On the New Year...and drunk driving

2005's gone. 2006's here.

From a professional standpoint, 2005 wasn't bad. Despite missing almost 4 months to sickness and an on-the-job injury, I still managed 49 drunk-driving arrests. Now that's not counting the drug arrests, the weapons arrests, the arrests for reckless/unsafe driving, drivers lying about who they were, or the one guy that I jailed for fishing without a license because he was such an ass about it. (The gang down at the city jail still can't believe that I hooked the guy for a whole week-end just for a fishing offense. Moral of the story: when the police catch you red-handed for something minor, don't be a jack-ass to try and impress your friends.)

I also locked up a woman who decided that she didn't want to wait in traffic to get out of a concert. She decided to just use her car horn and her front bumper to "nudge" the guy in the yellow vest out of her way. Of course she bawled all the way to court that she didn't know I was a police officer. "I thought he was just someone who worked there," she told the judge. This of course did not impress the judge, who didn't share her view that it was ok to hit people with your car so long as they aren't police officers. He found her guilty of Assault and Reckless Driving and gave her 2 years' probation and 200 hours of community service. He went easy on her because she's a Registered Nurse and because she showed up in court with about twenty relatives and co-workers.

Finally, I cited over 100 drivers with Reckless Driving, requiring them to appear before the judge. Most got decent fines and points and some got jail, depending on their driving records. When you drive an unmarked police car like I usually do, reckless drivers are like fish in a barrel. And I never tire of that shocked look on their faces when the car that the hadn't paid any attention to a second ago suddenly pulls up behind them and displays an impressive array of of red and blue lights.

Of all of the work I did this year, The DWI arrests give me the most satisfaction. That's 49 impaired drivers that I prevented from injuring or killing themselves or other people. And my catches ran the gamut, from teenagers to a 78 year old man.

On the downside, I did total one relatively new cruiser (Sorry about that, Chief) and I damaged another one but at least I didn't have to shoot anyone this year, which puts me one up on 2004.

And 2006 started out on a positive note. The new year wasn't two hours old when I spotted an SUV driving fast and stupid. I went to stop it and the driver tried to ditch me but his first turn off the road after I lit him up took us both right down a dead-end street. I love chasing people who don't know where they're going.

This catch was a good one. He reeked of booze and had the classic red "drunk eyes". He slurred his words when he denied having a drop to drink after I asked him how much he'd been drinking. When I told him that I knew better, he began to cry. I had him come out of the car and he couldn't walk without supporting himself on the side of the car. Still crying, he failed all my tests and I locked him up despite his begging me to just let him go because he had promised his mom that he would not drink and drive. He was 19 years old and blew 0.21 on his breath tests. And to make it even better, he got angry with me because he claimed that his parents told him that they would stop paying for college if he got into trouble drinking and he said that it's my fault that he'll have to work at Wal-Mart or McDonalds for the rest of his life.
I told him to go with Wal-Mart because the employee discount is better there.

Of course like all drunks, he insisted over and over again that he wasn't drunk and told me more times than I could count that he was a safe driver. Yeah, right. I'll bet this woman said the same thing:

January 1, 2006 -- A police officer was in critical condition early this morning after being struck by an apparently drunken driver on a Queens expressway after pulling another driver over for speeding , police said.

The NYPD Highway Unit officer was standing on the driver's side of the car he had just stopped on the Long Island Expressway, near the Grand Central Parkway interchange, when he was clipped at about 1:45 a.m., cops said.

The female driver stopped immediately and appeared to be drunk, police said. She had not been charged as of early this morning, and the accident was still under investigation while the woman was taken into custody.

The injured police officer, whose name was not released, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, in Manhattan.

(New York Post, 1-1-06 on-line edition.)

This one was for you, brother. Mend well.

And for the rest of you out there contemplating driving after "just a few drinks"... I'm out there somewhere. A cab may cost you a few bucks but it's a lot cheaper than the lawyer's fees, court costs and fines, impound fees, probation oversight fees and insurance rate hikes that you're going to face if I catch you.