Monday, June 14, 1999
Drunken-driving arrests declining
More offenders being punished
BY EDWARD WALSH
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON —The number of people arrested for drunken driving has dropped sharply since the mid-1980s, even though there are more drivers on the road, the Justice Department said in a report released Sunday.
The report, compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, compared arrests for driving while intoxicated (DWI) from 1986 through 1997. The number of drivers increased by almost 15 percent during that time, but the number of DWI arrests declined by almost 18 percent, from 1.793 million in 1986 to 1.477 million in 1997.
As a result, the report said, the arrest rate for drunken driving declined by 28 percent, from 1,124 arrests per 100,000 drivers in 1986 to 809 per 100,000 in 1997.
Annual arrests for drunk driving dropped steadily between 1990 and 1994, when the number totaled 1.384 million. Annual arrests have risen slightly each year since then.
Although the number of arrests has declined, there are more people who are under correctional supervision because of drunken driving now, suggesting that law-enforcement authorities have toughened their treatment of offenders. The report said 270,100 people were on probation or in jail or prison for drunken-driving offenses in 1986 and that that number had climbed to 513,200 in 1997.
The overall decline in drunken-driving arrests has come at a time of increased attention from organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The report also suggested that it may be linked to a gradually aging driving population and to tougher treatment of those charged with the offense.
“There has been a crackdown throughout the country,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said Sunday. “Nationwide, we're locking up more offenders.”
Most states — but not Ohio — have stiffened penalties for felony DUI.
Kentucky now sentences DUI offenders to five years in prison if they rack up their fourth offense within five years, Mr. Allen said.
Ohio penalties aren't as strict. Offenders convicted of their fourth DUI in six years face a felony charge and 18-month sentence.
A second felony sentence would carry a maximum five-year penalty if a bill Mr. Allen helped sponsor with state Sen. Bruce Johnson, R-Columbus, pass es the Legislature this year.
Repeat DUI offenders have already tried and failed alcohol treatment programs by the time they get a felony conviction, Mr. Allen said.
“There's nothing you can do with these people besides to warehouse them and keep them away from a set of keys and a car,” he said.
Erin Gibson of The Enquirer contributed to this report.
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