According to drinkinganddriving.org Oakland County Michigan has an arrest rate of 53 arrests for every 10,000 people. This means that there were 6495 arrests in 2005, the last year for which they have numbers. On this basis, they gave Oakland County a C.
For drunk driving arrests in Wayne County, there are 41 DUI arrests for every 10,000 persons. This earned Wayne County a C grade for drunk driving.
Lapeer County has the highest number of drunk drivers for all greater Detroit Counties. Lapeer had 71 drunk driving arrests per 10,000. This record earned Lapeer a D for their drunk driving record.
Macomb County has 54 DUI arrests for every 10,000 citizens, meaning Macomb County has almost the same drunk driving arrests per capita as Oakland County.
The high number of DUI arrests in Ogemaw, Roscommon, Lake and Emmett Counties earned them all F grades, meaning they all had more than 100 DUI arrests per 10,000 citizens. As it turns out, each of these counties are big vacation areas, and have popular lakes within them. This may help to account for such high numbers of DUI arrests in these four counties.
By all accounts however DUI arrests throughout Michigan are down in 2010, and there are probably for several reasons for this. For example, there are fewer cops on patrol (due to layoffs due to declining tax revenue) and more people “forced” to drink at home due to the economy, i.e., fewer people drinking at bars and restaurants where every unit of alcohol is considerably more expensive.
Also, as DUI arrests in Michigan go down, arrests for drugged driving in Michigan go up. This is why the statics show more drug related accidents. Many of these cases would simply have gone undetected in years past.
However, it is also true, that DUI is a user tax on alcohol. To make up for declines in this revenue the government can either reduce the legal limit again, to say .05 (which is coming), increase patrols, further broaden the net by increasing #s in violation of law, i.e., get the drug users.
In thinking about this issue, remember that “drugs” can be prescription drugs, and since we are the most medicated society ever, this significantly increases the number of people who may find themselves in jeopardy of violating the law.
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admin – who has written 85 posts on Michigan Drunk Driving Defense.
Patrick T. Barone is the principle and founding member of the Barone Defense Firm, headquartered in Birmingham, Michigan. The Firm exclusively represents those accused of crimes involving allegations of drinking and driving. Mr. Barone is an adjunct professor at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School as well as the author of two respected books including Defending Drinking Drivers (James Publishing), The DUI Book - A Citizen’s Handbook on Defending a Drunk Driving Case, and a chapter in Defending DUI Vehicular Homicide Cases, 2012 ed. (Aspatore Books). He also served as the executive editor of the DWI Journal: Law & Science. He is also a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyer's College. Mr. Barone has been listed as “Seriously Outstanding” by SuperLawyers, and since 2009 has been included in America’s Best Lawyers. He has an “AV” (highest) rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and is a frequent lecturer and has presented around the country on trial practice and drunk driving defense tactics.
