People end up drinking and driving for a number of reasons. While this is never the right decision, some people continually get away with this crime. A recent examination of data from the Denver County court system regarding the number of DUI arrests in the area from 2008 to 2013 has revealed some interesting statistics.

In 2008, Denver police were responsible for issuing 10,912 DUIs. When you move to the most recent data from 2013, this number dropped to 5,913, which is a decrease of 46 percent.

While most would like to believe that this is due to a decrease in drinking and driving, this may not be the only cause. A DPD spokesperson said, “Over the past five years, we’ve had a lot of attrition, a lot of officers leaving the department, and we have not hired until last year for the first time.”

In other words, the same number of people may be drinking and driving, however, the police department does not have the manpower to keep up with this activity. The spokesperson added, “That’s definitely a factor. We’re 175 fewer officers right now than we were at that time.”

Drunk driving is of course as dangerous now as it was in 2008, but those who regularly drive drunk in Denver might have found that they can get away with it more easily over the past five years. With new recruits getting ready to take to the streets by the end of the year, however, things could take a turn for the better over the next few months. Habitual drunk drivers might become much more likely to need a good defense in the near future.

Source: 9 News, “Data shows DUI enforcement down in Denver” Whitney Wild, May. 02, 2014

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