Posted: 11/2/2013 6:15:45 AM EDT
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Question: Is calling in a drunk driver a waste of time? I was behind a driver a couple of days ago who was weaving all over the road, speed fluctuating, etc. He was either loaded or had some sort of medical issue. I called 911 and gave the location, the direction of travel and a description of the vehicle. I'm assuming that unless there was a patrol vehicle nearby that my report was probably useless. Am I correct in that assumption? |
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I've done it more than a few times. I don't care that someone gets arrested and their life is screwed up because of it. I care that they might hit a mom coming home from work or some other innocent person. This ^^^^^, fuck 'em , they stupid enough to DWI, they deserve their fate, if its losing their job and living in a cardboard box I dont give a shit. I lost a family member because of someone that was DWI, so yea, fuck all the drunks on the road. |
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I've done it more than a few times. I don't care that someone gets arrested and their life is screwed up because of it. I care that they might hit a mom coming home from work or some other innocent person. Yeah - we were on the interstate and he almost took out a motorcyclist in the next lane over during one of his weaves. |
| It is broadcasted, at least here, as soon as the dispatcher has time to relay the information onto the officers/deputies/troopers. While they still have to observe some kind of traffic violation, or equipment violation in order to make the stop, calling them in helps tremendously. |
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Question: Is calling in a drunk driver a waste of time? I was behind a driver a couple of days ago who was weaving all over the road, speed fluctuating, etc. He was either loaded or had some sort of medical issue. I called 911 and gave the location, the direction of travel and a description of the vehicle. I'm assuming that unless there was a patrol vehicle nearby that my report was probably useless. Am I correct in that assumption? We get a dozen of those calls a day. Less than 1% are DUI just like the percentage of drivers we pull over when we see them driving like shit. Cell phones, kids, eating smoking, fucking with radio and just bad drivers. You never know until you get them stopped. |
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Where I work if the caller (complainant) follows them they keep on the line until the officer can make a traffic stop on that vehicle.
If the caller calls it in then doesn't follow them they bolo it out over the radio. If there is an officer in the area who can locate and conduct a stop we will. In this situation you aren't dispatched the call as its boloed. You are expected to locate them if possible but stay available for calls. If the caller is following they dispatch at least 1-2 officers depending on the situation, |
| As a dispatcher it's not a waste of time but since we are a small city we usually have to transfer the call if they are on the major highway we have running through our city since we only cover about a mile of it. Just be aware of where you are, turn your hazards on and keep on! |
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I have done it a few times. If the police can't make it there in time, so be it.... at least I tried. Hate to think that some mom and her kids pay the price because I didn't call. this...even if the police don't get there right away, they have the info.. might be able to intercept the drunk on his way home.. |
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Where I work it depends if it's being followed or an ATL (attempt to locate). DUII being followed will get dispatched, unless everyone's tied up and no neighboring agencies in the county are available, which is very unlikely. ATL's will be aired on our secondary channel as area info only.
I've gotten a fair amount of DUIIs off citizens calling them in, though it's probably only about 1 or 2 out of 10 called in are actually DK. Time of day and area are definitely a factor too. Ones called in at 12a-3a are a much higher probability than ones in the middle of the day. |
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If the caller continues to follow the driver, we'll sometimes even run code to get there. If the caller is not following the driver actively, then dispatch will put it out as a notification. If it's in your area, then you are expected to look for it.
