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UUI I luiaii I lO KJ L-II IWll I 1 1
Ill
i
spark police-arrests inquiry
By Ron Wylie
Questions, charges of abuse, and resistance, all
concerned with local police procedure, surfaced
almost from the beginning of Lincoln's Alcohol
Safety Action Project (ASAP).
During ASAFs first year of operation one man
claimed he was beaten by police after his arrest for
driving while intoxicated. Later during the program, a
Lincoln activist group petitioned the city to stop
ASAFs use of an antialcohol drug (antabuse) in the
probation program.
And last August, the Nebraska Civil Liberties
Union filed suit challenging the police procedure of
holding persons incommunicado for six hours after
arrests for liquor-related offenses.
Meanwhile rumors circulated concerning police
surveillance and harrassment techniques.
So, many Lincolnites were not entirely surprised
when, on Dec. 21, Lincoln attorney-businessman
Roger Dickeson issued a public memorandum
charging local police with harassment,
unconstitutional methods, and abuse of authority.
Dickeson's statement cited cases where citizens
were stopped by police using flimsy pretexts; taken
into custody and refused the opportunity to
telephone an attorney; arbitrarily charged with crimes
without provocation; subjected to humiliating
searches of person and property without cause; and
denied information concerning their rights and the
results of tests administered to them.
Dickeson furthered charged that "cruisers lie in
wait for people leaving the taverns along Cornhusker
Highway and are followed until some minor or
supposed traffic infraction occurs so that they can be
stopped."
The memorandum stated that the end of these
particular police policies were commendable, but
warned that the means being utilized were not. "Rid
means corrupt good ends," Dickeson wrote.
And Dickeson questioned the necessity of
submitting all arrestees to the humilation of being
mugged and fingerprinted. He also questioned the
necessity of holding DWI suspects in the drunk tank
for five hours after the arrest, calling such a
procedure punishment before trial.
In the following weeks Dickeson issued
supplemental statements detailing examples of
authoritarian abuse by police and questioning the
constitutionality of the state's Implied Consent Law
or the ethics involved in plea-bargaining.
In these supplemental statements D.ckeson said
that while "it is extremely important that drunken
drivers be taken off the highways, it is equals
important that the removal be accomplished validly
and justly."
In a recent interview, Dickeson said his own
concern with ASAP procedures has led him to
question the probation policies associated with the
project.
Dickeson said the probation officials, who are not
qualified psychologists, are determining that most
people sent to them by the courst for investigation
are alcoholics.
"These unskilled socialworkers then go to work on
people, actually convince people they are alcoholics,"
he contended.
Considering the quasi-religious zeal of the DWI
probation personnel, Dickeson said, it is easy to
understand some of the abuses of the counseling
sessions, where leaders "have this obsession with
tellin all. ..of airiu your problems to the whole
world."
Dickeson termed the tactics being employed by
ASAP officials and aty government officers "an
incidious danger." He said a great amount of fear has
been generated by official policies which are coercive
on the population.
People ho have been victims of some of the DWI
procedures are afraid to openly tell the truth for fear
of having their profra tiers rescinded. Dickeson said,
and others fear the less ef their jobs or official
harmrrefct if they oome forth with evidence of,
wTOcsiemg by pcltcs cc dry offioals.
And, DuLesoc charzed the ASAP program, with
its errphiis cc statistics, had changed the nature of
the police efScer. cccennx him into an insensitive
machine n-i7r.Lzt to a z .ire's game. This has
resulted in a r.pe cf ccrrrticc he $a;d.
lrsii e C:r Co-rcTs ccen hearing on the
ASAP r-rczzEz. Warn Fach. a fcrrrsr officer,
testified ar be wis eased n.t cf the department
because he as z:r. jeshit a uzsz'bi'cry amount of
traffic v.ziiZ'is znAi-s :r iirctirr-hrri rtvijh DWI
sis recti-
Ard
fvme:
O
Jorrer zczxsr. zrms' tiur is5xrjxn.z iuzitks did
she that rr;m rorjis -venrr n ttusa auntie-? : fries rs
h: .hiit rtc jrsurez -rumcer.ir .is;ui;t irurxri,.
Pruis i-fft.T.ii?; ct as :mciiian.zr ASA?
Sera-act rrmic Lirrme-'i ?r :mix:n : "uvif..r-:.
Lettre-: rtutiicv a'tus Ha: departrrertt
prtortt-tca are zt as? vr zxt-L c,3 ini records or
that piece ctf. trait iet tat 'dare jucit statistics.
"We doc't ha''e a.-ythr i Le that." he saii during
an ir.rerv.-e- lai eeic. A ctaracca Lstmg might
c:oe to ca-ae ccm peraticc trhiri the force."
Former c filter Mel D;m, nc bailiff of the
M-ri-paj Cc-rr. said Thiriday that federal
Alcohol Safety Project ambition
to get drunk drivers off streets
A
hi iih-imiiifciionw ---tyY-inTiiiimitirwsiMiririi-Ti w a mwww tticwmrt imttniufin iiiiwuLft-if
Patroleman Mike Williams and Mike Garnet t
read implied consent laws to a suspect before
taking blood samples.
