Do Fewer OWI Arrests Mean Fewer Drunken Drivers?

Editor's note: Patch Intern Charlie Gorney reported this story.

State data shows a downward trend of OWI arrests in the Milwaukee suburbs —which are down 30 percent since 2007 — including both Port Washington and Saukville.

State lawmakers, police and experts agree that despite the downward trend in suburban arrests, drunken driving remains a persistent problem.

Nina Emerson, director for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School’s Resource Center on Impaired Driving, offered some of the theories behind the decline in arrests, which she stressed is a statewide phenomenon.

“Some people say they believe fewer people are driving drunk. Some people say we have made progress,” she said. “But I tend to view things with a little more skepticism. … In recent years, we haven’t had the resources for enforcement campaigns.”

• MORE: Possible reasons why Port, Saukville officials say arrests have decreased.

On a national level, some studies suggest that impaired driving has decreased because people choose not to drive drunk. A survey by the Centers for Disease Control suggested that self-reported drunken driving “episodes” have decreased from 161 million in 2006 to 112 million in 2010.

“Three decades of education has been out there showing that drunk driving kills. That is getting to people,” said Frank Harris, state legislative affairs manager for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “But still too many people are dying,” as Wisconsin sees around 200 OWI fatalities per year.

Another common theory for the decrease in arrests involves economic and financial issues. For instance, people drive less when their incomes are lower and gas prices are higher, which could contribute to the decline in arrests.

Are Tougher Laws the Answer?

State Rep. Jim Ott (R-Mequon) mentioned that same argument, though he expressed his hope that fewer people are driving drunk. Ott, a vocal proponent of imposing harsher OWI penalties, has written numerous pieces of legislation designed to do just that, especially for repeat offenders.

“The logic of the legislation is that if you increase penalties, you’re deterring the behavior, not having people go to jail or be subject to fines,” Ott said. “If tougher laws didn’t deter the behavior, I don’t think there would be much point in (passing them).”

Emerson called focusing on penalties for repeat offenders “shortsighted and limited,” noting that Wisconsin lacks some more basic legal provisions for enforcement. For instance, Wisconsin does not allow sobriety checkpoints, and it’s the only state in which a first OWI offense is considered a traffic violation, not a misdemeanor.

In fact, Ott has introduced legislation that would change the latter, ensuring that first offenses are charged as misdemeanors and first-time offenders are required to appear in court.