Flood fight looks to the future [Video]
Thursday, February 28th, 2013A University of Winnipeg geology professor will be studying ways to reduce the damage caused by future floods.
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Britain looks into minimum alcohol unit pricing
Tuesday, November 27th, 2012Great Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed a new minimum price per unit for alcohol. Supporters of the new law, which will propose minimum prices of 40p, 45p, or 50p per unit, argue that the new pricing measure will positively affect binge drinkers and the people around them. However, those against the proposed legislation argue that the research supporting the initiative is inconclusive and assumes that the strain on heavy drinkers’ wallets will be enough to discourage binge drinking. David Cameron continues to push ahead with the initiative.
When It Looks Like a Duck, Walks Like a Duck, Talks Like a Duck….
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012The use of DUI quotas — requiring patrol cops to arrest a minimum number of citizens for drunk driving — is usually illegal or against public policy, primarily because it forces cops to arrest drivers who are innocent.
Yet, the simple fact is that many — maybe most — police agencies across the country use them. See, for example, DUI Quotas, "Inside Edition" Documents DUI Quotas Across U.S. and "Yes, We Have No Quotas". And another simple fact is that police agencies routinely deny they are using quota, preferring instead to call them such things as "guidelines", "objectives" or "performance standards".
And the reason for the continued use of DUI quotas is simple: money. Cities strapped for revenue have discovered that drunk driving arrests are a lucrative source of revenue. See, for example, DUI: Government’s Cash Cow and How to Make a Million in the DUI Business. This is commonly accomplished through the use of quotas and sobriety checkpoints (aka DUI roadblocks). See DUI Roadblocks for Fun and Profit.
Are State, Feds Tying Police Grant Money to DUI Arrest Quotas?
Chicago, IL. Feb. 11 – One DUI arrest every 10 hours.
Police call it an “objective.” Or a “guideline.”
Former Will County State’s Attorney Jeff Tomczak calls it a “quota.” And he said the language — found in the fine print of grants funding some suburban police patrols — could undermine drunken-driving cases when they reach a courtroom.
“I haven’t seen anything like this before,” said Tomczak, now a criminal defense attorney.
Local law enforcement officials say Tomczak’s wrong. Under a real quota system, officers get punished when the numbers don’t add up. That’s not the case here, they said, and there must be some way to find out if federal money has been spent wisely.
“There is no quota system in the Will County Sheriff’s Office,” Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas said.
But Tomczak’s not alone. The Governors Highway Safety Association also said the grant language should be changed, but not for fear of a legal challenge.
Executive director Barbara Harsha said the public simply might not like it if officers are told how often to make an arrest, and that could make the job harder for police.
The grants in question are funded federally but distributed by the Illinois Department of Transportation, which wrote the “performance objectives” in the documents to offer some accountability to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The grants are designed to help police cut down on alcohol-related crashes and curb drivers’ dangerous behaviors.
A Will County IDOT grant from 2009 to 2010 said deputies were expected to write one ticket or warning each hour they were on patrol and make one drunken-driving arrest every 10 hours.
Similar language can be found in grants given to Shorewood and Minooka around the same time.
But Kaupas said his agency didn’t quite meet that mark last year.
He said Will County made three DUI arrests in 157.5 officer hours during alcohol-enforcement details funded by IDOT in May, August and September. To meet the grant’s “performance objectives,” that number should have been more like 15 or 16…
Tomczak said defense attorneys could use the grant to suggest officers are being compelled to make arrests. He’s even made the argument, putting Will County Sgt. Steve Byland on the stand during a DUI case last month to talk about the traffic division Byland leads.
Byland told a judge his department has no quota system, but he said it would have to answer to a grant representative if the numbers fail to add up.
“If he does not make a certain rate per se,” Byland said, “then we would have to explain to him what happened that month.”
Kaupas said IDOT-funded details are always summarized in a report to the agency.
Tomczak’s client eventually was found not guilty. But Harsha said she hasn’t heard of a DUI arrest being thrown out of court for such language.
She did say IDOT should consider asking officers to make a certain number of traffic stops or “interactions” with the public — not arrests. She said most states steer away from the language used by Illinois.
“There’s no rule that says you can’t have an objective that has a certain number of arrests per hour,” Harsha said.
“But it does give the appearance of having a quota.”
Yes, it does give that "appearance", doesn’t it? As the Mad Hatter said to Alice in Through the Looking Glass:
“When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is”, said Alice,”whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is”, said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”
Government looks into underage alcohol use
Thursday, March 10th, 2011The United States government has begun to track how teenagers obtain alcohol, and at what age teenagers start drinking. Greenville defense attorneys know that many teens can end up facing an underage alcohol charge in North Carolina for possession or consumption of alcohol. Alcohol-related charges can lead to a criminal record if the accused is convicted of the charge. Simply paying an underage alcohol ticket itself is a guilty plea that results in a criminal conviction.
Parents across the country appear to disagree about whether or not it is appropriate to teach their underage children how to drink responsibly. Some parents prefer to allow their children to have an occasional beer at home in an effort to teach the child how to drink alcohol without binge drinking. Others say that any underage drinking is dangerous for children. The minimum drinking age is 21 in all 50 states. Thirty-one U.S. states allow for exceptions to underage consumption with parental consent, with 7 states limiting the exception to the family home. North Carolina does not have an exception to underage drinking with parental consent.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says that nearly 6 percent of all 12 to 14-year-old teens in the country drank alcohol within the past 30 days. That amounts to roughly 700,000 middle school aged children in the U.S. Nearly 45 percent of those 12 to 14-year-old children obtained the alcohol from their own home, including roughly 16 percent obtaining the alcohol directly from their parent or guardian.
Peter Delany, Director of SAMHSA’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality says kids who begin drinking heavily under the age of 15 “are about six times more likely to end up with alcohol problems.” Delaney is concerned about the health related issues that can develop from alcohol abuse. However, North Carolina underage DUI attorneys know that when teens reach the driving age, any measurable amount of alcohol detected in an underage person who has been driving can lead to a criminal conviction for underage DUI in North Carolina.
While the recent statistics show that 6 percent of U.S. 12 to 14-year-olds have consumed some amount of alcohol within the past month a 2009 survey showed that 86 percent of Americans have used alcohol by the time they turn 21, the legal drinking age. The 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicated that roughly 50 percent of underage drinkers engaged in binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks in a single session for males, and four or more for females.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, “Dad, I Prefer the Shiraz,” Melinda Beck 8 Mar 2011