A number of individuals were arrested by Maryland State Police for DUI during increased law enforcement presence over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Probably no one would be surprised at the increased number of arrests that occurred since the holiday did fall on a Saturday night.
In one particular county alone, there were 240 traffic stops, the issuance of 130 citations and 215 warnings. At the same time, there were no reported serious or fatal motor vehicle crashes.
When stings take place and increased police presence is on the road, police may look for any number of factors to pull individuals over for allegedly reasonable cause. If a driver slightly swerves, the driver appears to be going too fast or too slow, or the muffler on the car is too noisy, police may use that as an excuse to pull the drive over and then look for any hints that alcohol had been consumed sometime during the evening.
It still must be asked whether pulling more people over will actually reduce the amount of drunk driving that is on the roads. Many drivers are pulled over in such stings that have had nothing to drink at all. Under such circumstances, it’s not difficult to imagine a perfectly sober driver still being unable to pass specific field sobriety tests out of sheer nervousness. Yet simply 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.
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: The Dagger, “Nine Arrested by Maryland State Police in ‘Operation Don’t Press Your Luck’ St. Patrick’s Day Weekend,” March 19, 2012