When Police Officers Get DUIs
It happens every month. Police officers get arrested for DUI. They cause accidents while driving drunk. They commit other crimes too. So do defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges. Its a fact of life and shouldn't come as a shock to anybody.
Some people seem to relish the hypocrisy of somebody in law enforcement getting caught breaking the law.
To me, it's not the fact that an arrest happened or didn't happen that matters most. The big question is what the officer does after the fact. They can either run and bury their head in the sand, or the can use the experience as President Obama might say as a "teachable moment."
Hats off to Chief David Baker for agreeing to go on the radio to talk about his experience.
Police Chief David Baker to appear on Ridin' Dirty DUI radio show : DUIAttorney.com: "Baker was arrested for driving under the influence after a car crash in Arlington County. He had a blood alcohol level of .19 which is more than twice the legal limit. ‘I offer no excuses for my bad decisions and behaviors because there are none, and I am , and will be, forever haunted by the personal embarrassment and humiliation I caused to those who have supported me…’ said Baker."
Outsourcing police report dictation
One California city is now sending audio files of dictated police reports to a transcription service in Tennessee. They think this will be a good way to save money. Here's the basic description of what they are doing:
Vallejo Police Outsource Report Writing | NBC Bay Area: “The police department in cash-strapped Vallejo, Calif., may have found a way to save a little money.The Police Department is now using a transcription service based in Tennessee -- Nashville-McLintock Transcription and Consulting Services -- to write up its police reports.
The reports are dictated into a digital audio file then sent via a secure connection to Nashville-McClintock, where retired law-enforcement officials write them up.
The practice is less expensive than hiring new personnel and could possibly elicit more details from officers who might otherwise keep it brief if they had to do the typing themselves.”
Any practicing criminal lawyer, whether prosecutor or defense attorney knows that this is a seriously bad idea. Police reports are used in litigation to refresh police officers' recollections of events that often happened several years back.
Outsourcing the transcription will present a type of chain of custody issue in court. The question will be, is the transcription actually a true representation of that the officer said, and then is what the officer said a true account of what actually happened?
Criminal defense lawyers will want to hear the original audio, and the state will have to produce it, adding an additional expense that wouldn't be there if the officers simply wrote the reports themselves.
It is really scary to watch government agencies fall all over themselves and think that they are responsible for enforcing the laws in this country.
When Arizona Police don't take no for an answer
Charles Barkley - A Forced Blood Draw: Barkley declined to submit to a breath test but was given a blood test, which is common in Arizona where the police don’t just take ‘No’ for an answer.
(Via Georgia DUI Blog.)
I agree with the statement "police don't just take "No" for an answer on many levels, but want to explain how the process works in Scottsdale DUI cases. Scottsdale defaults to blood, which means that they always request a blood test. The preliminary breath test (PBT) may be offered, but is not admissible into evidence, and the refusal to take it can't be held against a person. What I presume Barkley refused was the PBT. Now if a person refuses to take a blood test in Scottsdale, the police don't have to, and usually do not take no for an answer. Instead, they seek a search warrant and the forcibly draw blood if necessary.