Was heading home tonight and I notice a mercedes going slow in the right lane behind somebody.  I go to pass (two lanes each way of travel) and see why the mercedes is going slow and not passing.  There is a truck all over the road, on the sidewalk, hitting curbs with a blown tire throwing chunks of rubber.  Called 911 and gave them the plates and info on direction/location.  I was told not to follow but he was on the road I take to get home so I backed way off and lost him when I had to make my turn home.  I wish I had my dash cam installed.

I guess I should have added some more to my late night post.  I was questioning what happens if this guy actually does make it home without wrecking/killing somebody?  No harm, no foul, no ticket?

It also depends a lot on where you are.

That makes sense. Pretty difficult to prove without the guy being caught driving.

Depending on the damage, they'll go wake the guy up at home if there's evidence to tie him to it. I somehow got into a discussion about this with a random dude somewhere and he said he had just been arrested a few days before for hitting a parked vehicle. All it did was break the mirror and someone saw it, called the cops, and they came and snatched him up from his home about 2hrs later. I'm sure this ain't the case with every call though.

Interesting.

I called one in here in Portsmouth, They had locked up their brakes in the middle of traffic driver got out and was screaming and yelling at the passengers and the whole Vic reeked  of alcohol. I followed them into a parking lot while getting Portsmouth PD to respond then met with officers and pointed out the truck  and passengers. After making contact it looked like the officers were told a passenger was driving not the intoxicated female, no arrest. A dash cam would have been helpful!

Dang,  I need to just make time to mound my dash cam again. I hate pulling the trim off to route the power though.

If they don't hit anything or wreck make it home park and get inside before the cops can pull them over they are basically home free. Why? For a number of reasons.
1: The officer didn't see the crime commited.  
2: No evidence.
3: How do they then prove that person was driving?
4: Even if the person answers the door drunk how do you prove they were that way when they supposedly drove, and not when inside their residence which is perfectly legal.

If they hit something / someone and make it inside their home before police interact with them then hit and run time so they aren't scot free.

Now if they don't get inside before the cop sees them even sitting in the drivers seat keys in the ignition engine off is operating a motor vehicle and DUI time. It's also funny as hell how pissed frequent fliers get when yoked up for that scenario.

As for specifics of thread title question. Where I worked dispatch would say where suspected drunk was spotted, direction of travel, vehicle description and tag. Nearest officer who was free would mark up and go look. Most of the time they aren't found from my experience since someone can make quite a few course changes and travel aways in the time it takes for the caller to give the information to a call taker the call taker pass it to dispatch, dispatch to put it out to the units and for a unit to then get to the area and look. I did get one guy once right after dispatch put out the info as he pulled into a gas station doc had just changed his meds and his reaction was so bad he kept falling asleep as he talked to me. So sometimes it pays off.

Yes.