Originally Posted by
OBoile
I can't speak for everywhere, but in Toronto that isn't the case. The main reason cops in Toronto aren't very enthusiastic about going after drunk drivers is because getting a conviction takes a lot of work and is extremely difficult to do. The breath testing process is long and fairly complicated and it's really easy to get a case thrown out for the slightest mistake.
Good point, but it's still related to the point I was making. Law enforcement has pretty much turned into revenue enhancement, as much as protecting the public.
Ticketing drivers for non-criminal violations is easy money. Takes only a few minutes, very low burden of evidence. Most drivers will pay, especially if offered any sort of incentive, because it costs more than it's worth to contest a ticket.
But suspected drunk driving/driving under the influence/while intoxicated, etc., may results in a criminal infraction so the burden of evidence is heavier. Takes more time. Time is money. Time that officer could have spent issuing easy money tickets for non-criminal incidents.
There's also the cost of patrolling. That's a big factor when fuel prices are high. Especially in rural areas where roadhouse bars tend to be congregated along mostly deserted stretches of roads, with nothing else around for miles. That's common in Texas because of our stupid "blue laws" and dry county laws -- now mostly rescinded. But that tradition of dry counties created an environment in which bars and strip clubs would congregate in clots along the county lines between wet/dry counties. Usually when those joints were built there was no other interest in those properties. It was just highways alongside abandoned or inactive farm and ranch land.
These places are usually 20-50 miles from the nearest sheriff's department or police HQ. Too far away to justify regular patrols. So patrols and check point stops occur only on holiday weekends. The rest of the time, you'll rarely see any law enforcement.
In some U.S. areas, data indicates law enforcement tend to concentrate on easy money ticketing of low income areas. Rather than deterring drunk drivers, they'll ticket poor people for expired inspection/registration stickers, etc., because they know poor folks can't afford not to drive and can't afford to contest the citations. So drivers either pay or ignore the tickets and keep driving if they can't afford to pay. So the penalties add up and eventually cops do a roundup sting of "scofflaws" -- mostly poor people driving without insurance, registration or inspection stickers.
But never mind the yahoos driving home drunk every night from the clot of roadside bars and stripper clubs.
Everything costs society money. We just fiddle with the accounting like a shell game, to make it seem like it's more cost effective to selectively enforce non-criminal violations ("Scofflaws! Those people had it coming!") vs drunk drivers ("Just hard working good o'l boys blowing off steam! Leave 'em alone!").