Just last night, at the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce members' meeting, a man approached me with a story about a recent DUI on McHenry County roads.
His daughter was driving home from Woodstock one night and followed a suspected drunk up Route 47 past the courthouse and north out of Woodstock on Route 47. The drunk was all over the road. She called the Sheriff's Department and reported the drunk and then continued to follow him.
The drunk driver continued north and then west and then north again. No deputy was available to respond and intercept the drunk. The drunk then turned back east on 173 and then south again, where the drunk passed a parked police car from Hebron. The man who was telling me this story wondered whether the Hebron officer had been monitoring Sheriff's Department radio communications.
The drunk nearly caused numerous accidents. Even as the drunk passed the Hebron police car, still being followed by this man's daughter, the police car did not pull out.
I think there was a happy ending to the story. The drunk stopped within sight of the Hebron police car and began backing up in the roadway, and I think that's when the Hebron officer got involved.
At one point the dispatcher told the daughter, or the girl's father who was relaying information from his daughter, that "the deputies were very busy that night."
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This is not intended to bash deputies or dispatchers, but communication is the key in a situation like this. Motorists are encouraged to report drunk drivers. We hear this all the time. But what happens when they do?
Most motorists will not be familiar with how busy dispatchers can be or how sparsely the County might be staffed with sheriff's deputies at a given hour. Or whether a deputy is already tied up on a call or at some great distance from the drunk driver.
Concerned citizens want help when they call. I know how I have felt "brushed off", when I have called to report an impaired or reckless driver. When I want a driver ticketed and am prepared to go to court and testify, and so inform the dispatcher at the beginning of the call, I want to hear more than, "Thank you for calling." Usually, they don't ask my phone number, although I'm pretty sure it appears on their consoles. But do they save it?
One night I insisted that the dispatcher take my name and phone number and call me if they could get the driver stopped. Huntley PD was monitoring radio calls and grabbed the reckless driver. Dispatch did call me, and I drove from Woodstock to Huntley, where the driver was charged. I showed up in court for his trial, and he pled guilty.
Refresher training for dispatchers and more publicity for motorists will create a stronger partnership between concerned motorists and the sheriff's department. Deputies can play a large public relations role in this effort.
Hebron has to monitor the SO frequency. That is there primary dispatch source. When SO's or any PD's get those types of calls, they put them out as "Make your own cases" which simply means, the Officers or Deputies can do what they want with it. If the call demands to sign a complaint against the driver, then it is directly dispatched to an officer/deputy.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is not a problem in this case, rather the caller just called in with some information on an impaired driver.
Thanks, MW. Actually, in this case, there were repeated calls to the SO to advise changes in the direction of travel of the drunk driver.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in the case of the reckless driver of the marked Chicago PD vehicle on the Tollway a couple of weeks ago, had a trooper stopped the CPD officer, I would have stopped and stated I wished to be the Complainant on a traffic ticket.
Deputies obviously can't be "everywhere", but when a driver does more than just make one call about an obviously impaired driver, an increased effort should result. Better that than having to clean up a fatal accident.
Support for response to this type of call must begin at the top of the Department and be clear to supervisors.
ReplyDeleteAre deputies reluctant to request permission to leave assigned areas for this type of call, because supervisors will go down their throats for even making the request? Or can they advise by radio that they will "work their way in that direction" (safely and within the speed limit) and not catch a lot of heat for that decision?
Boy Gus, you are real free with that "reckless driving" charge. Do you even know what the legal description of reckless driving is? It is not what you described in that post.
ReplyDeleteHurry up and go research it now and try to twist what you say happened to fit the statute!
You really seem to get a kick out of bashing the police. "This is not intended to bash deputies or dispatchers, but..." and then you go on to bash away! You act like there was a problem with what happened here, but it seems to me that someone called the police and then the police made an arrest.
As usual Gus, you take a THIRD HAND story and treat it as if it was the word of God.
Why should they ask for your phone number Gus? They probably have it mesmerized by now! "It is Goofy Gus again! Has a reckless driver doing 37 in a 35! He wants to know if he should deploy spike strips!"
Deputies and supervisors are not reluctant to respond to reports of intoxicated drivers. Far from it in fact. They would be reluctant however to respond if they know it is just another Gus Goose Chase. How many false reports of reckless drivers have you called in this month, Gus?