Washington DC- Arbitrary DUI Arrests
 

WARNING. It has just be revealed by the Washington Post that, although Washington DC's official DUI percentage is .08 %, police officers can arrest drivers for as little as .01 %, the equivilent of half a beer or a small glass of wine. A woman's harrowing night of arrest after drinking a glass of wine with her dinner in Georgetown was splashed across the Post's front page yesterday. Until the DC government and police rectify their unusual policy, I would be wary of dining and drinking and then driving in Washington, especially Georgetown.

The woman was stopped because her lights were not turned on. When questioned, she admitted to having a glass of wine. When tested, her alcohol level was .03% which is well below most states .08%. The D.C. level is .01%. She was arrested and put in jail until 2:30 a.m.

Tourists shouldn't be driving in DC anyway. Another reason to take a cab or Metro.

There is a zero tolerance policy in our state for those under 21 if they have a .02% to .07%.

I'm surprised they arrested her? Here they just fine the underage drinking drivers $200 plus attendance at a drunk driving class which costs $115, plus loss of license for 60 days plus reinstatement of license $40. hmmm not sure what would be easier?

I'm sure Citronelle, Kinkead's, Corduroy's, Ruth Chris', Morton's, Galileo's, Cashion's, Georgia Brown's, Vidalia's and the other fine DC eating establishments will be happy that their patrons might be too frightened of rogue policemen to order wine or spirits to drink with their meals. If the DC government is wise, they'll call off the dogs with regards to officer's discretion regarding "drunk" driving. Otherwise, many in the Washington area will curtail their dining in the city. The spirit of Carry Nation will dry up the DC restaurant scene.

I got stopped at a checkpoint in DC one time. The officer aimed the flashlight at my eyes and said 'tell me what time it is without looking at your watch'. Good thing I had just asked the bartender what time it was before I left!

I'm no legal expert, but I believe there is a charge of "driving while under the influence" separate from "driving while intoxicated." They are not the same thing, but still both chargeable offenses.

Yes, under the influence is different. Could apply to cold medicine or the prescription stuff that says 'do not operate machinery'.

I'd think the restaurants will be able to call a cab for their patrons who have had too much to drink.

One of the previous posters re: Driving Under the Influence as opposed to Driving While Intoxicated is correct.

There is also nothing magical about the .08% number (or whatever number a jurisdiction uses) except that exceeding the limit creates a legal presumption of impairment. People who test under that limit can still be charged and convicted of DUI (at least in the states I am familiar with) based on their observed behavior and test results.

In many jurisdictions, there is no way to test a person's BAC on the street. The officer stops a vehicle based on an observed infraction or driving pattern, determines from their discussion with and observations of the driver whether he/she believes the driver to be impaired, conducts some roadside sobriety tests, and then either arrests or does not arrest based on those observations and tests.

The blood alcohol testing does not occur until the driver is under arrest and at the local police station or jail.

As to the original poster's final comment, I would be wary of drinking then driving in any jurisdiction, not just DC. Even if you do not become the object of a "blue light special", even one drink can effect a person's reaction time and coordination enough to cause an accident. Please don't become one of the more than 20,000 people who lose their lives every year in alcohol or drug related accidents.

Good for you, dwooddon. A voice of reason. I would also add that combining marijuana (or other drugs) with alcoholic beverages can produce very impaired driving without a particularly high BAC. Drinking never improves driving. Call a cab.

Why not force all restaurants to be dry and close all the bars of the country? That would drastically cut drunk driving deaths.

Life's a risk. Some risks can be alleviated at small cost to freedom. Drunk drivers should be cracked down by the law. But common sense is advisable. There's no reason, for example, to make a drunk driving arrest of a married couple who have split a bottle of wine for an anniversary dinner. A man for downs eight beers at the local bar and drives home is a danger and should be stopped by police. A man who has downed three beers watching a three hour football game is not a danger.

Frankly, I think some people are afraid of living.