GIVE DISPATCH THE LICENSE PLATE....if you can! The plate is sometimes a clue as to the route that the driver might take. So often, we just get something like "white Ford truck weaving on XYZ road". Well, we are never going to find that! I have arrested a number of drunk drivers by simply checking the plate and then being able to intercept the driver as the driver headed home. It's not an absolute but it works for me sometimes. If the vehicle is close to leaving our jurisdiction, then we'll advise dispatch that no one is able to get there in time and it's passed off to the next jurisdiction and/or the Highway Patrol. Keep calling them in. Too many people are killed every year by drunk drivers. In spite of the GD crowd here, drunk drivers are not about revenue (unless you are talking about revenue for defense attorneys) In my area, the fine for a DUI first offense will usually be well under $500 (now attorney fees for a case START at $500 and rise from there). |
| The only time I ever called in a suspected DWI when I was off duty, even I couldn't get anyone to respond because the call volume was too high. The guy was literally all over the road from the far side of the breakdown lane well across the double yellow into the on-coming lane. I followed him from the adjoining county where I first noticed his driving pattern all the way into our county seat. He was swerving as I described above the whole way |
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Question: Is calling in a drunk driver a waste of time? Depends on where you are. Very few patrol guys were actually going to look for the car where I worked. Almost all cops despised DUI arrests. Not to mention that by the time it got from 911 operator to dispatcher to cop on patrol the driver would probably be out of that cops precinct or sector. |
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I've done in on the interstate. This guy would have killed someone. I'm talking drifting all the way across the lanes to even going off in the median, i just knew he was about to shoot out to the other side or flip it. He made it back out though and kept on. SOB had someone looking out for him
Called 911 and talked to the county dispatch and was put in contact with Highway Patrol, I kept an eye on the guy, giving locations, I knew a weigh station was coming up and HP was ahead in the median waiting, pointed him out and they pulled him over and that was that, well he didn't pull right over they had to stay behind him a while. |
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The only time I ever called in a suspected DWI when I was off duty, even I couldn't get anyone to respond because the call volume was too high. The guy was literally all over the road from the far side of the breakdown lane well across the double yellow into the on-coming lane. I followed him from the adjoining county where I first noticed his driving pattern all the way into our county seat. He was swerving as I described above the whole way I've called in several off duty. One wasn't drunk....just sleepy. The others were hammered. If I truly think they are drunk, I'll follow them until an officer gets there. I even tell dispatch that I'm an off duty officer and will provide a statement if the arresting officer needed it to make the case. I've been thanked but never taken up on the offer of a statement. |
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Depends on where you are. Very few patrol guys were actually going to look for the car where I worked. Almost all cops despised DUI arrests. Not to mention that by the time it got from 911 operator to dispatcher to cop on patrol the driver would probably be out of that cops precinct or sector. Quoted:
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Question: Is calling in a drunk driver a waste of time? Depends on where you are. Very few patrol guys were actually going to look for the car where I worked. Almost all cops despised DUI arrests. Not to mention that by the time it got from 911 operator to dispatcher to cop on patrol the driver would probably be out of that cops precinct or sector. Where I work, most of the officers love doing DUI arrests. There are a couple who don't like them but most of us really enjoy them. I suspect it's because they are the court case most likely to get you into court. |
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I called one in and had a trooper call me directly to ask me where he was. I coordinated with the trooper and a local deputy. I am commissioned and was off duty. He had me stop at the traffic stop with him. The guy was so intoxicated that he was barely able to walk from his truck to the Trooper's vehicle.
I was thanked for the "freebie" and went on home. I haven't been subpoenaed yet come to think of it. |
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Where I work, most of the officers love doing DUI arrests. There are a couple who don't like them but most of us really enjoy them. I suspect it's because they are the court case most likely to get you into court. Quoted:
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Question: Is calling in a drunk driver a waste of time? Depends on where you are. Very few patrol guys were actually going to look for the car where I worked. Almost all cops despised DUI arrests. Not to mention that by the time it got from 911 operator to dispatcher to cop on patrol the driver would probably be out of that cops precinct or sector. Where I work, most of the officers love doing DUI arrests. There are a couple who don't like them but most of us really enjoy them. I suspect it's because they are the court case most likely to get you into court. They are a nightmare where I worked. Cops avoided them like the plague. Only the guys who were buried in debt made them because they needed the OT to pay their bills. |
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I've called in a couple, one in particular I followed until he got himself stuck over a curb in a church parking lot and the deputy finallly showed up 20min later, which was 40min after the start of the call... I checked on the guy, 75yo black man, off his meds, should not have been behind the wheel in the first place. He thought he was two counties over.
Dispatcher said it was bad timing, because I called in at shift change. Good to know that if I catch someone breaking into my house at 5pm it'll take half an hour to get a unit when I'm 15min from the sheriff's department 
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Definitely call them in. Depending on what they're doing/time of day/traffic volume, we will run code to get in a position to stop.