, ;.' -.., .
photo by Ted Kirk
If pitJiminary results are positive, suspects so
choosing face this official breath analyzer at
police headquarters.
page 8
It rs a enrre to dnve a car in Lincoln, Neb., or
ar.yifehere eh? if the alcohol in your blood equals or
exceeds .10 per cent.
And. if a dr.rffcir.drrer commits that crime, the
chances that he cr she will be caught grow greater
daily because cf Lnicln's Alcohol Safety Action
Project (ASAP? desert to nd the city's streets of
the problem dnnkar.
Recc-zrJ-Jcr. cf a nurrher of factors led Lincoln
officials to cootruct the program, local ASAP
administrators explained.
Half the highway fatalities in the country are
caused by drinking drivers, they say, and two-thirds
of all alcohol-related fatalities are caused by problem
drin ken. Yet problem drinkers make up only seven
per cent of the driving population.
The effort to detect the problem drinker, stop him
from using his automobile as an unintentional murder
weapon, and re-educate and rehabilitate him has
garnered much public attention in recent months.
Options of priorities, constitutional rights, and
harassment have surfaced alongside official policies
aimed to reducing alcohol-related accidents and
treating alcohol drivers.
Arrests increase
Arrests for driving while under the influence of
alcohol (DWI) have risen from a non-ASAPbase year
(1971) total of 453 to 926 (1972), 1622 (1973) and
1992(1974). '
In the law enforcement-first step to the ASAP
program, a specially trained team of officers, known
as the Countermcasures Squad, patrols selected areas
of the city to detect drunken drivers. Once
apprehended, A DWI suspect is tested by officers
using a sophisticated machine which measures blood
alcohol concentrations.
ASAP officials say that the Countermcasures
Squad accounts for more than 30 per cent of all DWI
arrests in Lincoln. And, they say, regular patrolmen
are arresting more DWI drivers than in previous years.
In combination, they add, these circumstances help
identify the community's problem drinkers arid also
deter the majority of social drinkers from drinking
and then driving.
If fines, imprisonment or loss of Jiceny: through
daily nebraskan
;:T " " - --------
- v j .rv
I , - r
photo by Ted Kirk
Officer Mike Garnett while on cruiser duty
stops a suspect and is about to administer the
preliminary breath analyzer test.
guidelines, coming in the wake of federal funding,
have created a different, aggressive attitude among
younger officers. Dorn defended evaluations made on
arrest records, saying "you have to have some way of
knowing who's doing his job and who isn't. Those
records show who's hustling and working hard."
Some ' citizens believe increased competition
among police officers has led to highhanded and
unconstitutional practices by policemen. Most
officers laugh off suggestions that they set up tavern
stake-outs, mark cars, or resort to their own version
of an "enemies list" to increase arrests.
"We don't have to drum up extra business," said
one officer, "there's enough for everyone to do right
now."
Police Inspector Leitner's said: "We don't mark
cars, we don't have a watchlist. It's ridiculous to
think that we have the time or the desire to set out to
get specific members of the community."
Reacting to charges that officers have intimidated
dinner guests at local nightclubs by the boorish
manner in which they stage their walkthroughs,
Leitner said, "We've been checking taverns for years.
It's part of our regular surveillance."
One citizen who approves of the procedures
associated with the ASAP program is Dennis Hogue.
"I think they're doing a helluva good job," Hogue,
a state patrolman, said of the DWI effort. "That law
is meant for everybody. . .what's fair for me is fair for
all."
Hogue said he had not heard of any abuses of the
ASAP program and that he sees real professionalism
in local officers handling of DWI procedures.
And Acting Chief of Police Dale Adams said
Friday, "We don't apologize at all for strict
enforcement. . .we're proud of it."
the Municipal Court-second step of the ASAP process
impede the social drinker, ASAP administrators admit
that such deterrents are wasted on the city's problem
drinkers.
Options available
As a result, several probation options are available
through the city's courts to treat the alcoholic driver.
Not all problem drinkers are placed on probation,
ASAP officials say, because some will not benefit or
will refuse programs that are not easy. Through a
process of pre-sentence investigation, the court tries
to design a probation package to fit the individual
DWI defendant.
And then the third step of the ASAP program, the
re-education and rehabilitation begins to attempt to
keep a drinking driver off the streets forever. ASAP
designers have called their program "tough, but
reasonable."
The Lincoln ASAP program was funded for three
years by a $1.6 million federal contract with the
Dept. of Transportation.
Lincoln director Jack Merritt said last week that
the ASAP concept was "a product of research which
wasn't available before the 1970s."
Technology available
The technology available to modern law
enforcement agencies makes programs like ASAP
practical, he said, and "the technology persuaded the
legislature to change the legal structure."
Reacting to criticism from some Lincoln residents
concerning policies and procedures of the program,
Merritt said "we never meant to be easy on this thing.
We told people 'We're going to stop people who drink
and drive!' "
Prior to the passage of the .10 blood alcohol
(BAC) court law, Merritt said, the old law gave
defense attorneys the means to impeach the
testimony of police officers. "The current law
simplifies that. If you're driving and if you have .10
per cent alcohol in your blood, you're driving while
intoxicated," Merritt said.
Merritt said research confirmed that persons with
,10 BAC were impaired. "It can be demonstrated
easily in speech, vision and motor reaction. I'm not
Continued on p. 9
Wednesday, april 2, 1975
