Dan Noll Discusses Checkpoints In Illinois Part 1 of 2
By Dan Noll on January 17th, 2014 in Criminal Defense Lawyer, DUI Lawyer, Traffic Attorney
Dan Stratford: Hello. My name is Dan Stratford. I’m with C1 Partners, and today, we are with Dan Noll, one of the partners in the Noll Law Firm located in Springfield, Illinois. What we’re going to do today is talk about a recent article in Illinois News regarding the warnings issued by the Illinois State Patrol about Thanksgiving travel. Essentially telling people, “Hey, don’t drink and drive over the holidays.” We’re going to get Dan’s feedback on some of the contents of the article. Dan, thanks for joining us today. First question I had for you is the article says there’s an increase in fatalities over the holidays. What I’m curious about from your perspective, is what kind of increase have you seen historically in the number of DUI cases that occur in Springfield, Illinois area during the holidays?
Daniel Noll: Historically, there has been and always will in the future, be an increase in the number of DUIs around the major holidays. That’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Fourth of July, and Labor Day. There are a number of others. But the reason that happens is because the authorities, you know the Department of Transportation has grant money they’re given through the Federal Government, to hire back officers, so there are more officers patrolling during that time. It doesn’t mean they take officers away from their normal duties.
It just means they are adding more officers, and more officers out there means more arrests. In fact, the officers are given directives of how many people to arrest, basically a quota system. For years in Sangamon County, there was a designated DUI officer who was done through a grant, similar to what they’re doing for the holiday season. They were given a quota and if they didn’t meet that quota, the will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state. The holiday time is a time they really look at getting arrests in and beat the drum, so to speak, and get as many people ticketed or arrested as possible.