Florida Drunk Driving Statistics

In Florida, the percentage of alcohol related fatalities peaked in 1983, while the actual number of alcohol related deaths peaked in 1986 and the lowest number of drunk driving deaths occurred in 1997. In 2006, out of all traffic fatalities, 29% involved a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 or higher, with 959 fatalities, which was a big drop from the year before.

All 50 states in the US now apply two statutory offenses to operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. The first (and original) offense is known either as driving under the influence (DUI), driving while intoxicated/impaired (DWI), or operating while intoxicated/impaired (OWI). This is based upon a police officer’s observations (driving behavior, slurred speech, the results of a roadside sobriety test, etc.)

The second offense is called “illegal per se”, which is driving with a BAC of 0.08% or higher. Since 2002 it has been illegal in all 50 states to drive with a BAC that is 0.08% or higher.

The table above shows the total number of traffic fatalities (Tot) for the Florida, alcohol related fatalities (Alc-Rel) and fatalities in crashes where the highest BAC in the crash was 0.08 or above (0.08+).

Florida alcohol fatality stats

It is important to note that the Florida drunk driving statistics, as shown above, include data from individuals who were in an alcohol-related crash, but not driving a motor vehicle at the time. The U.S. Department of Transportation defines alcohol-related deaths as “fatalities that occur in crashes where at least one driver or non-occupant (pedestrian or pedalcyclist) involved in the crash has a positive Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) value.”

The fatality rates shown above refer to the number of people killed in all traffic accidents and, separately, in alcohol related traffic accidents, per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

Criminal status of DUI laws in Florida

In Florida, 1st and 2nd offenses are misdemeanors, 3rd or subsequent offense is a 3rd degree felony. Citation:§§316.193 & 775.082(2)

Sources for Florida drunk driving information and statistics

US Dept. of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 12/02
(2) National Conference of State Legislatures, 2004

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By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Veteran Hollywood Police Officer Dewey Pressley said he hated lying. But if bending the truth a little would keep a fellow officer out of trouble, well, he was all for it.

A dashboard police camera video that surfaced recently showed Pressley chuckling as he wrote a fake police report, calling his creativity “a little Walt Disney” so another officer wouldn’t get in trouble for rear-ending a 23-year-old woman’s car in February.

Pressley and four others have been suspended with pay pending an investigation after video of the accident and the officers’ attempt to cover it up became public last week, the latest Internet sensation in a line of unsettling police dashcam videos.

On the video, the officers, with calculating authority, are heard laughing about how drunk 23-year-old Alexandra Torrens-Vilas is and how they plan to “hang her out to dry” so the officer that hit her car doesn’t get in trouble.

The accident occurred when Vilas had to unexpectedly stop her car. She said she was driving home from a party where she had found a stray cat, and it jumped out of the window. She got out of the car to chase the cat, and that’s when officer Joel Francisco rammed the back of the car, she said.

February’s crash was Francisco’s seventh accident with a patrol car since 2000, according to personnel records.

Authorities said they gave Vilas a breathalyzer test, which showed she was about twice the legal drinking limit.

She admits having a few beers, but her attorney questioned the validity of the test, saying the same officer who gave it to her was the one who fudged the reports.

“I’m gonna tell you exactly how to word this so we can get him off the hook,” Pressley says on the video. Later he remarks: “I don’t like making things up ever because it’s wrong but if I have to bend it a little to protect a cop I’m gonna.”

In the report, Pressley wrote Vilas got in the left lane and slammed on the brakes and blamed her for the accident.

The state attorney’s office is assisting Hollywood Police to determine whether charges will be brought against any of the officers.

Vilas’ attorney Mark Gold, founder of the law firm The Ticket Clinic, said the officers committed perjury when they told the same story in a deposition under oath.

Vilas was charged with DUI and a traffic violation, but the state attorney’s office dropped the charges, saying the video raised questions about the officers’ account of the crash.

Vilas did spend two nights in jail and missed a semester at Georgetown University, where she is studying international economics, because she wasn’t allowed to leave the state while free on bail.

“I was very shocked especially hearing the language they used,” she said. “I was in disbelief that they would do so much to cover a fender bender.”

Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner said ethics training has been a priority since he took over more than a year ago.

“I have personally installed integrity and ethics measures in practically ever scenario our employees confront daily,” said Wagner, who promised swift action when the investigation is completed.

Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein has called for the FBI or another outside agency to investigate the police department. Saying it was too shocking to keep from the public, Finkelstein gave the video to a lawyer’s blog, which posted it to the Internet.

Other recent cases involving the officers under investigation are now being reviewed by the Broward public defender’s office, Finkelstein said.

The agency has had a string of bungles in recent years. In 2007, four Hollywood police officers were convicted of protecting a heroin shipment they thought belonged to New York-based mobsters. Instead, it was an FBI sting and federal authorities said they could have nabbed more corrupt officers but department higher-ups alerted colleagues.

“The culture in that police department may be spawning that type of scandal on a regular basis that may not be caught on videotape,” Finkelstein said.

According to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, as of 2003, 54 percent of police departments in cities with more than 250,000 people use in-car cameras.

The videos are considered public record in most states. Oklahoma amended a state law in 2005 to keep them private.

“Originally (dashboard cameras) were there to protect the cops against the citizens but nowadays it’s to protect the citizens against the cops, too,” said John Wesley Hall, president of National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers based in Washington D.C.

see the YouTube Video Here:

Broward sheriff’s deputy arrested on sex-abuse charges
An award-winning Broward sheriff’s deputy was arrested Monday and accused of sexually assaulting undocumented immigrants.

BY ROBERT SAMUELS
rsamuels@MiamiHerald.com

In a series of events that Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti called “an abuse of power” and “a tarnish to the badge,” law enforcement agents arrested one of their own Monday and accused him of sexually assaulting victims — while in his uniform, in marked vehicles and on the job.

Jonathan Bleiweiss, 29, of Fort Lauderdale, who in March was honored as employee of the year for the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s Oakland Park District, was booked at 11 a.m. on 14 charges, including sexual battery, false imprisonment and stalking in connection with abusing one of the victims, a 30-year-old male. Bleiweiss was held without bail Monday.

Investigators said Monday they were preparing to file charges involving seven more male victims, and said there might be even more. The alleged victims range in age from 17 to 30, but all have something in common: They are undocumented immigrants, mostly from El Salvador and Mexico, who speak little English.

“I can’t think of a worse betrayal of public trust,” Lamberti told reporters Monday evening, adding: “The fact is, he preyed on one of our most vulnerable communities.”

The investigation began in April, when an attorney contacted the Fort Lauderdale Police Department to say two of his clients claimed to have been assaulted by Bleiweiss. BSO’s sex crimes unit took over the investigation.

Lamberti said they gave Bleiweiss “the benefit of the doubt” until they fully substantiated the allegations in July, which is when he was placed on restricted administrative duty. He is now suspended without pay.

Detectives said Bleiweiss used his authority to manipulate recent immigrants who feared the police. About 6 a.m. April 23, investigators said, Bleiweiss approached a 30-year-old man who was waiting for a ride to work outside the man’s apartment complex.

The man told BSO that he was then frisked and fondled, with Bleiweiss sticking his hand inside his underwear. He said Bleiweiss demanded his cellphone number, then continuously called and sent him text messages.

According to the arrest warrant, Bleiweiss is accused of performing oral sex on the man on at least four occasions between that day and June 7. He ordered the man to comply or risk deportation, said BSO Detective Graciela Benito.

She said that when BSO investigators interviewed residents at the apartment complex, they discovered a similar pattern: On multiple occasions, she said, Bleiweiss stopped a victim, demanded an ID, then sexually abused them when he determined they were undocumented.

Bleiweiss, a graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, came to BSO in 2002 after serving almost two years with the St. Petersburg Police Department.

The only consistent criticism in his BSO personnel records concerned his penmanship. However, in March he was suspended for one day after improperly reporting an illness, according to an internal affairs report.

His base pay in 2008 was $61,098 a year.

In his 2008 nomination letter for the Oakland Park District’s employee of the year, Sgt. Kelvin Phillips championed Bleiweiss as a deputy who projects “a constant and present reminder of the Broward Sheriff’s Office determination to serve the community.”

In March, Bleiweiss was featured in a glowing article in The South Florida Blade as a pioneering openly gay police officer.

Lamberti emphasized that immigrants should not be afraid to report crime, regardless of their status. He encouraged anyone else Bleiweiss may have abused to call Benito at 954-321-4249.

Miami Herald staff writer Amy Sherman contributed to this report.

