Inside drunken driving

GREEN BAY - To say the men and women of the Green Bay Police Department are cracking down on drunken drivers, may be an understatement.

"We attack it very aggressively," said Green Bay police chief Jim Arts. He said last year, the department implemented a new policy aimed at getting tough on drunken drivers.

"We have a policy that doesn't give discretion," Arts said. "It's much like the domestic violence policy. You shall make an arrest if you have probable cause to make a drunk driving arrest. So we basically order our officers to take action where there is action to be taken."

In Green Bay, there has been a lot of action taken in the last two years. In 2008, Green Bay police made 1,005 drunken driving arrests. That was 49% higher than the average of the previous three years. This year through October, police have made 1,122 drunken driving arrests. That's an average of 3.69 OWI arrests everyday in Green Bay.

Fifty-seven percent of those arrests are for first-offense drunken driving. Repeat offenders make up the rest.

Officer Sean Hamill has been with the department for four and a half years. Last year, he made 60 drunken driving arrests, which was the most on the force.

"I'm sure there's a lot more drunk drivers out there but you know we're so busy that we're not able to be out there really focusing on the traffic issues," Hamill said.

Two weeks ago, we rode along with Hamill on the night shift. He told us when he is looking for drunken drivers; he looks for swerving, jerky movements and cars crossing the center line. He also said intoxicated drivers are easy spot once you approach their car.

"You can smell the alcohol coming off their person, slurred speech, red eyes," Hamill said.

After one hour on the road, Hamill stopped to look for speeders. Within minutes, he was dispatched to a call. The call may have been for a man who fell off a motorcycle, but once on the scene, it was clear there was no motorcycle, only a four-wheeler with a man lying on the ground a few feet away.

Officers immediately called for a rescue squad. The man was bleeding from a cut on his head and appeared to have a shoulder injury.

"Where were you going to on your 4-wheeler? What did you hit?" an officer asked.

Within minutes, the rescue crews arrived on scene. Hamill explained what he was seeing.

"From initially talking to him I can smell a lot of alcohol coming off him," Hamill said. "I don't know if he's been drinking at what point but my initial observations are he has been, he's really slurring his words, and can barely talk."

As the man was taken to the hospital, officers inspected the four-wheeler. Hamill said he wasn't sure what to make of the scene.
"I'll have to look into it to see exactly what it is but you definitely can't be operating an ATV while intoxicated," Hamill said.

A few minutes after the ambulance left the scene; Hamill made his way to the hospital and explained what the man's girlfriend had to say.

"We talked to his girlfriend there who said he just left a residence just up the block and said he was just gonna pull the ATV in the garage and never came back," Hamill said. "She said he'd been drinking all day since three o'clock drinking vodka and mountain dew."

A couple minutes later, dispatch informed Hamill that the man involved in the ATV accident has six prior convictions for operating while intoxicated and his driver's license is revoked.

"Unfortunately I do see a lot that have three, four convictions but once you get up to six or seven it's kind of rare to come across it but this would probably be the third or fourth one this year with six or more," Hamill said.

At the hospital, Hamill told us the man would be arrested for OWI. As with every suspected OWI, the suspect had his blood drawn. A blood test later revealed the man's blood alcohol level was .289. That's more than three times the legal limit. For officers like Hamill, there are hours of paperwork for every OWI. And in many cases Hamill said, frustration.

"When you see somebody with so many OWIs, part of you thinks the system isn't working, why are these people still on the road," Hamill said. "I hear a lot from people who say why are people with 7, 8 OWIs still out driving and the answer they don't have a valid license and they shouldn't be driving but they still do. And if they're not locked up in prison there's nothing we can really do about it."

Chief Arts said police will continue cracking down on all suspected drunken drivers. But he said that alone will not solve the problem.

"We can arrest all day long but until we change the culture it's really not going to have a significant impact," Arts said.

The suspect involved in the ATV accident was arrested and charged with his 7th OWI. Three days later, the charges were dropped. The Brown County District Attorney's office told FOX 11 the OWI statute only applies to motor vehicles, not ATVs.

So instead, Green Bay police said they are planning to issue the man a municipal citation for operating an