require a badge?

Many police departments have Community Service Officers (C.S.A.) or P.S.A. which is the samething but a different name. They are non sworn trained people who are unarmed and deal with calls such as minor car accidents, vandalism calls and other minor ones. In some departments they desparately need more of them as well.

Kinda' makes me glad I have a case full of guns to use for my own protection.

Tom2: I also have numerous guns in various locations in my condo as the invasion has begun in my condo complex. The best one has to be my friend. He has got a major invasion and so he has began cleaning his guns on his belcony to scare them off.

quote,
There are concerns that Houston police may soon make fewer DWI arrests on purpose.

Humm.. lets see, bet they would arrest someone lighting up a cig in a public resturant though wouldn't they?