Tempe DUI Van Program: Musings on AZ DUI volumes

The Tempe DUI van is about efficiency. According to the article, the Tempe police department used to arrest 3 DUIs per night (presumably per officer, because otherwise the numbers don't add up).

Three DUI arrests a night seems like a lot. How is it possible that that many arrests, let alone four arrests, makes it through the relatively small Tempe Municipal Court? It must be because the vast majority of cases are either dismissed or plead out short of trial. Otherwise, doing the math, if even half of the arrests were to result in trials, then each Tempe DUI Officer would be in court roughly every business day of their careers. (Figure each Arizona DUI jury trial takes between one and two days).

This obviously isn't the case. From a defense strategy perspective, it seems that all the defense would need to do with that volume of cases is to set each and every case to trial. It would overwhelm the system and cause a virtual shutdown. Then, either the prosecutors would be forced to dismiss the vast majority of cases, or offer reductions in the charges that are worthwhile for defendants to accept. The other solution would be to hire a lot more judges and prosecutors and build more courtrooms. But then things would probably fall back to the dynamic equilibrium we see now.

These are interesting times as Tempe gets a new DUI van just as Phoenix may be phasing out their breath test program all together in favor of blood.

It's nice to live in exciting times here in Arizona criminal courts.

Quoted from http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0622tr-dui0623.html:

Beefed up DUI enforcement yields more arrests

Drunken driving arrests have increased in Tempe for the past several years, but it's not because more people are drinking, officials said.

Tempe police arrested more than 2,500 people on suspicion of drunken driving in 2006. Officials credit better equipment, such as the department's DUI processing van, that allows officers to process DUI suspects at the scene instead of transporting them to a police station.

"Instead of getting three per night, they are getting four per night because the van is mobile and they are out in the street," Traffic Sgt. John Butler said.

He said police are focusing their time more on events that are likely produce drunken drivers. He credited improved training that has helped officers better identify drunken drivers.

Michael Hegarty, the deputy director for the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, said he doesn't know if the number of drunken drivers is increasing, but he believes the only way for the number of arrests increase is if police are sufficiently equipped. The department gave Tempe $180,000 to purchase a DUI van.

"The officers will never outnumber the number of drunks on the roadways, so it's always going to be a resource issue," Hegarty said. "Having more funding and equipment and better training can certainly be a reason that Tempe has seen an increase in DUI arrests."

Because of Tempe's location, police are faced with drunken drivers coming from all directions.