Drivers in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas may notice a higher concentration of police out on Minnesota roadways. This is due to the fact that officers are targeting those drivers they believe are under the influence. This will no doubt lead to an influx in the number of people arrested for drunk driving and seeking out legal help.
Last Friday was the first night of “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.” This statewide campaign aims to crackdown on drunk driving from Aug. 16 until Labor Day. Members of the Minnesota State Patrol and officers from departments throughout the state are involved.
The idea of such an extended drunk driving enforcement campaign is to highlight the fact that people do not only drive drunk over holiday weekends, but that the risk is always there. This means the risk for getting arrested is also always there.
Of course there is a public safety component to this statewide campaign. However, there is also a legal aspect as a concentration on officers on the lookout for drunk drivers will naturally lead to an increase in drivers being arrested for drunk driving. In some cases these arrests will be accurate, but in others the accusations may be way off.
For example, maybe a person only had one drink, which caused their breath to smell like alcohol and led the office to assume the driver must be drunk? Or, maybe a driver was tired after a long week and this tiredness led to swerving and inconsistent speeds, but caused suspicion for the officer?
In the end, the message is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to a DUI arrest. This is where an attorney with experience handling drunk driving defense cases in Minnesota can step in to examine the evidence and explain what options may be available.
Source: Kare 11, “DWI crackdown busts 225 drunken drivers on first night,” Aug. 18, 2013