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Tim Capps, an SIU graduate and founder of the Capps Law Firm in Carbondale, has heard it many times, and it is a complaint many students have about the Carbondale Police Department regarding DUIs.
A student or Carbondale resident drives home after a night of drinking and makes it to his or her driveway, but as soon as the car comes to a stop, flashing lights appear behind him or her.
After arriving home safely, sometimes after a long trip, a person thinking he won the DUI gamble finds out he has lost. He made it home, he has not hurt anybody, but he is still in a world of trouble.
"Maybe they're waiting for them to do something a little more obvious for them to have grounds to stop them," Capps said. "If you have probable cause for a DUI stop, you have it, and you make it."
Capps said students have been followed all the way down Giant City Road before they were pulled over in their driveways. But according to the police department, this is not a standard policy.
Carbondale Officer Dan Reed said every situation is different, and if a person is pulled over in his or her driveway, it is only a coincidence.
Reed said department policy dictates that officers follow a car until the pullover has been called into dispatch, the plates have been run and other procedures have been followed. By the time this happens, sometimes a person will be in his or her driveway. Also, he said, a policeman may delay a stop to wait for the car to drive into a well-lit, safe location.
"A lot of people have a misbelief or misperception that if we see somebody do a traffic violation, run through a stop sign or something like that, they think that we just turn on the lights and pull them over immediately," Reed said. "That's not true."
Go to part I: 