Suit filed by fired officer who declined shock draws divided reactions

Should a sheriff be able to reassign an officer to a different, less desirable position if the officer refuses to undergo a training exercise?
What if that training exercise required the officer to receive a shock from a Taser?
And what if that officer had a note from his doctor advising against it?
Those are among the provocative questions at the center of a lawsuit filed this week by Ray F. Robert against the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department, and how those questions are answered depends greatly on who is being asked.
Robert, who spoke with The Indianapolis Star on Wednesday, said he can’t fathom being fired for basically taking his doctor’s advice.

“I’d been in law enforcement for more than 31 years, and (when I was terminated), it felt like it was all for nothing,” Robert, 54, said. “Just because I can’t be Tased doesn’t mean I can’t do my job.”
Robert said two doctors — including a physician chosen by the Sheriff’s Department — advised him against being Tased. He feared the electrical jolt and ensuing muscle spasms could further injure a damaged vertebra and a metal plate in his back.

“What happens if I become paralyzed? How long is the county going to pay me?” he asked. “What would I be able to do with my life if that happens?”
But Hamilton County Sheriff Doug Carter said other officers, including a 73-year-old employee and another officer with severe back problems, each received a two-second Taser jolt with no ill effects.

“Every single person who underwent the training found value in the exposure,” Carter said. “I would never put one of my officers in danger. The vast majority of Taser injuries come from falls, which is why we have the training on a mat with people holding the person (getting Tased).”
Both sides agree that after Robert refused to be shocked in December, the department offered to create a position for him at the Hamilton County Jail.
But Robert’s attorney, Daniel Lapointe Kent, called the gesture inadequate.

“They offered another position with a substantial reduction in the overall compensation package, with not as many benefits,” he said. “He would have to work weekends and holidays and no longer have use of a squad car.”
After Robert refused the position in the jail, Carter said he had no alternative but to fire him.
The issue drew divided reaction Wednesday.
Dalia Hashad, a policy director with human rights watchdog Amnesty International, praised Robert for his refusal and chastised the sheriff’s decision.

“It seems they (the Sheriff’s Department) lack a strong understanding how dangerous a Taser really is,” Hashad said. “Given his medical history and the two doctor’s notes, it’s obvious he wasn’t an appropriate person to be Tased. With that attitude, I’m curious how they’re using the weapon on the street. Is there anyone they think shouldn’t be Tased?”
Amnesty International is a longtime critic of Taser use. The organization attributes 335 deaths from July 2001 to August 2008 to the device, but Noblesville Police Lt. Bruce Barnes said that if an officer can’t be Tased, it may raise other questions.

“You have to question if someone is fit for duty if they say they can’t train for a situation that might occur in real life,” said Barnes, whose department is among several in Central Indiana, including Indianapolis police that require such training. “What happens if you’re wrestling with a suspect, and he grabs your Taser (and shoots you)? If you can’t perform your duties, you’re putting everyone else at risk.”

Lapointe Kent said Robert didn’t need a Taser because he had other weapons at his disposal, such as a nightstick and his firearm. Carter, however, said Tasers have become integral tools in police officers’ nonlethal arsenals.
“The presence of Tasers has quickly de-escalated many violent situations,” Carter said. “In five seconds, the situation is brought under control with no injury to the person or the officer. (If you were a suspect,) would you rather be hit in the head with a nightstick or stunned with a Taser with no injuries afterward?”

Tasers temporarily incapacitate suspects by delivering five seconds of 50,000 volts of low-amperage electricity through two barbs shot into the body from up to 21 feet away.
Most training programs give officers the choice of being shot with the barbs or receiving a shorter jolt through a pair of alligator clips attached to a pant leg.
Many agencies believe it is imperative for officers to understand what a Taser shock feels like, in part so they will show restraint before using the device.
In a written statement, Taser company spokesman Steve Tuttle said fewer than 100 injuries have occurred during more than 625,000 training exposures.
Greenwood Police Chief Joe Pitcher said he has had a couple of officers with heart issues who were cleared by their doctors to be Tased.

“Their doctors told them there was no evidence that it would be harmful, so to go ahead and do it,” Pitcher said. The training “gives us a good lesson that if we do have to resort to these instruments, we know how painful they are to the people we have to use them on.”
“Tasers are very painful but not lethal,” he said. “They are subject to abuse if you are not familiar with how painful they are.”

Robert’s suit, filed in federal court, alleges his constitutional rights were violated and seeks reinstatement, back wages and punitive damages.

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