Here’s another cold winter evening as a law enforcement officer working a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) overtime detail during the midnight shift in a certain jurisdiction. It is 0245 hours when I finally completed my police incident report and other related paperwork affiliated with a DUI arrest involving a vehicle crash. I exited lockup and got back into my unmarked cruiser to finish my shift that ends at 0400 hours. While heading south on route 1 my radar unit was operational in moving, opposite direction.
While traveling south on route 1, I began to hear an tone from my radar unit, the Stalker. The tone was acquired by the front antenna of the radar unit, alerting me of an approaching vehicle heading north on route 1. I observed the only vehicle at a distance traveling north on route 1 with its high-beam lights illuminated.
The tone coming from the Stalker unit was consistent with the high rate of speed displayed on the radar unit (72mph). The vehicle past my police cruiser with its high-beam lights still illuminated and continued at the speed of 72mph.
The vehicle was a late model midsize dark red Cadillac SUV. After the Cadillac past my cruiser in the opposite direction, I noticed via my rearview mirror the brake lights illuminating. While observing the Cadillac in my rearview mirror, I noticed the Cadillac continuing north on route 1.
I decided to investigate the offenses so I conducted a U-turn to catch up to the Cadillac. After traveling some distance to carefully catch up the Cadillac, I positioned my police cruiser behind the Cadillac, following the vehicle from approximately 3 car lengths for a half a mile.
While following the Cadillac, and deciding where to conduct a traffic/vehicle stop, I observed the Cadillac start to significantly drift towards and then onto the low centered concrete median bordered by the solid yellow “do not cross” lane use control device lines, from the traffic lane the Cadillac was traveling.
The maneuver caused the vehicle’s driver-side tires to cross over the concrete median, causing the Cadillac to straddle the median while traveling north on route 1.
After witnessing this driving behavior, I turned on my emergency equipment and initiated a traffic/vehicle stop. It’s fortunate my cruiser had an installed in-car camera to compliment the portable camera with microphone on my uniform. After stopping the Cadillac, I used my spotlight to attempt to illuminate the interior of the SUV.
I also used the cruiser’s megaphone to instruct the driver to roll down all windows of the vehicle. I carefully approached the driver’s side of the vehicle. As I approached the driver’s side of the vehicle, using my flashlight, I observed the interior rear and front passenger areas of the Cadillac.
After stopping at the driver’s side door while in my department’s uniform displaying my badge of authority, I introduced myself to the driver and asked the driver for his license as well as the
registration of the vehicle. I observed an extremely strong odor of alcohol coming from the driver. The driver’s speech was severely slurred as he eventually told me he did not have his license with him, that he left his wallet at his girl’s place, but he had his work identification (ID) card with him.
The driver handed me the vehicle’s registration along with his work ID card. I conducted an inquiry of Subject’s information which concluded with negative results. The driver then said he was trying to get to his nephew’s house to get some rest, that his nephew lived “down there”, and asked me to let him go, then the driver started to sing the “Let it go’ song from the movie Frozen.
I asked the driver how much he had to drink, to which he replied a few beers, maybe three, four, or eight. I asked the driver when was his last beer. He replied at 5pm. I instructed the driver to exit the Cadillac to perform field sobriety tests. While exiting the SUV, the driver suddenly told me the Cadillac was not his, it belonged to his mother. I asked if the name on the Cadillac’s registration was his mother’s. He replied yes. I asked the driver for his age, to which he replied he was 54 years old.
The driver was wearing a sweatshirt with basketball type shorts and a pair of boots however, the driver was wearing the boots incorrectly, the right boot was on the left foot and the left boot was on the right foot. I allowed the driver to sit back down on the driver’s seat to fix his boots, for proper wearing.
After fixing his boots the driver stood up and attempted to walk, stumbling over his feet several times, almost falling. After helping the driver to the adjacent sidewalk, I commenced having the driver perform sobriety tests.
After not performing the sobriety tests to my satisfaction, I informed the driver he was under arrest for DUI. While attempting to place handcuffs on him, the driver attempted to run away from the scene. As I stood and watch the driver attempts to run, the driver took multiple steps, then he tumbled over onto the ground.
While placing the driver in handcuffs as he laid on the sidewalk, I asked the driver why was he trying to get away. I also asked the driver, did he not realize I had the Cadillac’s registration with his mother’s name and address, his work ID card, as well as his image recorded on camera. The driver said he forgot, that he just wanted me to let him go, then he proceeded to try to sing the “Let it go” song from the movie Frozen.
After conducting a search incident to arrest of the driver, placing him in the caged portion of my cruiser, and after the inventory search of the Cadillac, and having the Cadillac towed, I proceeded back to lockup, the local jail.
After receiving a .28 Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) result via the breathalyzer, I obtained and served the arrest warrant for DUI and while concluding my processing of the driver, the accused
began to sing his rendition of “Let it go” once again. Eventually, everyone in lockup began to sing along. Another happy DUI arrest.
The absolute posted speed limit sign was 40mph.
around 2am in the morning,
