HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/17/2026 Item 3a, Slem
Charles M. Slem <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Saint Fratty’s Preparation Discussion in tonight’s city council meeting
In the discussion of preparation for St. Fratty’s Day, here is a possible point that may be
instructive — I have been puzzled by the very low frequency of apprehensions on the
DUI program which might be explained tonight by the police department
representative and applied to St. Fratty’s Day.
Previous DUI checkpoints have produced fewer DUI drivers than expected. The last
checkpoint produced zero drivers out of 781 stops between 8pm and 1am on a Friday
night and is illustrative of my question:
1. DUI’s are a problem.
2. DUI’s are highest during the period covered by the DUI checkpoint.
3. Super Bowl Weekend seems to be even a greater risk.
4. One national guestimate of the rate of dui drivers during that time period is 8%
5. At 8% of 781 stops, we would have estimated over 60 people being DUI.
6. At 2%, the lowest estimate I found, it would be 15, and at a low 1%, it would be
about 8.
7. Zero people DUI is therefore hard to understand even with forewarning.
Since we haven’t gotten anticipatory cooperation like that for St Fratty’s Day, I am
wondering if there are some lessons learned with DUI checkpoints that can be applied
to St. Fratty’s Day.
Chuck Slem
Slo
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