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Drunk dialing? Handheld devices boosting DUI arrests · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Drunk dialing, handheld devices boosting DUI arrests. Written by Tom Collins.
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  This article is being read by an automated voice, brought to you
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  by Everlet. There.
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  Was plenty of beer consumed over Labor Day weekend, and six unlucky
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  motorists in LaSalle County were charged with drunk driving. Nothing new: there.
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  But Jason Good, 1st Assistant Salle
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  County. State's attorney, looked over the police reports and body camera footage
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  and did see something new. Some drunk drivers were caught using electronic
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  devices, too. Drunk driving is an old problem in LaSalle County. Distracted
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  driving has surged in recent years. Now, for the first time in
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  his long career, Good is seeing tandem cases of impairment and distraction.
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  I saw a couple videos where The drivers, when told the reason
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  for the stop, blamed their driving for being on the phone or
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  dropping the phone. Good said. Maybe they were trying to cover for
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  their bad driving, but I saw some truth in it. The convergence
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  of drinking and device use helps explain why DUI arrests are on
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  the upswing after years of historic lows. With the Labor Day weekend
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  arrests now in hand, LaSalle County is projected to finish the year
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  with 449 DUI arrests. Historically that's not bad. LaSalle County has recorded
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  years with 800 or more arrests. However, the projected total would snap
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  a four-year stretch there, the county logged just 340 yearly DUIs. A
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  jump of nearly 30 demands an explanation. Good thinks the the ill-advised
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  pairing of alcohol and cell phones is a big reason for the
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  jump. There's a lot of bad driving.
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  Out there, Good said. He's not alone in that assessment. About half
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  the defense attorney. Interviewed for this story had clients caught because they
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  had a few tipples and because the were on their phones instead
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  of concentrating on their driving. I've had a couple like that in
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  the last year, said Dave Khalil, a Mendota defence attorney. Most cases
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  are because the drivers are so impaired they commit traffic violations like
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  going over the center line or weaving. Morris Attorney Matt Mueller said
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  he, too, has cases where impairment and distracted driving contributed to arrest.
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  But not enough for me personally to say that is why DUIs
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  are up thirty percent. Mueller hastened to add, in my opinion, if
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  the arrests are up thirty percent, it probably means the police are
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  spending more time and resources trying to catch drunk drivers. Attorneys and
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  police acknowledge there are other factors in play, not least of which
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  is better staffing at local police departments. A few years ago, law
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  enforcement had a poor public image and recruitment ground to a near
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  halt. Today, the dry spell has eased and there are fewer job
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  openings at police precincts. Ottawa police chief Mike Cheatham, whose department had
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  four of the six DUI arrests over Labor Day weekend, said his
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  and other departments are fully staffed and now have the resources to
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  allocate for patrols rather than paperwork. Staffing levels above minimum means more
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  opportunity to be on the street for proactive enforcement, Cheatham said. Newly
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  sworn officers also are typically zealous and less likely to give a
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  mildly impaired motorist a pass, which in turn inflates They
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  arrest sheet. LaSalle County Sheriff Adam Diss said he's noticed a generational
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  shift as well. In years past, deputies craved the occasional break from
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  patrol. Deputies might, for example, volunteer to do a prisoner transfer, but
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  today's young cops enjoy patrol duty and will beg off other assignments.
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  They want to be out there, Dis said. Cops today have to
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  be on the watch for a greater array of intoxicating compounds. Peru
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  attorney John Fisher said he thinks drugs, especially cannabis, are far more
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  responsible for padding the DUI total than any misuse of handheld devices.
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  I'm seeing more cannabis and drug DUIs than ever before, Fisher said.
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  Young people aren't drinking in the bars, probably due to costs. They're
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  more apt to vape cannabis at a bar or before going out.
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  And Ottawa Defense Attorney Daryl Seigler said he isn't at all sure
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  there are new behaviors at work behind the spike in DUIs. I
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  think it's just a cycle of people getting careless again and driving
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  when they shouldn't, Seigler said. It seems cyclical any more.