Random DUI stops
Random DUI stops are pretty rare. Contrary to what police officers would have you believe, most DUI stops do not result from an officer driving down the road, seeing a random motorist swerving, and then leaping into action to protect the public (although I have no doubt that this does happen at times). More often, officers are looking for a pretext to pull someone over, then if there is any odor of alcohol (real or imagined), they get the person out of the car for roadside exercises.
There is a bar on my way home from the office (Remedies in Myrtle Beach) where almost every evening when I drive by there are blue lights on the side of the road. Many of my clients pull out of the parking lot of a bar and are immediately picked up and followed by a police officer until they fail to use a turn signal or swerve.
The S.C. Highway Patrol has "DUI enforcement units" that do nothing but drive around looking for potential DUI's.
The State Department of Public Safety sent a news release Friday saying that additionally, the number of SCHP DUI arrests are continuing to rise with the addition of new DUI teams throughout the state devoted exclusively to DUI enforcement. These teams have made more than 1,000 DUI arrests since July.
A trooper in the above article points out that during the Christmas season, people at office parties may have a couple of drinks and not realize the potential effects. The problem with this is that some officers think that one drink is too many, and if they smell alcohol (one beer on the breath smells the same as ten) they will look for a way to take the person in.
The truth is that it is not illegal to have a couple of drinks at an office party and then drive. Drinking and driving is not illegal in South Carolina. The South Carolina Department of Public Safety, MADD, and other organizations have been engaging in a propaganda campaign for years, with billboards and television and radio ads, proclaiming that zero tolerance is the law, buzzed driving is drunk driving, sober or slammer, and other slogans designed to mislead the public (and taint the jury pool) about what the law is in S.C. The law does not say that a person cannot drink and then drive - the law says that DUI is when a person's faculties to drive are materially and appreciably impaired.
Law enforcement agencies receive grants based on the number of DUI arrests they make - if the number of arrests goes down, they are in danger of losing that money. Law enforcement officers are given awards for the number of DUI arrests they make (arrests - not convictions), which encourages them to make as many DUI arrests as they can in order to gain recognition.
DUI enforcement is a lucrative business for both law enforcement and organizations such as MADD, and the competition to see who can make the most arrests has gotten out of control.
