Did I do the right thing? Called 911 on a drunk driver

[plewlandsbob]

Yes ,you did! I would have made the call.

[MFGENG]

I've made the call twice. And both times, CHP showed up within minutes. One was going through a mountain pass and the cop was waiting at the bottom for them. The other was on the highway. The officer actually called me and asked to turn on my flashers so she could find me. A few seconds later she came flying up and right behind the car in question. Both cars deserved to be looked at. They do a really good job in CA about DUI's

[TwoInch]

do you have to question if it was right? when people lives are at risk, there should be no guilt in intervening in a situation. i would have called immediately when i suspected impaired driving, and i have.

i can remember two times i had to make calls of this nature, and i followed until the police caught up, which is usually a surprisingly long time waiting for them. one time i was hit by a drunk woman who had turned right from the center lane in an intersection, while i was next to her in the right lane going straight, she swiped the front of my car and ripped the bumper and such off. this actually happened directly infront of the police station. she took off, i called and followed. she ducked into a couple truck stops and zig zagged through the truck lot trying to hide, but i just parked at the exit(one way in, one way out) until she tried sneaking back out. took the police about 15 minutes to catch up, and they blew right past us with lights and sirens on!! had to call back and tell em to turn around

when in doubt, make the call. lives are at stake. if its a false alarm, you only waste a few minutes of time for all involved. good call! next time follow until police catch up would be my advice.

[TheAxeman]

Interesting....everybody seems to be drunk in my neighborhood lately. NBA star Jason Kidd was arrested on DWI charges last night a couple of miles down the road from the previous incident that I had originally posted. He evidently hit a pole with his Escalade.

[Tarheelgarage]

Good Job.
Cops didn't show up as they were too busy stuffing their faces with Dunkin Donuts.

[NUTTSGT]

You made the right choice in calling.


There's always going to be cop haters out there, no matter what you say or show them the proof. It's always been like that and always will.

[Coach James]

Originally Posted by Big-Foot

Good job!!!!

I wonder if you could have made a citizen's arrest?

Here's how to make a citizens arrest if anyone is wondering.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efgLHgsBmM

Coach

[DFW-LSX]

You did right brother. You cant help people that wont help themselves tho. I was in a similar situation, saw some guys stealing from one night a couple years ago. They had a truck backed up to the fence and they climbed inside the yard throwing shit over into the back. Parked far enough away that they wouldnt see me and called the cops, 30mins later when they finished filling the truck and drove off I just went home...Still no cops showed.

[jhelrey]

Should have thrown her keys on the roof of the liquor store

[gatewaysysop]

Originally Posted by TheAxeman

Interesting....everybody seems to be drunk in my neighborhood lately. NBA star Jason Kidd was arrested on DWI charges last night a couple of miles down the road from the previous incident that I had originally posted. He evidently hit a pole with his Escalade.

Oh noes, not an Escalade. The humanity!

[EOC_Jason]

Should of told the cops after the liquor store she stopped by the donut shop with two boxes of hot and fresh... Then you would of seen some action!

Seriously though, you did MORE than most people would bother to do. I've called the cops once after seeing a person driving extremely recklessly and almost hitting pedestrians and other cars (head-on no less). Like you I followed for a while but never saw / heard the cops...

What is sad is on the sheriff's website here they say their response time is a hair over 2 minutes (I think it was like 2.38).... EVERY time I've called the cops, and several people I know called (within a few sq miles) the BEST response time was 18 minutes. And that was for me to file a report on check fraud. When it was a CRITICAL situation (i.e. gunshots being fired) it was closer to 30 minutes... One time after 45 minutes the cops never showed up, the guys left, so I called the cops back and said don't bother they left already you idiots.

Knowing how slow the police response is in the area, one could theoretically rob SIX banks that are all within a couple blocks of each other, stop at McDonalds, and STILL make a clean getaway... *sigh*.... Why do we even pay taxes?

[Steevo]

I used to work late a lot, and I have called in several obvious DUI's on the highway, giving all the detail possible, from make/model/license. driver description, direction speed, last exit they passed, etc.
I have never been on hand to see if they get stopped, but did watch one veer off the roadway into a field, and roll over, at which point I told the 911 dispatcher they had stopped in a field near exit XXX, and I kept on driving. No responsible citizens were in any further danger, so my work was done.

[johno]

Originally Posted by ZRX61

When seconds count, the Police are just minutes away...

Now thats funny.

[johno]

Originally Posted by jhelrey

I'll give you the LEO perspective on this.

Called dials in and says I am behind a possible drunk heading Eastbound on I-90 at mile marker 458. Dispatch gets vehicle description and a 10-28 (plate). Tells the caller to hold.

Dispatches LEO. LEO are either not in the area, on another call, eating lunch, etc. You know by the time you get that way, they are in the next City/County. You have dispatch relay the message to the next LEO. Or, you are on a traffic stop or a much larger case with other officers and cannot leave for a "possible drunk."

When I call in for a possible drunk I advise them I am an ex police officer and I give them all info and say I will continue to follow. I always get an officer to respond.

I called on 2 ladies heading NB/W on 94 just entering Maple Grove. Lady in front seat was holding an infant in her lap. I advised dispatch and stated I was not going to follow as the next exit is 5 miles up and there is no where for them to go. I am sure they had Patrol or Local PD waiting as the PD is right off of the Highway.

