DUIs are on the rise

Doug Kramarsic recently welcomed his third child and hasn’t spent much time in the bars lately; but judging from the La Salle attorney’s caseload, plenty of his clients have knocked a few back.

Kramarsic, who also serves as an assistant La Salle County public defender, is having a busy year and he has a slate of DUI suspects to thank for keeping him off diaper duty.

“While I don’t specifically follow the flow of DUI filings from year to year,” he allowed, “the DUI cases my office defends has risen significantly this year, and specifically the last three to four months.”

The numbers back him up. Between 2012 and 2015, prosecutors in the Illinois Valley reported record low drunk-driving cases, fueling hopes that maybe motorists finally were getting it and not risking arrest, injury and death by taking the wheel after a few drinks.

Now, those 2015 lows appear to have been a fluke. While we’re nowhere close to the all-time highs — La Salle County won’t come near the 824 arrests recorded a decade ago — the totals are inching back into familiar territory.

With four full months left on the calendar, La Salle County is on pace for a modest 3 percent increase over last year but a 10 percent jump from its all-time low (494) set three years ago. Bureau County is four arrests from tripling its record low 24 DUIs and Putnam County needs just three to leave behind its low mark.

What happened?

It’s the economy, stupid

Police and attorneys agree: Drunk-driving arrests have climbed as the economy has improved.

The Great Recession ushered in a period when drivers shrunk from putting the keys in the ignition, fearful of losing both their licenses and their jobs when the latter were scarce. With unemployment now hovering around 4 percent, the fear factor is diminished and drivers are reverting to old habits.

“The economy drives so many things in our society and in a good economy people are going out to dinner, having drinks and socializing,” police chief Doug Bernabei observed. “In a down economy, they’re staying home. They’re not going out.”

Bernabei’s internal numbers back that up. Through July 31 of this year, Peru officers had arrested 33 motorists for driving under the influence, up 44 percent from the same period last year.

Kramarsic pointed out arrests also are up because the cops have more money, too.

“When the money is flowing and people are working, municipalities have more money to hire additional officers and grant money increases for DUI enforcement,” he explained.

more entertainment spending

It isn’t just the cops and attorneys who’ve noticed an upswing in travel and entertainment. The retail data strongly hint we’re dining out more and enjoying a few drinks.

Five of our local communities toppled at least one monthly sales-tax record through Memorial Day weekend, and both Peru and Ottawa were on pace to smash their yearly sales records. Clearly, we’re spending more freely on entertainment.

“I think the consumer is spending more freely in every business category, including entertainment,” said Bob Vickrey, Peru’s director of economic development.

One tavern proprietor disagreed somewhat with that assessment. Russ Guynn, owner of the Waterstreet Pub in Peru, acknowledged this year’s up-tick in the economy but said it hasn’t translated into a surge in business. One impediment has been the heat. After a strong spring with diners relaxing on the pub’s patio, most of Guynn’s customers have retreated indoors and into the air-conditioning.

“We’ve had a slight increase, nothing huge,” Guynn reported. Asked why the DUIs are climbing, he responded, “That’s just our town.”

up in smoke?

Drunk-driving may be back on the rise, but police and prosecutors expressed guarded hope that perhaps drug-related DUIs aren’t rising with them — at least not this year.

When DUIs began tumbling in 2008, about 1 in 100 impairment cases in La Salle County were for drugs and not alcohol. Ten years later, drug cases swelled to 1 in 5 of all DUIs.

Law enforcement officials feared drugs would continue surging; but so far that scenario hasn’t played out as expected.

A NewsTribune analysis showed just 6 percent of DUI cases on the books this year were for drugs, not alcohol. Bernabei further reported his DUI/drug arrests remain in the single digits and were down from last year.

La Salle County state’s attorney Karen Donnelly acknowledged the statistics warily, uncertain as to whether the data accurately reflect the prevalence of drugs on the road. What concerns her most, however, is the type of offender that most threatens the safety of others on the road.

“Many of the DUIs we are seeing are not first-timers,” Donnelly said. “Many are second- and third-timers.”

Tom Collins can be reached at (815) 220-6930 or courtreporter@newstrib.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NT_Court.

Source: http://www.newstrib.com/free/duis-are-on-the-rise/article_6c64f480-a232-11e8-88d6-13d2035f167f.html