This was about 8 years ago. I'm not even going to pretend to know all the drunk driving laws because I don't do it. But having heard about Sen. Kennedy's little incident and other things that influential people can get away with since then, I'm not so surprised anymore.

Is that sad?

Good point. I have changed my behavior since the laws were toughened up (or maybe it was my age), and avoid most bar areas. I think those changes may us all reconsider our drinking habits, and for those that don't.......well, the penalties are pretty tough.

Ms. Hightower, how long ago was that? Not that I'm picking on your age, but I don't think someone can walk away from such an incident easily any longer. Believe after the third offense (regardless of an accident occuring) it is a felony. If you can get the District Attorney to persue the charge.

I do believe police have tightened up their schedules as well. Don't head out to Schroeder for a dance while drinking. Texas DPS is crawling all over the countryside and will stop anyone for the slightest possible infraction.

If you guys want to help out officers so that they have more time to look for crook and drunks on their own, there is something you can do.

Let me preface this by saying, if you need help, never hesitate to call a cop. That being said however, PLEASE THINK about what you are reporting to a cop and just exactly what you expect them to do about it. An inordinant amount of  a cops time is wasted on BS calls that there is absolutely NOTHING a cop can do.

Officer responding to a call of a reckless driver:

Cop: Howdy ma'am, I'm Officer John Doe with the Anytown Police Department, what seems to be the troublwe this evening?

Complainant: There was this car peeling out and doing donuts in the intersection Cop: Can you describe the car to me Ma'am?

Complainant: No, I didn't see it.

Cop: Can you tell me which way it left?

Complainant: No, but it sounded like it went North but I'm not sure

Cop: How long ago was this?

Complainant: Oh about 35 minutes ago, I had to finish watching CSI first. I wasn't going to bother calling it in, but the episode was about how they caught the bad guy by matching his tire tread, I figured you can do the same with that car.

DOH!

You may think this is a joke but there are many many people out there who call in even worse calls. Just please people, THINK about what you can actually expect an officer to do before placing a call.

I agree with you 100% about drunk driving. People who get behind the wheel drunk need to ahve the book thrown at them, unfortunately they get probation after probation after probation until they DO kill someone.

I do have a problem with one thing you said. and that is with your suggestion as to what can be done

There should be no if's or but's about this we should devote some of the patrolmen to sit outside of bars as cars leave and pull them over at the slightest hint of drunkeness.

Actually there are some if's and but's about it. The biggest one of all is Resources, or to be more correct, LACK of resources.  For the most part, a Typical police department simply does not have the manpower to spare to have officer babysit every bar in town, or even a couple. From the moment they hit the road they are quite often going from call to call with only a very short free time between calls. on a busy night the calls are backed up and there are calls holding while officers deal with the calls they are on.

Just as Doctors have to perform triage to take Patients in the order of severity and lesser injuries have to wait, so goes it with police calls when things get busy. Even when things are slower, A cop usually only has maybe 10-20 minutes before he gets another dispatched call. If they did your idea, that would be just enough time for them to head toward whatever bar they were going to stake out only to be dispatched again as soon as they got there. Waste of time.

Then you are going to get your ACLU types who will file lawsuits against the City and the Departments and individual officers for Harassment and discrimination and profiling of certain businesses.

What Officers DO now is this, when they do have some free time between calls, they patrol the streets looking for crime. this INCLUDES your drunk drivers. It would be unproductive of them to sit in one spot looking only for a certain class of criminal (drunk driver) when they need to be catching all classes of criminals. Cops tend to know their beats pretty well. They know where people travel to avoid cops. This includes drunks trying to get home knowing they are drunk and trying to avoid the cops.

Kinda like dealing with a cop on a traffic stop. whatever excuse you offer... no matter how inventive you think you are or how witty. I can almost guarantee you the cop has heard it before, LOTS of times. That's because you deal with a cop what?.. once in a blue moon? Whereas a cops deals with ordinary  people just like you multiple times a day every day for their whole careers.

This includes crooks and druggies trying to BS officers with lame (witty to them) excuses that the cop sees right through. (well, maybe not a rookie).

So here we are, Cops who are going from call to call, or looking for crime in the few minutes between calls.

And before anyone responds with "But I often see cops just parked out of the way just sitting there for long periods of time." I will explain that too. The Cop is trying to catch up on his reports. A cop goes to a call, if there was a crime committed but no suspect to immediately arrest or there is some confusion as to who actually is the suspect, the officer will write an Offense Report that goes on to the investigators to follow up on.  Normally a cop will write up the report in a few minutes shortly after clearing the call, or right before he clears a call and becomes "available" again. If it is a very busy night as described above, an Officer may not have the luxury of writing his reports right away and may have to respond to several calls. He needs to complete them before end of shift or get stuck staying past his shift (they work 12 hour shift 12 on 12 off) Usually in the wee hours of the morning when even the crooks are asleep and the drunks passed out, a cop will find a spot to hole up and write the reports, still available to respond to calls. During day shift, it is more difficult but when there is a lull in the call load they will do the same.

Now where in all of that would you suggest they find the time to stake out bars just to catch Drunk drivers?

Don't get me wrong, It is a great Idea and something should be done about drunk drivers. I am just pointing out the impracticality of your Idea is all.

I knew a family in a church I attended back in high school. Their adult son was murdered in a hit-and-run drunk driving accident. And somehow the driver got off with a $200 fine and probation. After killing a man. Why? Because it was his first offense. If he had been caught before, he would have been serving jail time. But since it was his first offense, he got off easy. After killing a man.