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Scranton Leading the Way in DUI Patrols

Scranton Leading the Way in DUI Patrols - Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 6:00PM EST

Reported by: Andy Mehalshick
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 @ 06:00pm EST

The I-Team is on your side taking a close look at drunk driving. We’ll take you on patrol with the DUI “Top Guns.” Their mission is saving lives.

The I-Team hits the streets of Scranton with DUI Top Guns, Lt. Dan Duffy and Officer Bob Olecki. They've made more drunk driving arrests than any patrol team in the state of Pennsylvania . We spent two days with them a night and a day on patrol. They look for clues that many of us may not even think about.

"There's many indicators we look at such as stopping too long for a stop sign, sometimes very delayed stops, reaction time is decreased quite a bit. Slamming on the brakes before a red light that's really not even changing, stopping for green lights another indicator, overly wide turns...something we look at as well," says Duffy.

They also look for expired plates or inspection stickers, a broken tail light - any reason for a face to face encounter. With each traffic stop comes the chance of finding a drunk driver. "We're going to do whatever we can to try and lower those numbers of the people driving and hopefully through our proactive efforts working with people like you, the media, we might have a chance of saving one life," says Duffy.

And they're out here, in the middle of the day looking for drunks. They spent a lot of time this day on Route 307, a major artery leading into the city.

But it’s the nighttime when the action heats up. We give chase to a car that speeds through a red light. The driver was not drunk but he was given a traffic citation

This driver was pulled over downtown, when he drove without his headlights. Again, he was not drunk.

It is non stop. At times they are called to assist at other emergency calls. On this night they respond with every unit in the city. And then, it’s back to DUI.

Officer Bob Olecki said, "We're still getting new people. People turn 21 and want to have a good time. They don't realize repercussions of actions."

Several drivers did raise DUI suspicion but did pass the felid sobriety tests and were let go. And they say, the public, can and has, helped save lives. "What we wanted to do encourage people, if they see somebody in front of them if they suspect they are intoxicated while driving we like to have them call police," adds Olecki.

That “Top Gun” unit has made some 220 DUI arrests in the past year. And just today the State Police announced they made more than 15,500 DUI arrests last year. That's up 3% from one year ago.
 


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