Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 21, 1990 TAG: 9004210184
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: COLUMBUS, OHIO LENGTH: Medium
Today, thanks to a large insurance company and word of mouth in law enforcement, dashboard-mounted video cameras that silently record a weaving car and then its incoherent driver are beginning to have an impact.
"I was skeptical of the cameras at first," said Michael Creamer, chief deputy of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department here. "We're not in the movie business. But they've been fantastic for us."
Since his department received 12 cameras donated by Aetna Life & Casualty in November, all 17 videotaped drunken-driving arrests that came to court ended in guilty pleas, before any costly court time.
"Now I'd like a camera in all 45 cars," said Creamer, whose office estimates the cameras saved $4,000 in overtime.
Virtually all defendants in non-videotaped drunken-driving cases plead not guilty. Eighty to 90 percent of those arrested are convicted of something.
"But now," said Creamer, "there's something else for them to consider: We'll show the judge, the jury and the courtroom how they really looked driving on the wrong side, falling down by their car, unable to walk a straight line or recite the alphabet. It's very hard to rebut that kind of testimony."
Law enforcement agencies around the country are discovering the power of these pictures. Showing the date, the time and every word and action quickly prompts most defendants to choose not to have such tapes shown. They plead guilty.
All legal challenges to such taping have failed, the prevailing opinion being that wherever an officer is, he can take notes, still pictures or videotape.
And he need not warn defendants of the right to remain silent until they are formally in custody, long after the camera has rolled. Some officers tell potential defendants they are being filmed; most do not.
Sgt. Larry Tolar of Colorado's State Patrol, which recently received 24 of Aetna's video cameras, said they boosted police motivation and morale.
"On the roadside," he said, "the drunk driver is swearing and maybe swinging at the officer, falling down drunk.
"Then he shows up in court three months later all reasonable and contrite in a three-piece suit with his kids, his devoted wife and his mother in a wheelchair, and it's his word against the officer's. Now, everybody in the courtroom can see him or her as the officer saw them on the street, as a potential murderer."
Aetna began the program last July in partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving. So far, said John Hawkins, a company spokesman, Aetna has given 258 of the $1,000 cameras to Houston, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Va., Orlando, Indianapolis, Fort Lauderdale, Mesa, Ariz., and other cities.
"We wanted to do something beyond platitudes," said Hawkins. "Alcohol-related auto accidents cost Aetna upwards of $250 million last year. A 10 percent reduction would have a significant impact in human terms and dollars and get some folks into help before they do some serious damage."
Drunken drivers cost the nation an estimated $23 billion a year in property damage and lost productivity. Each year they kill 23,500 people, half the total of road fatalities and 3,500 more than are killed in other homicides.
by CNB