We in law enforcement are under no illusion that the recent drunk-driving legislation passed in Madison is going to have any effect on people who engage in this dangerous behavior.  The changes in the law are nothing more than cosmetic; the changes are window dressing that do nothing more than mistake activity for accomplishment.  It’s typical political behavior. 

But for the few legislators who have consistently demonstrated that they are on law enforcement’s side, the majority of legislators missed a real opportunity to help keep motorists alive. Instead, the legislature sided with the special interests that oppose any real change.  It’s what politicians do.  The public is not naïve enough to fall for it, and neither are we.

The legislature left us nothing additional on the enforcement end; no added tools that would enable us to keep sober drivers alive as they navigate through the maze of drunk-drivers on our roadways.

This danger is elevated on holidays that traditionally involve the consumption of alcohol, like New Years Eve.

I’m not asking our citizens for absolute sobriety. I am, however, demanding that if you choose to hit the roadway in a car to ring in the New Year, that you have a plan for returning that doesn’t include getting behind the wheel.

DON’T DO IT!!!

There is no excuse for impaired driving.  Taking advantage of free bus rides, or asking a bartender to call a cab for you may seem un-cool, but it beats ringing in the New Year with a drunk-driving charge and waking up on January 1^st in a jail cell, or worse, facing the sobering thought that you killed someone while driving drunk.

It’s not a mistake to drive drunk. It’s a conscious choice that you make when your sense of judgment is impaired.

We don’t issue warnings for drunk driving. We make arrests. 

We will deploy 54 squads on the freeway system throughout the day to look for impaired drivers on New Year’s Eve. We’ll use overtime, but it is a small price for people to pay for the added safety on the roadway.

Additionally, our multi-jurisdictional task force (which includes the M.C.S.O, Bayside, Cudahy, St. Francis, Franklin, Greendale, Wauwatosa, West Allis, South Milwaukee, City Of Brookfield, Town Of Brookfield & City Of Menomonee Falls, will deploy another 34 squads. That’s a total of 88 squads ready to remove impaired drivers from our roads and highways.

There will be 36 High Visibility Drunk Driving Enforcement Signs set-up throughout Milwaukee & Waukesha Counties. Once you see these signs, you can be sure that a patrol squad is in the area, greatly increasing your risk of being arrested if you are driving impaired.

We will have a noose around the freeway system.  There are no secrets about our strategies or deployments.  I’m giving you our game plan.  If you get arrested for drunk-driving tonight, after knowing exactly what we’re going to do, then you’re an idiot.

I don’t want to hear about your drinking problem, or that you made a mistake.  Save your lame excuses for somebody else.               

In January 2008, I ordered the creation of an OWI Task Force in an effort to reduce the carnage on the Milwaukee County freeway system.  These officers have received specialized OWI training that helps them to stop, test and arrest drunk drivers in a way that hold up in court.

Since the deployment of this unit, the task force has arrested 681 drunk drivers compared to a total of 653 this time last year.

The year is not over. This is a total of 1, 334 arrests in 24 months by these officers. Including our regular patrol efforts, our agency has arrested over 2,900 drunk drivers in the past two years.

At our current rate, we will have approximately 1,400 OWI arrests by the end of the year—substantially surpassing total arrests in 2007 and 2006.

In 2007, Milwaukee County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 951 drunk drivers. In 2006 we arrested 1,051 drunk drivers. While we know that we can’t arrest our way out of this problem, the legislature left us no other strategy.  Arrests are effective, because they get the drunks off the road immediately, removing the threat of injury or fatality caused by these impaired drivers.

When members of my OWI Task Force stop a drunk driver, we’ve found that the average Prohibited Alcohol (breath) Concentration is .15. This is almost twice the legal limit of .08. Impairment (the inability to operate a motor vehicle safely) starts at .03, with slowed reactions. At .05, risk increases, and at .08 impaired vision occurs, rapidly followed by poor coordination at .10

Ladies and Gentlemen, the average B.A.C. upon arrest in the state of Wisconsin is .17. 

Out of the 1,327 OWI arrests to date, 61 OWI incidents led to crashes. 1,266 arrests were the result of deputy observations.

Among the arrests this year:

26 were OWI - 4th

7 were OWI – 5^th

8 was a 6^th OWI

1 was a 7^th OWI.

As you know, we have identified the most dangerous part of our freeway as “death valley.”  This is the stretch of freeway that includes:

I-94, I-794, I-894.  Its borders go from 124th street (on the west) to the lake (on the east.)  The North/South borders go from Capitol Drive (North) to Edgerton Avenue (South.).

I named this zone, in red, as “Death Valley” because you are likely to encounter a drunk driver on Friday, Saturday or Sunday between the hours of 8 p.m. and 2 a.m., increasing your risk for injury or death. More than half of our arrests are made during this high-risk period.

Our OWI task force deputies arrest one drunk driver every 59 minutes for the time they are deployed.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on average a motorist drives drunk 87 times before he or she is caught.

15 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes during the weekdays were alcohol-impaired, compared to 32 percent on weekends.

Plan ahead, and celebrate the smart way with a safe and sober way home so that your ride on New Year’s Eve won’t be in the caged area of an officer’s squad car.

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