Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 18, 1993 TAG: 9307190257
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Long
Mary, convicted six times for driving under the influence, is considered among the most dangerous drivers in this Tidewater city of 133,000.
A court had ruled her to be a habitual offender, and told her not to drive for a decade.
Still, the average patrol officer didn't know what she looked like, where she lived or what kind of car she drove.
That changed in October.
That's when the Virginia DMV joined Hampton in a pilot program that supplies police with the names, addresses, and vehicle descriptions for habitual offenders with three or more DUI convictions. Some police are even paid to visit habitual offenders at their homes, workplaces and favorite nightspots to ensure they're not driving.
The project is as unique as it is basic. The DMV touts the Hampton program as the "crown jewel" of its habitual-offender program. Hampton has caught nearly a third of the 67 bad drivers placed on the DMV hit list.
Mary was the first. When Raybon Bell, patrolling for the Hampton police, saw Mary drive past him, she seemed to fit the description on the DMV's list. Bell stopped her car.
Mary told him she had left her license at home and gave him her maiden name.
Bell knew Mary was lying. When he confronted her, she admitted she was a habitual offender. She'd been drinking.
Her arrest, and nearly two dozen more like it, has caught the attention of police and sheriff's departments statewide; as soon as this week, the Roanoke Police Department will be furnished by DMV with a similar list of bad drivers.
In the law enforcement community, DMV had gained a reputation as a stodgy bureaucracy that gathered data that was slow in reaching cops on the street.
"It was a repository for information that was going nowhere," said Lt. Tom Clifford, who runs the Hampton program.
The Hampton department began trying to gather what information it could from DMV in 1989, using its own officers to coordinate all the information. But police soon realized that having officers gathering information already in the hands of DMV made little sense and was time-consuming and expensive. It kept pressing for DMV help.
Last year, DMV hired Letcher Graham, a retired lieutenant colonel with the Virginia State Police, to put teeth in its computer programs. Graham knew what police officers needed to effectively combat habitual offenders.
When DMV decided to cooperate with Hampton in October by supplying the descriptive lists, the department also furnished Hampton with grant money that would pay for officers to spend eight hours a week doing nothing but tracking down habitual offenders.
Many habitual offenders have convinced themselves that they'll drive no matter the consequence.
"These drivers are very convincing," Clifford said. "They're terrific actors."
No matter how convincing, habitual offenders don't like life in the limelight.
Take, for instance, the auto parts salesman and habitual offender whose girlfriend was worried that he was going to kill someone if he stayed on the road.
Shortly after hearing about the Hampton-DMV program, she called the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She identified her boyfriend and asked for help.
MADD contacted the Hampton commonwealth's attorney office. The tip was turned over to police.
One officer called the auto parts shop under the guise of ordering a windshield. He asked what time the business closed. Another officer called to see if the man was working.
When the man got off work and into his car, Hampton officers were on the spot to arrest him. The man's driving record was not yet bad enough to make the DMV hit list, but publicity generated by the program led police to him.
Yet, DMV is reluctant to publicize the names of habitual offenders with multiple DUIs, citing privacy laws.
Clifford, who acts as grants officer for the Hampton Police Department, said getting habitual offenders off the road will take the involvement of the whole community.
"These people have no regard for the law or restrictions placed on them by the court," he said.
He cites the example of one habitual offender, a drug dealer arrested by the Hampton Police Department.
"I suppose this sends you a message," said the officer arresting the man.
"I gotta get around," the man responded.
After nearly a year overseeing the program in Hampton, Clifford is convinced that the state must create a mechanism for impounding habitual offenders' vehicles. If the General Assembly can't stomach that, he said, license plates should be seized.
Roanoke Police Lt. Ramey Bower said he inquired about Hampton's program in May, shortly after Stanley M. Brooks, a habitual offender, killed himself and two other people on the Roy Webber Expressway.
Preliminary DMV figures show that 121 drivers living in Roanoke and declared habitual offenders in the past three years would qualify for the DMV list. With the addition of Roanoke County and Salem, 204 drivers in the Roanoke Valley qualify.
"The habitual offenders have demonstrated repeatly that they are the worst drivers on the road," he said. "Every time they get into a car, they are getting into 4,000 pounds of steel completely under their control. It's indiscriminate who they will kill or maim."
Clifford said they won't be easily stopped.
"I would stand before the president and tell him," he said. "As long as they can get their hands on a set of car keys, they are going to drive."
by CNB