Published Monday, December 23, 2002
on the rise this year
By Amanda Smith-Teutsch
Herald Staff Writer
This year has seen a record number of drunken driving arrests in Mercer County.
As of Nov. 1, 507 people had been arrested on drunken driving charges, according to figures compiled by the county district attorney's office. Last year, 514 people were arrested and in 2000, 465 were arrested.
In a memo to county officials, Court Administrator Pete Morin said the county was on track to have a total of 608 arrests by the end of the year. Arrests made in the city of Sharon alone since the DA's report was completed take the number of arrests this year to 526.
The DA's report breaks down the demographic data of people arrested in the county and includes how many arrests each department made.
State police, who patrol the largest area of Mercer County, made 235 arrests. Of muncipal departments, Sharon lead with 75 arrests as of Nov. 1. On Wednesday, Sharon Police Chief Thomas M. Burke said his department had made a total of 94 arrests. Hermitage made 35 arrests, Hempfield Township police made 29, Greenville-West Salem Township, 26 and Grove City, 24, according to the DA's report.
Hermitage police chief Ed Stanton said his department was on the lookout for drunk drivers. There is no particular time when arrests aren't made, he said.
"Over the weekends, there are more arrests," he said, "And late at night after bars close. But we have also made arrests at 9 a.m."
According to law enforcement officials, there is no clear reason for the increased
number of DUI arrests. Some police departments attribute it to more aggressive policing, while others, such as Hermitage, cite help from other drivers.
Stanton said alert drivers also helped the police catch drunken drivers.
"People with cell phones have helped us a lot," he said. They call in to report erratic driving or accidents.
District Attorney James Epstein said there is no scientific way to explain the increase in arrests. It may be due, he said, not to an increased number of people driving drunk, but to an increased emphasis on the problem by police departments.
"We have a lot of young, aggressive officers on duty," Epstein said. "Coupled with a leadership that makes DUI enforcement a priority."
Burke said he was surprised to learn Sharon leads the county in drunken driving arrests. In 2001, the department arrested 91 drunken drivers.
Burke said he attributed part of the large amount of arrests to "good, aggressive policing and good decision making." He added that there are certain times of the day -- midnight to about 3:30 a.m. -- where police tend to look for potential drunk drivers.
Sharon also gets a lot of cross traffic with people traveling from areas like Hermitage, Sharpsville and Ohio to other destinations.
Capt. Mathew McComb added that Sharon is a pretty concentrated city at just over 4 square miles so drunk drivers may be more noticeable than in other communities where the streets are spread out more.
Many of the arrests were first offenders, Epstein said.
The report breaks down the age, sex, employment status, race and past records of the drunken drivers.
According to the report, almost 77 percent of the drunken drivers were men. Almost half of the total arrests were of people between the ages of 30 and 44, and 95 percent of the drunken drivers were white.
The report also lists 67 of the DUI arrests tested positive for marijuana, and 52 tested positive for narcotics.
Throughout Pennsylvania, almost 35,000 drunken driving arrests had been made through Nov. 1.
Herald staff writer Kristen Garrett contributed to this story.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Amanda Smith-Teutsch at: ateutsch@sharonherald.com