The holiday season gives cause to celebrate and many celebrations include the consumption of alcohol. The increase in drunk driving during the holidays is widely known by the New Jersey police, who took steps to crackdown his holiday season in New Jersey. When a police department initiates a crackdown, it often increases the frequency of drunk driving arrests made by a police department.
During this past holiday season, New Jersey’s Highway Safety Division initiated a drunk driving crackdown called Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, a national campaign. The results of the crackdown varied from one city to another, in one smaller city it included five arrests for drunk driving and police there touted a 5 percent accident reduction rate.
The accident reduction rate and the goal of Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over crackdown are positive results that do benefit a community. Although the results benefit a community, the arrests made pursuant to the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over crackdown are required to be lawful arrests. Even if an individual may have been driving while under the influence of alcohol, the actions taken by the arresting police officers needs to be lawful and respectful of the individual’s rights during the entire process. In addition to an arrested individual’s rights, that individual is innocent until proven guilty.
When an individual is arrested for an alleged drunk driving incident, the arrested individual would certainly benefit from contacting an experienced attorney at the earliest opportunity. An experienced attorney can assess the factors that led to the alleged drunk driving arrest and provide the arrested individual with the best defense toward any pending criminal charges.
Source: South Brunswick Patch, “Drunk Driving Crackdown Leads to Several Arrests in South Brunswick,” Davy James, Jan. 3, 2013