Please get a plate and be willing to give a statement about what led you to believe they were impaired. I grabbed 2 repeat offender drunks this week off of call ins. |
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Dispatcher said it was bad timing, because I called in at shift change. Good to know that if I catch someone breaking into my house at 5pm it'll take half an hour to get a unit when I'm 15min from the sheriff's department That's the reality of shift work. We TRIED to get the county to go along with schedule changes that would have entailed flexing shifts to have double manpower coverage at what we recognize to be vulnerable times like that. You know what they did? They wanted us to give up some of our benefits because they thought we were suggesting it to benefit ourselves! edit: to add, just because you're 15 minutes from the office has no bearing on where the officers are at any given time of the day other than at shift change. The officers aren't generally AT the office. They're out on the road. So even in the middle of the shift, if the officers are at the far ends of their zone or on calls, it could be an hour before you see a marked unit arrive |
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That's the reality of shift work. We TRIED to get the county to go along with schedule changes that would have entailed flexing shifts to have double manpower coverage at what we recognize to be vulnerable times like that. You know what they did? They wanted us to give up some of our benefits because they thought we were suggesting it to benefit ourselves! edit: to add, just because you're 15 minutes from the office has no bearing on where the officers are at any given time of the day other than at shift change. The officers aren't generally AT the office. They're out on the road. So even in the middle of the shift, if the officers are at the far ends of their zone or on calls, it could be an hour before you see a marked unit arrive Quoted:
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Dispatcher said it was bad timing, because I called in at shift change. Good to know that if I catch someone breaking into my house at 5pm it'll take half an hour to get a unit when I'm 15min from the sheriff's department That's the reality of shift work. We TRIED to get the county to go along with schedule changes that would have entailed flexing shifts to have double manpower coverage at what we recognize to be vulnerable times like that. You know what they did? They wanted us to give up some of our benefits because they thought we were suggesting it to benefit ourselves! edit: to add, just because you're 15 minutes from the office has no bearing on where the officers are at any given time of the day other than at shift change. The officers aren't generally AT the office. They're out on the road. So even in the middle of the shift, if the officers are at the far ends of their zone or on calls, it could be an hour before you see a marked unit arrive Funny how they find time to be sitting right outside my neighborhood 2-3 times a week catching speeders and giving me the stinkeye on my bike 2-3 days a week around the same time frame. Half the time it's a county car, and half the time it's a state trooper. I understand what you're saying, but I live in a somewhat rural county with a lot of officers. I'm 15min from the office, but I'm right on the county line. If I had rolled down my window and let a couple fly while I was on the phone with the dispatcher, they would have been there in 3 minutes. 
ETA: When I made the call, I was 5 minutes from the LEC traveling ~20mph behind Mr pinball wizard. |
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If the caller continues to follow the driver, we'll sometimes even run code to get there. Quoted:
If the caller continues to follow the driver, we'll sometimes even run code to get there. Run code to a possible DUI? Do you guys run code to traffic crashes and verbal disputes too? Quoted:
Where I work, most of the officers love doing DUI arrests. There are a couple who don't like them but most of us really enjoy them. I suspect it's because they are the court case most likely to get you into court. Exactly why we do them because they need to be taken off the street but we do not enjoy doing it. DL suspension hearings, court, and all the other crap on our day off sucks. |
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Run code to a possible DUI? Do you guys run code to traffic crashes and verbal disputes too? Quoted:
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If the caller continues to follow the driver, we'll sometimes even run code to get there. Run code to a possible DUI? Do you guys run code to traffic crashes and verbal disputes too? Even if I had wanted to make a DUI arrest I wouldn't run code to get there. |
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Run code to a possible DUI? Do you guys run code to traffic crashes and verbal disputes too? Exactly why we do them because they need to be taken off the street but we do not enjoy doing it. DL suspension hearings, court, and all the other crap on our day off sucks. Quoted:
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If the caller continues to follow the driver, we'll sometimes even run code to get there. Run code to a possible DUI? Do you guys run code to traffic crashes and verbal disputes too? Quoted:
Where I work, most of the officers love doing DUI arrests. There are a couple who don't like them but most of us really enjoy them. I suspect it's because they are the court case most likely to get you into court. Exactly why we do them because they need to be taken off the street but we do not enjoy doing it. DL suspension hearings, court, and all the other crap on our day off sucks. I work for a county so we normally have a lot of ground to cover to get there compared to a city PD. Code to accidents....maybe. Depends on the location (need for traffic control) and severity of injuries as reported. Verbal disputes...generally no. However, if you were sent to a verbal dispute call and you are far out, depending on the incident you MIGHT run code depending on the circumstances....lot of factors in verbal disputes....but most of the time we would not run code to a verbal dispute. We get a min of 4 hrs comp time for going to court. It's nice to have that comp time when you want to take some time off with your family or for yourself. |
