(The Heart Sq.) – The Alliance Towards Intoxicated Motorists is out with its annual DUI arrests survey, which exhibits fewer drunken driving arrests in the course of the pandemic.
Since 1990, the alliance has carried out a survey of Illinois police departments to find out what number of DUI arrests they make and provides recognition to the most efficient departments.
“The principle function was to clearly save lives after which see simply how effectively a job some departments are doing in comparison with others,” AAIM Government Director Rita Kreslin.
The lower is being attributed to pandemic restrictions that restricted bar advert restaurant service and resulted in a decline within the variety of folks on the roads.
Illinois State Police made 5,947 DUI arrests final 12 months, in comparison with 7,468 in 2019.
The Decatur Police Division led the state final 12 months in DUI arrests amongst metropolis departments, with 344 in 2020. They had been adopted by Rockford (304), Bloomington (254) and Naperville (242).
“The Decatur Police Division understands the unbelievable hazard that impaired driving poses to the neighborhood,” states Decatur Police Chief James Getz, Jr. “As such, for a number of years we’ve made DUI enforcement one of many priorities in our day by day duties.”
Of the highest 10 departments with probably the most arrests, the numbers had been down apart from in a single metropolis. Waukegan made 18% extra arrests final 12 months than in 2019.
The best DUI arrest fee within the state amongst departments making at the least 200 arrests was Carol Stream, which had 3.80 arrests per sworn officer. Since 2006, Carol Stream has been one of many prime ten departments in DUI arrests per officer.
Kreslin mentioned leisure hashish continues to be a priority.
“It’s exhausting to show that marijuana is concerned until in fact there’s a crash and there may be blood drawn, however marijuana is the second toxin discovered of their system subsequent to alcohol when they’re arrested for DUI,” Kreslin mentioned.
AAIM is an Illinois-only citizen activist group based in 1982 by victims of drunk driving.
