Drunk Driving Arrests Down Dramatically in Fox Point, Bayside and Area

This article was reported and written by Charlie Gorney

Drunk driving arrests in Fox Point and Bayside have dropped by two-thirds in the last five years.

According to a Patch analysis of state arrest data, a five-year trend shows a 53 percent decrease in Fox Point and an 81 percent drop in Bayside for OWI arrests from 2007 to 2012. This mirrors the general trend in the Milwaukee suburbs, where OWI arrests are down 30 percent overall.

Police in Fox Point made 30 arrests in 2007, but just 14 last year. In Bayside, 27 people were arrested for drunken driving in 2007; there were five arrests made last year. The most significant drop in both communities was from 2011 to 2012.

What The Numbers Say

The decline in arrests is happening throughout the Milwaukee suburbs.

In 2007, suburban police departments in Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha and Ozaukee counties made 5,578 arrests for drunken driving, according to data from the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance. In 2012, that figure had fallen to 3,868 — a 30 percent decline.

To paint a picture of what’s happening in the suburbs, Patch reviewed drunken driving arrests for nearly 50 law enforcement agencies in all four counties, excluding the cities of Milwaukee and Racine, and the sheriff’s departments, which typically do not patrol the suburban streets.

Fewer Arrests Doesn’t Mean Fewer Drunken Drivers

State lawmakers, police and experts agree that despite the downward trend in suburban arrests, drunken driving remains a persistent problem.

Nina Emerson, director for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School’s Resource Center on Impaired Driving, offered some of the theories behind the decline in arrests, which she stressed is a statewide phenomenon.

“Some people say they believe fewer people are driving drunk. Some people say we have made progress,” she said. “But I tend to view things with a little more skepticism. … In recent years, we haven’t had the resources for enforcement campaigns.”

On a national level, some studies suggest that impaired driving has decreased because people choose not to drive drunk. A survey by the Centers for Disease Control determined that self-reported drunken driving “episodes” have decreased from 161 million in 2006 to 112 million in 2010.

“Three decades of education has been out there showing that drunk driving kills. That is getting to people,” said Frank Harris, state legislative affairs manager for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “But still too many people are dying,” as Wisconsin sees around 200 OWI fatalities per year.

Another common theory for the decrease in arrests involves economic and financial issues. For instance, people drive less when their incomes are lower and gas prices are higher, which could contribute to the decline in arrests.

Are Tougher Laws the Answer?

State Rep. Jim Ott (R-Mequon) mentioned that same argument, though he expressed his hope that fewer people are driving drunk. Ott, a vocal proponent of imposing harsher OWI penalties, has written numerous pieces of legislation designed to do just that, especially for repeat offenders.

“The logic of the legislation is that if you increase penalties, you’re deterring the behavior, not having people go to jail or be subject to fines,” Ott said. “If tougher laws didn’t deter the behavior, I don’t think there would be much point in (passing them).”

Emerson called focusing on penalties for repeat offenders “shortsighted and limited,” noting that Wisconsin lacks some more basic legal provisions for enforcement. For instance, Wisconsin does not allow sobriety checkpoints, and it’s the only state in which a first OWI offense is considered a traffic violation, not a misdemeanor.

In fact, Ott has introduced legislation that would change the latter, ensuring that first offenses are charged as misdemeanors and first-time offenders are required to appear in court.

Sheriff’s Department Sees Spike in Arrests

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has made drunken driving a top priority for his department, with arrest numbers topping 1,000 in four of the last six years. For Clarke, a behavioral change to diminish drunken driving can be reached with “multiple interventions,” such as enforcement, education and legislation.

Clarke told Patch that at this point in the effort to decrease drunken driving, he needs “Madison to get on board” with these proposed legislative changes.

“I could put a thousand more cars out there, but we need some more help legislatively,” he said. “No other state has this carnage. They make it clear that there will be consequences. In Wisconsin, we do not send that message.”