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That's the reality of shift work. We TRIED to get the county to go along with schedule changes that would have entailed flexing shifts to have double manpower coverage at what we recognize to be vulnerable times like that. You know what they did? They wanted us to give up some of our benefits because they thought we were suggesting it to benefit ourselves! edit: to add, just because you're 15 minutes from the office has no bearing on where the officers are at any given time of the day other than at shift change. The officers aren't generally AT the office. They're out on the road. So even in the middle of the shift, if the officers are at the far ends of their zone or on calls, it could be an hour before you see a marked unit arrive Quoted:
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Dispatcher said it was bad timing, because I called in at shift change. Good to know that if I catch someone breaking into my house at 5pm it'll take half an hour to get a unit when I'm 15min from the sheriff's department That's the reality of shift work. We TRIED to get the county to go along with schedule changes that would have entailed flexing shifts to have double manpower coverage at what we recognize to be vulnerable times like that. You know what they did? They wanted us to give up some of our benefits because they thought we were suggesting it to benefit ourselves! edit: to add, just because you're 15 minutes from the office has no bearing on where the officers are at any given time of the day other than at shift change. The officers aren't generally AT the office. They're out on the road. So even in the middle of the shift, if the officers are at the far ends of their zone or on calls, it could be an hour before you see a marked unit arrive We work 10s and it gives us a nice overlap of shifts so it does improve our response time. |
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Called in one riding on a dirt bike and followed him for 20 minutes with 911 on phone entire time, completely out of my way and in a different direction from home. Finally got to a small town and flashed lights for oncoming cop to grab him. He was felony revoked and thus the dirt bike. He was very lucky to be alive. Never subpoenaed on that one. In May I saw a guy dump his harley in a driveway on a side street. Thinking he just fell over in his driveway I went to help. Turns out he was drunk as a skunk and had been driving. I helped him get his bike up and sat on his front fender until the cops arrived. Subpoenaed on that one, court delayed twice, now scheduled for January 2014.
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That's the reality of shift work. We TRIED to get the county to go along with schedule changes that would have entailed flexing shifts to have double manpower coverage at what we recognize to be vulnerable times like that. You know what they did? They wanted us to give up some of our benefits because they thought we were suggesting it to benefit ourselves! edit: to add, just because you're 15 minutes from the office has no bearing on where the officers are at any given time of the day other than at shift change. The officers aren't generally AT the office. They're out on the road. So even in the middle of the shift, if the officers are at the far ends of their zone or on calls, it could be an hour before you see a marked unit arrive Quoted:
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Dispatcher said it was bad timing, because I called in at shift change. Good to know that if I catch someone breaking into my house at 5pm it'll take half an hour to get a unit when I'm 15min from the sheriff's department That's the reality of shift work. We TRIED to get the county to go along with schedule changes that would have entailed flexing shifts to have double manpower coverage at what we recognize to be vulnerable times like that. You know what they did? They wanted us to give up some of our benefits because they thought we were suggesting it to benefit ourselves! edit: to add, just because you're 15 minutes from the office has no bearing on where the officers are at any given time of the day other than at shift change. The officers aren't generally AT the office. They're out on the road. So even in the middle of the shift, if the officers are at the far ends of their zone or on calls, it could be an hour before you see a marked unit arrive Our dept has a flex schedule. A few units come in an hour or two before the next regular shift and they get off an hour or two before the end of the regular shift. That way there would always be some coverage. I would think all dept would want some type of coverage during shift changes but I guess that's not the case or some departments aren't big enough to allow for that type of coverage. |
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Called in one riding on a dirt bike and followed him for 20 minutes with 911 on phone entire time, completely out of my way and in a different direction from home. Finally got to a small town and flashed lights for oncoming cop to grab him. He was felony revoked and thus the dirt bike. He was very lucky to be alive. Never subpoenaed on that one. In May I saw a guy dump his harley in a driveway on a side street. Thinking he just fell over in his driveway I went to help. Turns out he was drunk as a skunk and had been driving. I helped him get his bike up and sat on his front fender until the cops arrived. Subpoenaed on that one, court delayed twice, now scheduled for January 2014. Good for you. So many people refuse to get involved with incidents. However, if citizens get involved in their communities and report crimes, we'd have a lot less crime. Too many people refuse to get involved. 
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Our dept has a flex schedule. A few units come in an hour or two before the next regular shift and they get off an hour or two before the end of the regular shift. That way there would always be some coverage. I would think all dept would want some type of coverage during shift changes but I guess that's not the case or some departments aren't big enough to allow for that type of coverage. The saving grace in our area is that the state guys run 12 hour shifts and most of the villages stagger their shift rotations at times different from our shift changes So there are people out there who MIGHT be close enough to handle a call while we are in briefing Still lots of calls go into a hold status til we get done with shift change |