I'd say the OP did pretty good.
Your story not so much.
Lucky for them they didn't have a burnt out light bulb or some other major criminal act

[Hal]

Not DUI, but kids riding dirt bikes. Rural road, no helmets, no registration, probably no license, and no insurance. I called them in several times, was feeling like maybe I was being a dick, spoilsport, etc. Then a young girl dumped her three wheeler and bounced her head off a stone wall, and I decided to keep right on calling.

[Kevin54]

A few weeks ago, the cops were chasing a guy that was over the limit. The cops broke off the chase, but this guy kept on going and hit a pedestrian. For his stupid stunt, he killed the pedestrian and got 10 years roomin' with Big Bubba.

[ddawg16]

Axeman....good job....you did what you could....

For all you LEO bashers.....have no clue as to what your talking about.....(except ZRX...but there is a good reason they take their time getting to him)

Lets do some simple math.....

Person calls in a DUI....it takes 30 seconds to a min to get the information....takes another 30-60 seconds to type the information in (almost all agencies use digital dispatching). Cop gets the info....

So, at this point we can assume there is a 1-2 min delay by the time the witness calls it in until the officer gets the info.

If we 'assume' he is not busy doing something else...he heads that direction.

Now, lets assume the cop is not ahead of the DUI and the DUI is driving 30 MPH....that means they travel 1/2 mile every minute.....

So in that 1-2 minutes it has taken to get the call to the cop, the DUI has already traveled up to 1 mile....

The above would be typical city streets...if on the Fwy....1 mile a min or more....

So...for every mile the cop is from the reported location....he would have to double his speed or more in order to catch up at a reasonable time. City streets? Say he is driving 60 MPH....and no traffic lights....it will take him 1 min or so to just get to the initial location....if we assume the witness is not on the phone updating the location....then the cop is going to have to go hunting.....

So....1 min to get to the initial location...but DUI has already traveled another 1/2 mile to a mile in that time....so it will take another min for the cop to make up that distance....

If it's on the fwy....the cop would have to drive at 100 or faster to catch up....

Hmm......is that a safe speed to try to catch up with a DUI?

I also seem to recall a few LEO bashing threads where posters were bitching about cops speeding for no apparent reason....hmmm....maybe they were trying to catch up with that DUI someone called in......

So....unless a cop just happens to be in the area and in the direction the DUI is driving...it's reall difficult to catch them....

With that said....I have called in DUI's on the fwy....I've id'd myself....and still had them tell me..."All units are busy, we will do what we can".

[EOC_Jason]

What upsets me about the law here in Houston / Harris County is that we have:

- Harris County Constables
- Harris County Sheriffs
- Houston Police (and tons of other municipal police forces)

All these law agencies have cops out on the streets. HOWEVER, none have any sort of real-time GPS tracking, so the 911 dispatch has NO IDEA who is closest. They don't want to spend the money to integrate their systems or add realtime tracking, but they will happily hire more officers. The increase in efficiency would more than offset the cost of more feet on the ground... *sigh*

Likewise, the nearest Constable station (also the local court house) is about 4.5 miles away. You can't tell me that it should take 30 minutes for them to drive less than 5 miles?!?!?! I could drive down there, grab an officer, and drive back in less time!

[rlitman]

Originally Posted by ddawg16

For all you LEO bashers.....have no clue as to what your talking about.....
Lets do some simple math.....
Now, lets assume the cop is not ahead of the DUI

Right, and that's where your assumption should fall apart. Now in some places this may be perfectly ok to assume, but by me, there is ALWAYS an officer ahead of you somewhere, and I don't care how fast you're going, you can't outrun a radio.

I've been behind clearly drunken/impaired drivers, and made such calls myself. On more than one occasion on a highway, I've passed an officer AFTER making such a call, and flashing my lights and honking my horn never got their attention. My guess is they were too focused on their radar gun or their paperwork, to actually be bothered with a real life-safety situation. Not saying they're lazy, or were too focused on their lunch . . .

And yes, they do have GPS, and the dispatcher would have known exactly where the officer was (even if they didn't have a perfect idea of where I was at the time). Around here, if it is available to be installed in a cruiser, highway patrol has it (including $50,000 plate reading cameras that will read the plates of every car going past at highway speed, and alert the officer that someone has an expired registration passes by).

[aka Larry]

Originally Posted by TheAxeman

After about a minute of following the vehicle it became shockingly evident that the person was either drunk, drugged, sleeping, or texting because they began weaving back and forth across the road, barely missing telephone poles and trees. I'm truly not an alarmist but this person was going to kill herself or, worse yet, kill someone else so I called 911 to let them know I was behind an erratic driver. About 2 miles prior, I had passed a LEO on the side of the road with radar so I figured it would only take a minute or two for him to pull her over.

I'm not a LEO basher, but if the above is true I don't understand the big delay in response time. Catching speeders seems a little less important in this scenario.

Maybe is like the old ER trick where to get immediate attention you need to 'modify' your story just a bit. Had the OP called and stated he was behind a woman waving a gun out the window maybe the response may have been different? Even though that statement would have been technically false, driving drunk is just like using a weapon...a 3,000 lb rolling one, but still a weapon.