Richard differentbehaviors of drunk drivers. They observed

Richard differentbehaviors of drunk drivers. They observed

Richard J. Lundman,Eric CallisonCity Police and Drunk Driving,Justice 110Justice Quarterly,2-12-99Vol. #10 / Issue #3Pub. 94 Pgs 526-546Summary of ArticleThis article mainly consisted of what city police go through every day, especiallywhen it comes to pulling over drunk drivers.

The journal mostly focused on mid-westpolice work. Three of the most popular social movement organizations are MADD whichstands for mothers against drunk driving, SADD, students against drunk driving, and RID,removing intoxicated drivers. These three organizations are mainly fighting forstrengthening the laws reflecting drunk drivers.This journal also focuses on examining police behavior during the years whendriving under the influence was a less serious issue than today. The author, RichardLundman sent 7 observers in different police cars to study and record the differentbehaviors of drunk drivers. They observed a total of 365 eight hour shift which involved2,000 encounters with law offenders.

Out of that 2,000 one hundred people were drivingunder the influence. The drunk drivers were mainly what they focused on. The observersused codes to verify race, gender, age, social class, and politeness as well as impoliteness. The results were not surprising, out of the 100 people pulled over 77 were let go and 23were arrested. 85 puled over adequately, and 5 resulted in a chase.

85 did not get in anaccident, but 10 did. 37 were moderately intoxicated and 63 were highly intoxicated. 89were male and 11 were female. In every part of the world someone will always be different from the rest. Anotherstudy shows the most frequent targets among the Midwest. The most targeted kind ofpeople are hippies. It seems the long hair and the different style of dress was an easy targetfor drug bust and intoxication.

Some more highly targeted people are African Americans,public drunks, drug users, poor people, black and white couples, Native Americans, andjuveniles.Mid west police did not always arrest a drunk driver, actually the probabilities ofbeing let go while driving under the influence are pretty good. Often a drunk driver ispassed up because he or she looks like to much trouble to handle. Another reason forletting a drunk driver go is the fact that the average time to make an arrest is 3 hours.Most the time when a person is arrested he or she causes trouble on the way to the station.A lot of times the arrested intoxicants smell of alcohol so bad the police officer gets sickand sometimes has to stop and get out of the car for some fresh air. After the victim is injail the car can smell of alcohol for days.

Sometimes people urinate or vomit in the back.This is obviously irritating and is a mess to clean up as well. So when a policeman pullsover a drunk driver he normally call a cab or a family member to come pick them up. Thissaves hours of paperwork, cleaning, and often times sickness.

COMMENTARYThis article stood out from all of the other topics for the reason of interest. Drivingunder the influence is not an easy task. The statistics in the article were very helpful for amental picture of how many people are pulled over each day for driving under theinfluence. Driving drunk was of nobodies interest 40 years ago, since then the rules havechanged so much it is totally not worth it.

I think police put up with more than they halfto. Being a cop in the mid west is a hard task. They never know what to expect. Somepolice officers can push their authority to the limits though, some cops feel like they aremore powerful than everyday Joes like ourselves.

I agree with the percentages of lettingpeople go when pulled over drunk. If the person is polite and does everything the policeofficer asks, then I dont see any reason for any further arrest unless it was just a firstoffense.There are some things I like about this article and other things I didnt. I do likethe fact that the author used first person, he was involved in all data taking, which makesthe article and statistics more believable. I did not like the fact that the author split thearticle in half between city police and drunk driving.

I felt not enough information waspresented on the actual drunk driving. overall the author had very good points andpresented the information well. The author did not seem to point his opinion in anydirection, he gave the information straight forward as he gathered it. Sometimes he didntgive enough information on certain subjects that I felt were more important and neededmore.

In conclusion the overall article was very intelligent and hopefully accurate as well.The reasons for choosing this article was obviously because of interest. I found this articlemore interesting to read than all of the other ones. Drunk driving these days is a seriousoffense and I wanted to learn more about it.

I was disappointed a little because he didntexplain the law of drunk driving more, he just talked about statistics and different types oforganizations. Overall the article was very good and was not boring to read at all. Theinformation was straight forward and enlightening.