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City investigator:
police not abusing
official powers
The party begins.
2 dnnks later
After 4 drinks
c yz JA.
After 5 drinks.
7 dnnks in all.
Editor's note: All stories are written by reporter
Ron Wylie who undertook an investigation of
police arresting procedures for persons accused
of driving while intoxicated.
No evidence or testimony linking Lincoln
police officers with charges of physical threats or
abuse, overzealous patrol activities, or disregard
for constitutional freedoms has been received
during the course of his investigation, Lincoln
attorney James Bruckner reported Friday.
Bruckner, assigned by the city to look into
police procedures relating to the arrest and
processing of persons accused of driving while
under the influence of alcohol (DWI), said, "Of
all the witnesses, no one produced any evidence
of marking cars, of a watchlist, or of physical
abuse."
Most of the 200 people interviewed, Bruckner
said, complained of instances in which police had
not read a DWI suspect the Miranda decision (the
right to remain silent and to have an attorney) or
had refused the suspect a phone call to an
attorney.
"One man, as an afterthought, during the
public hearing," Bruckner recalled, "testified
that he saw police in Little Bo's parking lot
spraying bumpers."
Bruckner termed the testimony "totally
incredible." "Consider how ludicrous it is," he
said. "If police marked cars with luminescent
paint, pretty soon all the cars in Lincoln would
be marked and they couldn't tell anything from
it."
Persons won't talk
Bruckner said he received a list of persons
claiming police harassment from Lincoln
businessman Roger Dickeson. Most of the
complaints set forth in the petition, he said,
concerned bodily search, refusal of a phone call,
lack of medical attention, impoundment of
vehicles, and the compulsion to appear in court
in a unkempt condition.
"My secretary contacted most of the people
on th.it list," Bruckner contended," and she
suffered a great deal of abuse while trying to get
the job done."
People wo'jld not speak to her or denied they
had ever signed a petition, he said. "Only 1 1 of
69 listed wanted to talk at all, and only three
ever called for an appointment."
"I can only conclude," Bruckner said, "that
Dickeson's petition was just a bunch of bullshit."
Dickeson has denied patronage of the
petition, saying he only passed it on to Bruckner
and city officials after receiving it from other
citizens during his own investigation or police
procedures.
DWI rate par
In addition to taking sworn testimony
concerning police activities, Bruckner also
studied Alcohol Safety Action Projects (ASAP)
in Kansas City, Little Rock and Phoenix. He
reported, "we're not over-enforcing in
comparison with other cities," citing Lincoln's
DWI arrest statistics for 1974 (19 per 1000
drivers) as average for the model cities project.
Bruckner said the power of rumor is
responsible for public anxieties about the local
ASAP program and related that similar
circumstances have created the same results in
other project cities.
"I trace it to the bars," he said. "They're the
greatest place in the world to start a rumor."
Bruckner said the rumors that ASAP has both
discouraged convention trade and decreased local
tavern income are unfounded.
"I didn't go into this thing with the idea of
defending the police department," Bruckner said,
"but some of these things are so obvious."
$50 hourly fee
He said the partol officers' speed-gun, used for
measuring automobiles' traveling speed, was the
most likely explanation for the beginning of the
rumor that police were using an infrared sensing
device to locate previously-marked cars.
"ASAP officers don't have to hunt down the
drunken driver," Bruckner contended, "and they
don't have to make pretext-stops. The
drunken-drivers will give you all the evidence you
need."
Asked about evidence that Lincoln police may
have broken laws while arresting and processing
suspects, Bruckner said, "I really can't tell what's
going to be in the report."
The more you dnnk, the more coordination you
lose That's a fact, plain and simple.
Still, people dnnk too much and then go out and
expect to handle a car.
When you drink too much you can t handle a car
You can't even handle a pen.
SeagramdistilleTS since 1857.
Alcoholics
Anonymous:
self-help
avenue
I, .... uHPWHH yfHmmrm': ww MW"M,w I
photo by Tad Kirk
"My name is Ed. . .I'm a drug addict and an
alcoholic."
