Proactive policing: Blanket Police checkpoints in America

Sean O'Grady
Capital News 9
Mar. 21, 2006

A DWI Blanket Patrol was held this weekend in Albany County. Police made 668 stops between Friday night and Sunday morning, resulting in 27 drunk driving arrests. That means four percent, or one out of every 25 people you passed this weekend, was driving drunk.

It's a statistic overshadowed only by a more frightening one. Police found the average blood alcohol content level to be .15, nearly twice the .08 legal limit.

Albany County Sheriff James Campbell said, "It's at the point now where it is above the level of being alarming, these people driving with high BACs -- it's frightening."

Three of four DWI arrests in the City of Albany had BACs above .2, and one of them had a staggering .28. To put these BACs in perspective, we talked with Lenny Crouch of Albany County's Stop DWI Program.

Sean O'Grady asked, "How many drinks does an average person need to have to get to a .28?"

Crouch said, "You're looking at 14 drinks in a very short period of time."

Sean O'Grady asked, "So with a .28, you shouldn't even be near a car?"

"Absolutely not. You shouldn't be behind a wheel. You shouldn't operate equipment. You shouldn't do anything," said Crouch.
The problem, said Sheriff Campbell, is that offenders are behind the wheel. The blanket patrol found six of its 27 arrests had previous DWI records.

Campbell said, "Some of these people who have been arrested three or four times for DWI have never been placed in jail, and that's what has to change."

Campbell said without the tougher penalties, repeat offenders will just pay their lawyers to have the charges bumped down.

He said, "Everyone thought this .08 would help, [but] .08 has nothing to do with these people. They're well beyond .08. They're probably getting up in the morning .08."

Campbell finished by saying if they're going to wake up that way, they might as well wake up that way in a jail cell.