Arlington PD are some sneaky MOFOs.

[bcoop]

Matt - you are also missing the $3000/yr for three years. And if you think that money doesn't trickle down to the cities, you're ignorant.

[onemeangixxer7502]

I just got off the phone with a prosecutor and here's the scoop:

1st offense DWI with no aggravating factors:

90 days in jail probated to 2 years
DWI education
24 hours of community service
Fine $550-650 (money goes to county)
if the person had a BAC of .15 or over, they are required to get an interlock.


So, how much does the PD make?

None.

So, that kind of blows your "revenue generating" theory out of the water.

I'm from a different state, and usually when they slap some one with a Dui, they get several others tickets. You can usually plea it down depending on your record. Once they get that done you can get the machine in your car which costs around 1000 to get put in and removed plus a monthly fee. Plus Court fee's, and any other things you have to pay. If you don't think some of that $ doesn't go back into the state which funds your department you're sadly mistaken. Take away all the $ paid for by people getting tickets and watch whole line items disappear right off your budget.

[Machx2]

Matt - you are also missing the $3000/yr for three years. And if you think that money doesn't trickle down to the cities, you're ignorant.

Goes to the state. That is the States surcharge I mentioned a minute ago. City doesn't see that money at all.

[03trubluGT]

Matt - you are also missing the $3000/yr for three years. And if you think that money doesn't trickle down to the cities, you're ignorant.

What I posted was almost verbatim from what I was told.

What $3k/year are you talking about?

[Machx2]

What I posted was almost verbatim from what I was told.

What $3k/year are you talking about?

He is talking about the surcharge the state sends in the mail. Similar to an insurance surcharge. An old friend of mine had a dwi so thats how I knew about it.

[03trubluGT]

He is talking about the surcharge the state sends in the mail. Similar to an insurance surcharge. An old friend of mine had a dwi so thats how I knew about it.

I will have to ask around to find out where that money goes.

[clevelandkid]

Granted I think its stupid but if you want to teach some one a lesson, punish them. Monetary punishment doesn't really teach people a lesson IMO. People have no fear of the consequences because they're so insignificant and can buy their way out of

That's the truth - even when I was drinking and driving, I knew if I got popped it would cost me $1,500 in lawyers fee and I would wind up with a reckless op, and a 6 month suspension with very liberal privileges, and zero chance of jail (unless I wrecked and killed somebody). Not much of a punishment.

I know the surcharges are worse here, but even still, I don't think that is a deterrent for most. If I knew my car would be seized (returned to lien holder like a repo if financed, sold at auction if owned) and I would get for sure 3-6 months (year - whatever) in the clink - it would probably start to affect my decisions.

Of all the DUI's the people I know got over the years, none of them ever changed their ways because of the arrests or fines. Those that did change were because of the deaths of our friends, or changes in priorities in their own lives (marriage, kids, etc). Some of them still drink and drive all the time, and will likely wind up on the news when they get their 5th, 10th, or 20th DUI, or when they kill themselves too. Something has to change, because there are a whole bunch of people just like them out there.

[bcoop]

Goes to the state. That is the States surcharge I mentioned a minute ago. City doesn't see that money at all.

And the city gets no money from the state. Ever. Lulz. You guys are a laugh a minute.

[Broncojohnny]

I just got off the phone with a prosecutor and here's the scoop:

1st offense DWI with no aggravating factors:

90 days in jail probated to 2 years
DWI education
24 hours of community service
Fine $550-650 (money goes to county)
if the person had a BAC of .15 or over, they are required to get an interlock.


So, how much does the PD make?

None.

So, that kind of blows your "revenue generating" theory out of the water.

Because federal DUI enforcement funding doesn't exist. Give me a fucking break.

[Broncojohnny]

Yea, no one ever just arrests people to get money. That would never happen in this country and well, if it does then the guy who gets arrested is probably just a fucking liar....

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/12522527/dui-officers-warned-to-arrest-more-people-or-else

By Phil Williams
Chief Investigative Reporter

Metro Nashville police say their specialized DUI units are finding fewer drunk drivers to arrest.

