According to this storyin the Dayton Daily News, New Year’s Eve was safe. “There were relatively few OVI arrests, and the Dayton Daily News had received no reports of traffic fatalities directly attributed to drunken driving Saturday night as of Sunday afternoon.” The most active State Highway Patrol Post was Montgomery County which made seven OVI arrests over the weekend. Miami County OSP made three arrests, Warren County OSP made one and Greene County made no OVI arrests over the New Year’s Eve weekend. “Police departments from Beavercreek to Vandalia and down through Franklin also reported an uneventful New Year’s Eve, with few drunken driving arrests. In Kettering, police held an OVI Task Force on Friday night and stopped a number of drunken drivers, but Kettering reported zero OVI arrests on Saturday night.” WDTN reported that Dayton Police was very active this weekend making twenty OVI arrests while Piqua saw four arrests and Wapakoneta had only two.
Not widely reported is that the OSP and local agencies did not hold OVI checkpoints, but instead relied on tried-and-true police enforcement tactics such as “saturation patrols” and putting extra officers on the street. Now that we are achieving record levels of safety, perhaps courageous officers will come out against OVI checkpoints as ineffective and expensive as compared to saturation patrols. There is also a good argument that OVI roadblocks have engendered anger and distrust among the public whereas officers who pull over dangerous drivers are perceived as the heroes they truly are. A good example is Kettering. Kettering rarely has checkpoints, but the police are active in making the roads safe by conducting OVI “stings” at appropriate times during the year. My New Year’s resolution is to continue to fight to end checkpoints and fight for clients who are falsely accused of the highly politicized crime of drunk driving.
Related articles
- Arrested for OVI in Centerville, Ohio? (daytondui.com)
- Arrested for DUI in Kettering? (daytondui.com)
- Montgomery County Courts (An Overview) (daytondui.com)
- Kettering Bans Texting While Driving (daytondui.com)