Actually Shane, I'm not so much afraid of living as I am of dying from someone who has had 2-3 beers then T-bones me in an intersection. I cannot begin to count the number of people I've taken to jail whose lives have been ruined because they had "2 or 3 beers". I don't want to get too graphic here but you would change your mind if you had scraped up as many bodies of all ages as I have injured or killed by drinking but not necessarily drunk drivers.

The only common sense about drinking and driving is - "Don't!".

If people are not going to be allowed to drive after just 1 glass of wine, then this country had better do something to improve its public transit system.

I agree that drunk driving is a serious problem, and people should not do it - ever. But the system is flawed if a woman in DC is arrested for DUI and told to attend responsible drinking classes after having one glass of wine. If she was 'under the influence' of something else, then she should be dealt with according to the substance. But throwing a cold-medicine addict into a responsible drinking class won't help a person.

So, dwooddon, why not have a cop arrest EVERY person driving away from your local bar and restaurant? I guarantee you that about 90 % of the people driving away from your local restaurant and 100 % of those driving away from your local bar have had an alcoholic beverage. As you allude to being a policeman yourself, why don't you volunteer to do that task yourself. Your attitude, if it became dominant, will put much of the restaurant and bar industry out of business.

Aren't most of those 'flavor shots/syrups' in coffee bars full of alcohol? I wonder if a double-grande-whatever just might get you in double trouble in DC?

Shane-we have sort of hijacked this thread and this is going to be my last post on the subject.

The reason I and other police (in the interest of full disclosure, I'm long retired) do not stop everyone coming out of a bar is because it is not legal to do so.

In order to make any traffic stop, an officer must have reasonable cause to believe the person they are stopping has committed an infraction or a crime. In the case of the lady in DC, it was apparently because she was driving without headlights during a time when they were required.

The point I was trying to make is that when anyone drinks and drives, they expose themselves and others around them to extra danger. That includes all the obvious things like causing injury or death, and being arrested. It also includes less obvious dangers such as poor driving causing accidents between other vehicles, the tremendous cost of defending a DUI charge, the civil liability the driver exposes him/herself to when they are sued by their victims, and the potential physcological damage of having to live with the fact that they did great harm.

After you have knocked on someone's door in the early morning hours and told the survivors their son/daughter/husband/wife is never coming home again, you never again would look on drinking and driving in the same way.

I repeat, in my opinion, the only common sense about drinking and driving is don't.

dwooddon....Maybe Shane should attend a MADD VIP.....I did as part of my mentor training....90 of the most powerful minutes I have ever spent......

Now, that I'm safely sitting home and into my second glass of while wine... please, may I ask a technical question?

Do the blood tests tell whether the alcohol is from drinks or from the food? Drunken chicken, coq au vin, rum cake come immediately to mind. I watch the foodtv network cooks and they dump lots of wine into their dishes. If the alcohol that is used for cooking shows up in the blood tests, then we are all doomed whether we had one glass of wine or not.

Would someone enlighten me please? :)

I always thought that the alcohol evaporated relatively quickly during the cooking process. Now I am reading that it may take up to 3 hours for alcohol to evaporate. So who knows? No one has ever gotten a buzz from my chicken in wine sauce.

Just don't drink and drive, please!

Just as a point of interest, the owner of our new wonderful Italian restaurant in my city told me that she and the her partner and the employees have been stopped several times after they close up their restaurant and go to their cars and start to drive home. Not one of them has every had a drop of liquor. She said they feel "harrased" but there is nothing they can do about it. She said not one of them have ever been cited for a traffic violation with these stops. So guess our local PD just sort of sit around and wait to pounce on people.

And having been in the insurance business for years I too am very aware of the horrible tragedies that drunk drivers cause. I do not want anyone driving when their driving skills are not up to snuff, and that means people on medications be it over the counter or prescription drugs, alcohol, overtired, not taking proper care of their diabeties problem etc. talking on cell phone, putting on makeup, eating etc. etc. Driving a vehicle is a serious business.

Safe driving to everyone.