But if you think they're celebrating that drivers are finally getting the message, think again.

In fact, a NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered supervisors are now warning some officers that if they don't find more people to arrest, they could be in trouble themselves.

Police insist that's not a quota, but NewsChannel 5 Investigates found an innocent man who isn't convinced.

Our cameras were there as 18-year-old Martin Bills went to court to get his good name back.

It's a name that was taken when a Metro police officer arrested him back in April on DUI charges. His employer suspended him, and the U.S. Navy told him his plans to enlist would have to wait.

"It put my life on hold for about three weeks now," Bills said. "I can't go to work. I can't make money."

Bills was stopped on Briley Parkway by an officer assigned to a DUI task force that makes repeated traffic stops, hoping to catch drivers who've been drinking.

"He automatically right off the bat asked me had I been drinking, had I been smoking," the young man recalled. "I said no. He continued to ask me and ask me."

What followed was the kind of field sobriety tests we've all seen on TV -- tests that the officer claimed Bills flunked.

"He said my eye was twitching and my leg was shaking -- that's why he took me in. I mean, I can't help that I'm nervous that I'm getting pulled over," Bills said.

The officer booked him on suspicion of being under the influence of marijuana.

But before being taken to the Metro Jail, Bills agreed to submit to a blood test.

The tests all came back negative.

View results of blood test taken by Martin Bills

"It showed on my tests that I have not been using drugs at all," he noted. "I'm getting arrested for being sober and driving. That's it."

While we'll never know what the officer was really thinking, critics inside the police department point to a pressure on officers to generate numbers -- numbers that police brass can use to brag to the public about all the drunk drivers they've taken off the roads.

A short time before he resigned, former Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas declared in a news conference, "I'm going to admit for the first time on television there is a quota. The quota is we want to get every drunk driver."

Serpas always insisted there were no arrest quotas.

But NewsChannel 5 Investigates obtained several recent memos in which a DUI lieutenant warned officers that they could face disciplinary action if they did not start arresting more people.

"Self-motivated officers ... should more often than not be able to arrest 2 DUI offenders each 8.5 hour shift," one memo read.

That's "not a quota," the memo claimed, "but simply a benchmark."

But then it added, "If improvement does not take place, additional corrective action will occur."

Read the memos from Lt. Kenneth Walburn

NewsChannel 5 Investigates had asked Serpas, "You don't see that as a quota?"

"No," the chief answered. "What the lieutenant is saying is that we have an expectation that the only thing you do all day is find DUI offenders and obviously there is some expectation that we should be able to see so many of these on average."

Veteran Nashville lawyer Gary Blackburn disagreed.

"Oh, it's plainly a quota," he said. Blackburn said that setting an expectation of the number of arrests per shift clearly puts pressure on officers every single night.

"If you're trying to average two per night and you are in the last hour of your shift and you have none or you have one, then what is your thought process going to be? Because if you don't make the second one that night, do you have to make three the next?"

Add to that, a financial incentive.

On March 31st, patrol officers who get overtime to chase DUIs were told that the lieutenant "will begin looking at individual officer performance.... Those officers who consistently perform at high standards will be given preference" for the overtime.

Read memo about preferences for DUI overtime

Three days later, one of those officers arrested Martin Bills.

Blackburn said such measures make it more likely that officers will arrest people whom they would otherwise let go.

"It's wrong to pressure hard-working, stressed-out officers to make decisions based not on whether they genuinely perceive the motorist as being intoxicated, but on whether they have to meet another quota for that night," he added.

"The result will be inevitably that some innocent persons are going to be affected by this."

One officer who received a warning was Wallace Taylor, who's been repeatedly honored as one of the city's top DUI officers.

But police said that they just don't buy that there are fewer drunk drivers. They said other officers are able to meet the "job performance standard," so every officer should.

Experts added that defense lawyers can use such mandates to attack the credibility of DUI officers in court by suggesting they're just trying to save their own jobs.

Martin Bills' father, Everett, said, "It makes me take another look at the way they do business."

When Bills and his father showed up in court, even though blood tests showed he was clean, the prosecutor told him he'd have to wait at least four months for the charges to be dropped -- unless he pleaded guilty to something else.

