Excessive Paperwork

Interviews with law enforcement officers and a number of research studies have identified paperwork as a primary hindrance to DWI arrests. Documenting an arrest can take several hours of law enforcement time and require as many as 13 different forms, diminishing the time available for other enforcement activities. On average, 45 percent of arrests take one to two hours, but half of the officers surveyed in a recent report said it takes in excess of two hours. Such time consuming documentation not only can discourage officers from making a drunk driving arrest, but the excessive paperwork can also lead to frustration and, subsequently, errors or incomplete details in reports. That, in turn, can limit a prosecutor’s ability to obtain a conviction. Because many hardcore drunk drivers refuse BAC testing, accurate paperwork is particularly vital in these cases because it becomes the primary source of evidence (Simpson and Robertson 2001).

In most jurisdictions, increased patrol time devoted to identifying and stopping alcohol-impaired drivers would be one of the greatest improvements to DWI enforcement. Reducing the paperwork associated with the arrest and processing through computer technology and the use of fewer and shortened forms is one of the most productive ways of increasing officer patrol availability (Jones et al. 1998). A DWI enforcement van, equipped with evidentiary breath test equipment and sometimes even a magistrate, can dramatically cut arrest processing time in checkpoint or blanket patrol operations (Hedlund and McCartt 2002).

Technology in the field remains grossly underutilized. A coordinated electronic record keeping system with driver license and driver record information readily available to patrol officers could prevent offenders from falling through the cracks. Some police departments in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina and Wisconsin obtain information from drivers’ licenses by swiping them through bar code or magnetic stripe readers. Police in West Des Moines, Iowa, have mobile data computers with bar code readers. When the license is swiped, the driver’s information is stored and can be uploaded at the end of a shift (Simpson and Robertson 2001).