Authorities are using the state’s traffic cam system and calls from motorists to charge drivers with drunk driving in Minneapolis-St. Paul, according to FOX News.
Video: Traffic Cams Catch Drunk Drivers: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com
The Minnesota State Patrol is urging motorists who believe they have spotted a drunk driver to use their cell phones to call 911, the Daily Journal reported. More than 500 traffic cameras maintained by the Minnesota Department of Transportation are also used in enforcement efforts (yes, these are the same cameras detractors were assured would not become Big Brother like watchdogs for the government when they were installed over the past two decades).
A Minneapolis DUI defense lawyer should always be called to handle such cases. If authorities cannot prove probable cause for stopping your vehicle and/or requesting that your perform field sobriety tests or submit to a breathalyzer, the charges against you may be reduced or dismissed.
Last year, the patrol made 662 DWI arrests based on 42,000 driver complaints phone in to dispatchers.
“The value of the information dispatchers relay to troopers is immeasurable,” Lt. Eric Roeske said. “They are a trooper’s extra set of eyes and ears, and they serve as the vital link between the public and our troopers on the road.”
Well … it sounds good. But stopping a vehicle a trooper believes might be the one to which a motorist on a cell phone might have been referring is questionable at best. Especially considering the fact that the stop would be based on the motorist’s opinion that the driver may have been driving in what could possibly be described as an erratic manner.
Motorists most at risk of detection via the cameras are those in the Twin Cities where the vast majority of the cameras have been installed. Cameras are also operational in Duluth, Rochester and St. Cloud, mostly along interstate routes. Dispatchers take a call from a motorist and then use the cameras to zoom in on the suspect’s vehicle.
One dispatcher described it as being “like a video game.”
Statistics show citizens with cell phones are reporting about 20 supposed drunk drivers each day in Minnesota.
Charged with drunk driving in the Twin Cities? Call the Kans Law Firm, LLC at (888) 972-6060 for a free case review