He pleaded guilty to speeding -- even though the officer never even charged him with that offense.

"It's gotten out of hand now," Martin Bills said. "So it's just time to end it all now and move on with my life."

E-mail: pwilliams@newschannel5.com

[ceyko]

I've worked a double shift, got pulled over on my way home, and the cop wanted to hit me with DUI, simply because i looked as tired as i felt.

Some cops are great, some are assholes. Hope for the great ones, but be prepared for the assholes.

This has worried me in the past. Not as often as I used to, but still more then I want I'm getting off work at 2-4 in the morning - exhausted.

[talisman]

Not at all. I know all you drinkers on the board think I'm some anti-party type and nothing could be further from the truth. I get why people like to casually social drink, I don't have a problem with it at all as long as it's done responsibly and with moderation. Some people need to have a drink a to relax or help wind down. Nothing wrong with it.

I think that someone of you think I'm anti-drinking because I don't do it much myself. It's not true at all. If we were all at a BBQ together or something like that, I'd have a beer with you guys. I'd just make sure that I had it well in advance of me having to drive anywhere and that I would have some food in my stomach. I personally don't care for the bar scene much, never have. I also don't like that drunk or buzzed feeling at all either, I don't get the appeal to it. Doesnt mean I am judging when I say that, just taking part in the conversation.

No one thinks you're anti drinking because you don't drink, they think you're anti drinking because in the last 6 months you've jumped into every alcohol related discussion talking about how you don't drink and don't understand it.

You then come back with a post like this saying you do understand and it isn't a big deal. You flip flop so much on so many subjects I'm starting to think you're either skipping medications or have multiple personality disorder.

Take this subject and replace it with BJJ and we've traveled back in time to what you were doing for several years; you've just substituted one subject for the other. Maybe if you started drinking more often you'd be able to relax and not take everything so seriously.

[03trubluGT]

Because federal DUI enforcement funding doesn't exist. Give me a fucking break.

So EVERY DWI arrest is soley based on the hopes of getting GOVT funding?

Give ME a fucking break.

I'm sure if some drunk goes and runs over your wife, you wouldn't give a shit.

Yea, no one ever just arrests people to get money. That would never happen in this country and well, if it does then the guy who gets arrested is probably just a fucking liar....

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/12522527/dui-officers-warned-to-arrest-more-people-or-else

So we should just go ahead and think this is what happens every time?

[Steve]

No one thinks you're anti drinking because you don't drink, they think you're anti drinking because in the last 6 months you've jumped into every alcohol related discussion talking about how you don't drink and don't understand it.

You then come back with a post like this saying you do understand and it isn't a big deal. You flip flop so much on so many subjects I'm starting to think you're either skipping medications or have multiple personality disorder.

Take this subject and replace it with BJJ and we've traveled back in time to what you were doing for several years; you've just substituted one subject for the other. Maybe if you started drinking more often you'd be able to relax and not take everything so seriously.

Our opinions just differ on the subject. We don't know one another, I just write it off to a personality difference. The one time I did try to have a discussion with you to get to know you abit better, you were drunk and didn't even remember talking to me. I'm not as bad as you have this internet persona built up in your head to be. We both have strong personalities and tend to be on opposite sides of discussions alot of times. In which, everytime you have to be insulting like your multiple personality comment. You're always attemping to place yourself above others, even without knowing them. It's a shame, you're missing out getting to know other good people too.

[talisman]

Our opinions just differ on the subject. We don't know one another, I just write it off to a personality difference. The one time I did try to have a discussion with you to get to know you abit better, you were drunk and didn't even remember talking to me. I'm not as bad as you have this internet persona built up in your head to be. We both have strong personalities and tend to be on opposite sides of discussions alot of times. In which, everytime you have to be insulting like your multiple personality comment. You're always attemping to place yourself above others, even without knowing them. It's a shame, you're missing out getting to know other good people too.

Oh yes, you're a model of restraint and taking the high road, calling Brent a child molester and trying to shine my divorce in a negative light. Sometimes I wonder why you post on here instead of a Prius board. Give me a fucking break.