It's Friday night, and a group of young people
gather at the Hope Auditorium on South 16
Street. They stand around in small knots and
drink coffee until Ed, the leader for the evening's
discussion goes to the microphone and starts his
rap.
Over 60 people are sitting in a semi-circle
around the speaker now. The average age in the
group is probably 25. The common bond which
brings them here this evening: they are all
alcoholics.
Ed starts with a personal code for the
alcoholic, calling for self-honesty and searching
for the self-help to be found inside a group of
people seeking to help themselves and others. It
is an admission of powerlessness and of past
wrongs. It takes a moral inventory and asks for
the amendment of harms done while under the
influrnce of alcohol.
Then Ed tells his storys a primer for poisoning
a body and mcetiny law enforcement officials.
He tells it with wit and personal assurance, and
concludes with, "We tell people, try AA for 30
days. If you don't like what we have, we'll gladly
refund your misery."
DWI probation option gives defendant 33 choices
It's 9:00 a.m. any weekday, Municipal Courtroom
No. 2, County-City building.
The bailiff asks a visitor to sit in the second 01
third row of seats facing the bench, because "the first
row is reserved for our 'overnight guests'."
Moments later, these prisoners file in and take
their places, and then the bailiff announces "All rise,
the Municipal Court for the City of Lincoln is now in
session."
Hie judge enters and courtroom, takes his seat and
begins lecturing trie defendants on the procedures the
court will follow, their rights under the law, and the
various forms of pleas available to them.
If a defendant pleads 'not guilty, the judge
informs them, an appearance bond is not normally
required. For those who plead 'guilty' the penalties
vary considerably, he says, from fines to terms in jail.
Less than half of those who request probation are
placed on probation, he adds.
Arrests rise 500
If someone is fined beyond his means to make
immediate payment, the judge tells them, but can
show steady employment, he can pay the fine on the
installment plan. , .
The preliminaries over, the city attorney begins
with his list of defendants, and individuals come forth
one at a time to be arraigned.
Wednesday, april 2, 1975
On this particular day there are 14 defendants,
some being charged with disturbing the peace, some
with public intoxication, one for driving on a
suspended lisence. Seven are charged with driving
under the influence of alcohol (DWI).
The penalties for DWI range from a $100 fine and
six months suspension of license for first offense,
through a $500 fine and one year suspension for
second offense, to one to three years in prison for a
third offense.
Prior to the .10 per cent Blood Alcohol Count law,
passed by the 1971 Legislature, and the start of the
local Alcohol Safety Action Project (ASAP), DWI
arrests averaged about one a day in Lincoln. In 1974,
the last year of the federally-funded ASAP program,
there were 1992 DWI arrests.
'Outstanding program'
Those charged and found guilty of DWI can pay
the fine and perhaps walk for six months, or they can
opt for probation, starting with a pre-sentence
investigation.
Most people take their chances with probation,
says Municipal Court Judge Thomas J. McManus, one
of the men most responsible for bringing the ASAP
program to Lincoln.
'it is really sad that there is so much
misinformation about the program," McManus said
daily nebraskan
last week, adding that Lincoln's efforts to take the
drinking driver. oil the streets nave been recognized
"as one of the truly outstanding programs in the
country."
"What we're concerned with here," McManus said,
is 'What do we do with them (drinking drivers) when
we get them?' "
Some people are overly intrigued with the
statistics of the ASAP program, he contended, "but
you can't measure our program that way. If we have a
rehabilitable 100 out of 2000, the percentage is
meaningless. What's important is those 100 people we
can help."
Pre-sentence investigation
In DWI cases, a request for a pre-sentence
investigation is processed through the Alcohol
Division of the Municipal Court's Probation
Department.
Investigators first study the arresting officer's
report and ask for a check of all previous contacts
with law enforcement agencies, including an FBI
check, according to Walter Giles, coordinator of the
department's alcohol project, and a reformed
alcoholic and drug-user.
DWI defendants alio are asked to take two
psychological examinations, the Western Personality
Continued on p. 9
page 7
F
ly,
