Riverside County DUI checkpoint nets seven arrests

The checkpoint was established at Hamner Ave. and School Street between the hours of 7 PM and 3 AM. 516 of the 862 drivers who went through the checkpoint were thoroughly screened for DUI, according to police statements. 19 of those drivers showed sufficient reasonable evidence to require a field sobriety test.

The 7 arrests for DUI were only a portion of the 60 citations issued for varying crimes. In addition, 16 vehicles were detained with 10 of those received extended impounds.

These statistics may sound favorable for DUI enforcement in Riverside County. However, upon closer review, it is worth pointing out that only slightly over 2% of the total drivers stopped were even eligible for a field sobriety test. This means the vast majority of officer resources were spent toward stopping drivers with no reason to be stopped.

The checkpoint called itself a joint DUI and driver safety checkpoint, which gives a nod to the other 60 citations issued at the scene. Even taking into account these 60 citations, however, there was still a relatively low incidence of success in imposing penalties for those cars who entered the checkpoint.

Riverside County is part of the Los Angeles urban sprawl, notorious for drunk driving due to the lack of public transit and high amount of travel time from one location to the other. Riverside has also been hit hard by the recession, experiencing home value decline far more rapid and dramatic than the national average. These factors seem to contribute to a higher incidence of both violent and petty crime.

In the case of this particular checkpoint, however, patrols in other areas of the country were more successful in the first weekend of the national campaign, "Over the Limit. Under Arrest."


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San Diego DUI Lawyers Note Rise in Female Arrests

LONG BEACH, Calif., Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- San Diego DUI attorneys are noticing a steep increase in the number of women seeking legal representation for DUI arrests throughout San Diego County.

Lawrence Taylor, known as "The Dean of DUI Attorneys" and author of the book Drunk Driving Defense, confirms that "Each San Diego DUI attorney in our firm has observed a steadily rising percentage of female San Diego drunk driving clients in recent years." Taylor, who heads a nationally-known firm of California DUI defense attorneys, reports similar trends reported by his Los Angeles DUI lawyers and Orange County DUI lawyers.

Taylor's experiences are not unique. The FBI recently released evidence of this trend - statistics from 1998-2007 indicating an increase of nearly 29 percent for women driving under the influence of alcohol. This can be compared to a 7.5 percent decrease for men.

Further confirmation comes from a recent DUI fatality study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency looked at the number of female drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes from 2007 to 2008 and found that the female DUI rate increased or remained flat in 15 states, compared to 13 states for male DUI involved fatalities. This is noteworthy, since the overall number of DUI cases decreased 9 percent nationwide. About 2,000 fatalities a year now involve a female driver arrested for DUI.


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