Interview
Interview with Officer Raines on
Drunk Driving
Emma: I am interviewing you for my research topic for school
Emma: What do you think about Drunk Driving?:
I think that it is a serious problem that starts with people making a bad mistake when they are having a drink and then deciding to get behind the wheel and drive. And they are putting themselves and the public in danger when they decide to do that.
Emma: Can you give me some ideas on how to prevent drink driving?
Officer Raines: I can give you some ideas…General ideas is OK…education at young ages like at school like the DARE program, that’s a good way to educate why not to drink and drive. That is probably #1. Number 2, you can get arrested and if people learn that the survival rate is not that high whenever they do decide to drink and drive they can crash would hopefully deter them.
Emma: How do Drunk Drivers get caught?
Officer Raines: Sometimes they get reported by other drivers who call the police because they see them driving all over the road. Other time the police who are out there looking for them every day; we see them driving across the lines or sometimes they are in an accident that we locate them like that
Emma: Have you ever had to pull someone over because of drunk driving?
Officer Raines: Yes, unfortunately my department probably pulls over 4-5 people per week. They are arrested for drunk driving. It’s scary, it is all times of the day, but usually the peak time is between 10pm and 2:00AM. Yeah, I have arrested people at 7am.
Emma: What is the cost of being a drunk driver?
Officer Raines: Um, I could not tell you the exact costs but I know from people that I have arrested that I have spoken to after that they spent between going to court and lawyers’ fees and getting their license back, getting their cars out of tow they ended up spending $3000-$5000. That’s a lot of money… that is it, a waste of a lot of money
Emma: How does drunk driving affect safety of people?
Officer Raines: It affects everyone because when you are driving and you’re drunk it’s almost like being busy or not being able to see straight so you can’t stay in your own lane. Sometimes though they will be on the other side of the road sometimes they will drive off of the road. And if they are on a road usually they are driving in another lane they could hit another car. Or if they drive off towards the right they could go up on the sidewalks where people are walking, business or people’s homes they can run into.
Emma: How many people get killed involving drunk driving?
Officer Raines: I knew you were going to ask me that… let me look that up…my computer is really slow…I would say in CT, it is probably 50 per year that would be my guess..2012 in CT the number was 86 are the current number. For being a small state that is a lot. This is any fatality related to a DWI victim or offender.
Emma: What is the punishment for the first offence?
Officer Raines: The first offence, they usually lose their license for 3 months, they pay a lot of high court fines..they have to pay a whole lot of money to the court system. They could go to jail for 1 year, and their insurance rates go up.
Emma: What is the law about drunk driving?
Officer Raines: The law is you have to be over 21 to drink, and if you do drink, you can’t drive your car if you’re drunk and being drunk they consider your blood achohol content or BAC cannot be over .08
Emma: Thank you…
Officer Raines: Check this out…the is related but not to one of your questions…I grew up in Farmington Middle ward and I was a police officer for 15 years, one of our guys back in 2003-2004, just he himself, in Farmington got 99 DWI in one year. To this date that is the record for our department. But On average on midnight shift cause we work the hours of the peak DWI time between 10pm-2am each of my guys usually arrest a minimum 1-2 per officer per week that could anywhere from 5-10 DUI for my department in a week. Summer months are the higher number. In the winter time it is 1 arrest per officer per week. It’s scary; there are a lot of people that drive drunk. That’s why it’s very important for these kids go to the DARE classes in school and get educated on why not and it’s Prescription medication too, bad stuff…with the elderly, the elderly their health is already going downhill which already impairs their driving physically and now you are adding prescription drugs…I jokingly tell people I have only been shot at once in my career but I almost get run over on a weekly basis. That’s what really scares the cops..Drunk Drivers. I am definitely not a fan of Drunk Driving at all.
Emma: Thank you…have a good weekend
Emma: I am interviewing you for my research topic for school
Emma: What do you think about Drunk Driving?:
I think that it is a serious problem that starts with people making a bad mistake when they are having a drink and then deciding to get behind the wheel and drive. And they are putting themselves and the public in danger when they decide to do that.
Emma: Can you give me some ideas on how to prevent drink driving?
Officer Raines: I can give you some ideas…General ideas is OK…education at young ages like at school like the DARE program, that’s a good way to educate why not to drink and drive. That is probably #1. Number 2, you can get arrested and if people learn that the survival rate is not that high whenever they do decide to drink and drive they can crash would hopefully deter them.
Emma: How do Drunk Drivers get caught?
Officer Raines: Sometimes they get reported by other drivers who call the police because they see them driving all over the road. Other time the police who are out there looking for them every day; we see them driving across the lines or sometimes they are in an accident that we locate them like that
Emma: Have you ever had to pull someone over because of drunk driving?
Officer Raines: Yes, unfortunately my department probably pulls over 4-5 people per week. They are arrested for drunk driving. It’s scary, it is all times of the day, but usually the peak time is between 10pm and 2:00AM. Yeah, I have arrested people at 7am.
Emma: What is the cost of being a drunk driver?
Officer Raines: Um, I could not tell you the exact costs but I know from people that I have arrested that I have spoken to after that they spent between going to court and lawyers’ fees and getting their license back, getting their cars out of tow they ended up spending $3000-$5000. That’s a lot of money… that is it, a waste of a lot of money
Emma: How does drunk driving affect safety of people?
Officer Raines: It affects everyone because when you are driving and you’re drunk it’s almost like being busy or not being able to see straight so you can’t stay in your own lane. Sometimes though they will be on the other side of the road sometimes they will drive off of the road. And if they are on a road usually they are driving in another lane they could hit another car. Or if they drive off towards the right they could go up on the sidewalks where people are walking, business or people’s homes they can run into.
Emma: How many people get killed involving drunk driving?
Officer Raines: I knew you were going to ask me that… let me look that up…my computer is really slow…I would say in CT, it is probably 50 per year that would be my guess..2012 in CT the number was 86 are the current number. For being a small state that is a lot. This is any fatality related to a DWI victim or offender.
Emma: What is the punishment for the first offence?
Officer Raines: The first offence, they usually lose their license for 3 months, they pay a lot of high court fines..they have to pay a whole lot of money to the court system. They could go to jail for 1 year, and their insurance rates go up.
Emma: What is the law about drunk driving?
Officer Raines: The law is you have to be over 21 to drink, and if you do drink, you can’t drive your car if you’re drunk and being drunk they consider your blood achohol content or BAC cannot be over .08
Emma: Thank you…
Officer Raines: Check this out…the is related but not to one of your questions…I grew up in Farmington Middle ward and I was a police officer for 15 years, one of our guys back in 2003-2004, just he himself, in Farmington got 99 DWI in one year. To this date that is the record for our department. But On average on midnight shift cause we work the hours of the peak DWI time between 10pm-2am each of my guys usually arrest a minimum 1-2 per officer per week that could anywhere from 5-10 DUI for my department in a week. Summer months are the higher number. In the winter time it is 1 arrest per officer per week. It’s scary; there are a lot of people that drive drunk. That’s why it’s very important for these kids go to the DARE classes in school and get educated on why not and it’s Prescription medication too, bad stuff…with the elderly, the elderly their health is already going downhill which already impairs their driving physically and now you are adding prescription drugs…I jokingly tell people I have only been shot at once in my career but I almost get run over on a weekly basis. That’s what really scares the cops..Drunk Drivers. I am definitely not a fan of Drunk Driving at all.
Emma: Thank you…have a good weekend