A Hawaii driver who was falsely arrested for drunk driving in November says a police officer advised him to disclaim additional examination at a Pearl Metropolis police station. The officer gave Ammon Fepuleai that recommendation beneath the pretense of saving him time whereas being booked for the arrest, which proved to be false and ended with prosecutors dropping the case for lack of proof, based on Hawaii News Now.
The U.S. is recording alarmingly excessive instances of false DUI arrests; for the previous few years, police departments nationwide have carried out extra “emphasis patrols” with a view to curb drunk driving. However these DUI checkpoints are sometimes federally-funded, and the extra time hours they supply are paid for by state and federal companies, relatively than the police departments finishing up the patrols.
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HNN investigated the case, compiling data from Fepuleai’s arrest paperwork in addition to video and audio footage from the officer’s physique cam, which the patrolman turned off at one level — a violation of the Honolulu Police Division’s arrest procedures.
What’s most placing concerning the incident is how rote the DUI cease goes, and the way blithely police dismissed proof they collected, which urged Fepuleai was, certainly, not drunk. It’s virtually as if the police knew he was telling the reality, however arrested and processed him anyway simply to boost their arrest stats. Per HNN:
Proper after Fepuleai was cuffed and put within the patrol automobile, the transporting officer seems to show off the physique digicam, despite the fact that coverage requires it keep on through the trip.
Fepuleai stated that’s necessary as a result of on the way in which to the Pearl Metropolis substation, he stated the officer advised him to refuse additional exams in an effort to avoid wasting time.
Fepuleai stated he listened and posted $500 bail.
He now regrets listening to the officer. “He shouldn’t have given me that recommendation and I hope that they’re not giving different harmless individuals the identical recommendation,” Fepuleai stated.
[…]
Jonathan Burge, an lawyer who makes a speciality of visitors instances, stated he has heard from a number of different purchasers that officers are giving that recommendation.
Burge stated some officers wish to get again out to make extra arrests.
“While you do the roadblocks, you’re anticipated to get a DUI arrest as a result of they’re paying extra time,” Burge stated, including “there’s strain for stats.”
DUI checkpoints are sometimes federally-funded.
And related police conduct has been recorded in different places, resembling Fort Collins, Colorado. An investigation carried out by the Coloradoan discovered that an officer tasked with catching drunk drivers practically doubled his arrests year-over-year from 50 DUI arrests in 202o, to 90 in 2021, then 190 in 2022.
After a sequence of lawsuits for wrongful arrests, the officer resigned earlier than the division may hearth him for improper conduct — which is inspired each implicitly and explicitly by the funding tied to those DUI patrols.
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